Karen Bass avoids testifying in Washington on – Latest News
It’s just like the would-be date who declines, citing a need to wash her hair.
Karen Bass has informed a highly effective congressional panel that she will be able to’t testify subsequent week about homelessness failures in her metropolis, as a result of, nicely, she’s busy.
The mayor spurned a request to look Sept. 15 earlier than the House subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency; the listening to is because of probe $1 billion in alleged waste, fraud and abuse on the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
In impact, Bass informed the panel: Nah; it wasn’t me.
This is what working from accountability seems like.
Homeless and closed storefronts are seen alongside a part of Van Nuys Boulevard. David Buchan for Ca Post
Bass is nicely conscious that LAHSA, Los Angeles’ central homeless company, is an epic failure.
LA County all however shunned the group in 2025, and the federal authorities is investigating LAHSA for alleged financial mismanagement.
The company, tasked with serving Angelenos who reside in tent squalor, has headquarters in a luxe workplace tower that caters to LA’s super-rich –– a building with perks like a helipad and Maybach car service.
And that is a crew that will get 73% of its funding from metropolis taxpayers –– even after Bass & Co. vowed but failed to review alternate options.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and City Councilmember Nithya Raman face off in the primary common election runoff debate in Van Nuys. Jonathan Alcorn for CA Post
Why does town led by Bass keep pouring taxpayers’ money, by the tons of of hundreds of thousands, into obvious fraud and failure?
Clearly, she’d slightly not say.
A letter from Bass’ attorneys to the DOGE subcommittee learn in half:
“LAHSA has its own executive leadership team and staff who are responsible for day-to-day operations, budget and administration. The Mayor does not control LAHSA’s operation, budget, or administration.”
Control it, maybe not.
But oversight? That’s below Bass’ remit.
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LA’s mayor is chargeable for appointing (subject to City Council approval) 5 of the ten commissioners in charge of LAHSA, with the county seating the opposite half.
Think of the commission like a board of administrators: steering the ship and ostensibly offering oversight whereas directors thoughts the small print.
Bass has picked three of 5 city-selected commissioners now presiding over the LAHSA mess –– together with the commission’s chair, Stephanie Graves.
Another of the three Bass appointees is none different than … Bass herself.
So the suggestion that Bass has few fingerprints on this sordid operation is little more than fanciful politics.
Homeless people are seen alongside Olympic Boulevard close to downtown Los Angeles. Ringo Chiu for CA Post
Let’s be actual: When it involves the DOGE listening to, Bass simply doesn’t wish to go.
She’s in a powerful reelection battle, she’s seen different public officers embarrass themselves on Capitol Hill, and he or she’d slightly take the heat for avoidance than risk a stumble whereas the cameras roll.
Besides, she has no good protection for her failed file on homelessness.
Per the most recent official depend, homelessness in LA climbed 4.3% in the previous yr. And Bass’ signature program, Inside Safe, has been a bust. Turns out, prodding addicts into resort rooms –– no sobriety required –– doesn’t deal with the causes of homelessness.
It’s a file she will be able to’t credibly defend.
The mayor’s challenger in the Nov. 3 election, Councilwoman Nithya Raman, has an equally dismal file on homelessness. Raman, too, clings to the “housing first” fable, as if taxpayer-funded housing is a magical reply to continual substance abuse.
And Raman chaired town’s Housing and Homelessness Committee for about three years –– ineptly. She, too, owns LA’s homelessness failure, centered on piping billions in taxpayer {dollars} to nonprofits and different organizations that entrench the issue to keep the money flowing.
Bass, although, is town’s high government.
And she’s channeling Truman in reverse.
Bass would do higher to take accountability –– and chart a new course for metropolis homelessness coverage.
That can be higher than skirting accountability, hiding from Congress … and attempting to wash the failure from her hair.
