- Mayor Karen Bass’ chief recovery officer, Steve Soboroff, vented his frustrations at a private event at the tony Harvard-Westlake School, saying he was lied to.
- He later walked back the comments. While he didn’t deny saying them, they were not what he meant, he said.
Steve Soboroff, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ wildfire recovery czar, went public with his frustrations about doing the job for free, telling an audience he was “lied to” — and had the texts and emails to back it up.
The remarks, made to an alumni group at Harvard-Westlake School last week, came as Soboroff attempted to address what he called “the elephant in the room”: the city’s initial plan to pay him $500,000 over 90 days, and his subsequent decision to work without pay after an outcry over the size of his compensation.
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Soboroff, a real estate developer and civic leader who was selected by the mayor to do the work in mid-January, told reporters early on that his salary would be covered by philanthropy. Bass, without disclosing the amount, said the same thing weeks later.
On Thursday at Harvard-Westlake, Soboroff said he found himself at a point where he had “no money” and “no contract,” according to a recording of his remarks.
“So then I found out that they really didn’t have the money,” he said. “And then I found out I really did have the [personal] bills.
“And so there was one of two things to do: Go public and quit, and say I was lied to — here’s my emails, here’s my texts, here’s all this s—,” he told the group. “Or tell them I’ll do it for free, and hope that it comes around later on.”
By Monday, Soboroff changed course, telling The Times he did not think that the mayor had lied or intentionally misled him.
“That was not what I feel and not what I meant,” he said in an interview.
Asked about Soboroff’s comments at Harvard-Westlake, Bass spokesperson Zach Seidl said the mayor’s office “refers you to his refutation.”
Still, the recording provided fresh evidence of the turmoil that has surrounded the mayor since the outbreak of the Palisades fire, which destroyed thousands of homes in Pacific Palisades and surrounding communities.
The mayor has had tense interactions in recent weeks with Lindsey Horvath, who represents the Palisades on the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. On Friday, the mayor ousted Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley.
Facing criticism over the emergency response and her absence from the city when the fire broke out, Bass named Soboroff as her recovery czar Jan. 17. But she and Soboroff did not always agree, or even fully communicate, on the city’s strategy for reopening and rebuilding.
