Lehigh Controller Mark Pinsley, who'd like to be State Senator Mark Pinsley, is urging Commissioners to pull its $145 million in accounts with Wells Fargo Bank. It bothers him that this banking giant, through a PAC, has contributed to anti-abortion Governor Gregg Abbot. At their July 13 meeting, they voted 6-3 to evaluate how the county makes its deposits.
It should be noted that Wells Fargo itself is making no political contributions. Those instead come from a PAC formed by employees.
Comm'r Zakiya Smalls suggested that deposits should be with local banks. "Why were we ever banking with them?" she asked. A state law requires that any deposit must be with a bank that can cover all the assets deposited. This limits a county's ability to deposit at smaller banks. Smalls insists there are at least four regional banks that can handle the county's money.
They voted 6-3 to seek deposit policies in place at the county and to get a determination from the solicitor's office on the legal process for changing banks. Voting No were Antonio Pineda, Ron Beitler and Jeff Dutt. The remaining six Commissioners were Yes.
Though he voted in favor of a review, Comm'r Dan Hartzell worried that the county could be opening up a Pandora's Box by tying deposits to political contributions. Comm'r Dave Harrington, a lawyer, observed that linking deposits to political contributions could be unconstitutional.
Beitler, one of the No votes, took issue with the story penned by John Micek for Pennsylvania Capital-Star, in which Micek referred to yet another story asserting that Commissioners voted to begin the process of divesting from Wells Fargo. Beitler noted that several nonlocal news outlets are incorrectly reporting that the county has begun the process of divesting from Wells Fargo. "It's just not what happened," he asserts.
I personally like the idea of investing as much as possible in local or regional banks so long as the assets can be covered. I also believe that any attempt to penalize a bank because of political contributions made by its employees, is a blatant violation of the first amendment.
24 comments:
Pinhead: "There should be rules against opinions that are different from the ones rattling around in my otherwise vacuous melon. I'd appreciate your vote based upon my cynical virtue signaling."
You're correct on this one Bernie. Local banks whenever possible and stay out of constitution-violating nonsense - especially when you're campaigning to leave your current job.
What about Visa, Mastercard... not allowing gun purchases? GoFundMe not allowing donations to the likes of Kyle Rittenhouse and.....
If they do go with the local banks, are they then going to apply purity tests to the local owners of those banks?
Presumably, they will also refuse to do business with unions that make political contributions.
Is it something in the water? Mark P makes this nonsense proposal and others follow. Jeez, scary.
Maybe the county should look at the contributions of all the companies that they do business with. Any company that donates to a political party should not be given a county contract.
Let's be fair about this. The commissioners shouldn't accept any money for their political campaigns either, and should not be allowed to donate to their party.
Eventually there will be no more commissioners or companies to do business with. A win for everyone.
The county should bank with whoever gives the taxpayers the best bang for the buck. Preferably local if possible. Politics should have nothing to do with who the county is doing business with. If a democrat board institutes a certain litmus test, then the board goes republican and does the same thing, where does it end?
Off topic but I would love to see a story about the juvenile justice center. How the hell is that place running with 37 of 58 positions not filled. That's crazy!
Why do they have to vote to seek county policies? For goodness sakes.... When you hire on with a new company, they make you go thru training videos, etc. Commissioners should be previewing this information once elected or already have access to this
@Carl - This is why I voted no. We have a very accessible staff that always answered any questions I've had. Plus we have a clerk. I didn't think it required a motion to get this information even though I agreed it's something I'm interested in understanding better. I think the notion of bringing county banking local or at least consider a Pennsylvania HQ'd bank. So long as it's still a comparable bottom line. End of the day for me it's about our fuduciary responsibility to taxpayers. Whatever banks offers the best terms.
@anonymous 10:04 - thing is... almost commissioners bit. 1 maybe 2 bit in a roundabout way. NOT the majority. Most of the democrats on the board worked hard to distance themselves from nonsense and refused to give oxygen to political grandstanding. There was NO vote to "divest from Wells Fargo because of political donations"..despite a few out of town headlines leading folks to believe there was. There was a reframed motion to authorize staff to prepare a memo on how the county chooses a bank.
Also turns out... after staff sent us a memo Commissioners don't have any power when it comes to selecting banking institution. It rests with the executive who delegates to the fiscal officer. Of course we have a platform to air concerns. Whether individually or as a group.
There are just so many places where politics should be banned. I even see where Bethlehem Township on Monday will be passing a resolution in support of preserving abortion rights in Pennsylvania. No matter which side you are on, is taking a partisan political stand really what local governments should be doing? And, since this is a highly volatile and divisive issue, why would Commissioners want to put themselves at risk of losing many votes on an issue they were not elected to address? If the word gets out about this, however, it could be a fun meeting to watch...well away from the mosh pit.
Call me, Confused.
"It should be noted that Wells Fargo itself is making no political contributions. Those instead come from a PAC formed by employees."
Is the Wells Fargo name attached to this employees PAC?
If it is, then Wells Fargo should (in my opinion) force the removal of their corporate name from the PAC.
If not, Wells Fargo can not tell employees which candidates to support.
My guess is that the banking relationship of the county started with a predecessor bank that was local/regional but through many mergers became Wells Fargo.
Thanks for saying no to cancel culture. I met your brother recently while he was campaigning for Lisa Scheller. Nicer amd better looking than you! Joking.Ps please write a blog post with an update about the Legendary King Allentown and his brother theleopard vested January 6th arrestee
NO company /organization who contributes to any and all political campaign or PAC should be allowed to do business with government at any level. If it were in the public sector it would be bribery. And any politician who takes money from any business or individual who is impacted by one of there decisions should have to recuse themselves from the vote. And no politician or their family should be allowed to do business with the government in any way. Also Why I am at it no politician should be allowed to appoint any one in their near or distant family to any position within the government.
I know this is a pipe dream but one can wish.
Isn't Director of Administration Hozza the head of the Lehigh County Democratics?
My banker friends are some of the dumbest people I know!
I won't do business with any business that does business with a pathetic cypher like Pinsley. As a public servant, he should make all of his business associations known so that those businesses may be protested and marginalized for doing business with such an abject failure of a human being. He should be banned from retail establishments and they should protested until they do so. We should also take a look at where his kids are schooled and his other family associations. The guy is evil and it's time to make anyone who deals with him pay dearly.
Anonymous,
I am no longer the Chair of the Lehigh County Democratic Committee since June.
COL Director of Administration
Edward D. Hozza Jr.
@9:54 bankers are all title so they feel important and minimal knowledge in how they or anyone else really does business except for how to add numbers. Heck the Federal government had to write laws protecting them from themselves and allowing them to bundle, selloff, write off, and collect governmental giveaways for all their screw ups. It is kind of like being able to buy lottery tickets, and then selling the losing tickets to bigger losers, and then both sets of failure going to the government and getting paid back to bolster themselves.
5:21 The Wells Fargo name is on at least on of the company PACs
WELLS FARGO AND COMPANY EMPLOYEE PAC (AKA WELLS FARGO EMPLOYEE PAC)
https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/wells-fargo/C00034595/summary/2020
Here is a link to their self published 2021 distributions
https://www08.wellsfargomedia.com/assets/pdf/about/corporate-responsibility/pac-contributions.pdf
@5:21 They actually have multiple ways they are paying off political candidates at multiple levels. Digging through their own website it appears that it is ten's of millions of dollars. The direct political contributions are relatively small only in the millions level but they are very large sums of money spread across many groups which when you go and look at them they are their for lobbying and political influence. Kind of like our chamber and LVEDC which are on the surface support for the community but have substantial undertones of lobbying and political pressure/influence in spite of not be forth right about it.
Wells Fargo Corporate political spending
Wells Fargo does not use company money or resources to influence any U.S. domestic or foreign candidate elections, including assisting candidate campaign committees, political parties, caucuses or independent expenditure or other political committees, or any other type of election-related activity. If, in the future, we change our policy on independent expenditures we will disclose those expenditures on our website, and also present them to our Board of Directors for review.
Wells Fargo may contribute to entities organized under Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code (“527 organizations”) but payments may only be used for operational and administrative purposes, not to support or oppose any candidate for U.S. federal, state, or local office, or to support or oppose any ballot initiatives. Additionally, payments to 527 organizations may not be transferred to any federal, state, or local PAC, any other form of political committee, or any other entity for the purpose of making contributions or expenditures, independent or otherwise, to support or oppose any candidates for U.S. federal, state, or local office, or to support or oppose any ballot initiatives. View the current list of contributions to 527 organizations (PDF), which is updated semi-annually.
Additionally, Wells Fargo may occasionally make contributions to groups organized under Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code, including ballot measure committees, and other social welfare organizations but not for purposes of funding independent expenditures or communications, or on behalf of any candidates for public office. Decisions about our support of these groups are made by the Government Relations and Public Policy team. Contributions are made without regard to the private political preferences of the company’s senior management. View the current list of contributions over $25,000 (PDF), which is updated semi-annually.
7:59 - In an ideal world wherein everyone maintains a high standard of ethics, yes. Unfortunately, American politics is now more corrupted than ever. Wealthy individuals, corporations, and even foreign nations (like Ukraine) ‘call the tunes’ in just about any endeavor. They do it by laundering money back into the hands of elected politicians, their families, and friends. Money laundering is done through fake charities, multi-layered shell companies, using money from outrageous size government grants, foreign aid, and relief efforts, most all of those without adequate accountability of where the money actually ends up.
Our bloated Federal Government agencies, and many Members of Congress, are simply corrupt. More evidence of this uncovered every day.
We have a big problem here that won’t be easy to fix. As a lowly citizen whose vote might, or might not, really matter these days, my options to prevent this rot from growing is limited. A key step, though, is to begin tossing out incumbents and hope new faces in office will lead to better management of OUR money.
To me, this means voting out Susan Wild from Congress. Your incumbent Representative or Senator, regardless of their name, is not irreplaceable. We need different people in office!
@9:15 I think you have nailed it.
Did you hear about the excited County Commissioner that ran into the bank with a gun and said REACH YOU MOTHER STICKER, THIS IS A FUCK UP.
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