Mayor Karen Bass said Friday that former Police Commission Chairman Steve Soboroff will lead the first phase of the city's wildfire recovery efforts.

Soboroff, a real estate developer and longtime civic leader, will serve as the city’s chief recovery officer.

He will work directly with the mayor and with assistance from city departments to develop a comprehensive strategy to “rebuild and accelerate fire-damaged areas for residents, workers, businesses, schools, nonprofits, libraries and parks safe return". Go to the mayor's office.

Soboroff, who raised his family in Pacific Palisades, is known for serving in a variety of civic and private sector roles: He helped move Crypto.com Arena (formerly Staples Center) into to downtown Los Angeles and led the multi-billion dollar development of Playa Vista. Residential, office and retail communities. He was a senior adviser to former Mayor Richard J. Riordan and served on the Port and Parks Commission. He also ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2001.

"He knows our community. He knows how to get a town hall started," Bass told reporters Friday, adding that Soboroff will work "extremely quickly" to help speed up the process.

Ten days ago, the catastrophic Palisades Fire in Pacific Palisades killed at least eight people and destroyed more than 3,500 structures in and around the city. Outside the official jurisdiction of the city of Los Angeles and Bath, the devastating Eaton Fire continues to rage in Altadena, northeast of the city.

“This is not a city planning exercise,” Soboroff said Friday. "This is about saving people's lives, their families and the people who work for them and help them exercise."

Fernando Guerra, director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University, enthusiastically praised Bass for selecting Soboroff for the position and said he believed the developer was uniquely qualified for the position. .

"He knows how to build. He knows the barriers to building. He knows government. He knows how government thinks and creates barriers," Guerra said. "If there's anyone who can be involved in both worlds, have legitimacy and be respected, it's Steve Soboroff."

The choice is certainly an important one for Bass, who has been criticized for her handling of the storm. She issued an executive order late Monday aimed at speeding up the rebuilding of homes and businesses.

Raphael J. Sonenshein, executive director of the John Randolph and Dora Haynes Foundation, said the decision to bring in an outside redevelopment czar had precedent in city history.

"In New York or Chicago, the mayor runs everything. That's not the case in Los Angeles," Sonenshein said, acknowledging the city's relatively weak mayoral system. “(Los Angeles) has a long tradition of engaging civic leaders to lend a helping hand and build a broader coalition that goes beyond public officials.”

Sonenson cited examples including the Christopher Commission, formed by then-Mayor Tom Bradley and chaired by attorney Warren Christopher, to investigate Rodney King. King's beating, and Bradley's choice of businessman Peter Ueberroth to lead the rebuilding effort after the 1992 civil unrest.