Bay Area Billionaires Join Giving Pledge

Mansions, yachts, personal jets - even private islands - can lose their charms over time.

Some billionaires seek cachet a different way: eradicating disease, bolstering public education, endowing museums and universities, preserving the environment, combatting poverty.

This week, that philosophy inspired another 11 super-wealthy American families, including three from the Bay Area, to commit to the Giving Pledge, a promise to give away at least half their fortunes to philanthropy or charity.

Started by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates two years ago, the pledge now has collected John Hancocks from 92 American families, including such bold-faced names as Mark Zuckerberg, George Lucas, Ted Turner, Paul Allen, Michael Bloomberg and Larry Ellison.

In the Bay Area, the newest class of pledge-signers included three families who made fortunes co-founding technology companies: Intel's Gordon Moore and his wife, Betty; Netflix's Reed Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin; and Symphony Technology's Romesh Wadhwani and his wife, Kathleen.

"In 2001 we devoted half of our wealth to create a foundation that would take risks in order to innovate and achieve meaningful results," the Moores wrote in a statement. "Nearly 12 years later we remain committed to creating positive outcomes for future generations, and we're focused on areas where we believe that we can make a difference: environmental conservation, patient care and science. We are pleased to be a part of the Giving Pledge not only because we are able to commit these funds, but because we believe they can lead to real learning and measurable change."

Gordon Moore made the Forbes list of the wealthiest people in the world, with a net worth of $4.9 billion.

Hastings and Quillin have focused their philanthropy on school reform. He served as president of the California Board of Education and advocates for charter schools.

"It's an honor to be able to try to help our community, our country and our planet through our philanthropy," they said in a statement. "We are thrilled to join with other fortunate people to pledge a majority of our assets to be invested in others. We hope through this community that we can learn as we go, and do our best to make a positive difference for many."

Wadhwani, who co-founded the Palo Alto private-equity firm Symphony Technology Group in 2002, has a charitable mission "to accelerate economic development in India and other emerging economies by creating jobs and developing skills," he said in a statement. Forbes lists his net worth as $2 billion.

Beyond generating more money for charities, the pledge aims to provoke national discussions about giving.

Pledge signers meet yearly to thrash out their philanthropic approaches and experiences. Those discussions have spurred much more collaboration among the group, Gates told the Wall Street Journal.

"Everybody is evolving in their giving," he said.

The other new pledge signatories and their companies and causes are Manoj Bhargava (5-hour Energy, Indian poverty); Charles Bronfman (Seagram Co., Birthright Israel); Dan and Jennifer Gilbert (Quicken, children's health); Peter Lewis (Progressive Insurance, marijuana legalization); Jonathan Nelson (Providence Equity, Brown University); Jorge and Darlene Perez (The Related Group, Miami Art Museum); Claire and Leonard Tow (New Century Holdings, health care); Albert Lee Ueltschi (FlightSafety International, Third-World blindness).

They join an exclusive group ranging in age from 28 to 97.

The Bay Area is amply represented among the group, with at least 16 families (including the three new signers) with strong local ties, including Zuckerberg, Ellison and Lucas, as well as Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskowitz.

Other local signers include venture capitalists John and Ann Doerr and Vinod and Neeru Khosla; asset manager Tom Steyer and his wife, Kat Taylor; World Savings founder Bernard Osher and his wife, Barbro; Banker Herb Sandler and his late wife, Marion; and Business Wire founder Lorry Lokey.

While they no longer live here, eBay's Jeff Skoll and Pierre and Pam Omidyar all took the pledge, as did Elon Musk of Tesla and PayPal.

"This new group brings extensive business and philanthropic experience that will enrich the conversation about how to make philanthropy as impactful as possible," Gates said in a statement. "Their thoughtfulness and deep commitment to philanthropy are an inspiration to me, and I'm sure to many others as well."

Putting Bay Area’s Water Source to a Vote

It is one of the oldest environmental battles in the United States, and it involves one of the country’s most famous national parks, one of its most liberal cities, leaders of Silicon Valley and a perennial source of conflict in California: water.

In 1913, Congress approved the construction of a dam and an eight-mile-long reservoir, called Hetch Hetchy, in the northwest corner of Yosemite National Park to supply cheap water to San Francisco.

But the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, which submerged a valley that many have likened to Yosemite Valley in its grandeur and is credited with giving birth to the modern environmental movement, has lost none of its power to arouse strong emotions. In November, San Francisco will vote on a measure that could ultimately lead to the draining and restoration of Hetch Hetchy Valley — and force the city to look elsewhere for most of its water.

San Francisco’s mayor, Edwin M. Lee, has dismissed the measure as “stupid” and “insane.” But its supporters say that San Francisco can find other sources of water and that the valley’s restoration could have a positive impact not only in California but also across the nation and the world.

“It will say that decisions that cities made, based on what they knew a hundred years ago, can be revisited for the benefit of the environment,” said Mike Marshall, the executive director of Restore Hetch Hetchy, an environmental organization. “It will inspire restoration efforts across the country that are less visible.”

Restore Hetch Hetchy collected about 16,000 signatures from registered voters in San Francisco — far more than the 9,702 needed — to get the measure on the ballot on Nov. 6. If it is approved, the city would be required to spend $8 million to draw up plans for a new water system; that blueprint would be submitted to voters in 2016.

Opponents in San Francisco and the rest of the Bay Area, which also relies on the reservoir for its water, say that draining Hetch Hetchy will jeopardize the water supply for 2.6 million residents. Removing it, they say, will increase water rates and make the Bay Area’s water supply vulnerable to droughts. Unproven alternatives, they say, will require costly and less environmentally friendly filtering and pumping of water.

“It basically sends a signal to businesses that a basic necessity — water — is at risk, and it calls into question whether or not businesses would want to stay and invest here,” said Mike Mielke, the vice president for environmental policy at the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, an umbrella organization of 375 technology companies.

Other critics say that San Francisco voters alone will get to decide the fate of the reservoir, which is owned by San Francisco but also supplies water to three other counties in the San Francisco Regional Water System. Arthur Jensen, the chief executive of the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency, which represents municipalities outside San Francisco, said his members have no say in the Hetch Hetchy debate even though they pay two-thirds of the cost of operating and maintaining the system.

“We have a lot of skin in the game, but we don’t vote in the San Francisco election in November,” Mr. Jensen said.

One of nine reservoirs that store water destined for the Bay Area, Hetch Hetchy catches snowmelt and rain runoff from the High Sierra. The Hetch Hetchy system’s supporters say it has one of the smallest carbon footprints of any water system in the United States because its water is of such high quality that it requires no filtration and is delivered by gravity through 160 miles of pipelines and tunnels. The system currently provides about 85 percent of San Francisco’s water supply.

In 1913, despite a national outcry, Congress gave San Francisco — whose water system was damaged in the 1906 earthquake — the authority to create a water reservoir by damming the Tuolumne River here. Completed in 1923, the O’Shaughnessy Dam submerged Hetch Hetchy Valley, which was often compared to Yosemite Valley, about 17 miles south.

The naturalist John Muir, who fought the project, called Hetch Hetchy Valley, with its sheer granite walls and waterfalls, “one of nature’s rarest and most precious mountain temples.”

Over the decades, environmentalists have pressed for its restoration. The State of California has estimated that restoration, which would entail dismantling the dam and draining the reservoir, would cost $3 billion to $10 billion. Restore Hetch Hetchy puts the cost at $1 billion.

Officials in San Francisco, a city otherwise known for championing environmental causes, have been put on the defensive. High-profile Democrats, including Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, and Senator Dianne Feinstein, both of whom are from San Francisco, oppose the measure.

Republicans have led calls to remove the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. Representative Dan Lungren, a Republican whose district borders Yosemite, asked the Interior Department to investigate whether San Francisco had been turning to other sources, including recycled water, groundwater and rainwater, before using water from Hetch Hetchy, as required by a 1913 law. Brian Kaveney, a spokesman for Mr. Lungren, said the congressman had not yet received a reply from the department.

Michael Carlin, the deputy general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, the agency that owns the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, said that recycling and groundwater projects were currently under way.

Late Friday afternoon, half a dozen cars belonging to tourists were parked near the reservoir.

Jan Larson, who recently retired from her job as an elementary school teacher, and her husband, Craig, had decided to visit Yosemite for the first time. The Larsons, who live in Colorado, were sitting in folding chairs, nibbling on cheese and crackers, as they gazed out at O’Shaughnessy Dam.

Their visit, they said, had filled them with awe, but they also said they opposed the ballot measure, which they had heard about before coming here.

“If the dam weren’t already here, I would probably say, ‘Don’t build it,’ ” Ms. Larson said. “But it’s here, it works, it’s going to cost millions to replace it, and it’s going to take years to restore it to what it was like before. There are so many other wonderful areas in Yosemite. So to me, it’s like, leave it alone.”

Michelle and Harry Von Schmidt, a couple from New Jersey who were walking atop the dam, were split. Ms. Von Schmidt said she was “grateful for what had been preserved,” while her husband said he was “more inclined toward” those advocating restoration.

“I’ve seen before and after pictures, and it’s so pretty here in a way that’s hard to imagine,” Mr. Von Schmidt said. “I feel for John Muir, who tried for years to save it.”

The Bay Area Chamber of Commerce Wednesday Business Connection

The Bay Area Chamber of Commerce Wednesday Business Connection is back for its 2012-2013 season. On the Sept. 5 season kickoff for WBC, Tom Rumreich, long time local Salmon Trout Enhancement Program biologist will be featured. Tom will be talking about the STEP program’s successes both in development of the bay and river fishery and the educational value to Coos County school children. Additionally there will be information given regarding the Coos Basin Salmon Derby coming up Sept. 7-9.

The luncheons are open to all who are interested in attending, but are encouraged to contact the Chamber office at 541-266-0868 to ensure there is enough food prepared.

There are 5 minute presentation segments available for chamber businesses to introduce themselves and their products, prior to the featured presentation each week. Anyone interested in one of these spots must contact the Chamber at 541-266-0868.

Schedule

September
Wednesday, Sep 05, 11:30 am

Venue

The Mill Casino-Hotel, Salmon Room
3201 Tremont St.
North Bend

Cost 

This is a free event.

Contact Info

Bay Area Chamber of Commerce
541-266-0868