LA fire chief accused of firing employee who blew the whistle on misconduct

The fire chief of Los Angeles, California, is now facing a lawsuit after she allegedly fired an employee for exposing misconduct. 

The New York Post reports that Kristin Crowley, the fire chief - was named in a lawsuit that a former longtime employee has recently filed.

The former employee is Jenny Park.

The Post reports that Park is the former Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) Fire Administration. This is a civilian position, which Park had for more then 10 years.

The details:

Park is claiming that Crowley fired her - and harassed her - after she had spoken up about misconduct by Crowley and other top officials.

Per the Post: 

Park . . . claims she got the axe after raising concerns about Crowley’s habitual misconduct since she took the top spot in 2022, which included nepotism, bullying, and a refusal to return $37,000 paid to her in error, the court filing alleges. Park also alerted city officials when another high-ranking official Deputy Chief Orin Saunders allegedly awarded a lucrative contract that carried a conflict of interest.

Park, according to the Post, alleges that Crowley and Saunders "ran the department like their personal clubhouse, handing out promotions that were not based on merit, giving special treatment to people they personally liked – and bullying those they didn’t."

Park says that she initially tried to address the situation by going directly to Crowley and Saunders, but, when then did not work, she decided to go to other city officials. Those officials, however, also did not do anything about the situation.

Eventually, Crowley, just before Christmas in 2023, fired Park, but, according to Park, this only came after Crowley and Saunders bullied her, isolated her, smeared her, excluded her, humiliated her, and tried to "intimidate her into silence."

Background

This all comes amid the California wildfires, for which Crowley and the department have received much criticism.

As the Daily Mail reports:

Crowley, who earns $654,000-a-year in compensation and benefits, is already at the center of a recent public spat between LA Mayor Karen Bass as pressure mounts on city leaders to address the failures and mishandled response to the catastrophic wildfires that have ravaged the Los Angeles area.

It remains to be seen how this situation is going to play out.

But, what is clear is that this has been catastrophic for the people living in the area.

USA Today reports that the damage is so bad that it "may take months to fully assess the property damage."