Spencer Pratt Forced Karen Bass to Fire the Woman Who Left the Reservoir Empty

Karen Bass was in Africa when 12 people burned alive in the Palisades.

Now she's watching a reality TV star dismantle her administration one scalp at a time.

Spencer Pratt just forced Bass to push out the LADWP chief who left 117 million gallons of firefighting water sitting empty for nearly a year – and he's not done.

Janisse Quinones Made $750,000 a Year and Left the Reservoir Empty

Janisse Quiñones was Karen Bass's prized hire.

Bass nominated her in May 2024 to lead the nation's largest publicly owned utility. The salary? $750,000 a year – nearly double what her predecessor made.

City Council member Kevin de León defended every penny. He said Quiñones "comes from the private sector" where "she could easily command twice that amount."

Los Angeles ratepayers got nothing for their money.

The Santa Ynez Reservoir – a 117-million-gallon facility specifically built after the deadly 1961 Bel Air Fire to protect the Palisades neighborhood from exactly this kind of disaster – sat empty for eleven months on Quiñones's watch.

A floating cover had torn. The fix would have cost less than $200,000.

She never got it done.

When the fire ignited on January 7, 2025, firefighters found dry hydrants. Helicopters scrambled for alternative water sources. Twelve people died. More than 10,000 structures burned.

And the reservoir Quiñones was paid $750,000 a year to maintain sat empty.

The LADWP Cover-Up That Victims Uncovered in Court

The reservoir failure was bad enough. What LADWP did next was worse.

Court documents obtained through Public Records Act requests revealed that after the fire, a utility patrolman went back into LADWP's computer log and attempted to change his arrival time at the Palisades substation from 6:18 p.m. to 1:47 p.m.

Why? Because he had been instructed at 1:40 p.m. to de-energize the electrical circuits – and didn't show up for nearly five hours. When he finally arrived, the outdated equipment failed. He evacuated without shutting off a single circuit.

Those live power lines created spot fires throughout the Palisades, spreading the inferno to homes that might otherwise have survived.

Twenty-two days after the fire, someone went back into the records and tried to make the five-and-a-half-hour delay disappear.

An LA County judge reviewed all of it and ruled the lawsuit against the city, LADWP, and the State of California could move forward. That ruling landed just weeks before Bass announced Quiñones's sudden departure.

Bass Tried to Dress It Up

The official statement from Bass's office called it a "planned leadership transition."

Quiñones is returning to Puerto Rico, the statement explained, "to take a leadership role supporting the modernization and transformation of the Island's electric grid."

Bass praised Quiñones for her "steady leadership and engineering expertise."

The woman who left the reservoir empty for eleven months. The woman who presided over live power lines that spread fires across neighborhoods. The woman whose employee tried to falsify records. That woman – Karen Bass says – demonstrated "steady leadership."

Los Angeles residents are watching this and connecting the dots.

Spencer Pratt Just Got His First Win in the LA Mayor Race

Here's what makes this story different from every other California accountability story: the man who made it happen is Spencer Pratt – a reality TV personality the political establishment wrote off as a joke the moment he announced his mayoral campaign.

They're not laughing now.

Pratt and his wife Heidi Montag lost their home in the Palisades Fire. He filed one of the first lawsuits against the city and LADWP in January 2025. He spent a year hammering Bass and Quiñones in public. He announced his mayoral campaign on January 7, 2026 – the one-year anniversary of the fire – standing in the ashes of his former home. And he's been calling for Quiñones's firing, resignation, or prosecution every step of the way.

Bass's own internal polling now shows him as her top rival.

The political class dismissed him immediately. Bass's campaign strategist called him a "reality TV villain" who "staged a fake divorce to boost ratings." They said he was amplifying misinformation to grow his following.

What they can't explain is why Janisse Quiñones is suddenly gone three weeks after a judge cleared the lawsuit to proceed – or why Karen Bass is scrambling against a man whose biggest prior accomplishment was getting cast on The Hills.

Pratt's next two targets are Bass and Gavin Newsom.

Bass is already burning campaign money trying to stop him. Newsom is watching from Sacramento, hoping nobody notices his name on the lawsuit too.

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Sources:

• Jennifer Van Laar, "The Pratt Effect? Woman Responsible for Empty Palisades Reservoir Gets Booted," RedState, March 4, 2026.
• "City of Los Angeles Announces Transition of LADWP CEO Janisse Quiñones," Mayor Karen Bass Official Statement, March 4, 2026.
• "Palisades Fire Victims Sue City of Los Angeles for Failure to Inspect, Maintain, and Operate Water System," GlobeNewswire / McNulty Law Firm, January 24, 2025.
• "Palisades Fire Victims File Amended Complaint," PRNewswire / Robertson & Associates, July 9, 2025.
• "Spencer Pratt Announces LA Mayoral Bid," Fox News, January 8, 2026.
• "Spencer Pratt, LA Mayoral Candidate, Has Big Plans for the City," NBC Los Angeles, February 3, 2026.
• "In L.A. Mayor Race, Spencer Pratt Is Karen Bass' Top Rival, Polling Shows," TMZ, March 2, 2026.