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Consider Directing Staff to: 1) Identify All Accounts with Wells Fargo and Investments in Wells Fargo Securities; 2) Draft a Request for Proposal (RFP) for Banking Services for the City of Alameda; and 3) Exclude Wells Fargo from the RFP process and Refrain from Making New Investments in Wells Fargo Securities for a Period of Three Years. (Vice Mayor Vella and Councilmember Oddie)
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COUNCILMEMBER REFERRAL FORM
Name of Councilmember requesting referral: Vice Mayor Vella and Councilmember Oddie
Date of submission to City Clerk (must be submitted 10 working days prior to meeting): February 9, 2017
Meeting date: February 21, 2017
Brief description of the subject to be printed on the agenda, sufficient to inform the Council and public of the nature of the referral:
BACKGROUND
Wells Fargo has been embroiled in a number of national controversies in recent months. Many entities, including two cities and the University of California have taken steps to move their banking services as a result of unscrupulous and predatory banking practices as well as Wells Fargo's decision to fund controversial projects.
On February 7, 2017 the cities of Davis and Seattle took the first steps in divesting from Wells Fargo. The vote arrives in the wake of a national controversy surrounding the Dakota Access pipeline and Wells Fargo's partial funding of Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the pipeline.
Last month, the University of California divested $475 million from Wells Fargo because of the bank's ties to private correctional facilities.
Additionally, in 2016, California's Treasurer also put a yearlong freeze on long-standing business arrangements with the bank, after news broke last fall that bank employees had opened millions of unauthorized credit-card accounts to meet sales goals. (See Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Wells Fargo unauthorized accounts Consent Order (2016-CFPB-0015); Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Wells Faro unautho...
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