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<\/div>\nBy\u00a0Joshua Sabatini<\/a>\u00a0on February 4, 2018 (SFExaminer.com)<\/p>\n San Francisco has assembled a 16-member task force to study launching a public bank to fund affordable housing development, low-interest loans for low-income residents and cutting ties with the Wall Street banks that do not live up to The City\u2019s social responsibility principles.<\/p>\n The Municipal Bank Feasibility Task Force announcement Wednesday by the Treasurer Tax Collector, which oversees it, came a day before last week\u2019s Board of Supervisors Budget and Finance Committee hearing on establishing a public bank. Former Supervisor John Avalos is among the members appointed to serve on the task force and has been a longtime advocate for establishing a public bank.<\/p>\n \u201cI worked for years to create the municipal bank under the belief that it could make San Francisco more financially self-sufficient and have resources to build equity in our public infrastructure,\u201d Avalos told the San Francisco Examiner on Friday. \u201cWith the profit motive out of its mission, the municipal bank can hold private financial institutions to a higher standard of greater equity and public good. The task force is where the city is finally exploring the municipal bank and I want to make sure my experience, voice and vision is part of the mix.\u201d<\/p>\n SEE RELATED:\u00a0San Francisco advances toward launching a public bank<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Other members of the task force include Ada Chan, regional planner for the Association of Bay Area Governments; Paulina Gonzalez, executive director of the California Reinvestment Coalition; Kate Hartley, executive director of the Mayor\u2019s Office of Housing and Community Development; and Steve Zuckerman, president of the Self-Help Federal Credit Union.<\/p>\n Supervisor Malia Cohen, who has taken up the effort along with Supervisor Sandra Fewer, pressed the Office of the Treasurer and Tax Collector during a Jan. 22 hearing on the issue about the willingness to see through the public bank vision.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that we are in unchartered territory and what we are embarking on doing is definitely groundbreaking. I am just trying to get a sense as to your office\u2019s confidence level,\u201d Cohen said. \u201cCan this be done? Can we execute it? Are we chasing a pie-in-the-sky dream?\u201d<\/p>\n Chief Assistant Treasurer Tajel Shah said there were many unknown factors but that the task force would spend the next six months investigating them.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are several hurdles,\u201d she said, which include, \u201chow do we bring in-house some of those core functions that we do with our banks right now, such as payroll or vendor payments\u201d and what the cost would be to do that.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a lot of aspirations for a public bank \u2014 one supporting our cannabis businesses, another is housing, another is businesses,\u201d Shah said. \u201cOne of the big challenges is going to be making those policy decisions around what areas and outcomes are we going to focus on and what areas and outcomes are we going to invest in. And what\u2019s the scale.\u201d<\/p>\n The Treasurer\u2019s Office oversees The City\u2019s pooled fund investment portfolio valued at about $10 billion.<\/p>\n \u201cI both want to have more independence from large national corporate banks that make investment choices or have business practices misaligned with the San Francisco values, and I want more local control over how our public dollars are invested so that we can leverage our public resources better for the public good,\u201d Fewer said. She noted that these large banks have invested in civilian firearms, tobacco, nuclear power, fossil fuels and private prisons.<\/p>\n There is only one public bank in the nation, the Bank of North Dakota, which was created in 1919.<\/p>\n Fred Brousseau, an analyst with the Budget Analyst\u2019s Office who conducted a study of a public bank, said, \u201cOakland is actually in process of conducting their feasibility study. They\u2019ve partnered with the city of Berkeley, the City of Richmond and Alameda County.\u201d He said that study is due within months.<\/p>\n Brousseau said if The City launched a public bank, it would be a separate legal entity with an independent board of directors. \u201cIt\u2019s like launching a startup, and The City would be the investor in it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Municipal Bank Feasibility Task Force will hold its first meeting Wednesday, Feb. 21, from 3 to 5 p.m. in Room 305 at City Hall.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" San Francisco is progressing in its move to establish a public bank in The City. (Courtesy photo) By\u00a0Joshua Sabatini\u00a0on February 4, 2018 (SFExaminer.com) San Francisco has assembled a 16-member task force to study launching a public bank to fund affordable housing development, low-interest loans for low-income residents and cutting ties… Continue reading