Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is facing intense political pressure after the Los Angeles Times reported that she had pushed to soften a critical after-action review of the city’s response to the wildfires that killed 31 people earlier this year.
The newspaper, citing two sources, said Ms Bass was concerned the city could face legal liability over its lack of preparedness, and that language implicating the city was removed or weakened before the report was finalised.
One of the changes described in the reporting concerned the account of failures to fully staff and deploy resources in the days before the fire, an issue that has drawn sustained scrutiny since the disaster.
Ms Bass has denied interfering with the review. Her office said she had reviewed an early draft only to ensure factual accuracy on matters such as weather and the city budget, and that neither she nor her staff had altered its findings.
The report has fuelled criticism on social media and from political opponents. The businessman Rick Caruso, who narrowly lost the 2022 mayoral race, has said the controversy is a significant factor in his renewed consideration of a challenge to Ms Bass.
The dispute has kept the city’s handling of the fires at the centre of Los Angeles politics months after the blazes, with the accuracy and independence of the official review now itself a subject of contention.