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DESCRIPTION:FOR IMMEDATE RELEASE\nTuesday, July 31, 2012	\nCONTACT: 			         \nBahar 
 Tolou (323) 899-3399\n\nAs City of Oakland is scheduled to make a $2 
 million payment to Goldman Sachs, Oakland Elected Officials, Clergy, 
 Community Visit Goldman Sachs SF Headquarters to Demand Fair Deal for 
 Oakland\n\nDelegation Follows Oakland City Council Vote to Renegotiate $16 
 Million Swap Deal Or Cut Ties With Goldman Sachs\n\nBay Area losing nearly 
 $125 million in swap deals annually \n\nSAN FRANCISCO, CA - Oakland City 
 Council members will join Oakland faith leaders and residents at Goldman 
 Sachs’s San Francisco headquarters to demand the bank agree to end costly 
 deal without a multi-million dollar payout from taxpayers to Goldman Sachs. 
  The “interest rate swap” deal has already cost the City $32 million 
 and could cost $16 million more.  Today, the City of Oakland is scheduled 
 to make a bi-annual swap payment of $2 million to Goldman Sachs on the swap 
 deal.  \n\nOakland community members will hold a “Swap Meet” outside 
 Goldman Sachs headquarters in San Francisco’s Financial District to 
 illustrate the cuts to Oakland neighborhoods as the City is forced to pay 
 Goldman Sachs millions every year on a bad “swap” deal. \n\nThe action 
 comes after the Oakland City Council unanimously voted to cut ties with 
 Goldman Sachs if they refuse to negotiate to let the City out of the swap 
 without the $15 million penalty. Goldman Sachs has 60 days to renegotiate 
 or the City will exclude Goldman Sachs from future business.\n\nThe City of 
 Oakland is the first City to demand renegotiation of bad swap debt, though 
 Oakland is not alone in being subject to such a deal; hundreds of public 
 agencies across the country are trapped in similar swap deals costing 
 taxpayers millions in payments to Wall Street banks.\n\nWhen: 		Tuesday, 
 July 31, 2012, 11:30AM\n\nWhat: 	Press Conference, Swap Meet, Delegation, 
 Community launch “Goldman Sachs 
 Countdown”\nhttp://stopgoldmansachs.blogspot.com/2012/07/september-3-2012-is-swap-deadline.html\n\nWhere:		Goldman 
 Sachs San Francisco Headquarters, 555 California St, San Francisco, 
 94104\n\nWho: 	Oakland Council member Desley Brooks; Pastor Brian K. 
 Woodson, Bay Area Christian Connection; community members with Coalition to 
 Stop Goldman Sachs, ACCE, SEIU Local 1021, Decolonize Oakland, Occupy 
 Oakland Interfaith Tent, Occupy Oakland Labor Solidarity Committee, ROOTS, 
 and BBBON \n\nBackground on Goldman Sachs Swap Deal:\n\nIn 1998, Oakland 
 Joint Powers Financing Authority issued $187.5 million in variable-rate 
 bonds to refund the 1988 Series A Special Refunding Revenue Bonds. As part 
 of the bond deal, Goldman Sachs sold a financial deal called an “interest 
 rate swap” to the City of Oakland on the premise that the swap would 
 reduce borrowing costs for the City. In a swap agreement, the City pays the 
 banks a steady fixed rate, and in exchange the banks pay back the 
 fluctuating variable rate to the City to cover the interest payments on the 
 underlying bond. At that time, this swap deal made sense because interest 
 rates were expected to rise, and this allowed the City to lock in a 
 relatively low fixed rate at the time. \n\nBut after banks crashed the 
 economy, as part of the rescue of the financial system, the Federal Reserve 
 cut interest rates to near zero to give banks access to cheap money—an 
 unanticipated event that radically changed the math on the deal. As a 
 result, Goldman’s variable rate has dropped down to 0.15%, but Goldman 
 has the City locked into the above-market rate of 5.68%. The bank is 
 pocketing the difference as profit—$4.2 million annually. Goldman will 
 not let Oakland taxpayers out of the deal unless they pay nearly $15.5 
 million in penalties.\n\nOakland actually refunded the underlying 
 variable-rate bonds in June 2008, but the City could not terminate the swap 
 agreement without paying a penalty to the bank. As a result, the City has 
 paid Goldman Sachs $17.5 million over the last four years even though the 
 underlying bonds that the swap was supposed to hedge no longer exist. The 
 City is locked into this deal until 2021.\n\nHere in the Bay Area, swaps 
 will cost taxpayers nearly $125 million this year:\n\n•	San Francisco 
 will pay $17 million in swap fees this year; \n•	Richmond will pay 
 $1million; \n•	Oakland, will pay $4 million; \n•	Pittsburg will pay 
 $3.6 million; \n•	The Peralta Community College District will pay $1.6 
 million; \n•	The East Bay Utility District will pay $31.3 million; and 
 \n•	The Metro Transportation Commission will pay $48.6 million\n•	VTA 
 will pay $13.0 million;\n•	Menlo Park will pay $3.1 million\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/07/30/18718574.php
SUMMARY:Oakland Officials, Clergy, Community to Visit Goldman Sachs HQ to Demand Fair Deal
LOCATION:Goldman Sachs San Francisco Headquarters, 555 California St, San Francisco, 
 94104
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/07/30/18718574.php
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