A quick follow-up on my Sudan post from yesterday: city finance and budget spokesman Wendy Abrams says all of the city’s pension funds are “invested in accordance with the Illinois Sudan Divestment Rule”–in other words, they comply with state law, which forbids all state retirement systems and local pension funds from having known links to Sudan. “Further,” she adds, “according to our portfolio managers, there are no corporate bonds in the City portfolio (both operating and Skyway) that are linked to Sudan.”
So it wasn’t fair for me to suggest yesterday that no one in the city had paid this issue any attention. But I still say that while Alderman Dowell has the best intentions, fair is fair, and if the City Council is going to demand that the University of Chicago divest, it should also make sure that city contractors and other major institutions in Chicago have done so too. Am I wrong?