Posted on 03/26/2002 9:00:14 AM PST by Behind Liberal Lines
AUBURN (NY) - City councilors may vote Thursday to seek proposals from other banks to handle the city's money, instead of closing the city accounts with HSBC bank.
The council's lone Republican, William Jacobs, told councilors last week he wanted to end the city's dealings with HSBC over the bank's decision to evict the local Boy Scouts council from its downtown office.
Instead, city administrators are putting together a resolution that would seek proposals from local banks to handle the city's financial dealings, Councilor Robert Hunter said Monday. City lawmakers and City Manager John Salomone said they could not provide more details because Corporation Counsel Tom Leone was still working on the resolution Monday.
Jacobs said the new resolution is an orchestrated effort to keep lawmakers from voting on his proposal to sever all financial dealings with the bank.
"The whole thing is that they don't want to deal with it," Jacobs said. "The mayor and two council members are scared to death. They don't want to deal with it."
Salomone acknowledged that he was asked by council members to draft the resolution seeking banks to submit proposals to handle the city's finances.
Carnicelli said Monday that she plans to vote against Jacobs' proposal if it comes up for a vote, saying she opposes it for "two business reasons." As she sees it, it's a landlord-tenant situation between the bank and the Boy Scouts and, more importantly, the city shouldn't arbitrarily decide to withdraw millions of dollars from the bank without studying the financial ramifications of how such a move might impact the city and taxpayers.
In an apparent slap at Jacobs proposal in a written commentary that will appear on The Citizen's editorial page either Wednesday or Thursday, Carnicelli wrote, "While it's fine for politicians to be on record with their personal leanings and philosophies, to make policy at the local level on a third party's business decisions, is climbing a slippery slope."
Hunter agreed. "I'm not going to be for some knee-jerk reaction for withdrawing all of our money out of the bank," Hunter said. "There's a lot more to it than to take it out of HSBC and put it in the bank next door."
Gay-rights issue
The city has between $5 and $10 million in many accounts in HSBC, an acronym for Honkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, city officials have said. Jacobs says the bank is discriminating against the local Boy Scouts because of a decision by the Boy Scouts of America to ban gays in leadership positions. The Boy Scouts organization has the right to keep gays out of the organization because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in 2000 that private organizations can set up their own rules, he pointed out.
Saying that he's "a huge supporter of the Boy Scouts," Councilor David Dempsey said Monday the city must consider the consequences before making its decision. "We have to make sure that we take great care in those financial ramifications. This can hurt the city and the taxpayers a great deal," Dempsey said.
Although he hasn't made up his mind how he'll vote, Councilor Tom McNabb said that Jacob's proposal should come to the floor for a vote. "I wouldn't want to be too hasty in pulling it out," McNabb said. "I think we have to look at it as a financial decision."
The issue also came up during a special meeting of the Mayor's Social Justice Task Force Monday night.
Task Force plans action
The 20 people attending Monday night's meeting discussed the controversy at length after task force member Barbara Bowen asked guest lecturer Lorna Gonsalves, a national civil rights activist, how the group should respond to the uproar.
After the meeting, task force co-chairwoman Cathy Leogrande said the group plans to make a statement about what has happened with the bank and the Boy Scouts, even though the matter appears to be "a done deal" and the group will be evicted. The task force is against discrimination, she said, but it looks as though people have overreacted on this issue. It's frustrating for her because the local Boy Scouts and the downtown bank branch are being brought into the controversy by their national counterparts, she said.
"Personally, I have money in HSBC, but I'm going to keep it in the bank," Leogrande said. "What if HSBC evicted the Ku Klux Klan? Would that be different?"
Since the controversy erupted, at least two area churches and the town of Throop have decided to pull their accounts from HSBC. The Cayuga County Legislature is expected to vote tonight on whether to withdraw its deposits.
Yes, it would be.
Which one is in the news these days? And for what?
I'd say the Scouts are on to something.
Shalom.
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