Los Angeles wildfire czar’s $500K paycheck for 90 days of work draws swift blowback, mayor reverses course

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass backtracked on Saturday amid reports that her wildfire recovery czar, Steve Soboroff, would be compensated $500,000 for 90 days of work. 

The Los Angeles Times first reported Saturday morning that Soboroff, a real estate developer and longtime civic official, would be paid $500,000 over the course of three months for working as the city’s “chief recovery officer.” 

His compensation was to come from charity organizations, but Bass, who first tapped Soboroff for the job on Jan. 17, quickly reversed course by Saturday evening. She said Soboroff would now manage the rebuilding of the city free of charge. 

“Steve is always there for LA. I spoke to him today and asked him to modify his agreement and work for free. He said yes,” Bass said, according to the Times. “We agree that we don’t need anything distracting from the recovery work we’re doing.”

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Another person, longtime real estate executive Randy Johnson, was to be compensated $250,000 from philanthropic groups for assisting Soboroff, but he too would now do the job for free, Bass said. 

On Johnson, Bass said she was “grateful for his generosity and expertise,” but the mayor’s office declined to name the charity organizations or clarify how the funding was raised, according to the Times. 

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez, a member of the five-person committee tasked with recovery, told the Times it was “infuriating” that philanthropic groups would pay two people $750,000, calling the amount “obscene.” 

“He’s getting paid $500,000 for 3 months of work?” President Donald Trump’s envoy for special missions, Ric Grenell, wrote on X of Soboroff. “And they call this a charity. Gross. Offensive.” 

Grenell, who was seated next to Trump during a round table discussion in the Pacific Palisades last month, added: “I’m getting paid $0 – as are many people. It’s a good thing there will be strings on the Federal money for California.” 

Larry Vein, a Pacific Palisades resident whose home suffered smoke damage, condemned Soboroff’s reported $500,000 compensation, saying no one should handle recovery efforts for “financial gain.” 

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Steve Danton, who resides in a temporary apartment in Marina del Rey after his home was destroyed in the Palisades Fire, said Soboroff’s compensation is a “money grab,” adding that the city is experiencing a “crisis of leadership.” 

Soboroff, who previously served in volunteer roles on the Board of Police Commissioners and on the commission that oversees the Department of Recreation and Parks, defended the $500,000 amount to the Times earlier Saturday.

He said he has specialized expertise, is taking on sweeping responsibilities, including communicating with federal agencies, and is giving up other real estate and environmental consulting work to become the wildfire recovery czar. 

“I’ve been doing this for 35 years for free on some of the biggest civic projects for the city of Los Angeles. But nobody ever asked me to drop everything. This time they did,” Soboroff told the Times. “And I said OK, under the condition that my pay not be taken out of city money, or from any wildfire survivors who would otherwise benefit from that money.”

Soboroff said he has taken questions from “thousands of residents,” made recommendations on the city permitting process and advised the mayor to hire an outside project manager to lead city agencies in replacing damaged infrastructure. 

“At the end of the day, I’m doing the stuff that all these other people are just studying,” he said. “I’m implementing to help people reach their goals of getting back in their houses and getting their jobs back.”