Informal Bass advisor now working for Lineage, whose cold storage warehouse caught fire

A top informal advisor to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is working as a crisis communications consultant for Lineage Logistics, the company whose cold storage warehouse in Boyle Heights erupted in flames last month, inundating the surrounding neighborhood with toxic smoke and the odor of rotting food.

Yusef Robb, who runs the firm tk/Communications, was a familiar presence at City Hall for the first half of the year, accompanying Bass at news conferences and delivering comments on her behalf on issues such as the city’s response to the Palisades fire.

Two days after the blaze at Lineage Logistics’ cold storage facility ignited on June 17, Robb began working for the company, aiding with communications consulting, he confirmed to The Times.

Robb said he served as an unpaid advisor and spokesperson for Bass through the June 2 mayoral primary.

Bass spokesman Kolby Lee said that Robb provided “extra help” to the administration during the first half of the year, but “has never been a city employee for the Bass administration.”

Lee said that Robb continued to advise Bass on an informal basis, but that he hadn’t communicated with Bass or her office “on behalf of Lineage.”

Robb initially declined to comment beyond confirming the scope and dates of work he performed for the mayor and Lineage. After this story was published online, he said he would no longer serve as an unpaid advisor to Bass.

“I’m not going to let unnecessary distractions get in the way of the important things that need to be done, so I’m not extending my volunteer advisory work for the Mayor,” Robb said in a text message.

Lineage Logistics’ 500,000-square-foot cold storage facility in Boyle Heights burned for more than a week after a rooftop fire ignited June 17, while the mayor was in Chicago for the opening of the Barack Obama Presidential Center.

The fire sent plumes of black smoke over Boyle Heights and other parts of Los Angeles, leaving the air heavy with soot.

The Boyle Heights community has turned much of its ire toward Lineage Logistics after the fire, with some calling for the company to leave the neighborhood where it has had a warehouse for more than 20 years.

Residents have also criticized elected officials including Bass for their response to the blaze, and the mayor was booed during a community meeting Thursday night.

At that meeting, Bass pledged to “hold Lineage and any other corporation accountable, holding their feet to the fire to make sure that any potential harm is prevented in warehouses that are surrounding the area and most especially from what has happened here with Lineage.”

Even as the mayor has demanded accountability from Lineage, Robb made a call to a reporter for The Times on behalf of the company.

“The public is demanding accountability, but to what extent can the mayor hold this company accountable when it’s being represented by her advisor and friend?” asked Sara Sadhwani, a politics professor at Pomona College.

Robb’s time helping the mayor’s office came at a time of heavy turnover in the mayor’s communications team. Her deputy mayor of communications, Zach Seidl, left in October 2025 and his replacement, Amanda Crumley, left after about two months on the job.

Robb is a longtime fixture at City Hall. He was a press aide in Mayor Jim Hahn’s administration, then worked for Eric Garcetti both when Garcetti was a council member and then mayor. He left Garcetti’s office in 2015.

Robb also worked on Bass’ 2022 mayoral campaign.

When Bass took office, Robb was paid to help her nascent administration, according to city contracts. The city paid $75,000 total in 2022 and 2023 to Robb’s firm to provide “various communications services related to the start-up of the administration,” according to a contract.

But Robb’s work for Bass this year was unpaid, the mayor’s office said.

Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.