One of Mayor Bass’ Top Advisors Is Helping Lineage Do Crisis P.R.

YUSEF ROBB — long one of Mayor Karen Bass’ most trusted unofficial advisors, despite holding no formal role in her administration — has been doing communications consulting work for Lineage, the operator of the Boyle Heights cold storage warehouse that burned last month. Robb was retained as part of the team on the account days after the fire broke out. 

The fire, which sent noxious, potentially toxic, smoke billowing across the city for days and was followed by a spike in hospital visits, prompted emergency declarations from both Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom. The industrial disaster has provoked an outpouring of rage from community members who say they weren’t protected, or told what chemicals they may have been exposed to, and are now living next to tens of millions of pounds of rotting food that must still be disposed of. Voters in these working-class, Eastside neighborhoods will be crucial to the mayor's ability to win a second term.

The mayor’s office Saturday insisted her longtime advisor has not been involved with her response to the environmental catastrophe and its clean-up, now that he is working for the company at the center of it. 

When asked if Robb’s role with Lineage presented a conflict for the mayor, her press office said: “No. There is a firewall in place. He has not communicated with the Mayor nor the office on behalf of Lineage.”

Despite the informal nature of his relationship with the mayor, Robb is widely seen as a key player in her inner circle and spoke on the record to the press on her behalf during the first part of this year.

He has his own firm, tk/Communications, where he works with a number of clients, including the nonprofit Accelerator for America Action and the Hollywood trade organization Producers Guild of America, according to recent LinkedIn posts and his company website. Robb has advised three L.A. mayors and has a long history in high-profile crisis response work.

Jessica Levinson, a Loyola Law School professor who once served as president of the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission, said Robb’s role could certainly raise the question of an apparent conflict. 

“Regardless of what’s actually happening, it’s completely fair for people to ask the question of whether he can truly separate himself and the advice that he applies to Lineage, versus the mayor’s office,” Levinson said.

Robb has a long history with the mayor. He served as an unpaid advisor on her 2022 election campaign, and was paid by the city shortly after she took office to provide the mayor’s executive team with “various communication services related to the start-up of the administration.” A revised version of that $75,000 contract expired in May 2023 and Robb does not appear to have had any further contracts with the city since then. 

Robb had less of a public profile with the mayor’s office after her first months in office, but then reemerged in January 2025, to assist in the wake of the devastating Palisades fire as Bass’ political image took a beating in the aftermath of the blaze and halting recovery efforts.

The Lineage fire has also been politically challenging for Bass, who is fending off her former ally Councilmember Nithya Raman in the November general election.

Two days after the fire, Lineage also engaged lobbying firm M Strategic Communications for “crisis communications” and work related to the fire’s impact through the end of the year, according to city records. Capital & Main previously reported on M’s hiring and the firm’s deep ties to City Hall. (The group’s cofounder, Shannon Murphy, previously served as a deputy chief of staff to Bass in the state Assembly.) 

Lineage, which bills itself as the world’s largest temperature-controlled warehousing and logistics company, has dozens of facilities across California and 19 in the greater Los Angeles area, according to their website. The company raised more than $4 billion in their 2024 U.S. initial public offering, making it the biggest U.S. IPO of the year.