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tv   [untitled]    February 8, 2012 6:48pm-7:18pm PST

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i believe that it could be seen as a negative for that bank in terms of their possibility of winning summer or more of the business soliciting. supervisor avalos: great, i am hoping that we can get a good response based on future information that the banks can provide to us. if there is open is that we can guarantee, we can make further inquiries. it will be important to have. is that something you think can be built and? >> i imagine that we would certainly describe this questionnaire as something that would be a dynamic flexible document or inquiry that we would be able to adjust as time is able to have us accommodate. supervisor avalos: separate from
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the treasurer's office, there are other ways that they might be compelled to try the information at our disposal. that is where we might come in. you mentioned community investment, looking at making investments up to 200 to thousand dollars insured by the fdic to perhaps financial institutions are credit unions. can you tell us further about that? >> we are excited about the announcement of this program. as with any individual like ourselves, we also enjoy a fdic insurance on any deposits we make in local banks or credit unions as guaranteed by the u.s. government. as i said, our goal is to keep the city's money safe.
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that means guaranteeing the full faith and credit of the u.s. federal government. it provides that same guarantee and therefore would meet our criteria for investing. right now, the federally insured deposit limit is $250,000 annually. we will make deposits of $240,000 because we need to allow room for the interest earnings as well. with that amount of money, we have announced -- we would be happy to receive their application and make the liquidity available to them.
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supervisor avalos: after receiving the budget analysts report, if the city just says that we have this investment will live like to do with you, i am not sure that these credit unions would respond, necessarily. if we work together on how we can target such an investment to a given neighborhood or a type of business, it might make a stronger -- if that is something you would like to do, i would like to work with your office to see what we can do with that fdic support for an institution. >> i would be happy to engage in that kind of conversation, i am not sure if there are any legal issues. we don't say, i would like to make sure that this goes towards
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auto loans or whatever. it might be something we can lead in trying to do. we want to make sure nothing hampers the insurance results as well. supervisor avalos: we can work on that and look into it. lastly, on the county pool of investment funds, those are accessed as we need them. they are drawn down by these financial institutions and they are put back into the investment pool funds on pretty much a nightly basis. how're they invested specifically? >> is kind of a savings account for the city of all of the city's money. as i said, most of the money comes from not the general fund,
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but a lot of it is bond proceeds. proceeds. the puc has a number of voters approved bonds that the issue to do things like finance the reconstruction of the hetch hetchy pipeline and other major projects they're doing. as the issue this bonds, received bond proceeds, that money needs to be invested somewhere while it waits for it to be spent on the construction costs. and so they put those into the county pool. we invest those bond funds. similarly, the airport has had an may currently have similar types of projects. city college and the unified school district and the city and county of san francisco. the majority of the money as the types of funds. as i said city and county general fund monies in there as well. those will invest as i described on to the criteria -- under the criteria set by state law. liquidity and yield.
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safety -- the safety goals dear's us toward the direction of having almost all of our investments be guaranteed by the u.s. federal government. that means typically investments in things like u.s. treasuries, u.s. government agencies, or other types of investments which come with the full faith and credit guarantee of the u.s. government. included in that list are even deposits in local banks or credit unions up to the fdic insured limit and that is what has promised to the announcement of this program. supervisor avalos: thank you. >> thank you, supervisor. supervisor kim: thank you for your leadership and questions. i have a question for the treasure. we talked about this upcoming rfp and this concept of extra credit points for answering questions that we're interested in. i am wondering in terms of the
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top three responsibilities, there is a balance. we want to see some of these social goals that can be achieved but at the same time i am interested in making sure the city has a sound partner that we're working with in terms of our transactions they provide the service we need in order to track our ins and outs and transactions we have to make sure our funding is secured, to make sure we are learning the best return we can in our savings accounts. how do you see this fitting in? first i would want to make sure the city had the strong financial footing in this endeavor. can you speak about how you perceive this extra credit to work? will we potentially see institutions that may not have been the most qualified win? >> believe me our number one responsibility and all the responsibilities we have in
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working with the city's money is to make sure that it is always 100% safe. with these billions of dollars of money that are moving through the accounts and these millions of transactions which will process your bank accounts, we absolutely require that every one of those millions of transactions occurs correctly. that is handled accurately. that it is reported on correctly and in a timely fashion. the city and county always house the absolute perfect information it needs to always be in charge of our money, our funds and that type of reformation. those are baseline criteria. in terms of what we're looking for in terms of partners for handling our business. the way i see this social responsible -- socially responsible questionnaire and points happening is the idea of extra credit while allowing banks to think to themselves,
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many of our services might be equivalent among large banks or even other types of services to and a variety of financial institutions. it is for them to know whether or not they're going to win the city's business because there might be one or two or more other banks that can provide similar high quality services of one type or another. our hope is that while the extra credit will not steers away from a qualified bake to an unqualified institution, it might help us to choose between more or less equivalent offerings that we might see in more than one area of what we are soliciting and i think that is the right way to approach this. supervisor kim: thank you. [no audio]
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this sort of i work with the 99% coalition and also a.c.e. i am impressed the city is doing so well financially and has an incredibly efficient banking system that has worked well on
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cash management. i am very concerned about the number of people who are losing their homes in the city and the toll it is taking on families where my neighbor has to tilly give up her job. she has given it up for two years simply to deal with the banks. simply to try and get a modification of her loan. her mother is cooking for the family. the sun is taking care of the younger daughter and the husband is working. the effort to simply get the banks to respond is humongous. my biggest concern right now is that there be some public input on these rfp's then there is verification by the bank of america, by wells fargo, and by
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union bank that what they're saying israel. and is accurate. i would love to have public input. some verification that the banks are doing what they say they're doing. supervisor kim: thank you. nicks speaker, please. >> good afternoon. my name is gary brown and i am a long-term residents. i am one of the residents that went into foreclosure. i would like to see the city system in contracts -- sustain contracts with banks -- bank of america bought out countrywide. i would like to see this city look over the contract before they signed to make sure that
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all the finance institutions are willing to fit the criteria there that will help the people, homeowners, small business people. and before there would give bankamerica one, i would like to see them make sure they consider or offers. thank you. >> last week the city council voted to find a more socially minded institution to hold over $300 million in city assets. the council members said they hoped the decision would send a message to the banks responsible for the housing crisis and the economic disaster that followed. one of the things i think they considered is that wells fargo
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has been such a significant player in the crisis and has never paid for some of the actions. what is telling to us as it is so many of our members in our union are facing foreclosures. i am told over eight of them are wells fargo. i think the city should be applauded for its decision to take action against the banks, many of which have yet to face anything for what they have done in terms of negligence and illegal actions on their part. i think they should be lauded and i hope the city of san francisco would also be willing to say not only is it important to have safe, sound, business practices but it is important to invest in the city. i do not mean just sending a
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check to the nonprofit, taking care of the citizens in their homes and jobs and helping to stimulate the economy in san francisco. thank you. >> good afternoon. i am the political action chair for sau local 1021. rarely do we get the opportunity to overview process that has such a gigantic relationship to the rest of our economy. we have been paying for the economy. when we lose our services and as workers when we have to give up to protect some services. there is a little we can do here at the county level to address the economic crash. we have to do what we can to mitigate the damages to homeowners, small-business
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lenders, to investment, the next thing is investments reflect our values and the lease we can ask is for these banks to report about their behavior, about their practices. certainly many of us are being affected by the practices and it is only right that our democratic process has some oversight or has some kind of leverage to do right and to choose the kind of banks that will reflect mostly our values and will do the best by our city. thank you. >> hello, supervisors. i am a resident of the excelsior district. i wanted to first and foremost start off by saying i am incredibly thankful to be a san francisco resident and i am thankful for the opportunity to speak with you today.
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briefly, my own situation is such that i purchased my first home in 2008 in the excelsior. a 532 square foot home which i purchased for $352,000. my payment was $2,700 a month. i modified that payment down to $2,400 payment a year after buying my home. in 2010 i lost my job. i was told by wells fargo they would work with me in order to retain my home. in january 2011 i was informed of was going into the foreclosure process but there would continue to work with me. in june 2011 i was offered a forbearance agreement which reduced my payment to $600 a month. i was told i needed to make a payment immediately on that agreement in order for it to be accepted by both parties which i did that very day. and the following day my home
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was sold at auction. i've gone to wells fargo, they have treated me with this respect and all of us -- aloofness. i spent $5,000 to fight this in court and day was thrown out on a technicality. i am here because i want to lend and voice my support for a municipal bank of san francisco. i believe it to be the best choice for the city. also this is the best direction for us to take our funds and to utilize them in fostering of san francisco residents. supervisor kim: thank you. next speaker.
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>> buenos tardes. [speaking spanish] supervisor kim: we need you to share the same microphone. >> hello, i am president at excelsior and a member of acce and i am in foreclosure with wells fargo. >> [speaking spanish]
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>> she has tried many times and many years to work with will -- wells fargo to reduce their payments. her husband was on disability from his job and they tried to work with wells fargo, to no avail. at this point they're trying to report their salary and income and wells fargo has not been responsive to their requests for a lower reasonable payment. >> [speaking spanish]
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>> and so at this point, they have a sail on to every 27. there tried to stop it and work with wells fargo. they're asking the board to be supporting their community, supporting this family, supporting the excelsior district and to push for irresponsible bank which wells fargo is not.
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>> [speaking spanish] >> since wells fargo has not been helping her family or other families, she is asking the city's support in not banking with them. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i work with a housing immigrants' rights organization in san francisco and in oakland. i am here to speak in support of their being in municipal bank in san francisco and specifically due to the fact that wells fargo especially as the nation's largest servicer and has been responsible for foreclosing on millions of homes throughout the nation. bringing it back to san francisco, two things that were mentioned today. local prisons and social responsibility are things for us to think about and consider in terms of our banking
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relationship we have trade where the city is putting its money. the residents that kim appear are indicative of the local presence at -- wells fargo has and in addition, wells fargo has also irresponsibly handled the properties they have acquired through foreclosures " -- whereby they have become landlords, not following to the protections and in the city and county where there is almost 70% of the population is renters, it is incredibly important that when we talk about local presence of a financial institution we're talking about a financial institution that will ensure and follow the laws that are designed to protect residents that are here. the other point i want to speak to around social responsibility, thinking about the fact that san francisco is a signatory city. wells fargo invested almost $100 million in cca and -- combined. those two groups are responsible
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for stopping immigration reform that is needed. we would like to ask in coalition with the other groups that are here today, pushing for this municipal bank that the board of supervisors not only make sure our money is one of a% safe but our communities are 100% safe and we're investing in institutions that will protect the rights we have to stay in the city. thank you. >> supervisors, i am with the california reinvestment coalition. one thing that is clear to provide some context is the public is frustrated and angry with financial institutions as a result of the kind of non- responsiveness we have heard others testified to today. as you know, these kind of efforts to do something about it are happening throughout the state. i want to commend supervisor avalos and treasurer cisneros
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for working to bring and neck -- a mechanism to bring some accountability at the local level. one added benefit of this approach is that by having financial institutions answer questions that are important to all of us, it will provide a level of transparency that will enable consumers and residents and other institutions, churches, to make their own decisions about who they want to bake with. that is important. two big challenges i wanted to_ which have been raised in particular by supervisor avalos. how are these factors going to be waited around social responsibility to ensure this effort is meaningful? the treasurer noted you may have a number of institutions that provide similar services so you can favor those that respond more favorably. in -- implicit in what you're doing here is the idea that banks impact the financial health of the city beyond how much they charge to provide
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services or what interest rates they provide that the effect is in terms of how much their lending in our communities, whether or not they are foreclosing, are they paying their taxes? just the last challenge to highlight is is there a way as the supervisor is thinking through to build off the strong goals of this rfp to tie city business more broadly, a public entity business more broadly beyond the banking services rfp to have much bigger bang for the black. thank you for your efforts. supervisor kim: thank you. >> ♪ wouldn't you need some bank to love ♪ ♪ you better find some bank to love ♪ ♪ this city, the city is full of
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cash ♪ ♪ but some don't know where it 's itat ♪ ♪ wouldn't you love some bank to love ♪ ♪ you better find some bank to love ♪ ♪ gov ♪ speak a little louder and should -- shout ♪ ♪ i want to trust and trust in you ♪ ♪ oh, banking, i want to trust in you ♪ ♪ i only want to trust in you ♪
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thanks. supervisor kim: thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi everyone. i am has is -- jesus juarez. like everybody said the city money is supposed to be in save branches are institutions. i have problems with the place i am living. i am happy to the right there. -- live right there. my payment is almost 3000. i do not know why they can do anything. i do not want to get it for 148 but something reasonable to make payments. thank you. supervisor kim: thank you.
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>> good afternoon. i am with a green mining and -- green mining institute. it is a research policy and advocacy iagency. we work with -- to make sure that financial industry is a dialogue with community and take their best interests into account when making decisions. we commend supervise -- supervisor avalos for making sure that when thinking about the business of the city, we're thinking about the fact that a business relationship is more than money. it is also how transpires and affects communities. one of the things we're looking forward to similar to what kevin mentioned, we do think this rfp should be replicated and extended to major companies doing business with san francisco. essentially