Above Photo: City of Oakland Finance Committee
The City of Oakland’s Finance Committee accepted the Public Bank Feasibility Study and staff report, and recommended placing it on the full City Council’s agenda so that all Councilors may have an opportunity to discuss the report and options.
Watch as banking experts, elected officials, and advocates alike give overwhelming support for Oakland’s public bank: VIDEO (note: link takes a bit of time to load).
The feasibility study author, a banking expert, and stake holders from the community spoke in support of moving forward with a full business plan to answer the questions that were not addressed in the study.
Letters and statements of support were submitted by the Mayor of Berkeley, a member from San Francisco Public Bank Task Force and representative from the County of Richmond requested that Oakland continue to explore with them a regional public bank option.
All four Finance Committee members spoke in support of further exploration of a regional public bank option (Abel J. Guillén ,Annie Campbell Washington, Noel Gallo and Dan Kalb), supported further exploration of an East Bay Regional Public Bank option, and recommended that the Feasibility Study be placed on the City Council agenda so that all Council members may have an opportunity to participate in this important discussion.