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]

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 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 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 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 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 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 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. 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 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. >> 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]

>> 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]

>> 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. >> [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 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 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 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 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 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 ♪ 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. >> 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 again, not to repeat previous comments. the presence of financial

institutions to create great value and opportunity if done responsibly. we're looking forward to see how this transpires and affect communities within san francisco. we have been part of the process with community reinvestment coalition, acce and other partners to create this framework for assessing financial institutions. i look forward to developments moving forward. thank you for having us. and for doing this great work. supervisor kim: thank you. prentixx i am in district 11. i recently opened a credit union account and i was asked where i had heard of the credit union. i explained supervisor avalos had attended an acce demonstration and encouraged everyone to open a credit union account. the advisers said several new

clients had mentioned supervisor avalos. i wanted to thank supervisor avalos for the suggestion and tell you it is working. since participating i have heard many stories about foreclosures with homes sold by the bank a day after promising to work with the borrower on a modification. i have heard no stories from banks about how they have adjusted the mortgage and worked with the borrower. we need to work on correcting this imbalance. based on a sensitivity toward presidents who have suffered financial loss i feel it is more important to evaluate banks on the merits of their performance instead of their promises. i support reviewing many financial institutions based on their record, especially noting predatory lending practices and other abuses before permitting them to function as a bank for the city. there should be a code of ethics -- ethics that institution must adhere to once they're selected.

thank you. supervisor campos: thank you. -- supervisor kim: thank you. >> and want to speak in support of the idea of a municipal bank. it builds on a long tradition of benevolent societies and mutual aid societies where working people in ethnic communities pooled their resources to help each other out in a tough time whether unemployment, the birth of a baby, funeral costs and to think about bringing the resources of the city to bear in that kind of project. i had a question listening to the testimony. it seems the treasure was saying we would ask these questions about factors of social responsibility. it would not be required if they answer them or if they did them, they would be extra credit -- there would be extra credit. i suggest it is part of what is required in this process as it

moves forward. thank you. supervisor kim: thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i am with the green party and the local grassroots organization and our city. standing in strong support of a municipal bank and localized socially responsible banking. especially in municipal bank. we need to remember that during the big financial crisis, canada weather that storm much better than other countries. that is the power of the government bank. i want to talk about a specific thing, an example of how this could help us. right now under the redevelopment agency's, we're working toward a transition toward our handling of redevelopment processes. we use this weird wasteful mechanism called tax increment finances which means you are

borrowing from your children's future from taking tax money that would have gone to the general fund and giving it to developers to encourage them basically to puff up their real estate development project better than they should be and more market rates than they should be and puff of that financing. if you have never seen the movie the corporation and you have learned about the idea of externalizing, that is an example of externalizing the costs of the corporation does not have to pay for if we had a municipal bank that was doing direct financing, we could avoid some of that tax increment financing and even if we felt we had to do some of the tax increment financing of the municipal bank would get some financial benefit from that instead of big private wall street banks. i would also second what others said about this idea of giving extra credit for answering the questions in a positive way. it sounds like good faith

efforts. we need to aim toward requirements on these things so that we know we're getting a bank that will do what is right for our community. thank you. supervisor kim: are there other members of the public who have not spoken on these items would like to speak? seeing none, public comment is closed. supervisor? -- supervisor avalos? supervisor avalos: thank you for all who commented. i agree. i think that it will be wonderful if we could make the requirement to provide information, we could make in the rfp to require information if it is just an extra credit, i do not believe we will get the bank for the buck that we can get and i would agree with the last speaker. i was thinking the same thing. it sounds like good faith efforts and that is not quite

have been able to achieve the goal of -- they saw to achieve. i would like to encourage the treasurer to consider that. it has been almost 10 years since we had our last rfp for our transactions for our city. i think it makes a lot of sense that we could use our other power of our purse strings to be able to leverage greater compliance, at least to get the answers on these questions. i believe that -- we have crafted these questions in a way that financial institutions should be able to pull off this money in a fairly easy way. it is not like we're asking things that will be esoteric or difficult to find. and so to be able to comply with that, if the banks want to do business with the city and county of san francisco, it makes sense they pony up this information. also, we have heard from several

folks today, a small fraction of many people who are affected by the foreclosure crisis which does exist in certain neighborhoods. specifically in the southeast sector and the southern sector. wells fargo is one of the banks that have been responsible for that. i think we should be able to craft an rfp that can address their need to provide information about how -- what they are doing to support local residents or not. how -- with the record is in terms of helping households deal with the foreclosure crisis. i would like to encourage the treasurer to do that. i really support his efforts in some many ways that he has looked at our economic system and how we can help local households to be stronger with their financial stake and -- in their future.

looking at good investment practices, but i think there is one area that he can make it big difference as well. i would love to encourage the treasure to follow up with that and we can talk further as we continue before the end of the week. supervisor kim: thank you. supervisor kim? -- supervisor chu:. supervisor kim? supervisor kim: it was an issue i was interested in and it is great to find -- getting hearing on the research that has been done thus far from our budget and our treasurer's office and many members of our community. i want to appreciate everyone who came out to speak. the support for this is much wider and broader. we have state laws that we need d