Mayor Karen Bass taps Illinois consulting firm to support Palisades fire recovery

One month after the devastating Palisades fire, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced that she has selected a private consulting firm to assist with infrastructure restoration and environmental mitigation.

Illinois-based Hagerty Consulting will do “full project management, coordinating all of the different private and public entities,” the mayor said Friday. The work of rebuilding public infrastructure will also fall under the firm’s purview, Bass said.

Bass, while touring Pacific Palisades with Steve Soboroff, her recovery czar, nearly two weeks ago, said she intended to hire an outside consultant to represent the city’s interests in the wildfire recovery process. She said a decision would be made by the end of that week.

It’s not yet clear how much the firm will be paid. It will report to Jim Featherstone, whom Bass appointed to oversee the city Emergency Operations Center’s recovery group, she said.

“We have selected Hagerty, a world-class disaster recovery firm, to provide expertise and operational support to facilitate our comprehensive recovery effort,” Bass said during a news conference at which she provided updates on fire recovery and the city’s progress in the month since the Palisades fire wreaked widespread devastation on the coastal enclave and surrounding areas, destroying more than 6,800 structures. At least 12 people were killed.

Hagerty Consulting, located in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, is an emergency management consulting firm that specializes in preparing for, responding to and recovering from disasters. On its website, the company has a “disaster discourse” blog where it discusses the latest wildfires, hurricanes and other emergencies.

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Bass also said that the city is still in discussions with global engineering firm AECOM about a separate contract, possibly to assist with cost recovery and ensuring that the city receives the federal funds it’s owed.

Last week, Bass spokesperson Zach Seidl had said that the city was finalizing contracts with multiple firms.

In the days since Bass toured the Palisades with Soboroff, her search for a recovery contractor has been mostly shrouded in secrecy. The mayor, along with four council members and other city officials, heard presentations from three firms at a closed door meeting last week.

Hagerty, AECOM and the disaster recovery and response firm IEM gave brief Zoom presentations during the meeting.

“They had a little pitch session. They told us a little bit about themselves, but no decisions were made,” Councilmember Bob Blumenfield said.

Because Bass declared a state of emergency in response to the wildfire, she has the authority to award the contract unilaterally, without competitive bidding or a vote from the City Council, Blumenfield said. However, funding for the recovery contracts will require a council vote.

Councilmembers Traci Park and Katy Yaroslavsky and Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson were among those present during the meeting, as were Soboroff, City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo and Chief Legislative Analyst Sharon Tso.

Soboroff, a real estate developer and civic leader, was named to his post by Bass last month. On Friday, he declined to say how much he will be paid in that role, saying only that he was not taking public dollars and his compensation would be covered by an unnamed philanthropic organization.

Soboroff said he does not know who the organization is or where its money is coming from.

Bass said that Hagerty has also been performing work for Los Angeles County. And she left open the possibility that more private firms will be hired in the coming days.

AECOM, on its website, said that it has responded to more than 400 disasters around the world and has more than 200 “disaster resilience professionals” on its staff. The firm has worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency for more than 40 years, according to the site.

“We repair and restore impacted communities by helping to expedite a return to normal daily life,” the company said on the website. “We’re typically on the ground performing these missions within 24 hours of an event and continue to support the recovery and rebuilding process for months, or even years, afterwards.”