A survey of Los Angeles’ emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic observed that Mayor Eric Garcetti and his group avoided city departments when making decisions, resulting in an “uncoordinated and inefficient” operation.
The draft report, which was investigated by The Times, applauds the city’s crisis operations workers, who worked out of a midtown office while a large part of the city stayed shut down.
Also Garcetti “acted rapidly and conclusively on many fronts, frequently with creative drives to assist with safeguarding the city and its people,” the report found.
However, the absence of transparency from Garcetti’s office helped fuel two synchronous and equal crisis activities – one drove by the chairman and one drove by the top of the city’s Emergency Management Department, or EMD, the report found.