#399 — The Politics of Catastrophe

Rick Caruso, thanks for coming. Thank you, Sam. Thanks for having me. Anything happened in the last two weeks that you wanna talk about? Only a couple things. Man. Been a tough couple of weeks. Well, so obviously, we're going to talk about the the LA fires, and I think we'll probably also talk about California politics and and Okay. Maybe politics in general. Before we jump in, wait, can you summarize your background as a businessman and as a political figure? How do you come to have any opinions about what we're gonna talk about here? Well, I've been really fortunate, Sam, in my life because I've been able to lead a life that is in business. Started my own business a number of years ago. I practiced law before that. Wasn't a particularly good lawyer, but it was great training. And I was with a a big law firm out of New York, and I say that because the big law firm out of New York after about six years imploded. It went bankrupt. Mhmm. And it forced me to make a decision about starting a business. And so from that standpoint, it was really fortunate and a blessing. And so I started my company and, you know, one by one built it up in real estate, and, we've done some really incredible things because I've got an amazing team of people that are creative and innovative and imagine, and we like breaking a lot of the sort of the normal boundaries and rules. And then at the same time, I, was asked when I was 26 to be a commissioner when Tom Bradley was mayor. I had no idea what that meant, but I had a a good friend that was a commissioner and said he would make an introduction, and he asked me what commission do I wanna be on. I didn't even know what to pick. I said I love business, and he said, well, how about Department of Water and Power? It's the largest public utility in the country. And I said, sure. That one sounds good to me. So what do you do? You just rent a copy of Chinatown and Blockbuster at that point? Exactly. But, you know, I did that, and I served under Tom Bradley. I end ended up becoming the president of that commission. And then I left, and then Dick Reardon became mayor, and he asked me to come back because that was the days of, oil deregulation, energy deregulation. Enron was coming after DWP, and DWP was at risk for going bankrupt. So Dick called me up and said, you gotta come back and restructure LAPD, and I did. I mean, LADWP, and I did. And then I left there, and I thought my public service was done, and Jim Hahn asked me to come in and be the president of the police commission. Because at the time, the police commit the police department, was under a …