Sabha, Tamer
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:
cityclerk
Thursday, December 18, 2025 2:14 PM
Iraheta, Alba; Jomsky, Mark; Robles, Sandra; Sabha, Tanner; McMillan, Acquanette (Netta); Soo, Christine
FW: City Investment Policy
From: Paul Little
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2025 2:13:56 PM (UTC-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada) To: cityclerk <[email protected]>
Cc: Madison, Steve <[email protected]>; Rivas, Jessica <[email protected]>; Masuda, Gene <[email protected]>
Subject: City Investment Policy
[ ll ] CAUTION: This email was delivered from the Internet. Do not click links or open attachments unless you /mow the content is safe. Report phish using the Phish Alert Button. For more information about the Phish Alert Button view article "KB0011474" on the DolT portal.
Hello Legislative Committee Chair Madison and Committee members, Thank you for the work you do on behalf of Pasadena and your constituents.
Today you are considering a policy that would force divestment by any City entity of investments in Israel, as part of a revised investment policy.
I would ask you to hold off making a recommendation to the City Council on this item until the Chamber Legislative and Government Affairs Committee has had time to consider the proposal and make a recommendation to the Legislative Committee.
This is an important decision and an action by the Committee and the City Council that could have significant ramifications forthe City of Pasadena and our business community.
There are also many questions related to this policy, including, but not limited to:
1. What definitions are used in determining appropriate investment?
2. What standards are applied?
3. How are any standards applied fairly and equitably?
4. Is a policy such as this in itself discriminatory?
5. What could be reactions to such a policy by those who do view such a policy as discriminatory?
6. What impacts could such a policy change have on our Local businesses and industries?
7. What do Pasadena's residents feel about such a step? At any rate, on behalf of the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce and Civic Association would ask that this item be given appropriate time and consideration and that all potential stakeholders have time to review, discuss and formulate their own opinions about such a policy (and notduringthe holiday season, please...)
All the best. Enjoy your holidays and Happy New year.
Paul
^o^JLikM^
Paul Little
President and Chief Executive Officer
Pasadena Chamber of Commerce and Civic Association
Pasadena, CA 91106
www.pasadena-chamber.org
This information could be sensitive or privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete this email immediately. Thank you.
Sabha, Tamer
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:
cityclerk
Thursday, December 18, 2025 2:27 PM
Iraheta, Alba; Jomsky, Mark; Rabies, Sandra; Sabha, Tamer; McMillan, Acquanette (Netta); Soo, Christine
FW: Legislative Meeting - Pasadena Council 12-18-2025 /Agenda item # 3 From: Hedab Tariff
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2025 2:26:45 PM (UTC-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada) To: cityclerk <[email protected]>
Subject: Legislative Meeting - Pasadena Council 12-18-2025 / Agenda item # 3 f^ou don't often get email fromILearn why this is important [A] CAUTION: This email was delivered from the Internet. Do not click links or open attachments unless you know the content is safe. Report phish using the Phish Alert Button. For more information about the Phish Alert Button view article "KB0011474" on the DolT portal.
Dear Committee Members,
Greetings of Peace,
Boycott & divestment is not a terrible thing. It is the only form of Nonviolent resistance. Everyone is entitled to it. It worked before and it should continue to work. Pasadena did it before and helped end the Apartheid regime in South Africa. Pasadena can and should maintain its respected legacy and do it again by divesting from companies that are benefiting from the Genocide in Gaza & the West Bank.
Be part of ending the Apartheid regime in Israel.
As of December 16, day 66 of the so-called ceasefire, Israel has violated the ceasefire 813 times, averaging 25 violations per day. Killed 400 innocent civilians (among them 11 members of my own family). Injured more than 1,000.
The major violation of not allowing the agreed-on Aid to enter Gaza. Only 38% of humanitarian aid, and only 10% of the fuel that was agreed on was allowed to enter Gaza.
Not allowing in basic shelters and caravans. Causing miserable situation for people drowning during the rain and heavy storm hitting Gaza. 4 children have already died from the cold. Makeshift tents do not provide any adequate protection under any weather conditions.
Yesterday, 77 bodies of loved ones from the Salem family were pulled out from under the rubble in Rimal neighborhood (my birthplace) after 2 years from being killed by Israel.
Imagine when your utmost wish and goal is to find the remains of your loved ones to give them a dignified burial in real cemetery. »
Many countries around the world, cities across California and the US are rejecting this genocide and calling to divest.
I am askingforyouto preserve Pasadena's legacy in rejecting Apartheid and approvingthe resolution to divest.
In Peace & In Love,
Hedab
x
Sabha, Tamer
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:
interfaithquaker@
Thursday, December 18, 2025 3:32 PM
Sabha, Tamer; Madison, Steve; Masuda, Gene; Jess Rivas
Support divestment from companies profiting from genocide [ A. ] CAUTION: This email was delivered from the Internet. Do not click links or open attachments unless you know the content is safe. Report phish using the Phish Alert Button. For more information about the Phish Alert Button view article "KB0011474" on the DolT portal.
Dear Legislative Policy Committee members,
I am writing as a resident of District 1 and as a Quaker in support of divesting from companies profiting from genocide, whether in Gaza or other parts of the world.
Quakers from around the world united in this statement that was published on July 28, 2025:
"After deep communal and prayerful discernment, informed by our direct witness in Palestine/lsrael and our readings of the positions of international human rights organizations, international and Israeli genocide scholars, and experts on the UN Genocide Convention (1948), we are exercising our religious conviction to speak the truth as we see it. We believe with moral clarity, and in line with the definition of the crime of genocide, that the current actions in Gaza perpetrated by the Israeli government, constitute genocide."
This statement also calls for people of conscience and for organizations to "divest from companies profiting from occupation, apartheid, or genocide (e.g., arms manufacturers, settlement financiers)."
https://afsc.ora/newsroom/auaker-orQanizations-discern-aenocide-occurrinci-aaza-and-urcie- courageous-action
I support the right of Israel to exist and to defend itself, but what is happening in Gaza is not self- defense but a deliberate and unbelievably cruel effort to render Gaza uninhabitable and to either drive out or exterminate its population either directly through high tech weapons or indirectly through starvation and destruction of homes and infrastructure.
As I write this, Gazans are living in tents, facing a winter and lacking basic necessities such as sufficient food, water and medicines. Despite the "ceasefire," and in violation of international law, Israel continues to kill innocent civilians in Gaza and the West Bank.
I urge you to take a principled, moral stand just as the Council did when it opposed apartheid in South Africa.
Anthony Manousos
Sabha, Tamer
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:
Attachments:
cityclerk
Thursday, December 18, 2025 1:39 PM
Iraheta, Alba; Jomsky, Mark; Rabies, Sandra; Sabha, Tamer; McMillan, Acquanette (Netta); Sco, Christine
FW: Public Comment: Legislative Policy Committee Meeting 12/18/25 Divestment Recommendation - Pasadena City Council.pdf
From: brian@
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2025 1:37:26 PM (UTC-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada) To: cityclerk
Subject: Public Comment: Legislative Policy Committee Meeting 12/18/25 [You don't often get email from brian(5)
https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderldentification ]
Learn why this is important at
[ A ] CAUTION: This email was delivered from the Internet. Do not click links or open attachments unless you know the content is safe. Report phish using the Phish Alert Button. For more information about the Phish Alert Button view article "KB0011474" on the DolT portal.
Dear City Clerk,
Please include the attached letter in the public comment for Item 3:
INVESTMENT POLICY DISCUSSION REGARDING ETHICAL, ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE CONSIDERATIONS on the City Council's Legislative Policy Committee today's meeting agenda.
Thank you for your assistance,
Brian Biery
Pasadena, CA
1 Divestment/Genocide Resolution Recommendation - Pasadena City Council, Legislative Policy Committee 12/18/25
Dear Chair Madison, Vice Mayor Rivas, and Councilmember Masuda, In 2007 our community suffered a tragic increase in violence with 10 gang-related murders in one year. At that time City Council Member Jacque Robinson and other local leaders convened an ad hoc committee to end the violence. Key partners for this initiative included Tony Massengale from L.A. County's Human Relations Commission, Jaylene Moseley of the Flintridge Foundation, and Najeeba Syeed Miller, director of the Western Justice Center.
The ad hoc committee met for six months and one of its key actions was to commission the research and development of effective strategies that prevent and interrupt gang violence. The subsequent Harder Gap Report found that, unsurprisingly, it was not increased law enforcement that reduced violence but, rather, the expansion of youth development programs that provide mentoring, job preparation, high school graduation support, enrichment activities, and community service.
Today, many of these programs still exist through the City's Recreation and Parks programs (Villa Parke Boxing, Summer Rose Program), as well as via nonprofit organizations like Flintridge Center (Youth of Promise), Learning Works, Outward Bound Adventures, among others, because they have been effective. The focus on violence prevention rather than being purely reliant on enforcement is also being implemented by the Pasadena Public Health Department.
The PPHD uses the Center for Disease Control's public health approach to prevention which classifies violence as a disease.
According to PPHD's Director Manuel Carmona, violence is like a virus which, like any transmittable diseases, can be treated in order to limit contagion. Masks, vaccines, social distancing are techniques used to block viral infection. The public health approach for violence prevention utilizes similar strategies to prevent acts of violence from being replicated. An example of this process is the PPhlD's Gang Outreach and Violence Interruption Services currently provided through a contract with gang interventionist Ricky Pickens. The PPHD reports that between 2021 and 2024 there was an 87% decrease in gang-related shootings, largely due to GOVIS.
Nonviolent conflict resolution is in the City's DNA as we can observe from the proliferation of these valuable programs. As a result, considering how the City invests its pensions and how the City Council speaks about violence around the world should be in alignment with its departments' programming. Over the years multiple City Council Members have said that budgets are moral documents since they demonstrate our values. Likewise, it can be said that how one selects investments for retirement programs also has moral and ethical implications, particularly if those dollars are being dedicated to investing in war, apartheid and destruction.
In 1994 a nonprofit was created as the result of the desire to reduce gun violence in our city after the horrific gang shooting of three adolescents near McDonald Park on Halloween. The Coalition for a Nonviolent City operated for many years and had as its advocates local leaders like former State Senator Jack Scott, All Saints Rector George Regas and Chief Bernard Melekian. The legacy of Pasadena as a city that seeks nonviolent means to resolve conflicts was etched in our history years ago. Please continue this impressive path to a safer world by approving a draft resolution that opposes and criticizes all genocide while specifically naming the atrocities in Gaza. And then send the resolution to City Council for final discussion and approval. In addition, per American Friends Service Committee guidelines, please update the City's 2021 ethical investment policy to include companies that are actively violating human rights and supporting the ongoing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza.
Respectfully,
Brian Biery
Pasadena, CA
Sabha, Tamer
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:
Attachments:
cityclerk
Thursday, December 18, 2025 4:22 PM
Iraheta, Alba; Jomsky, Mark; Rabies, Sandra; Sabha, Tamer; McMillan, Acquanette (Netta); Sco, Christine
FW: Pasadena Legislative Policy Committee-December 18, 2025 Agenda COP ESG Written Comment 2025 1218.docx
From: Hovannisian, Armen K <- ---.._.... _ .
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2025 4:21:44 PM (UTC-08:00) Pacinc nme (US & Canada) To: cityclerk <[email protected]>; Harvey-Williams. Brenda <bhan/[email protected]> Cc: William M. Papariai . . ; Ivarpetianfg, _..._.
Subject: Pasadena Legislative Policy Committee-December 18, 2025 Agenda Some people who received this message don't often get email from .-.-.-...„..-. Learn why this is important
[A] CAUTION: This email was delivered from the Internet. Do not click links or open attachments unless you know the content is safe. Report phish using the Phish Alert Button. For more information about the Phish Alert Button view article "KB0011474" on the DolT portal.
Dear Legislative Policy Committee:
Kindly include the attached submission from the Armenian Bar Association in today's public comment.
Thankyou.
Armen K. Hovannisian
Board Member, Armenian Bar Association
This email (including any attachments) is intended for the designated recipient(s) only, and maybe confidential, non-public, proprietary, and/or protected by the attorney-client or other privilege.
Unauthorized reading, distribution, copying or other use of this communication is prohibited and may be unlawful. Receipt by anyone other than the intended recipient(s) should not be deemed a waiver of any privilege or protection. If you are not the intended recipient or if you believe that you have received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete all copies from your computer system without reading, saving, printing, forwarding or using it in any manner. Although it has been checked for viruses and other malicious software ("malware"), we do not warrant, represent or guarantee in any way that this communication is free of malware or potentially damaging defects. All liability for any actual or alleged loss, damage, or injury arising out of or resulting in any way from the receipt, opening or use of this email is expressly disclaimed.
/£S°\
1989 ^
y^,z
s^f
^ 1989
"^^u^^
^
Armenian Bar Association
P.O. Box 29111 Los Angeles, California 90029
ArmenianBar.org | [email protected]
December 18, 2025
To: Pasadena Legislative Policy Committee
Subject: Fiduciary and ESG Considerations Regarding Genocide-Linked Investments Executive Summary
The City of Pasadena's proposed investment divestiture concerning Genocide-linked securities is grounded in fiduciary prudence, ESG compliance, financial risk mitigation, and in the rightful expectations of its citizens. This tangible form of official disassociation from gorging on the spoils of crimes against humanity is an incredibly important act of responsible governance.
As fate would have it, it was former Mayor of Pasadena William Paparian-also a founding member of the Armenian Bar Association—who introduced Pasadena's South African Apartheid divestment policy in 1988. Unfortunately, crimes against humanity have not abated since that watershed moment and the bevy of profiteers, whether knowingly or unwittingly, has multiplied—and will continue to multiply— without this necessary hard stop.
You are doing the right and honorable thing. In the Armenian people's recent experience as victims of Azerbaijan's ethnic cleansing of Armenians from their native Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabagh), credible legal, sanctions, and reputational risks make continued exposure to Azerbaijan sovereign debt and state-controlled entities inconsistent with prudent municipal asset management.
The proposed approach:
Aligns with Pasadena's ESG commitments,
Protects public funds from foreseeable risk,
Reflects established municipal investment practices.
Key Risk Factors for Investors
Legal^nd^ Sanctions Risk—the Armenian Experience as Emblematic of Other Similar Situations Azerbaijan has failed to comply with a binding International Court of Justice order (Feb. 2023).
Ongoing allegations of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity increase exposure to:
o Targeted sanctions against Azerbaijan,
o Asset freezes concerning Azerbaijan,
o Litigation affecting sovereign and quasi-sovereign debt.
The U.S. State Department designated Azerbaijan a Special Watch List country in January 2024.
Governance and ESG Risk
State-controlled enterprises raise capital that directly supports military and governmental activity.
Severe human rights violations constitute material ESG failures under widely accepted investment standards.
Pasadena's existing investment policy already commits to avoiding entities with unsound ESG practices.
Financial Prudence
Sovereign and state-linked securities are uniquely vulnerable to sudden repricing due to sanctions or legal action.
Excluding a small, high-risk segment of the global market does not materially impact diversification or returns.
Scope and Implementation
The proposed restriction is narrowly tailored, covering:
1. Azerbaijan sovereign debt,
2. Identified state-controlled entities,
3. Entities deriving >10% of revenues from Azerbaijan.
A de minimis exception excludes unrelated multinational companies.
Implementation relies on standard institutional tools, including manager disclosures and side letters.
Precedent and Governance
Municipal and state governments have long adopted similar exclusions (e.g., Russia, Iran, Sudan, tobacco).
Annual review and reporting requirements enhance transparency and oversight, consistent with best practices.
Conclusion
This is a prudent investment decision — not a political statement.