The New America Alliance will meet with Texas pension and government officials this month to discuss the lack of involvement by Hispanic businesses in the state's pensions. The meeting will be held Aug. 23 in Houston. "Pretty much all their figures are close to zero," said Martin Cabrera, NAA board member. The organization already has the support of Councilwoman Carol Alvarado, who last August wrote an Op-Ed piece in the Houston Chronicle criticizing the lack of Hispanic-owned investment firms in Houston's three major funds, the police, fire and municipal plans. According to the article, Hispanic-owned firms' participation in the plans was 0.002%.
The meeting comes on the heels of a similar meeting in Los Angeles two weeks ago. Cabrera said the plans were receptive and the NAA is "working with the pension funds to see how they can address the situation more." He noted the Los Angeles City Employees Retirement System is near completing an emerging manager-of-managers search and also performed a study on its brokerage program to identify barriers keeping Latino businesses out of the plan.