NoDAPL Divestment Showdown

Tuesday May 23rd there are 2 public comment times that are crucial for pushing #NoDAPL and #Divestment into our city's policy. Attend both meetings or just one if you can, or send an email to council to urge them to divest from Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and Union Bank if you can't attend. To email, send to the City Council Secretary, Holly Perea at hperea@santabarbaraca.gov. Ask her to please forward your message to City Council. We need bodies at the following times: 12pm and 4:30pm. See below for details. 12pm: Finance Committee Public Comment Location: David Gebhard Public Meeting Room at 630 Garden Street The city will consider whether or not to adopt a Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) policy. An SRI policy is something that can say something like "we will not invest in fossil fuels projects that violate indigenous treaties" or a list of blacklisted corporations, or a set of principles or criteria that finance staff will use to make investment decisions. Our voices will determine what this policy says so it's EXTREMELY IMPORTANT we show up. Bring the #NoDAPL, #MniWiconi and #WaterIsLife heat to this meeting if you can! If you have divestment themed sign, please bring them too! 4:30pm City Council Public Comment Location: City Hall, 735 Anacapa Street, upstairs Council Chambers City Council public comment is different from finance committee. This is a meeting where the WHOLE CITY COUNCIL is present. This is where Emiliano Campobello delivered his viral speech on May 9 asking which bottle of water they should drink (see here if you haven't yet seen it: https://www.facebook.com/SantaBarbaraStandingRockCoalition/videos/1293812364068058/ It's vital we get bodies here as well. Finance Committee will determine what an SRI policy might look like, but this is an opportunity to influence ALL councilmembers. We need them to know our community doesn't support racist banks, leaky pipelines, violations of indigenous treaties, the assault on our Mother Earth. We want them to know that it's an obscene violation of our values if we go 100% renewable by 2030 while still investing in banks that fund projects like the Dakota Access Pipeline. As Emiliano said in his comment on May 9, this is a life and death issue. The Standing Rock Sioux don't have a choice which source of water to drink, but we have a choice whether we invest in the continued genocide of indigenous peoples. Email sbstandingrockcoalition@gmail.com if you can turn out to either of these meetings, or both. We want to know how many people we are getting to each meeting. Also, we do not wish to control what people say but we are happy to give you "talking points" to make sure you feel confident about your words. Love and respect!