Well, it’s been two weeks since our Visioning Summit, and we’re still filled with gratitude that so many of you put aside all you could do on a sunny Saturday to learn with us about public banking. You should know that almost 400 people signed up expressing their interest in public banking, and almost 200 of you were actually at the event, most for the full three hours. Taken together that’s a tremendous vote of confidence in the transformative idea of creating a public bank in our City.
Our questionnaire summary is linked below. We want to note that the main questions people still have about the bank, which are how Philadelphians will have a voice in the bank, who will run it, and where the money will come from, will be the focus of an upcoming episode of Financing Philadelphia’s Future, airing on 10/26. We’d like to keep hearing your questions and concerns, which directly influence our work on the legislation (see updates on that below).
That said, it’s back to business, all of us working together to get our public bank going. But first, let’s finish up some Summit business, namely getting three things out to you as promised. Here is the video of the complete Vision Summit:
If you’re looking for something specific in the videos, check out our Visioning Summit Agenda with Timing and Speaker Excerpts.
Second, here are a few campaign updates.
Amendments to the bill establishing the bank are being worked on as we speak. We believe, when they’re done, the bill will have stronger ethics requirements, install more community representatives on the Board, and include important additional bank priorities based on your comments, like accessible housing and community land trusts.
Work is also continuing on locating sources of capital for the bank, focusing on the insights of one of our expert speakers, Scott Baker. We are hoping the City Controller will be helping us with that work.
Last, but not least, we‘re honing in on a schedule for getting the bill through the legislative process by the end of the year. Look soon for an announcement of that schedule. We will count on you soon thereafter to start reaching out to the Mayor and City Council to be sure they’re on board.
Before concluding, it behooves us to mention two organizations that are key to having gotten us to this moment, Philly Neighborhood Networks – founder of the Public Banking Coalition – and the Public Banking Institute. Both have stayed with the work every step of the way, despite frequent setbacks, for ten long years. We want them to stay engaged, and for that, they need to be financially healthy. Please do what you can to help them out by going to either or both PNN and PBI and making a donation.
So, that’s it. You will hear from us again soon. On to victory!
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