L.A. County repeatedly called its nearly $2 million review of the Eaton Fire response independent. But emails obtained by KNX News show the director of the agency under scrutiny had an undisclosed working relationship with the firm selected to conduct it.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger now says the County is examining concerns about the Office of Emergency Management, “including the circumstances surrounding the selection of the McChrystal Group,” as part of its response to whistleblower litigation.
“I take these allegations seriously, and the county is actively investigating the issues raised,” Barger said in a statement to KNX News.
The emails provide a picture of a relationship between OEM Director Kevin McGowan and McChrystal Group that began months before the January 2025 fires.
On Jan. 8, 2025, one day into the fire crisis, Gen. Stan McChrystal, known for his Army commands in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, personally emailed McGowan.
“I’m watching from afar,” McChrystal wrote. “LA, and the nation, are watching your team with pride…you’re the right team, in the right place, at the right time.”
A few weeks later, on Jan. 26, McGowan replied to McChrystal and two senior executives who would later be involved in the County review.
“Can’t say enough how much I appreciate the support you all have been sending our way!!! When things settle, I look forward to catching up,” he wrote.
A little more than a week later, on Feb. 7, L.A. County announced McChrystal Group would conduct what it called an “independent review of the evacuation policies and emergency alert notification systems utilized by the County.”
McGowan’s prior relationship with McChrystal Group was mentioned neither in the County’s announcement nor in the final report.
The report was later criticized for failing to answer key questions about the timing of emergency alerts in West Altadena, where 18 of the 19 people killed in the Eaton Fire died.
“This was not an independent report if there was already a relationship between people at OEM and McChrystal,” said Sylvie Andrews, who lost her home in the Eaton Fire. “It doesn’t give me much confidence there would be an objective result.”
McGowan told KNX News he believes the review was independent.
“My familiarity with McChrystal Group resulted from being selected by FEMA to attend the Vanguard Executive Crisis Leaders Fellowship, where McChrystal Group was a contractor to FEMA for the Vanguard program,” McGowan said in an emailed statement.
He characterized McChrystal’s email during the fires as one of many messages of encouragement he received from leaders around the country.
“The AAR was independent and also critical of OEM,” McGowan said. “The independent review conducted by McChrystal Group has allowed LA County to make immediate and meaningful changes to OEM that will benefit our nearly 10 million residents as we face future disasters.”
The emails, obtained by KNX News through a California Public Records Act request, show McGowan’s contacts with the firm went beyond his participation in Vanguard, where one of McGowan’s sessions included a gathering at McChrystal Group’s Virginia headquarters.
In the months that followed, McGowan worked directly with McChrystal Group personnel and FEMA officials to help plan another Vanguard session scheduled to take place in Los Angeles in January 2025.
Then, one month before the fires, McGowan personally connected McChrystal Group with a County contracting official.
“I did not personally help McChrystal Group pursue status as a prequalified County vendor,” he told KNX News. “I simply connected them with the folks running the program so they could follow the process administered by these folks, as I would have done for any vendor expressing interest.”
The records reviewed by KNX News do not show what specific work McChrystal Group hoped to perform for OEM at that time, or whether the effort had any connection to the after-action review.
A preexisting professional relationship is not enough to conclude that there was an ethics violation or the report’s findings were compromised, said Sean McMorris, Transparency, Ethics, and Accountability program manager at California Common Cause.
“That said, there is a separate question of public perception, McMorris said. “Given that the review was repeatedly characterized as independent, some members of the public may reasonably believe that the prior relationship should have been disclosed or subjected to additional scrutiny.”
It remains unclear whether McGowan or other OEM officials had any role in McChrystal Group’s selection for the after-action review. The County Counsel’s office, which managed the process, said in a statement it is protected by attorney-client privilege.
County Counsel also did not say whether there was a competitive bidding process or whether other firms were considered.
A KNX News public records request seeking records surrounding the procurement and selection process has been pending for nearly a year.
“I will closely track the outcomes of our investigation,” Sup. Barger added. “It is important that these concerns are fully examined so the public can have confidence in the integrity of the review process and its findings.”
One of the McChrystal report’s key recommendations was to restructure the Office of Emergency Management and increase its staffing and resources.
“We’re still waiting for real answers, for a true investigation,” said Andrews, the fire survivor. “That’s going to come not from the after-action report the county themselves funded, but from the Attorney General’s investigation that is currently underway.
Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office has not said when he expects his office’s civil rights investigation into the Eaton Fire response will be completed.
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