A representative of Hagerty Consulting was stumped last week when asked by leaders within the Pacific Palisades about what his company is actually doing to help the community recover from recent wildfires.
As Breitbart News has reported, City of Los Angeles City hired Hagerty, based in Evanston, Illinois, behind closed doors for an undisclosed amount (now known to be $10 million) and to accomplish an undefined set of tasks. The city did so despite concerns about Hagerty’s record, including the fact that two former disaster recovery experts working for the firm pleaded guilty recently to misusing relief funds.
Breitbart News pressed L.A. Mayor Karen Bass to explain why she had chosen Hagerty — and she would not.
Hagerty senior management associate Harrison Newton, appearing on a Zoom call with the Pacific Palisades Community Council (PPCC), could not explain what Hagerty was actually doing, nor what it had done in previous natural disasters.
One resident called the Hagerty presentation “extremely generic,” noting that “we have a trust issue with the people paying you.”
Another resident asked: “What exactly is Hagerty doing?” and “Tell us how much you’re getting paid?”
Another commented: “I’m angry — really angry, because I spent 25 minutes listening to you speak, and I don’t know what you said. … You’ve got to start providing answers.”
“Tell us what you’re doing, where the money’s going, and how it’s being spent.”
Other residents echoed those sentiments.
When asked to provide “a concrete example of something you did in a prior disaster … that is not just another layer of bureaucracy,” Harrison struggled to offer more than help with loan processing.
He added that Hagerty provided “augmentation support,” meaning more staff to assist local government recovery functions.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
