Minorities San Francisco

Spurred by the planned closing of a Wells Fargo Bank branch in an inner-city San Francisco neighborhood, several California business and civil rights organizations have appealed to federal regulators to develop a national plan to aid minority communities they say have been abandoned by major banks. In a six-page letter sent Monday to the heads of the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Contending that his clients want a "level playing field," a lawyer representing seven white San Francisco police officers filed a "reverse discrimination" suit to obtain "a colorblind and sex-blind opportunity to advance." In the Superior Court complaint, attorney Robert E. Gyemant claimed that less-qualified minority officers have been promoted in order to meet "racial quotas" set a decade ago by a court-ordered affirmative action plan.

The San Francisco Police Department's agreement last March to extend an integration plan will require the promotion of hundreds of officers by 1993, according to the judge overseeing the program. The city argued that because of a tight budget, promotions should be scaled back, but U.S. District Judge Robert Peckham said the city must continue to meet a yearly promotion quota of 15 assistant inspectors and 25 sergeants.

Spurred by the planned closing of a Wells Fargo Bank branch in an inner-city San Francisco neighborhood, several California business and civil rights organizations have appealed to federal regulators to develop a national plan to aid minority communities they say have been abandoned by major banks. In a six-page letter sent Monday to the heads of the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The assault on First Interstate started about 3 p.m. one Friday last September. Without warning, pickets showed up outside its banks in Albuquerque, N.M., Denver, Oakland, Phoenix and Seattle. The marchers, carrying signs protesting lending policies, were from Acorn (the Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now). The picketing was the opening salvo in a confrontation between the activist group based in Little Rock, Ark., and the nation's ninth-largest banking company.

Merrill Lynch & Co. announced Wednesday that it will invest at least $77 million in minority communities in Los Angeles and Orange counties as part of a 10-year economic development partnership with local community groups.

In what may put more pressure on banks to expand lending to low-income groups, a coalition of California civil rights and business groups on Monday asked regulators to block Wells Fargo Bank's proposed acquisition of American National Bank because of Wells' alleged failure to follow equal opportunity employment and lending practices. The complaint is among a growing number of challenges of bank mergers by community groups nationwide under the federal Community Reinvestment Act.

When a court stopped the city of San Diego from enforcing affirmative action rules in awarding city contracts, contractors stopped hiring women- and minority-owned firms. "It was disastrous," said Debra Fischle-Faulk, the city's equal opportunity contracting manager, reviewing 1994 figures. Participation rates for minorities plunged from a high of 21.3% to about 2% after the court ruling. San Francisco, also under court pressure, had to drop a requirement that Asian Americans be given preference because a study found that they received more than a quarter of the city's architectural contracts.

When a court stopped the city of San Diego from enforcing affirmative action rules in awarding city contracts, contractors stopped hiring women- and minority-owned firms. "It was disastrous," said Debra Fischle-Faulk, the city's equal opportunity contracting manager, reviewing 1994 figures. Participation rates for minorities plunged from a high of 21.3% to about 2% after the court ruling.

A Bush administration policy of turning National Park Service jobs over to the private sector could reduce visitor services and cause unexpected layoffs, as well as undermine the agency's efforts to create a more ethnically diverse work force, according to an internal memorandum by Park Service Director Fran Mainella.

The assault on First Interstate started about 3 p.m. one Friday last September. Without warning, pickets showed up outside its banks in Albuquerque, N.M., Denver, Oakland, Phoenix and Seattle. The marchers, carrying signs protesting lending policies, were from Acorn (the Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now). The picketing was the opening salvo in a confrontation between the activist group based in Little Rock, Ark., and the nation's ninth-largest banking company.