Subject: Re: WJC call about cci/climate issues
From: Bruce Lindsey <[email-masked]>
To: Amitabh Desai <[email-masked]>, Laura Graham <[email-masked]>, Doug Band - PC <[email-masked]>, Justin Cooper - PC <[email-masked]>, "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>
Cc: Hannah Richert - PC <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2012 12:56:20 -0400

Someone should go back to WJC and confirm that he approved the Island
initiative "as is" including the $1 million Clinton Foundation budget
(over and above any funding from UNDP), which budget includes a $100,000
salary for Ira (on top of his CHAI salary) and a staff of nine (despite
the fact that one of the people who works for Ira says that most of this
staff is unnecessary) and that he agreed to split the Swedish post code
lottery funds which means that we will have to use Clinton Foundation
funds to fund our AFL-CIO/pension fund retrofit work.

Bruce

On 3/15/12 11:00 AM, "Amitabh Desai" <[email-masked]> wrote:

>Following-up on WJC's call yesterday, I spoke this morning with Ira. Ira
>said:
>
>- ISLANDS. Ira said WJC approved the islands project as-is and also
>approved splitting the Swedish postcode money between cities and islands
>work. Ira asked that we coordinate a proposal to niclas.
>
>- Ira said Diana noble now runs the "commonwealth development fund" and
>is willing to fund cci work in islands.
>
>- SOLAR. Ira said South Africa is moving forward on a solar park and in
>light of that forward movement, WJC agreed with Ira to continue doing
>that work. Ira said the solar and CCS work could be grouped together for
>budget purposes. 
>
>- ADVISORY BOARD. Ira said WJC agreed to establish / re-establish a board
>for CCI. Ira said the CHAI board is working well and CCI would benefit
>from having outside advisors. I didn't say so on the call but I actually
>think some group of advisors, however loosely or formally convened, may
>be useful - we could stack it with smart climate folks who are friendly
>with wjc/us and thereby try to mitigate any wacky cci ideas (e.g. carbon
>capture in Malaysia). Or maybe I am just being overly optimistic.
>
>- PENSIONS. Ira said WJC asked Ira to help and get more involved with the
>pensions work in order to ensure tangible deliverables by CGI America.
>Ira said Scott Henderson could help. I said Scott H already has been
>involved since Day One. Ira said he personally will get more involved and
>he had some ideas for hiring a finance person (which I said we thought of
>long ago and agree on doing but we were thinking pro-bono) and also
>approaching large building owners like GE Real Estate. I said we'd
>welcome Ira's suggestions on finance experts and building owners and want
>to ensure outreach is coordinated. Ira is going to call Katie McClain to
>start coordinating.
>
>- MEETING. Ira said he'll be in NYC next week on Monday/Tuesday and would
>like to meet. We discussed meeting on Monday late afternoon or Tuesday
>early afternoon. Then we'll do a group call with Ira and our pensions
>team (Katie, Bracken, Scott H, Jamie at CGI). It would be great if you
>are able to join by phone or in person for both or at least for the Ira
>meeting. 
>
>I told Ira I'd download all of this with you. I got the impression that
>unless we go back and say "no" on any of this, Ira feels he has WJC's
>blessing to move ahead. I'd welcome your feedback. Thanks, Ami
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Amitabh Desai
>To: Bruce Lindsey; Laura Graham; Doug Band - PC; Justin Cooper - PC;
>[email-masked] <[email-masked]>
>Cc: Hannah Richert - PC
>Sent: Wed Mar 14 22:05:04 2012
>Subject: WJC call about cci/climate issues
>
>WJC called today around 5:30pm and said Ira called him to say bloomberg
>is messing up the c40 and a lot of the staff are leaving and did we know
>that. I said yes a lot of the CCI staff have expressed unhappiness and
>some have been or are being hired back partially or fully to CF.
>
>He asked me to call and speak with ira.
>
>He also asked us to send a utilities report to Ira and Scott Henderson at
>CCI. 
>
>He also said he's worried about the pensions commitment and not having
>real projects to announce at CGI america. I said we are concerned too and
>explained cf/cci/cgi discussions with deutsche bank, tom steyer, kkr,
>etc. He said ira suggested we at CF or CCI just create a fund and do the
>investing for the aflcio. I explained aflcio doesn't have the money, the
>States do, and that if we tried to do it in-house there might be some
>complexity around us running a fund. And that also would entail hiring a
>bunch of finance folks. He said ira told him the CCI finance guy had
>resigned. I said he is still working and actually was a part of our kkr
>call today and always has been a part of our pensions discussions. He
>said to call him in addition to ira to get more movement on the pension
>stuff. 
>
>He also was concerned about the solar panels in little rock and said they
>should be responsible for more of the energy for the center.
>
>He also asked about the islands work and said ira said he could get mala
>and swedish postcode to fund it and why are we trying to push swedish
>money into US Cities. I said ira's guy says undp could fund islands work
>so we don't need swedish money for it and swedish money could continue to
>be applied to Cities, not just in US but also international. I got the
>sense that WJC thinks we are opposed to the islands work - I told him
>that what we have heard so far seems interesting but clearly something is
>going on between ira and his islands staffer.
>
>Overall he said to speak with ira and involve him more in the pensions
>work
>
>He also mentioned speaking with governors to get projects that need money
>(from pensions) - I said we'd reach out to the dga folks
>
>Hope this helps and I'm happy to take any steps as needed. I sent the
>report to ira/scott and am speaking with Ira tomorrow morning at 9:30am
>ET if anyone is able to join. I'll also speak with folks working on
>pensions and push more for something tangible for WJC to say about it at
>CGI america.