Was LA Mayor Karen Bass Just Caught in a Lie About Pacific Palisades Fire Rebuild?

The virtually unreadable leftist rag, the Los Angeles Times, was there for the big story: things were going swimmingly in the Pacific Palisades as the rebuild continues in the aftermath of the devastating January wildfires that virtually wiped out the community. In fact, according to them, the first house has been rebuilt, as Mayor Karen Bass touted: “Today is an important moment of hope,” she said in a statement.

Per the Times:

Less than a year after the Palisades Fire destroyed 6,822 structures, the first rebuilt home received its certificate of occupancy Friday in Pacific Palisades.
The four-bedroom showcase home features fire-resistant design and took eight months to build after a two-month permitting process.

Less than a year after the Palisades Fire destroyed 6,822 homes, the first rebuilt home received its certificate of occupancy. https://t.co/jmQ6S8vo4O pic.twitter.com/avbvu4k18D
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) November 22, 2025

There’s only one problem with the narrative — one that neither the Times nor the gloating Karen Bass bothered to mention — the house in question was planned before the fires. It is not a fire rebuild.

Oops.

Pure propaganda. If I carried water for the ruling party like this when I was Online Editor for the Daily49er, I would have been fired.

It isn't a rebuilt home, it is a totally different 3x larger development permitted a month before the fire. The fire saved demolition time. https://t.co/7mRyLeErDi
— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) November 23, 2025

Here's what Karen didn't tell you:

But Bass failed to note that the newly constructed home on Kagawa Street was not a fire rebuild, as the demolition project began before the Palisades Fire erupted.
Thomas James Homes applied for a permit to demolish the one-story single-family home and its attached garage in November 2024, LA building and safety records revealed.
Although city records show the residence was impacted by the fire, the property was declared 'non-eligible' for the wildfire project.
Critics have now branded Bass a 'fraud' and 'incompetent failure' for neglecting to disclose when the builders applied for the permit in her statement. One even went as far as calling her the 'worst mayor in America'.

RedState has reported extensively on the failures at all levels of California leadership that led to the fires, which wiped out at least 6,831 structures and took at least 12 lives.

Sorry, Newsom: Palisades Fire Arrest Isn't Closure; It's Just the Beginning of a Terrible Reckoning

Pali Builds, a residents’ group dedicated to rebuilding efforts, scorched the mayor in a post on their website:

The group, which was founded by Pacific Palisades residents after the fires, blasted Bass for framing the certificate of occupancy as the first issued since the fire and allegedly 'suggesting it was a fire-related rebuild.'
'This isn't about catching an error. It's about what the error reveals,' the group wrote.
'If the City can't verify whether a single home was or wasn't a fire rebuild — something anyone can check with one click — how can they possibly manage the complexity of rebuilding an entire coastal town?'

The mayor fired back at the criticism with a statement:

“Thomas James Homes, the builder, originally submitted a plan check application to the City on November 8, 2024, to construct a new single-family home at 915 N Kagawa. The rebuilding plan was not approved before the previously existing home at 915 N Kagawa was destroyed in the Palisades Fire.

On April 1, 2025, nearly three months after the start of the Palisades Fire, the rebuilding plan for 915 N Kagawa was approved by LADBS, and the permit was pulled by Thomas James Homes that same day, April 1, 2025. After passing all inspections, the Certificate of Occupancy was issued on November 21, 2025.”

While it is true that the final plan was approved after the fires, Bass confirms that the original application was filed before. Ergo, it is not a fire rebuild, and she has just proven her own announcement to that effect was false.

Instead of owning up to that, she attacks residents like reality TV star and outspoken fire victim Spencer Pratt:

Not every day that the Mayor of Los Angeles goes on national television and calls you a liar. You’re right, Karen Bass, it’s not just Spencer Pratt. Thousands of Palisades residents got screwed over by your failures and we aren’t going to stay quiet. pic.twitter.com/g4wPCNS4TE
— Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) November 25, 2025

The Palisades saga continues to be Exhibit A for the failed leadership of Mayor Bass, Gov. Newsom, and the Democrat supermajority that is driving the Golden State into the ground. Expect the gaslighting to continue.

Editor’s Note: California is the poster child for everything that is wrong with the Democrat Party and the “progressive” movement.

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