The Providence Journal reports that Gina Raimondo was in San Francisco recently selling her pension cutting playbook to a group of San Francisco business leaders.
The Bay Area Council, which bills itself on its website as a “a business-sponsored, public policy advocacy organization for the nine-county Bay Area. The Council proactively advocates for a strong economy, a vital business environment” and on its YouTube channel as a “CEO-led public policy and advocacy group working to improve the business climate and promote economic growth in the San Francisco/Silicon Valley Bay Area and California.”
The CEO advocacy group is led by the leaders of the biggest corporations in the Bay Area; it’s chairwoman is from Bank of America and its treasurer from Wells Fargo. Other companies represented by corporate bosses include accounting powerhouses, giant local real estate firms, the 49ers, the Giants, oil and gas conglomerates, communication giants like AT&T and credit card companies and tech giants.
The CEO advocacy group is probably best known for organizing and helping to fund Gov. Jerry Brown’s recent trip to China and pushing for greater trade with that country. It boasts a pretty diverse list of issues it chimes in on – including climate change and healthcare. A big focus of the CEO advocacy group is in the area of “education reform.” Here’s how it describes this effort: “The Bay Area Council is working to reform California’s education system by creating a strategic plan to put in place a data system and reform finance and governance.”
According to the Providence Journal, Raimondo’s staff chose not to discuss who raised money for her.