Apartheid Policy--a Dilemma for West Hollywood

In April, the West Hollywood City Council approved one of the nation’s toughest anti-apartheid policies, prohibiting not only investments in companies linked to South Africa but also purchases from those companies.

Soon after the law was approved, West Hollywood employees stopped buying Coca-Cola for the council’s weekly meetings, City Hall was purged of rented IBM typewriters and one brand of cookies ceased to be a popular City Hall snack.

Eight months later, as the city prepares to buy cars, typewriters and a computer system, some city officials say the policy may be too tough, forcing the city to buy inferior products. City Council members said they are looking for a way to continue efficient operations without abandoning a human rights stand that they consider central to the city’s progressive outlook.

“It’s a dilemma,” Councilwoman Helen Albert said. “It’s a question of whether to sacrifice our principles or to sacrifice efficiency in City Hall.”

The City Council is scheduled tonight to consider an amendment to the law to permit it to buy goods from companies that do business in South Africa if those businesses promote equal rights and an end to apartheid.

Los Angeles in August ordered withdrawal of city deposits from banks doing business in South Africa. It also decided to gradually purge the city’s $4 billion in pension funds of stocks in companies with South African ties. Like most cities, however, Los Angeles did not limit purchases from any companies.

In West Hollywood, city employees found it easy to switch from Coke to other soft drinks but other changes have not been as painless. The city stopped renting office equipment and typewriters from IBM and Xerox because of their links to South Africa, instead leasing a hodgepodge of lesser-known brands.

Now the city, which was incorporated in November, 1984, is ready to buy its own typewriters, as well as computers and three cars, according to Jeri Chenelle, assistant city manager.

Under the current city law, the three major U.S. car makers will not be allowed to bid, Chenelle said. Hewlett-Packard, a specialist in computer systems for cities, is also disqualified because of its sales subsidiary in South Africa.

“It would be advantageous to the city to be able to solicit bids from established, reliable companies which provide products needed by the city,” Chenelle’s report to the City Council said. “The financial impact on firms with South African subsidiaries would not be noticed at all if we bought inferior products, yet the impact on the city would be very significant.”

Chenelle has asked the council to allow purchases from companies that follow the so-called Sullivan Principles. Written by the Rev. Leon Sullivan, a black Philadelphia preacher and a member of the board of directors of the General Motors Corp., the principles set goals for U.S. companies in South Africa, including desegregating workplaces, paying all races equally, improving living conditions for all races and supporting the end of apartheid.

An independent accounting firm ranking companies’ compliance to the principles found that Coca-Cola, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, General Motors and 28 other U.S. companies were making good progress last year with the Sullivan Principles. Another 44 of the 300 U.S. companies in South Africa were judged to have made some progress.

However, some City Council members believe that the Sullivan Principles do not go far enough. Councilman Alan Viterbi said he opposes the proposed amendment.

Berkeley, one of a handful of cities with purchasing bans, has rejected use of the Sullivan Principles as a measure of which companies are fit to do business with the city. Berkeley officials said that since enacting the purchasing ban in July, they have spent long hours searching for so-called “clean” companies.

“It takes up a tremendous amount of time, because we have to check and double-check,” purchasing director John Hornsby said. “It does preclude you from completing day-to-day operations more efficiently.”

Hornsby said the Berkeley law can be waived by the City Council if the city cannot get the products it wants from companies that are not tied to South Africa. The city is considering streamlining its policy so that the city manager, rather than the council, can approve waivers to the divestment law.