Sometimes you want to save the world from the worst-case scenarios of climate change, and then that takes specific form, like divesting a huge pension fund of its fossil fuel stocks, and then that leads to plunging deep into the weird landscape of civic bureaucracy and the language of fiscal responsibility, and then one day saving the world devolves into opposing the reappointment of an exceptionally unsavory investment lady in San Francisco. So if you live in San Francisco and want to save the world that way, come to City Hall at 2pm on Wednesday, just to pack the hearing about whether Wendy Paskin-Jordan, financier, wife of former mayor, lady with many conflicts of interest and some ethics problem, specialist in refusing to consider climate change issues, should be reappointed. Or as one of these stalwarts whos been on the issue since 2013 put it: This Wednesday at 2pm (City Hall Rm. 250) is the final hearing on a super-questionable mayoral appointment that greatly affects our divestment fight. Come show your support for divesting San Francisco! While there wont be public comment (because it happened last month), we need to pack the room as much as we can and put pressure on our legislators to stand up for our city. More info below... As we reported last month, Mayor Lee reappointed Wendy Paskin-Jordan, investment advisor to the very wealthy, to the Retirement Board that oversees the pension fund we are trying to divest--and he tried to slide it through during the holidays so that the Board of Supervisors wouldnt have time to respond to the appointment within statutory limits. Shady! Yet news articles describing anonymous ethics complaints and suggesting multiple conflicts of interest--along with the testimony of retirees and divestment advocates unhappy with Paskin-Jordans lack of accountability--spurred a last-minute hearing and raised sufficient questions for the Board of Supervisors to come back to town early and hold a special meeting to hear from her directly. This is it! This Wednesday at 2pm in the Board of Supervisors chambers (City Hall, Rm. 250), Ms. Paskin-Jordan will have a chance to address the concerns of the Supervisors about her apparent conflicts of interest. The Executive Director of the pension fund will also probably have a chance to describe why he thought anonymous ethics complaints are no biggie and dont need to get forwarded to the Ethics Commission until a reporter calls asking about them...
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 22:22:25 +0000