State Treasurer shows
Thacher class
By Kelly Feser Eells

California State Treasurer Phil Angelides gave such a lively talk Monday night it all but charmed the blazers off his young audience: The Thacher School student body.

Though everyone politely kept their jackets on, the Thacher alumnus' "state of the state" presentation clearly won over a new generation of constituents - if not some of his old teachers' votes.

"In 1965, when his dad and he sent an application to Thacher School," said Headmaster Michael Mulligan, "his father wrote that Mr. Angelides, then 13, would like to go to Harvard University and would like to enter politics. Well, he did both, and has had a life of both private and public service. As a successful and innovative businessman, he's taken a lead role in helping to finance education in this state, and as a Democratic leader, he is supportive of public education 100 percent."

Mulligan also noted that the state's head fiduciary has "worked hard to protect the environment for corporate reform, and he represents the best of that statement I've said often about Thacher, that we're responsible for (and influences on) far beyond our boundaries, and that we're a private school with a public purpose. His life is the embodiment of that public purpose, and our school, our country, and this state is much stronger because of the work of Mr. Angelides. And he will be running for governor in 2006."

After thanking Mulligan for the warm welcome and "official announcement of my candidacy," Angelides joked, "I don't remember having been on this campus before and speaking to the entire student body So, there's hope. I couldn't win an election (here), student council, school prefect, nothing."

Smiling at the reporters in the audience, he added, "Don't write that. Let's just say my classmates didn't appreciate my sheer genius."
Angelides then introduced aide, Mike Roth, "who has one of the best jobs in the state. He gets to travel with me all over the state, and I'm always easy to get along with, never temperamental," again prompting the audience's laughter. "I'm staying at the Ojai Valley Inn; he's staying at the Best Western. But let the record reflect that I'm paying personally; the state's not."

After Harvard, Angelides worked for Gov. Jerry Brown, working to create programs to build low-income housing, finding that, "as a young person in state service, I could make a difference. I also found that, as a young person involved in my community, whether it was doing charitable work and raising money for emergency housing shelters or helping people live independently, as a private citizen I could make a difference.

"I'm as proud of anything I did in the private sector as I am with those actions that come with my title as state treasurer of California, and of being in charge of investing $300 billion in the global economy," said Angelides, who, as a real estate developer involved in the New Urbanist Movement in the 1980s, helped design communities "with a real sense of community. Tree-lined streets, front porches, real 'walkability,' better access to transit - to really have us grow in ways that were sustainable and environmentally smart."

Acknowledging his success in the private sector, Angelides said, "I'm a deep believer that you can do well financially and by society; the two are not mutually exclusive. The 'wealth generators,' people who increase wealth as a whole, whether it's developing products that change the nature of the way we live, developing new technologies that move our society forward, creating businesses that provide good jobs, are essential to a healthy, free enterprise society."

Angelides explained that his job as treasurer may be broken down into three primary areas of responsibility: investor, banker, lender.

"I sit on the boards of our two state pension funds and I invest the state's investment pool - we invest $300 billion in the global economy and are invested in 60 countries, in everything from high tech (industries) to real estate in the Far East - and with my job as treasurer comes a tremendous obligation to make sure I'm investing money to ensure that the pensioners get paid their pensions, but also a great opportunity to use money wisely to advance strength in our economy and society.

"In my role as (investor and) trustee for the state's pension funds, I've been able to stand up as a representative of one of the largest shareholder blocks in America, to ask for and demand greater corporate responsibility. I don't know how many of you watched the saga of Richard Grasso, the former head of the New York Stock Exchange, who paid himself $188 million (per year) just for showing up to work each morning. This was a guy who, I think, was part of a dangerous trend in this country," representing the separation between the "very few" who do well and "the masses. And as treasurer of the State of California, one of the largest investors that participate in the NYSE, I led the charge to force his resignation.

"As the state's banker, it falls to me to finance the state's great public works - transportation, university expansion, water projects, acquisition of parklands - and, in any given year, I'll borrow $20 billion on Wall Street to finance the great public works that this state needs to sustain itself."

Angelides went on to explain that, in recent years, "I have, unfortunately, been called on to borrow more and more just to cover and paper over the state's deficit. I'm a big believer in what I call 'good debt,' which is when you scrape and borrow to send your kid to college or buy a house so your family can see equity appreciation, and 'bad debt,' which is borrowing beyond your means. And, again unfortunately, I've been required to seek too much of this, what is, essentially, credit card debt the last few years, because the state spends more than it takes in."

The third part of his job, he continued is, "I'm a lender. I lend money for health clinics in urban communities; (we) run a small business loan program that's given opportunity to a lot - this year, hopefully, helping up to 1,000 small businesses, with an emphasis on women and minorities, who are the future and majority in California - pollution cleanup, and essentially lending funds for (projects of) good purpose."

With respect to prevailing and anticipated challenges, "I know you read the news," Angelides smiled, "but aren't allowed to watch TV during the week, which is something I'm going to take up with the headmaster."

Prompting cheers, applause and yet another round of laughter, he added, "I think that any participant in the 21st century has to watch the Fox news channel to know what's really going on."

Angelides concluded, "We must, as a society, focus like a laser on education, particularly the education of the workforce of the 21st century, so as to create skilled workers who can compete for the high quality jobs. We need to make sure our kids can read and write,
experiment with charter schools, whatever it takes. We also need to invest in the public fabric and support small businesses, partner with the small business person," recognizing that, to do so, "we need to work strip away stupid and/or restrictive legislation."

Asked to elaborate on his views on education, Angelides said, "I don't wildly support charter schools, but I'm willing to experiment. I'm a Democrat - but also a Progressive - who believes in merit pay, and in the accountability of both kids and adults. The reality is, the richer, suburban schools get the higher quality teachers. We need to create more incentives for teachers in inner city schools. I tend to favor more local control and, while I do believe in state standards, we should let the (individual) schools decide how best to get there."

And his opinion on Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger?

"Well, for my part, I intend to work with the governor-elect when I think he's right and, hopefully, work with him on issues where I think he's wrong. If anything's to come from this recall, let's hope it's an end to brain-dead politics and puts and end to (partisan) recriminations.

"As I said before, he has a huge task before him. Change doesn't happen with one individual, even if that individual was Mr. Olympia."

© 2003 The Ojai Valley News

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