Davis, CA Becomes Second City to Divest From Wells Fargo over DAPL pipeline concerns

Davis, CA; 14, February 2017: Around 11PM, on February 7, the Davis City Council voted 5-0 to end future banking relations with Wells Fargo and to move its total $124 million of business from Wells Fargo over the course of the next year.

Council member Will Arnold put forward the resolution to specifically exclude Wells Fargo from the upcoming Request for Proposal (for city’s banking services) which was then endorsed unanimously.

This makes Davis the second US city in (along with Seattle), to divest from Wells Fargo because of concerns over their investments in the Dakota Access Pipeline.

City council members also cited their concerns over the bank’s record on predatory lending, financing of private prisons, foreclosures and the 2016 scandal of creating thousands of fake accounts. They spoke of the importance of banking with an institution that more actively invested in the local economy and quickly voted “yay” to pass the resolution 5-0.

Quotes from City Council Meeting:

- Quotes for articles (all time-stamped or from Davis Enterprise article). Video from council can be viewed in the archived video on City of Davis Website

Quotes from Davis Enterprise:

Davis resident, Lupita Torres: “It is time to financially support a bank that reflects our values. Divesting from Wells Fargo Bank is long overdue after their involvement in the financial crisis, but this time we must show our support for Native Americans defending their right to clean water. We want a stop to the destruction to the environment for the sake of our children and the generations to come.”

Mayor-Pro-Tem Brett Lee referred to some of their practices he had witnessed of predatory lending in Tennessee as “ingeniously evil”, while pointing out that the target was the bank’s policies rather than the regular employees. “There is something seriously wrong at the top of the bank,” he concluded.

Quotes from City Council Meeting Video

4:47:21: UC Davis Student Becca Payne - “We’re not going to be complicit in oppression that is being perpetuated by a number of banks including Wells Fargo”

5:25:02: Mayor Robb Davis: “If we want to go in the direction of values, let’s go...let’s go further, let’s go all the way”

4:53:34: Davis Resident Lupita Torres - “We should not underestimate or consider lightly the value of where we put our money”

5:17:58: Council Member Lucas Frerichs - “It’s really about putting our money to work growing the local economy”

4:50:20: Davis Resident Nick Buxton - “As a city, there’s very little we can do about (building the pipeline) here, but we can say as a city that we want our money and investments to go into things that we do support”

Media Resources:

Live video from City Council Meeting (Starts around 4:36): http://davis.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=655

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/08/514133514/two-cities-vote-to-pull-more-than-3-billion-from-wells-fargo-over-dakota-pipelin

http://www.davisenterprise.com/local-news/city-of-davis-votes-to-divest-from-wells-fargo-bank/

http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article131411524.html

For Inquiries Please Contact the Standing Rock Divestment Action Group of Davis:

Becca Payne
bpayne093@gmail.com
707-548-2366


Francisco Ferreyra
fferreyra@ucdavis.edu
805-822-7659


If you want to interview a Davis resident about the pipeline and Standing Rock, please email


Francisco Dominguez
fotowaddle@gmail.com
916-613-7909