THE leader and president of the California Public Utilities Commission is being criticized by groups that are indifferent to the plight of our state’s six million Asian Americans and 600,000 Asian American-owned businesses.
Our great friend in California, Governor Brown, is in a unique position to address these criticisms since CPUC President Mike Peevey has been the leader for almost a decade in fighting for the rights of Asian Americans and other minorities in terms of business contracts, senior management opportunities and greater philanthropy to none English speaking new immigrants.
One example of this leadership that is quite extraordinary is that no major federal government agency awards more than 1% of its contracts to Asian American owned businesses. In fact, virtually no Fortune 500 corporations in America award more than 1% of contracts to our nation’s two million Asian American owned businesses. Yet, despite California’s Prop 209 precluding preferences for minorities, President Peevey has led many Fortune 500 corporations to the Asian American small business doorstep.
Today, largely as a result of his efforts, we receive five times as great a percentage of contracts than we receive under the federal or even the California government system. Some Fortune 500 corporations, as a result of President Peevey’s efforts, award almost 10 times more (10%) than the federal government to Asian American owned businesses.
In most of America, including Fortune 500 corporations, Asian American’s are absent from boards of directors and senior management. It is what California’s Asian Pacific Legislative Caucus Chairman Warren Furutani labels a “bamboo ceiling” for Asian Americans. That is, only 2% of Fortune 500 board members are from the Asian American community, including just one Filipino American. In contrast, as a result of President Peevey’s leadership, all the major utility companies, such as SDG&G, SoCal Edison and PG&E, have Asian Americans on their boards.
Throughout America, Fortune 500 corporations generally provide little or no philanthropy to the estimated 50,000 struggling Asian American nonprofits seeking to help us adjust and prosper in America. But in California, due to President Peevey’s leadership, some of the biggest philanthropic contributors are among the utilities he regulates, largely as a result of his leadership efforts. This includes $25 million from AT&T annually in philanthropy that is focused almost exclusively on underserved minority communities.
We are unaware of any Asian American organizations in California who want to see President Peevey leave the CPUC or lose his presidency. In a series of efforts to ensure the President Peevey’s diversity legacy, we will be visiting each of the 11 Asian American members of the Asian Pacific Legislative Caucus and Governor Brown’s Filipino American Appointment Secretary Mona Pasquel, urging the Legislature and the Governor to express their confidence in President Peevey’s leadership and request that he remain as president.
Twenty-five million California minorities need and want the unique Peevey leadership style that encourages Fortune 500 corporations to work with, not against us. California’s future needs the Peevey leadership style, a style that created, for example, a unanimous CPUC decision favoring more assistance to our struggling small businesses.
On October 17th, we honored two Asian American leaders, including Mike Eng, the author of the successful California legislative resolution that condemns exclusion beginning with the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. Mike Eng’s resolution calls for a Day of Inclusion Holiday every December 17th. We hope at the ceremonies on the December 17th, President Peevey unique effort of inclusion, rather than exclusion, are honored.
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Weekend Oct 29-Nov 1, 2011 Sec A pg.12)
