Alan Montecillo: Hi.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: And I also have our producer, Maria Esquinca. What’s up, Maria?
Maria Esquinca: Hello.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: And here’s the deal. We’re kind of doing something a little different today. We only get three slots a week to bring you a story. And there’s so much happening in the Bay Area that we definitely cannot get into. Can you talk a little bit more about that, Maria?
Maria Esquinca: Yeah, so I think three slots sounds like a lot, but there’s a lot going on in the Bay Area, so we don’t always really get to talk about things that we’re really interested about. And so yeah, I think we are all news people and we all have other things that we want to talk about and we thought this would be like a cool idea to bring something a little bit different.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Right. So, today we’re bringing you a little peek into what we call the white board. Alan, can you explain what the white board is or was, I guess?
Alan Montecillo: Well, until March of 2020, I was a literal white board, and I hold office, which included everything from our plans for the week, you know, meetings that we had to go to and stuff, but really story ideas. The white board is now a Google doc.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Thanks to the pandemic.
Alan Montecillo: Yeah. And so we wanted to just give listeners a peek into some of the other things that each of us individually has been following beyond the sort of three-day-a-week deep-dive kind of storytelling that folks are used to hearing.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: All right. So today, me, Maria and Alan, the Bay team are going to talk about three stories that were on our radars this month. Alan, I will start with you. What story did you pick?
Alan Montecillo: Well, my story is more of an update to an episode we did earlier this month, and that’s the San Jose City workers strike, or lack thereof. Actually, there was going to be a strike with about 4500 city workers beginning Tuesday the 15th. But at the last minute, the city council and the two unions representing those workers reached a tentative deal and the strike was called off.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: And it was actually going to be one of the biggest strikes in the city’s history, right?
Alan Montecillo: Yeah, By some estimates, it would have been the largest strike of that size in San Jose since the 1980s. I mean, it would have been enormous. You’re talking about workers from the airport to the zoo to the libraries, not fire and police and not garbage. But there’s no doubt this strike would have had a huge impact.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: So, what happened? How did they what was the deal that they came to?
Alan Montecillo: So, there are a number of things in the tentative agreement. I mean, these negotiations are always very complex with pay and benefits. But really the sticking point has always been about wage increases. And so initially the two unions wanted pay increases over three fiscal years of 7%, 6% and 5%. And then the city’s offer was 5%, 4%, 3% over that same period. So seven, six five versus five, four, three. In a literal sense, the two sides really did meet in the middle on this because the agreement that was reached was for 6% the first fiscal year, 5% the second fiscal year, and 4% the next fiscal year.
Maria Esquinca: So, back when we did our episode on this with Guy Marzorati, I remember that the mayor wasn’t exactly too enthused about potentially reaching a deal. I think his concern was reopening the budget. And I think since the deal, he kind of came out with similar sentiments. But I’m curious, where does he stand now and where does the rest of the city council stand in there as well?
Alan Montecillo: Yeah, I mean, I think Mayor Matt Mahan would have been happy if they did reach a deal and the deal stuck at 5% because that’s the number that he really wanted. Now, it’s important to note that the mayor is not the chief decider on this. It’s the city council. And actually that they’re the ones who empower the city manager to negotiate with the unions, I should say, voted to approve this sort of six, five, four compromise. And Mahan came out again and said he wasn’t happy with this deal.
Matt Mahan: But our council did not do its job. Our leaders were elected to represent the people and the needs of the people took a backseat.
Alan Montecillo: He felt like the city couldn’t afford it. He had said in the past that if you go too high, the council would have to go back into the budget that they already approved to try and find the money to reach to go up from that 5% that they budgeted for up to 6%, and that that would mean cuts in important services. But in the end, I mean, Mahan was outvoted. You know, he is the mayor. He’s the most public face of the city. But he was only one vote on the city council. Another council member who was really pushing to bring the council back and negotiate over this was Pam Foley. She said, look, you know, this compromise was necessary to keep city services running.
Pam Foley: We really depend on public works, Department of Transportation, Parks and Rec, all of those staff to help make life easier for our residents.
Maria Esquinca: So I’m kind of curious, like what happens next, Alan?
Alan Montecillo: Well, actually, as we’re taping on this, the union is voting on it right now. They’re widely expected to approve the deal. I mean, workers, that guy kind of circled back with from his original reporting said that they are pleased to see this increase. Assuming the union approves it and the council will have to go back into the budget that they passed and find ways to get up to that 6% pay increase. And we’ll see if what Mayor Mahan says is true, you know, whether or not the council really will need to make cuts in other areas that will harm residents in other ways, or maybe that won’t be the case. Maybe there will be money elsewhere and areas that residents won’t notice. We’ll just have to see how it goes. I mean, you know, budget stuff is is not the most exciting thing, but in the end, it’s about providing services to residents. So we’ll see what happens.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Okay. Now it’s actually my turn. And I’ve got this really interesting story out of Fairfield of Solano County, the 707 say it backwards. Basically, what’s happening is that there is a new land owner in Solano County. Actually, they’re now the biggest land owners in the entire county, and no one knows who they are. So this is a story that was actually first reported by The Wall Street Journal, and it’s about this investment firm called Flannery Associates. And this firm purchased 50,000 acres of land in Solano County for nearly $1,000,000,000, an amount that the investment firm itself has acknowledged is actually way over market value. So they spent a lot of a lot of money on this land. And what’s interesting about this story is that it’s. Not just any land. It’s actually this sort of dry, agricultural, grazing land that now surrounds the Travis Air Force Base on three sides.
Maria Esquinca: I’m curious, like, what are people saying or talking about?
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: It’s actually raising a lot of red flags, especially among lawmakers who represent this area for them, like what’s happening here and the fact that there is so much that we don’t know about who is buying this land is raising a lot of actually national security concerns because of just the significance of Travis Air Force Base. So I have this clip from John Garamendi, who is a Democrat who represents this part of Solano County, just kind of talking about how important Travis Air Force Base is.
John Garamendi Travis Air Force Base is absolutely a critical national defense. The munitions for Ukraine. A lot of that flights out of Travis Air Force Base all the way to Poland. And it is also the gateway to the Pacific. So what’s happening here? We don’t know.
Alan Montecillo: Are there any theories as to who might be behind Flannery? Because that clip you played from Congressman Garamendi suggests that he – I mean, he specifically is suggesting that this is some sort of national security risk.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Right. The Wall Street Journal reported that Flannery had previously told the county that the entity is basically just a bunch of American and European families looking to diversify their portfolio. And The Hill reported that the firm is registered as an agricultural company. We also know from The Wall Street Journal that Flannery is registered actually in Delaware, where I didn’t know this, but L.L.C.’s don’t have to publicly disclose the identity of their owners in Delaware. So, that sort of adds to the like difficulty around figuring out who these people actually are. But yeah, it’s just sort of a weird story.
Maria Esquinca: It’s spooky.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Actually, the FBI and the Treasury Department and the Department of Defense are all now investigating Flannery and its investments. And the reason why is because there is sort of context to this story, which is that there was a previous attempt by a Chinese owned firm to buy up land in North Dakota. And this was a purchase that the Air Force base there had opposed, citing national security risk. So, there is this fear that being so close to an an Air Force base like Travis kind of sort of opened the door for spying. But KQED has reported that there is no evidence so far to suggest that Flannery has ties with China.
Alan Montecillo: Do we have any idea what these folks want to do with this land?
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: The most we know is that earlier this week, the mayor of Fairfield, Catherine Moy, actually posted something on Facebook about how she’s been hearing from Solano County residents about this, a supposed poll that has been sent out by Flannery to Solano County residents that kind of outlines a sort of proposal for what they want to do with the land. And it includes a plan to build tens of thousands of new homes, a large solar energy farm, orchards with over a million new trees and over 10,000 acres of new parks and open space. I mean, I think it’s still kind of unclear what exactly is going to happen with this land. But I think at the end of the day, we still have no idea who is behind Flannery.
Alan Montecillo: It’s also a little strange that the most info we know is coming from a poll that the mayor is finding out secondhand.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Yeah, definitely. And also it’s kind of strange that this kind of came out on Facebook when there’s also like an FBI and federal investigations into this group. So, yeah, I guess it remains to be seen who exactly is behind Flannery and why are they so interested in Fairfield. So that is my story. Last but not least, Maria. What story is on your radar this month?
Maria Esquinca: So, a story that stood out to me was the story about the family of Henrietta Lacks. They’re suing a Bay Area company called Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical based in Novato.
Alan Montecillo: Henrietta Lacks is a pretty, I’d say pretty famous name, but I don’t know if everyone remembers her story. So can you remind us about that?
Maria Esquinca: We have to go back to 1951 Henrietta Lacks. She was a black woman at the time that had cervical cancer, and she was being treated for Johns Hopkins. And basically doctors took her cells from her womb without her consent or without her knowledge. And the reason they they did that was because at the time, they were kind of trying to see if cells could survive out of the body. They had not been able to do this with anyone. But Henrietta’s cells were different. She she’s actually described as miraculous. Some people have called her cells an immortal cell line because once they were outside of her body, they didn’t instantly die and they were actually able to reproduce every 24 to 48 hours. Her cells have contributed, I think, to all of our lives. Her cells have been used to create the polio vaccine. They helped create the COVID vaccine. They’ve helped with genetic mapping, cancer care, HIV treatment. But this all happened without her consent. It was a very clear case of medical racism. And her family has obviously very strong feelings about this. One of her granddaughters, Kimberly Lux, spoke about just her grandmother just sitting there not knowing what was going on with her.
Kimberley Lacks: I think about my grandmother, as I said before, laying and then hospital room and how they came in there when she had radiation going through her body in horrific pain. But all they were concerned about was taken cell tissues from her body.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: So you mentioned that this actually happened to Henrietta at Johns Hopkins, but what connection does the story have to the Bay Area?
Maria Esquinca: So, the connection to the Bay Area is that the family is suing this Bay Area pharmaceutical company that does gene therapy because they argue that they’ve benefited from her cells and they – this is like a multibillion dollar company and they have been successful with a similar case. In 2021, they sued another pharmaceutical company. And this year, actually the beginning of this month, they reached a settlement with that company.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: So, basically they’re suing this Bay Area company for profiting off of these cells.
Maria Esquinca: Exactly.
Kimberley Lacks: Has the family or their attorney said anything about this case specifically against Ultragenyx in Novato?
Maria Esquinca: No, specifically about ultragenyx. The family attorney ben crump actually was on democracy now! And he does talk about how the lawsuit is based on this idea of genetic justice and this belief that justice should flow from like one family to the next.
Attorney for Henrietta Lacks’ Family: If you are unjustly rich from the wrong doing, then you should not be allowed to continue to benefit the pearl of the victim, which is Henrietta Lacks.
Maria Esquinca: At the time they were specifically talking about this other settlement that just happened, but he did mention that they are that they plan to sue other other pharmaceutical companies.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: Well, that is it for the day’s first ever August news roundup. There’s still so much more on our whiteboard that we did not get to, but at least we got to do three more.
Alan Montecillo: We be here a long time.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra: We be here a real long time. Maria and Alan, thank you all so much.
Alan Montecillo: Thank you.
Maria Esquinca: Thank you.
