Pictured above: Bob Gnaizda and the most noble-looking giraffe we could find on the internet

The Importance of Sticking Your Neck Out

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Happy June! In re-reading CCB’s last newsletter of 2024, I realized that one of the things I said I was hoping for was a quiet beginning to 2025. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case this first half of the year. Regardless, tariffs can’t stop us or the updates we have for you.

In this newsletter we’ll recap some of CCB’s large (and small) updates, including:

• Update on 2025 legislation

• Innovative way to raise revenue for California

• Annual report

Bob Gnaizda and The International Giraffe Appreciation Society

More on this in the next section, but our sponsored legislation, AB 595, died an unceremonious death during the annual budget/appropriations process. Turning lemons-into-lemonade though, this is a nice opportunity for me to highlight a leader who had a big impact on me as a professional and CCB as an organization: Bob Gnaizda, co-founder of the Greenlining Institute and executive director of the International Giraffe Appreciation Society.

While I’m not sure I’ve ever talked about it in newsletter form, I started my career at the Greenlining Institute working for the organization’s two founders, John Gamboa (who also founded CCB) and Bob Gnaizda. My connection to John is pretty straightforward – he was my first boss at 22 and is still pretty much my boss today at 41 – but I doubt folks are as familiar with Bob or my connection to him.

Pictured above: The Greenlining Institute, circa 2007. Left-to-right: Bob Gnaizda, center of photo on the left side of the clock; John Gamboa, just outside of the clock to the right; Adam Briones, just to the right of John.  

The reason I bring up Bob is that I’d like to share with the CCB community what a huge impact he had on the field and how indirectly, his thinking and approach makes up a large part of CCB’s DNA — especially when it comes to taking risks.

Bob passed away in 2020 and, during his life, was truly a giant in his field. Bob grew up poor in 1930s Brooklyn, but made it to Yale Law and eventually to the West Coast. He was one of the key minds that helped to turn a law which has no real enforcement mechanism – the Community Reinvestment Act – into something that would eventually drive hundreds of billions of dollars into affordable housing and community development funding nationwide.

Before co-founding Greenlining, Bob worked for the Treasury Department, California Rural Legal Assistance, and was one of the founders of Public Advocates. Bob was featured in a movie on the 2008 financial crisis and, one time in 1982, sued the State of California to ensure that millions of pounds of cheese would be donated to hungry families rather than dumped into the ocean.

More pertinent in this moment, though, Bob was…pugnacious and always happy to fight for a good cause. I think Bob enjoyed a good fight simply because it was a good fight – but I also think it was because he wasn’t particularly scared of losing.  In fact, I’m not 100% sure Bob was ever scared of anyone or anything, and if he was, the prospect of taking them on and losing wasn’t much of a deterrence. Bob was, as Cam’ron would say, “about being about it.”

Pictured above: Official IGAS membership card. Big thanks to one of CCB’s nearest and dearest, Preeti Vissa-Kristipati, for hanging onto her membership card for ~20 years.

While Bob was fearless, he was, like many true geniuses, sometimes not the easiest person to work with. Phrases like “laid back” or “easy going” didn’t always apply to Bob professionally, but at minimum he was charming, nice to children, and clear on how to earn his respect.  All you had to do was be brave, stand up for what’s right, and disregard any potential consequences for you or your career. In other words, you’d have to be willing to stick your neck out.

Bob kept working almost until the end of his life, but he “retired” from Greenlining in 2008. I was part of the last group of young people that got to work directly with him at Greenlining. I feel very honored that I got to be an inductee into a group that only sort-of existed, but still had a membership base: The International Giraffe Appreciation Society.

There were no fees or meetings, you simply got an invite if you stuck your neck out for something important. So, coming full circle, CCB is always happy to stick our necks out and give a good idea our best regardless of the outcome — and we think about Bob whenever we do.

We’re proud community builders, and very proud giraffes!

Adam Briones, CEO

Pictured above: Esmeralda Lopez, UnidosUS & Adam Briones, CCB, testifying on behalf of AB 595.

AB 595: We’ll get ‘em next time

You may be thinking to yourself, ‘what was AB 595 again?” If it had passed, AB 595 would have directed the State Treasurer to create a $100 million pilot program to finance the construction of for-sale housing affordable to moderate- and middle-income Californians. You can always visit our page to find the technical details.

Why did we think this was needed?  Because no state, including California, consistently builds homes that working class families can afford to buy, slamming the door shut on the benefits of homeownership for these families.  The reason no one builds these units is simple. Money to finance construction does not exist at scale at the state or federal level.

The structure of the program would have centered around the use of tradable tax credits similar to the federal and state Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program, an idea that is gaining traction nationally. A similar for-sale tax credit program is being actively considered at the federal level through the Neighborhood Homes Investment Act.  

We didn’t win this year, but we do want to thank the great team we had in this effort, specifically Esmeralda Lopez at UnidosUS, Emily Jones and Max Dubler at California YIMBY, and Sosan Madanat at W Strategies. I also want to recognize the great folks who went above and beyond in helping us to secure community support, including John Gamboa, Robert Apodaca, Giuliana Ramirez, and Willie Ellison!

Like all good ideas, this one will take a while, but what’s important is to get started. We’ll get ‘em next time!

How to Raise Billions for Racial Equity in California:

A guest blog on an innovative new tool for public funding

By Professor Jeremy Bearer-Friend, George Washington University Law School  

California is not in good shape financially, and in an effort to address some of the many challenges we face, a number of elected officials are looking at how additional revenue could be raised via increased corporate taxes.

Some of you may remember that back in January, we released a guest blog post from Professor Jeremy Bearer-Friend on an innovative idea he’s working on that could raise billions of dollars for California by aligning the profit motive of corporations with the needs of the public sector.

While we don’t have a position on the current tax discussion — and even less influence — we thought it might be worthwhile to re-share the concept Jeremy wrote about. In his words:

“A version of my federal reparations proposal could also be adopted in California. Although a tax paid in stock may seem radical, the private sector has long recognized that cash is not always the best form of exchange for a transaction. The highest-paid CEOs typically receive the majority of their compensation in stock, not cash. Many of the largest mergers in our country are also paid for in stock, not cash. The public sector has left an enormously powerful tool out of its toolbox by assuming all taxes should be paid in cash.”

2024 Annual Report: Our Latest and Greatest

Did you know we released our 2024 annual report a few months ago? You do if you subscribe to our LinkedIn page, but here’s another chance if you missed it!