The Daily Herald
Sunday, 12.07.2014 B9
Secrecy over state pension funds raises suspicions I f you are a public school teacher in Kentucky, the state has a message for you: You have no right to know the details of the investments being made with your retirement savings. That was the crux of the declaration issued by state officials to a high school history teacher when he asked to see the terms of the agreements between the Kentucky Teachers Retirement System and the Wall Street firms that are managing the system’s money on behalf of him, his colleagues and thousands of retirees. The denial was the latest case of public officials blocking the release of information about how billions of dollars of public employees’ retirement nest eggs are being invested. Though some of the fine print of the investments has occasionally leaked, the agreements are tightly held in most states and cities. Critics say such secrecy prevents lawmakers and the public from evaluating the propriety of the
QUOTABLE “I’ve had a long conversation with my deputy executive and I’m satisfied. We’ve had some heart-to-heart conversations and we’re going to pledge to do everything we can to work with the County Council.” — County Executive John Lovick, regarding allegations that Deputy Executive Mark Ericks made threatening comments regarding members of the County Council.
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“There’s your new spacecraft, America.” — Mission Control commentator Rob Navias, regarding NASA’s successful test flight of its new Orion space capsule.
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“This is a sign of commitment from ownership that this organization is moving in the right direction. We all have the same goals in mind; that’s to win a world championship.” — Seattle Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon, regarding the signing of former Baltimore Orioles designated hitter Nelson Cruz to the Mariners.
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“If we’re going to this expense of designing a logo, what’s our tagline?” — Everett City Council Member Rob Gibson, regarding the announcement of the winning design for Everett’s new logo, a stylized E.
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Race From Page B7
the surface of this country with a byproduct of explosions like protests, when the noxious gasses build up. At some point, we have to acknowledge that some of the people responsible for public safety in our communities may be unaware of deep-seated prejudices that contribute to their volatile interactions with some they have sworn to protect and serve in ways that they do not even know. They have been taught subliminally that black people are inherently dangerous. Somehow, this fear, the possibility of being in danger thus justifies their response. We also have to acknowledge that a law enforcement officer is an occupation to be respected. Their role is essential for public safety. A dangerous job requires
DAVID SIROTA increasing fees being paid to private financial firms for pension management services. The secrecy trend is spreading throughout the country. Last month, for instance, Illinois officials denied an open records request for information identifying which financial firms are managing that state’s pension money. Like their Kentucky counterparts, Illinois officials asserted that the firms’ identities “constitute trade secrets.” Illinois’ Freedom of Information Act includes special exemptions for information about private equity firms. The denial from Illinois
pension officials followed a decision earlier this year by Rhode Island General Treasurer Gina Raimondo, a Democrat, to reject a newspaper’s open-records request for information about state pension investments. The treasurer’s office argued that financial firms have the right to “minimize attention” around their compensation. Last week Raimondo, who is now Rhode Island’s governor-elect, held a closed-door meeting of the state investment commission to review the state’s $61 million investment in a controversial hedge fund. In a recent essay, Steve Judge, president of the Private Equity Growth Capital Council, wrote that secrecy is necessary and appropriate to protect the financial industry’s commercial interests. “The argument that [agreements] should be accessible to the public is akin to demanding that Coca-Cola publish its famous and secret soda recipe,”
he wrote. “Like Coke’s secret recipe, [agreements] contain proprietary and commercially sensitive trade secret information that, if disclosed, could undermine a private equity fund’s ability to invest and generate high returns for its limited partners.” In Kentucky, that defense of secrecy is being challenged in both the state legislature and the courts. Rep. Jim Wayne, a Democrat, is planning to reintroduce his legislation to subject pension investment agreements to procurement statutes that mandate public release of all government contracts. Meanwhile, Randolph Wieck, the Kentucky high school teacher, has filed a class-action lawsuit charging KTRS officials with, among other thing, violating their fiduciary duty to retirees by moving pension money into opaque alternative investments. Even if legislators and courts in Kentucky and elsewhere press for transparency, events in Iowa
suggest the secrecy may continue. There, the private equity firm KKR in October warned state pension officials that if they release information about the fees that Iowa taxpayers are shelling out to Wall Street, the financial industry may respond by effectively prohibiting the state from future private equity investments. Of course, maybe that threat isn’t so terrifying. After all, with many high-fee Wall Street firms failing to deliver returns that beat low-fee stock index funds, investors like Warren Buffett are saying public pension systems shouldn’t be plowing retirement savings into hedge funds, private equity and other so-called “alternative investments.” That is an especially powerful argument when such investments keep allowing the financial industry to charge ever-higher fees in near-total secrecy. David Sirota’s email address is ds@davidsirota.com.
Must we sacrifice justice for order? ‘I
can’t breathe.” Those were Eric Garner’s last words, and today they apply to me. The decision by a Staten Island grand jury to not indict the police officer who killed him takes my breath away. In the depressing reality series that should be called “No Country for Black Men,” this sick plot twist was shocking beyond belief. There should have been an indictment in the Ferguson case, in my view, but at least the events that led to Michael Brown’s killing were in dispute. Garner’s homicide was captured on video. We saw him being choked, heard him plead of his distress, watched as no attempt was made to revive him and his life slipped away. This time, there were literally millions of eyewitnesses. Somebody tell me, just theoretically, how many does it take? Is there any number that would suffice? Or is this whole “equal justice under the law” thing just a cruel joke? African-American men are being taught a lesson about how this society values, or devalues, our lives. I’ve always said the notion that racism is a thing of the past was absurd — and that those who espoused the “postracial” myth were either naive or disingenuous. Now, tragically, you see why. Garner, 43, was an AfricanAmerican man. On July 17, he allegedly committed the heinous crime of selling individual cigarettes on the street. A group of New York City police officers approached and surrounded him. As seen in cellphone video footage recorded by an onlooker, Garner was puzzled that the officers seemed to be taking him into custody for such a piddling offense. He was a big man, but at no point did he strike out at the officers or show them disrespect. But he wasn’t assuming a submissive posture as quickly as the cops wanted. Officer Daniel Pantaleo placed him in a chokehold, compressing his windpipe — a maneuver that the New York Police Department outlawed two
split-second decisions based on judgment. If this judgment is clouded by assumptions based on race and ethnicity, their decision can be the wrong one. This does not only apply to law enforcement; this disparity shows up throughout the public and private sectors of our communities. This irrational fear — a national phobia — coupled with sometimes unacknowledged prejudice is often evident throughout our society in the way corporations hire, fire and promote; how educational institutions provide access; how agencies deliver services; the disproportionate number of children of color in the juvenile justice, because these institutions are made up of people living in communities. Justice, as we say, may be blind but she is not color blind, because those who carry out justice, her eyes and hands, are people with their own biases, prejudices and ingrained fears.
EUGENE ROBINSON decades ago. Garner complained repeatedly that he was having trouble breathing. The officers wrestled him to the sidewalk, where he died. An emergency medical crew was summoned but officers made no immediate attempt to resuscitate him. The coroner ruled Garner’s death a homicide. He suffered from asthma, and Pantaleo’s chokehold killed him. The Staten Island prosecutor presented evidence against Pantaleo to a grand jury; the other officers involved in the incident were given immunity in exchange for their testimony. On Wednesday, it was announced that the grand jury had declined to indict Pantaleo on any charge. This travesty — there’s no
Quite often, these attitudes are a result of racial conditioning that is unconsciously driving thinking and behavior.
Talk and action Usually the response to these types of incidents is another opportunity to discuss race. I think talking is fine, but talk is useless without action. I can say that I have had the pleasure of working with non-profit organizations, educational institutions and individuals in Snohomish County that have continued to take action to create opportunities for inclusion. We also have some elected officials who understand the dilemma and are committed to equity. Their efforts and encouragement are invaluable in moving this community forward. We can start by being informed and involved, knowing what is happening in our community and actively participating to improve the quality of life for
other word for it — came just nine days after a St. Louis County grand jury declined to indict Officer Darren Wilson for Brown’s death. Demonstrators took to the streets across Manhattan. What else was there to do but protest? Set aside the signs that say “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot.” Bring out the signs that say “I Can’t Breathe.” There are two big issues here. One involves the excessive license we now give to police — permission, essentially, to do whatever they must in order to guarantee safe streets. The pendulum has clearly swung too far in the law-and-order direction, at the expense of liberty and justice. As I wrote Tuesday, we are so inured to fatal shootings by police officers that we do not even make a serious effort to count them; the Michael Brown case illustrated this numbness to the use of deadly force. Garner’s death is part of a different trend: The “broken windows” theory of policing, which holds that cracking down on minor, nuisance offenses — such as selling loose cigarettes — is key to reducing
serious crime. Police officers, whose brave work I honor and respect, are supposed to serve communities, not rule them. The other big issue, inescapably, is race. The greatest injury of the Brown and Garner cases is that grand juries examined the evidence and decided there was no probable cause — a very low standard — to believe the officers did anything wrong. I find it impossible to believe this would be the result if the victims were white. Garner didn’t even fit into the “young black male” category that defines this nation’s most feared and loathed citizens. He was an overweight, middleaged, asthmatic man. Now we’re told that the man who killed him did nothing wrong. Eric Garner was engaged in an activity that warranted no more than a warning to move along. But I recognize that he also committed a capital offense: He was the wrong color. Eugene Robinson’s email address is eugenerobinson@ washpost.com.
residents. Not looking the other way and taking action when we see something that we know is wrong. Our civil rights must be safeguarded, and if we are silent and do not address systemic abuses, including those committed within the justice system, it resulst in the degradation of civil rights for all of us, not some of us. We must hold our law enforcement and elected officials accountable by using available resources like the Human Rights Commission, Department of Justice, and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Contact the NAACP, ACLU or other organizations that have a mission of protecting civil rights. Understand proposed legislation and the implications. Volunteer your time and talent to improve relationships in your community. Racism and discrimination damages us all. There are no winners. The families will continue to suffer from their irreparable loss. The officer who shot Tamir Rice,
a child, will live with that the rest of his life. It was never his intent to be a child killer. The officers baited into killing John Crawford have to be affected by killing an unarmed young man. We as a society are continually divided. I have lived in Snohomish County for five decades and it has been my experience that ageism, sexism, racism, homophobia and xenophobia exist here in various forms. Although I’ve only touched lightly on this highly volatile and complex issue, I am bracing myself for the disparaging comments that I expect will follow sharing my opinion. This is a tough subject but we have an opportunity as a community to have civil discussions, share our different experiences, and accept that our realities may differ, but they matter. More importantly we have the opportunity to take these conversations and transform them into actions that will only benefit our community. Are you up for the challenge?