During an interview with FOX 11 Los Angeles released on Thursday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass responded to a question on wildlife recovery official Steve Soboroff initially being slated to receive a $500,000 salary before he decided to work for free by stating that “it took a lot of arm-twisting to get him to come, which is why he agreed to come for 90 days.” And “I was very happy when he did reconsider and decided that he would be willing to do this for free.” Bass also said, “I was asking him to walk away from everything and to come and to help his city. That was the arm-twisting.”
Host Elex Michaelson asked, “The Steve Soboroff situation, you appointed him, somebody you’ve known and worked with for a long time, who’s been very successful in a lot of situations. This report that he’s going to get $500,000 from a series of non-profits and then that report becomes public and then, apparently, he’s working for free. And people are like, what happened there?”
Bass responded, “Well, I was — first of all, I was very happy to ask Steve to come and participate. And let me just tell you, it took a lot of arm-twisting to get him to come, which is why he agreed to come for 90 days. His contributions to our city…and the fact that he was from the Palisades, so, I was very happy when he did reconsider and decided that he would be willing to do this for free.”
Michaelson followed up, “When you say it took a lot of arm-twisting, he didn’t really want to help?”
Bass answered, “He was involved in a lot of different projects. I was asking him to walk away from everything and to come and to help his city. That was the arm-twisting.”
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