Los Angeles MayR Karen Bass went back on Saturday in the midst of reports that her Wildfire Recovery Tsar, Steve Soboroff, would be compensated for $ 500,000 for 90 days of work.
The Los Angeles Times Reported on Saturday morning that Soboroff, a real estate developer and old Civic officer, would be paid $ 500,000 in the course of three months for working as “Chief Recovery Officer” of the city.
His compensation came from charity organizations, but Bass, who tapped Soboroff for the first time on January 17, quickly returned the race by Saturday evening. She said that Soboroff would now manage the reconstruction of the city for free.
“Steve is always there for LA. I spoke to him today and asked him to adjust his similarity and work for free. He said yes,” said Bass, according to The Times. “We agree that we don’t need anything to be distracting from the repair work we do.”
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Mayor Karen Bass and Steve Soboroff discuss recovery efforts during a press conference in Pacific Palisades on January 27, 2025. (Drew A. Kelley/Medianews Group/Long Beach Press telegram via Getty images)
Another person, long -term real estate Randy Johnson, would be compensated from philanthropic groups to help Soboroff, but he would now also do the work for free, Bass said.
On Johnson, Bass said that she was ‘grateful for his generosity and expertise’, but the mayor’s office refused to mention the charity organizations or to clarify how the financing was collected, according to the Times.
The municipal councilor Monica Rodriguez of Los Angeles, a member of the five -person committee, told the Times that it was “annoying” that philanthropic groups would pay two people $ 750,000 and called the amount “obscene”.
“Does he get $ 500,000 paid for 3 months of work?” The envoy of President Donald Trump for special missions, Ric Grenellwrote on X van Soboroff. “And they call this a good cause. Gross. Offensive.”
A helicopter drops water while the Palisades Fire is growing near the Mandeville Canyon and Encino, California district, on January 11, 2025. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty images)
Grenell, who was sitting next to Trump during a round table discussion in the Pacific Palisades Last month, added: “I get $ 0 paid – just like many people. It’s a good thing that there will be strings on the federal money for California.”
Larry Vein, a resident of Pacific Palisades whose house has suffered smoke damage, convicted Soboroff’s reported $ 500,000 compensation and said that no one should handle recovery efforts for ‘financial gain’.
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Steve Danton, who lives in a temporary apartment in Marina del Rey after his house was destroyed in the Palisades Fire, said that the compensation of Soboroff is a ‘coupon’, adding that the city experiences a ‘crisis crisis’.
Soboroff, who previously volunteered in the police supervisory board and in the committee that supervises the Ministry of Recreation and Parks, defended the amount of $ 500,000 for the Times earlier on Saturday.
Costs of houses and burned cars in the Brandravied Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Estates in Los Angeles on January 13, 2025. (Agustin Paullier/AFP via Getty images)
He said that he has specialized expertise, assumes radical responsibilities, including communicating with federal agencies, and gives up other real estate and environmental advice work to become the Natuurbrandherstel Tsar.
“I have been doing this for free for 35 years on some of the largest citizen projects for the city of Los Angeles. But no one has ever asked me to drop everything. This time they did,” said Soboroff The Times. “And I said OK, on ​​the condition that my wages would not be taken from city money, or from a wild -fire survivors who would otherwise benefit from that money.”
Soboroff said he took over questions from “thousands of residents”, made recommendations about the city permit process and advised the mayor to hire an external project manager to introduce city agencies in Replaced damaged infrastructure.
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“At the end of the day I do things that all these other people just study,” he said. “I implement to help people achieve their goals to come back to their homes and get their job back.”
