The Sacramento City Council has signed off on a new "socially responsible investment" rule for city cash, and supporters say it is already costing defense giant Lockheed Martin a slice of City Hall’s money. The move locks into policy where the city’s pooled funds can, and cannot, be invested as the treasurer manages Sacramento’s portfolio.
Council Vote And The Divestment
The amendment passed on a 6-0 vote, and the city is moving to unwind a roughly $5 million holding in Lockheed Martin, about 0.3% of the total pooled fund. City Treasurer John Colville told reporters the updated rules "don't affect our ability to do our job" and that officials do not expect any hit to the portfolio’s safety or performance, according to The Sacramento Bee.
What's In The Policy
The amendment, introduced by Treasurer John Colville and championed by Councilmembers Mai Vang and Roger Dickinson, adds new screening criteria for future investments. The city will now avoid companies tied to severe human-rights violations, weapons manufacturing, immigration detention, surveillance, mass incarceration, prison labor, fossil fuels and tobacco.
Backers cast the shift as more than a bookkeeping tweak, arguing it is about lining up public dollars with local values. "Public investments should reflect the values of the communities they serve," Fauziya Faruk of CAIR Sacramento told Davis Vanguard.
How Other Cities Have Acted
Sacramento is not the first government to try to clean up its investment slate. Alameda County and several Bay Area cities have already adopted rules that screen out weapons manufacturers and other targeted industries from their public portfolios. Advocacy groups that track divestment efforts say these municipal policies are part of a broader national push toward value-driven public investing, according to the American Friends Service Committee.
Reaction And Next Steps
Local organizers with the Reinvest in Sacramento coalition applauded the Lockheed move but called it just a starting point. They plan to keep pressing the treasurer’s office to blacklist additional companies. Some activists have zeroed in on firms such as Caterpillar and Amazon, while Treasurer Colville has urged a more cautious approach, saying the policy is meant to focus on a company’s primary operations rather than every corporate relationship, as reported by The Sacramento Bee.
The new rule builds on earlier decisions: supporters note Sacramento divested from tobacco in 2019 and from fossil-fuel holdings in 2021. City officials say the treasurer’s office will now apply the fresh screening criteria as part of its routine portfolio management. Advocates, for their part, say they plan to watch closely and expect the city to publish updates on how the standards are being put into practice, per Davis Vanguard.
