Something's Fishy: Petaluma Councilwoman Fischer Failed to Disclose Income for Climate Consulting While Acquiring Hefty Investments in 'Clean Energy' Corporations
Cool Petaluma Received $1M in funding. Where did the funds go?
According to the City’s outgoing councilmember proclamation, Petaluma Councilwoman D'Lynda Fischer served on the Petaluma City Council from January 2019 - January 2023.
The resolution indicated that Councilmember Fischer secured a $1M grant for Petaluma, making it one of three California cities to win the Cool City Challenge, resulting in hundreds of Cool Block Leaders and community partners all committed to and working toward a Climate Ready Petaluma.
She ‘volunteered’ through many avenues including: Climate Action Petaluma, Cool Petaluma, the Climate Action Commission, etc.
Per the City of Petaluma’s statement of economic interest portal, Ms. Fischer only submitted a Form 700 for years 2022 and 2023, but failed to do so from 2019-2021. Her LinkedIn profile indicated that she served as Co Lead, Cool Petaluma from October 2021 to present and as a Consultant ‘for nonprofits dedicated to healing the planet’ from May 2017 to present.
On her leaving office Form 700, she indicated that she acquired the following stocks, funds and bond investments as of 2022. This is just a partial list:
MICROSOFT CORP, Info Tech, fair market value of $10k - $100k
FIRST REPUBLIC BANK, Financials, fair market value of $10k - $100k
APPLE INC; Info Tech, fair market value of $10k - $100k
INVESCO WATER RESOURCES ETF, fund, fair market value of $10k - $100k
BALL CORP, Industrials, fair market value of $10k - $100k
ARK FINTECH INNOVATION ETF, fund, fair market value of $10k - $100k
FIRST TRUST NASDAQ CLEANEDGE ETF, fund, fair market value of $10k - $100k
BADGER METER INC, Industrials, fair market value of $10k - $100k
INTUITIVE SURGICAL, Healthcare, fair market value of $10k - $100k
CONNECTONE BANCO 2.65%24CD FDIC INS DUE 03/22/24US, bond, fair market value of $10k - $100k
SANOFI 3.375% 23F DUE 06/19/23, bond, fair market value of $10k - $100k
MERRICK BANK 2.7%23CD FDIC INS DUE 12/22/23US, bond, fair market value of $10k - $100k
ENPHASE ENERGY INC; Info Tech, fair market value of $10k - $100k
OAKLAND CA USD 5%23IMPT SCH DUE 08/01/23, bond, fair market value of $10k - $100k
NUVEEN ESG SMALL CAP ETF, fund, fair market value of $10k - $100k
SPDR GOLD SHARES ETF, fund, fair market value of $10k - $100k
NEXTERA ENERGY INC, energy stock, fair market value of $10k - $100k
ALPHABET INC., Info Tech stock, fair market value of $10k - $100k
GLOBAL X AUTONOMOUS & ELECTRIC VEHIC, fund, fair market value of $10k - $100k
APPLE INC. 2.85%23 DUE 02/23/23, bond, fair market value of $10k - $100k
OAKLAND CA USD 5%23IMPT SCH DUE 08/01/23, bond, fair market value of $10k - $100k
LILLY ELI & CO, healthcare stock, fair market value of $10k - $100k
QUANTA SERVICES INC; energy stock, fair market value of $10k - $100k
PLUG POWER INC; energy stock, fair market value of $10k - $100k
ISHARES ESG AWARE MSCI EM ETF, fund, fair market value of $10k - $100k
UNITED PARCEL SRVC, industrial stock, fair market value of $10k - $100k
CFG COMMUNITY BA 3.25%24CD FDIC INS DUE 06/28/24MA, bond, fair market value of $10k - $100k
CHARGEPOINT HOLDINGS INC, industrial stock, fair market value of $10k - $100k
PARNASSUS CORE EQUITY INVESTOR, fund, fair market value of $10k - $100k
ISHARES US MEDICAL DEVICES ETF, fund, fair market value of $10k - $100k
PUBLIC STORAGE REIT, reit stock, fair market value of $10k - $100k
SCHWAB VALUE ADVANTAGE MONEY INV, fund, fair market value of $100k - $1M
PARNASSUS VALUE EQUITY INVESTOR, fund, fair market value of $100k - $1M
ECOLAB INC, industrial stock, fair market value of $10k - $100k
FORD MOTOR CO, consumer discretionary stock, fair market value of $10k - $100k
COSTCO WHOLESALE CO, consumer discretionary stock, fair market value of $10k - $100k
ISHARES GLOBAL CLEAN ENERGY ETF, fund, fair market value of $10k - $100k
This was not the first time that Ms. Fischer failed to report economic interests. The Fair Political Practices Commission previously fined her $200 for failure to timely disclose two sources of income on her 2018 Candidate Statement of Economic Interests, in violation of Government Code Section 87207 (2 counts). Income was omitted for nonprofits Daily Acts and Commonweal.
Ms. Fischer’s current bio for Cool Petaluma appears to be outdated but describes her as follows:
Steering Committee & Lead Advisor
D'Lynda Fischer is a first term Council Member in Petaluma. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Sonoma County Transportation Authority and the Regional Climate Protection Agency. As a professional Urban Planner, she serves on the Board of the local chapter of the United States Green Building Council. She is a long time member of the Sonoma County Food System Alliance, believes that "food is medicine"., and supports her local food system. She is active with local community groups including Climate Action Petaluma, 350 Petaluma, and Petaluma Pride. D'Lynda formed Zero Waste Petaluma following her election and continues to participate in the efforts of this group.
Cool Petaluma’s website describes their funding as such:
Cool Petaluma now operates as a DBA program of the Aqus Community Foundation 501(c)3 and depends on the generous, tax-deductible donations of people like you to keep this grassroots movement growing!
Cool Petaluma began in January 2022 after becoming one of three cities in California to win the Cool City Challenge, which provided the potential for $1 million in funding over the course of several years. For year one, the Cool City Challenge provided the coolblock.org platform and a total of $120,000 of restricted funding for staff salaries. At the end of 2022, all three cities left the Cool City Challenge in order to build more localized movements that could address each city’s unique situation, which was not possible under the umbrella of the original funding organization called the Empowerment Institute.
The Aqus Community Foundation’s Form 990’s submitted to the IRS indicated:
Fiscal period January 2021 - December 2021
Total Revenue - $11,214.00
Program Expenses - $10,630.00
Total Expenses - $14,252.00
Total Assets - $11,460.00
Fiscal period January 2022 - December 2022
Total Revenue - $85,376.00
Program Expenses - $10,350.00
Total Expenses - $17,253.00
Total Assets - $77,278.00
On October 25, 2021, Cool Petaluma issued the following press release:
Today, the Cool City Challenge awarded Petaluma a million-dollar grant to fund a community-based effort that focuses on building up our social networks to help neighborhoods become more planet friendly, disaster resilient, and community rich. Along with Petaluma, Los Angeles and Irvine also won million-dollar grants with all three cities proving they have ample community involvement to achieve major collective action in the race to carbon neutrality by 2030. To achieve this ambitious goal, these cities will take a bold bottom-up and top-down approach by having community members, businesses, nonprofits, and governments all working together.
The outpouring of support in Petaluma has been overwhelming. A volunteer Moonshot Team of seven residents with the support of 25 Community Partners representing the private, civic, and public sectors, were able to recruit 300 Cool Block Leaders - far surpassing the 200 required by the application. Simultaneously, dozens of local experts helped craft the Moonshot Strategy Framework portion of the application, based on Petaluma’s Climate Emergency Framework Plan.
“I am in awe of this entire community and so very grateful for their enthusiasm and participation,” says Councilmember D’Lynda Fischer, who initiated and co-lead the effort. With this Cool City Challenge, Petaluma will be one of three pilot cities in 2022 that will create a template for the 50 cities that will participate in 2023, after which the program will be rolled out internationally. Literally, Petaluma will help set the example for the world.
“What I love about this program is that it provides a clear framework for bringing people together so that our small individual efforts have a larger collective impact and result in immediate improvements to our quality of life,” says Natasha Juliana, who co-lead the application process with Fischer and will take on the role of Campaign Director. “We are excited to make this a fun, welcoming, and worthwhile adventure.”
The next two months will be spent creating the infrastructure for what will be called Cool Petaluma. The official launch of the program will take place in January of 2022. Look for the new website coolpetaluma.org, which will be coming soon, and email info@coolpetaluma.org with any questions you have or ideas you’d like to share. John Crowley of Aqus Community has been a major supporter and hosts the temporary webpage at https://aqus.com/coolcity/.
About the Cool Petaluma Moonshot Team: D’Lynda Fischer (Councilmember) and Natasha Juliana (owner of WORK Petaluma) co-lead the application effort with the help of steering committee members Patrick Carter (City of Petaluma), Dr. Dennis Pocekay (Councilmember), Naomi Crawford (owner of Lunchette), Ann Baker (Climate Action Commissioner and landscape architect), and Raja Abastado (youth Climate Action Commissioner).
An October 26, 2021 article from The Petaluma Argus Courier stated the following:
Petaluma this week learned it is one of three winners of a climate change-focused grant program, the Cool City Challenge, allowing the city’s Cool Petaluma Moonshot Team to tap $1 million in funding, plus consulting support, to bolster the local effort to create a cleaner, better-connected and more resilient community.
Joining Petaluma were Los Angeles and Irvine, with each city’s months-long efforts beating out more than 40 entries across the state in a competitive grant program Gov. Gavin Newsom described as “an exemplary how-to guide for local communities to make a significant impact on climate change.”
On April 13, 2023, Ms. Susan Kirks sent the following public comment to the City of Petaluma’s Climate Action Commission:
Dear Members of the Climate Action Commission,
Could someone give a synopsis of what occurred with the $1,000,000 Cool Petaluma grant that was awarded, how much of that grant was accepted, and then what transpired to withdraw from the program?
I'm unclear, following all of the public relations push on the grant and program, what exactly happened. If I am understanding correctly, there was a decision the program itself was not a fit for Petaluma and a new version, which is locally based, has been developed, with continued access to online/info resources of the Cool Petaluma project - but no additional funds forthcoming and the community is now fundraising to continue a local program?
What are the budgetary implications of withdrawing from the Cool Petaluma program and not continuing?
I had not supported Cool Petaluma primarily because of limitations and nonexistent environmental elements, including habitat enhancement, awareness of and support for species - birds, wildlife and other living organisms, and the absence of an equity component in the program that was being offered.
It would probably be beneficial for the community for you to give a brief update at each of your meetings, at least for a while, as to the amount of $ that came to Petaluma as a result of the $1,000,000 grant award and then what was not further accepted and why, and how the decision to withdraw from the program is being addressed and changed locally.
If you have already provided this in the public setting at your CAC meetings, could you please refer me to the video or source so I can update my information?
Thanks,
Susan Kirks
In summary, what happened to $1,000,000 grant award for ‘climate action’ and how did Ms. Fischer afford to acquire so many new investments as of 2022?
“Truth never damages a cause that is just.”
-Mahatma Gandhi