The Davis Finance Commission voted to send a revised subcommittee memo on socially responsible investing (SRI) to the City Council and to recommend a middle-path policy labeled Option 2.

The subcommittee's memo presented three options for aligning the city's investment policy with community values and a separate, optional occupation-based exclusion drawn from a list maintained by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). At the meeting the subcommittee lead said most of the city's current holdings are in pooled or state-managed funds that the commission cannot direct and that two of the memo's options could be implemented by the city's investment manager without additional cost.

After extensive discussion about scope and administration — including whether the AFSC occupation list was disproportionately focused on one geographic conflict and the staff burden of an annual list review — the commission moved to recommend Option 2 "as laid out in this memo," explicitly excluding the occupation/human-rights amendment from its recommendation. The commission then directed staff to revise the memo before transmittal "to remove any references to the human-rights based investment exclusion, complete the company list, and correct the date and page numbering." A separate amendment to strike three broad categories from the Option 1 sample language (items 14–16) carried 4–3.

Why it matters: the commission's recommendation is advisory to the City Council but signals the city's preference for a targeted SRI approach that avoids administratively burdensome or narrowly focused occupation-based screenings. Commissioners framed the choice as weighing symbolic action against administrative feasibility and potential future politicization.

What the commission decided:
- Recommend Option 2 (subcommittee's middle option) to the City Council and exclude the AFSC occupation amendment from that recommendation.
- Direct staff/subcommittee to revise the memo by removing the occupation-based sections, completing the company appendix and correcting minor errors (page numbers, date) before sending it to council.
- Adopt a narrower sample-language amendment to Option 1 by striking categories 14–16 (vote 4–3).
- Continue remaining agenda items to the next meeting.

Quotes from the meeting: the subcommittee lead summarized the work as "we were asked to review the city investment policy and to present some information to the city council about ways to better align the investment policy of the city with socially responsible principles." Commissioners urged clarity about which subsectors would be affected and whether renewable energy firms would be unintentionally excluded.

Next steps: staff will implement the requested edits and prepare the revised memo for transmittal to the City Council; the commission scheduled unfinished items for the next meeting.