Letters to the Editor: $500,000 for three months’ work: What was Mayor Karen Bass thinking?

To the editor: Can anyone explain how a seemingly intelligent person such as Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass can also have such remarkably poor judgment? (“After critics blast move to pay L.A. wildfire recovery czar $500,000, he’ll do it for free,” Feb. 8)

Steve Soboroff, appointed to lead the city of L.A.’s recovery effort after last month’s fires, appears to be a successful businessman. Yet Bass approved his salary of nearly half a million dollars, to be funded entirely by charitable organizations, for three months’ work. Did it not occur to her that the charitable donations for that salary should go toward assisting all those folks who have lost every single thing in their lives?

Eventually, Bass reversed course and said Soboroff would work for free. But I’m not sure what was worse — Bass at first approving the salary, or Soboroff accepting it.

Talk about a race to the bottom!

Diane Lowderback, Tustin