Hibbs is pastor at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, located east and southeast of the ravaging Pacific Palisades and Eaton wildfires that have decimated much of Los Angeles Country.
In a portion of his Sunday morning sermon, Hibbs reminded the Calvary congregation that they live and work in the U.S. state with the highest taxes. Those taxes are collected from all of you, Hibbs pointed out, and spent by a "supermajority" of Democrats who are in control.
"We have watched the absolute exposure of the most incompetent---" Hibbs stated before he was interrupted by applause.
Describing the incompetence he has witnessed, Hibbs told the Washington Watch program nobody in charge knew the local reservoirs were out of water. That meant that was no water for fire hydrants in critical areas.
“I saw an L.A. County fireman taking a potted plant out of a pot, going over to a home that had been burned down to the ground," Hibbs recalled. "As the water dripped out of its broken plumbing, he filled up what might be a 2 ½ gallon pot and ran about 50 feet away to put out a little bit of a fire so it wouldn't spread anymore."
Referring back to his sermon, Hibbs said that scene is why he said he felt like he is living in a Third World country when California is one of the wealthiest places on Earth.
"Makes no sense," Gibbs complained to show host Tony Perkins.
If the state's GDP was ranked alongside other countries, California's trillions of dollars in revenue would put it up among the top 10 countries in the world.
Water reservoirs were indeed low when the fires broke out. What’s harder to understand is why, and answers are a moving target among public officials depending on who is providing them.
Local officials have maintained that water for firefighters was low because of demands on the resources.
Going back years, including a Joe Rogan interview in October, Donald Trump has been raising the alarm about California's water supply. He specifically blamed California Gov. Gavin Newsom for efforts to save the tiny Delta Smelt, a fish once crucial to California’s ecosystem but is largely extinct, The New York Post reports.
Hibbs, on Sunday morning, picked a side in addressing his congregation.
“You've got a situation where a catastrophe came, and the billions of dollars that you and I gave were diverted to other woke, stupid Democrat projects. That's not hyperbole, it is a fact,” Hibbs preached.
Citizens don’t ask for much
Steve Hilton, founder of the conservative California group Golden Together, agrees.
“The very basics of what we expect from government, which are safety and security and these basic services like water and power delivered in a reliable and affordable manner, none of that happens in California because they are totally obsessed with their far-left ideological schemes,” he said.
Water flow regulations are governed by both federal and state laws.
The state, though, enacted its California Endangered Species Act in 1970. It promises that certain species will be protected or preserved.
There are other Democrat projects in Hibbs’ “billions of dollars” summation of the current crisis.
Los Angeles celebrated the hire of Kristen Crowley as its first female fire chief in 2022. Crowley, an open lesbian, eagerly shared her plan to increase diversity, leading to the creation of a “DEI Bureau” within the department.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion emphasis is have far-reaching damaging effects right now, Hibbs says.
“It turns out that DEI is actually spelled D-I-E. That's what's going on. It leads to death,” he said.
Quality of life is frustrating for many Californians who want to be safe in their cities and don’t want to “pay $15 for a Taco Bell visit,” Hibbs said.
Conservatives in the state aren’t motivated to vote because of a void of quality candidates, he said.
“What we need is a statesman," Hibbs told Perkins. "There are a lot of great people in this state. We’re calling for them to step up. We’ll bring them the votes if they’ll run for office."
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, accused by many of being an example of gross incompetence, insists now is not the time for blame, but a petition at Change.org is calling for her immediate resignation citing gross mismanagement and failure in the job.
People are more tolerant of poor leadership when things are going well, Hibbs observed, but current elected officials are “this terrible combination of ideology and incompetence."
Two tragedies, two different responses
During his Washington Watch interview, Hilton said California was a different place under Gov. Pete Wilson, the former Republican governor He served two terms, from 1991-1999, and oversaw the state government's response to the Northridge Earthquake in 1994.
The 6.7-magnitude quake caused an estimated $50 billion in damages, America’s most costly earthquake since 1906.
Wilson responded by relaxing the State Contract Act, a move that expedited the designing, advertising, awarding and beginning of construction contracts. A normal four-month process was cut to just five days in some cases.
The state's current Democrat governor, Gavin Newsom, has been filmed shrugging at water supply problems as a problem for "local folks" to figure out.
Hilton believes voters will begin to demand conservative leadership in future elections.
“We know how to do this. We used to do this," Hilton said. "We used to have good governance in California, competent leadership that got things done and then let people live their lives, let families build their lives, let businesses do what they want to do. That's what California was all about."
That happened a long time ago, he said, when Republicans were in public office.
Change is coming, Hilton predicts, because he believes the wildfires have changed the way people vote.
