How much did Bass and her acting mayor communicate while she was in Ghana?

Los Angeles Times

12-04-2025

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It's Julia Wick and David Zahniser, giving you the latest on city and county government.
As virtually every Angeleno now knows, Mayor Karen Bass was on a diplomatic trip to Ghana when the Palisades fire exploded.
What remains hazier is how the mayor interacted with the person assigned to lead in her absence — City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who was the acting mayor during her trip, including the day the fire broke out.
Following a protracted back and forth last month, The Times obtained some of Bass' text messages from the nearly 24 hours she spent in transit from Ghana to Los Angeles on Jan. 7 and 8.
After initially saying the mayor's texts had been deleted, her staffers revealed they were able to recover them, providing about 125 messages, while also noting that an unspecified number of additional messages were 'redacted and/or withheld' based on exemptions to the California Public Records Act.
The cache of messages was revealing. But one name was notably absent: Harris-Dawson.
(The Times sued the city last month over the mayor's texts. Even though city officials ultimately provided some texts, The Times is contesting the city's argument that releasing them was not required under state law.)
Back on March 10, while we were still waiting to see if Bass would provide any of her texts, we filed a separate public records request with Harris-Dawson's office, seeking all of his communications with Bass (via email and text message, as well as messaging apps like Signal and WhatsApp) sent or received between Jan. 6 and Jan. 16.
Three weeks later, Harris-Dawson's office said it had 'conducted a search and found no responsive records for this request.'
It didn't seem possible that there weren't any messages between the two of them. Was the council president's office saying that he and the mayor did not communicate at all in writing during this period?
Not even on Jan. 6, when the National Weather Service put out a warning that sounded downright apocalyptic? Or on Jan. 7 and 8, with Bass in transit during one of the worst catastrophes in city history?
We asked Harris-Dawson's deputy chief of staff, Denise Jackson, on April 1 if the city was withholding any records. She did not respond.
We followed up the next day with similar questions, asking if records had been deleted. And the next day. Still nothing.
On April 4, Jackson responded, saying that if records had been withheld, her office would have specifically stated that. In this case, there were no records, she said.
We asked again (and again) if emails or texts had been deleted. She did not respond.
This week, we looped in Harris-Dawson's communications director Rhonda Mitchell, saying we were planning to write about the matter. Mitchell did not answer questions about whether Harris-Dawson had deleted messages or emails.
'I can only go by what the CPRA returned and the CPRA returned that there were no records found,' Mitchell said Friday, using an abbreviation to refer to a request made under the California Public Records Act.
Bass spokesperson Zach Seidl said Friday that 'the Mayor and the Council President communicated by phone multiple times during this period.' He declined to say whether any messages with Harris-Dawson were among those previously withheld by his office in response to our request for Bass' texts. He also did not address whether Harris-Dawson and Bass had emailed during this period.
Which all brings us back to our original question: How was the mayor interacting with Harris-Dawson as he led the city in her stead?
Yes, they spoke on the phone, but the seeming lack of written communication raises serious questions.
If such messages exist, they're an important part of the historical record and a crucial piece of the puzzle in understanding Bass' response to the fire. If they exist, Harris-Dawson's office can't legally withhold them without providing a reason. If they were deleted, the public should be told that — along with why.
And if Bass and Harris-Dawson really didn't communicate in writing, they should address why that was.
The Times did obtain some emails between Harris-Dawson's team and the mayor's office.
Last month, in response to a separate records request, Harris-Dawson released a collection of emails sent between Jan. 2 and Jan. 7 to and from his office regarding wildfire conditions, high winds, emergency preparations and the National Weather Service. Harris-Dawson was acting mayor on four of those days.
The most significant communication from Bass' team was a Jan. 7 email from Thomas Arechiga, the mayor's deputy director of legislative affairs, asking Harris-Dawson to sign a declaration of local emergency.
'Note, there are no changes to the Mayor's planned return tomorrow morning,' Arechiga wrote.
Harris-Dawson's office sent the signed document back to Arechiga about 10 minutes later.
— SOBOROFF SIDELINED: In a sprawling exit interview, outgoing Chief Recovery Officer Steve Soboroff said he was shut out by the mayor's office, noting: 'They haven't asked me to do anything in a month and a half, nothing, zero.' He also raised concerns about the role of Hagerty, the city's recovery consultant.
Soboroff and real estate executive Randy Johnson went into greater detail about their work in a six-page 'Report of the Chief Recovery Officer,' which was delivered to Bass this week.
— NEW LEADERSHIP: Bass named a new deputy mayor for public safety Monday, installing former FBI official Robert Clark as her top aide overseeing police, fire and emergency preparedness. Clark's predecessor, Brian K. Williams, was put on administrative leave last year after being accused of making a bomb threat against City Hall. Williams is still on the city payroll but 'is retiring,' said Seidl, the Bass spokesperson. Seidl did not respond when asked how long Williams would remain on the payroll.
Williams makes about $245,000 a year and has been paid nearly $75,000 since being placed on administrative leave, according to the City Controller's office. Clark will make a similar salary.
— WHO'S RUNNING? With Bass looking increasingly vulnerable, chatter about who will run against her has reached a fever pitch. But it's unclear whether anyone will mount a serious challenge to an incumbent who still wields considerable clout. We surveyed the field.
— SECURING HER BASE: But Bass is very much on the campaign trail. This week, she dropped by an Los Angeles County Democratic Party meeting to give a quick speech, and she met with Valley Democratic club leaders at El Mariachi Grill in Encino last weekend.
— ALL SMILES: They could end up as rivals in next year's mayoral election. But on Thursday, Bass and her former opponent, real estate developer Rick Caruso, appeared together to announce a partnership for rebuilding the Pacific Palisades Recreation Center, which was severely damaged in the Palisades fire.
— TASK MASTER: U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli, recently appointed to oversee federal prosecutions in Southern California, announced the formation of a task force to look for potential fraud or corruption in homelessness programs. That work could create new headaches for Bass, depending on how wide-ranging the probe turns out to be.
— THE TRUMP FACTOR: Essayli, whose boss is Trump's Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, has been a sharp critic of the state's approach to the crisis, making derisive references to 'the homeless industrial complex.' Bass, for her part, said she doesn't know 'what kind of Trump appointee' Essayli will be. 'Is he going to do a fishing expedition?' she told KNX earlier this week. 'Or is he going to actually look and study the system and work with us to correct it?'
— TRASH TALK: The City Council endorsed a plan for five consecutive years of trash fee hikes — and the first one will be by far the largest. Single-family homes and duplexes will see a 54% increase next year, while triplexes and four-unit buildings will see their trash bills double by next year.
— A WIN FOR LABOR: The City Council voted 14-1 to spend another $27.7 million on design and technical work on a planned expansion of the Convention Center. The vote provided a big win to the construction trade unions, who mobilized to keep the project alive amid a major budget crisis. Although this week's vote did not authorize the renovation itself, it showed the council is firmly behind an overhaul of the structure.
— PERMIT PUSH: Los Angeles County failed to issue a single rebuilding permit in the three months since the Eaton fire devastated Altadena. Now, the Board of Supervisors is trying to speed up that process.
— FIGHT FOR THE 1ST: Two candidates have emerged to challenge Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez in the 1st District, which stretches from Highland Park to Westlake and Pico-Union, in June 2026. Raul Claros, a former member of the city's affordable housing commission, announced his bid in a news release this week. Meanwhile, Sylvia Robledo, a onetime aide to former Councilmembers Jan Perry and Gil Cedillo, recently created her own campaign committee to run for the seat, according to ethics filings.
— TWO WORDS: The council's rules committee moved ahead with a plan to prohibit the utterance of two slurs — one against Black people, the other targeting women — during the council's public comment periods.
— HOUSING CRUNCH: L.A.'s so-called mansion tax, approved by voters in 2022, has likely led to a dropoff in the construction of apartments across the city, according to a report released by UCLA and Rand researchers. Joe Donlin, who represents the coalition that supported Measure ULA, responded by saying the report was based on 'highly questionable assumptions' and only furthers the interest of 'real estate millionaires and billionaires.'
— FEEL THE BERN: Plan for plenty of traffic in the Civic Center area Saturday, with big crowds gathering for Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's rally in Gloria Molina Grand Park. Councilmembers Hernandez and Ysabel Jurado are expected to speak.
It will also be a Spring Street homecoming for Sanders' communications director Anna Bahr, who started her political career in Mayor Eric Garcetti's office and ran communications for Bass during her mayoral primary.