On September 26th at City Hall, the Finance Committee of the City Council of Oakland agreed, and firmly told city staffer, Scott Johnson, that the TIME IS UP. No more deals of any sort with Goldman Sachs … until the bond swap situation is completed.
While Johnson argued for and received another 60 days for the negotiations, he responded clearly that he understands that there is no other connection with GS now. As to the additional days granted for negotiations, there was disapproval from the coalition and from city council members on the committee. This sounds like the same sneaky Vampire Squid-like behavior that GS always undertakes - sucking deals for themselves with the help of their battalions of lawyers and evil financial wizards.
The coalition's arguments and the clear fact that swaps are bad news, led Council Member Kernighan (possibly the most conservative member of that committee) to propose that the City undertake NO MORE Swaps!
While the committee did move forward to pass the newest policy regarding how to deal with swaps, they ultimately agreed that the City needs to stop doing swaps altogether! This is a win for all of us. Now we will need to push this forward to the entire council.
contributed by Rev. Kurt Kuhwald
Edited by Yvonne Michelle
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