Charles Halpern's open letter on bond sales and conflict of interest to the CIRM Finance Committee

To Members of the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Finance Committee

Dear Chairman Angelides and Committee members:

The California Stem Cell Research and Cures Finance Committee ("the Committee") plays a critical role in the structure of Proposition 71. It is charged by Section 125291(a) to "determine whether or not it is necessary or desirable to issue bonds authorized pursuant to this article…and, if so, the amount of bonds to be issued and sold." In other words, the Committee has gatekeeper responsibility -- deciding when and if bonds will be issued, and in what amounts, based on its determination regarding necessity and desirability.

The "necessary or desirable" determination is particularly important in this instance because the Treasurer, the Controller, and the Finance Director are the only officials answerable to the electorate who have a role in overseeing the expenditure of public funds by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). The voters who supported Proposition 71 expect that no bonds will be issued until the Committee has concluded that it is necessary and desirable to do so, after giving careful...