Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass’s (D.) wildfire recovery czar, Steve Soboroff, advised Hollywood talent executives on a private Zoom call to wait to sell their properties. City investments in the Palisades neighborhood, he said, will allow them to “triple” the low-ball offers they’re currently receiving.
“Whether you’re broke or you’re old, don’t sell now, because in one year we’re going to be putting billions of dollars in your neighborhood of improvements,” Soboroff said Thursday. “You’ll get triple what these guys are offering you for now.”
It appeared at least some of the call’s attendees had their homes damaged or destroyed entirely in this month’s wildfires, while others were looking for ways to help.
The Washington Free Beacon obtained a recording of the call, which included executives and staff of three elite Hollywood talent agencies, William Morris, Creative Artists Agency, and United Talent Agency (UTA) of Beverly Hills, the meeting’s host. Among them was UTA vice chair Jay Sures, who represents CNN host Jake Tapper and vacationed in Italy with the left-wing network’s former president Jeff Zucker and former anchor Don Lemon. Another executive on the call was William Morris partner Richard Weitz, whose clients include Tina Fey, Seth MacFarlane, and Ricky Gervais.
Soboroff—a former city police commissioner, prominent local developer behind the Staples Center (now known as the Crypto.com Arena), home to both the Lakers and the Grammy Awards, and longtime Bass supporter—provided details on the call that haven’t been disclosed publicly. His son, Jacob Soboroff, helmed national coverage of the wildfires for NBC News and is at the center of a defamation lawsuit against the network over allegations that he falsely reported that a doctor routinely performed unnecessary procedures, including hysterectomies.
During the call, Soboroff said “half our labor” could get deported before the Palisades is rebuilt, which he said could be extremely expensive. He also warned listeners not to take the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) water testing at face value, saying “don’t bathe your baby in their water.”
“Construction costs are going to be high because the demand for commodities is going to be high, the demand for labor—whether or not half our labor is deported before this happens—is going to be high, so we’re going to be recruiting people from around the country to come and live at Motel 6s like the Alaska Gold Rush,” Soboroff said. “It’s going to take a long time.”
“Just because the DWP says your water is safe, have somebody test it before you move back in, and when they say drinking water, use bottled water,” Soboroff continued. “What they don’t say is—and they’re starting to say it now—don’t bathe your baby in their water, don’t take a bath in the water, don’t take a shower, don’t do your dishes, don’t do your laundry, you don’t want to do anything with that water until it’s deemed safe and then personally, if you can afford it, I would get an independent agency or maybe there’s a kit at CVS that’ll tell you your water is safe.”
A spokeswoman for LADWP did not respond directly to Soboroff’s criticisms but noted there is a Do Not Drink advisory in place for the Pacific Palisades, and directed the Free Beacon to its official notice stating that the department “has expanded operational water quality testing in communities adjacent to the Do Not Drink area” to answer customer concerns. “Thus far, there have been no anomalies and all drinking water standards continue to be met in areas adjacent to the Do Not Drink area,” the notice says.
In an email, Soboroff did not respond to specific questions and instead said, “All that’s accurate. I trust DWP but when they say water is safe I’d check every faucet.”
He similarly advised listeners to “get some independent advice” to double check air quality, even after the federal government completes its hazardous waste removal in February.
The 48-minute video call is the most intimate view yet into city leaders’ outlook as they face anger from residents over their response to the fires. Bass, who cut the city fire department’s budget last year, departed for Ghana amid warnings that hazardous winds would hit Los Angeles. When the fires broke out, she was attending a cocktail party to honor that country’s new president. Palisades fire hydrants and water tanks ran dry on the first night of the big blaze as the area’s 117 million-gallon water reservoir—built in the 1970s to protect the neighborhood from fire—sat empty for repairs.
Soboroff, however, told his Hollywood audience that such criticisms are simply a “bus to no.”
“There are only two buses here: one’s to yes, which I’m on, and one is the bus to no,” he said. “And the bus to no is looking for the reasons why this happened, looking at the politicians, looking at the reservoir, looking at the science. All that’s ok, it’s just I can’t spend any time on that.”
He suggested his audience should wait “five or six months” for a report on “what actually happened.” In the meantime, he said, they should “get on the bus to yes”—seemingly suggesting they look ahead rather than backward.
Soboroff said it could take as long as five years for people to rebuild their scorched and destroyed homes, though he noted that he built the Staples Center in 18 months. The recovery czar became annoyed when Sures blamed Los Angeles’s burdensome permitting process for the holdup on basic construction projects.
“Everything has been a joke, the whole process of permitting in the city of LA,” Sures said.
“I thought you said this wasn’t going to be political, now. I want you on the bus to yes, please,” Soboroff interrupted.
Soboroff acknowledged that only about 5 percent of Palisades residents can “afford their house” now, given that many are generational owners or bought their houses before construction costs and real estate prices skyrocketed. He predicted that costs would be “nuts,” up to $1,000-$1,200 per square foot to rebuild.
“There’s no one in the Palisades who won’t have a gap” between what their insurance policies will pay out and the costs to reconstruct their homes, he said, adding that he doesn’t know what kind of aid will be available to make up the shortfalls. Still, he advised the executives, the best thing people can do is to ready their building plans, hire legal help to negotiate with insurance companies, and hold on to their lots rather than accept lowball offers from speculators.
Soboroff said his goal is to wrap up his recovery czar duties within 90 days before handing them off to engineering firms.
This article was originally published at freebeacon.com
