​2. PREPARE THE RESOLUTION

Here’s a template DIVEST TESLA CITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION. And here’s another. You can make a copy of this and edit it with specifics for your city, county or state. We recommend going to your city council members first, and if you have extra capacity talking with your state legislators or county council members after that. City councils often get more attention than county councils, and city councils can also move more quickly than state legislatures.

It is likely that a council member who commits to introducing a resolution will make changes to this template, but you can offer this as a starting place.

If meeting the council member in person, you can have a print version of the resolution to give them. You can also share a copy of the resolution with the council Member ahead of your meeting.

3. GET A COUNCIL MEMBER TO SPONSOR A RESOLUTION
 

This step is critical! Once you have a team in place, request a meeting with a city council member. We recommend that your team meets with as many council members as possible. However, if you have capacity to meet with one to two council members, prioritize council members who you believe will share this concern or who have spoken out about Tesla already.

When requesting a meeting, you should include the council members's staff on the request. Often their chief of staff is a good person to include on the request. Here’s a template email you can use to request a meeting with a council member. From your side, anywhere from five to 15 people is a good number to have in the meeting. If you are able to include people in the meeting who are constituents from the council member’s district, that is helpful.

Here’s some tips on how to run a successful lobbying meeting with a city council member.

Keep lobbying and organizing until you get a council member who commits to sponsoring a resolution! Once they commit to sponsoring a resolution, ask what date the resolution will be introduced. Once you know that, it’s time to move onto the next steps…
 

4. PRESSURE CITY COUNCIL TO VOTE ON THE DIVEST FROM ELON MUSK RESOLUTION
 

Got a council member sponsor? Got a date when the resolution will be introduced? Great! Now, it’s time to make sure every council member knows that they need to vote YES on the resolution. 

 

To do this, you should:
 

• Pack the city council meeting with supporters with Divest Tesla signs

• Have people give public testimony on why they support the resolution

• Have your supporters call and email council members, urging a YES vote 

• Alert the media to the resolution vote 

If you have capacity, you can organize a press conference with the council member

about the resolution. At a minimum, you should send out a press release letting the

media know about the resolution vote. See here for tips on writing a press release.
 

5. CELEBRATE AND GET READY FOR THE NEXT STEPS

Once the resolution passes, make sure you and your team celebrate this achievement! You should then schedule a follow up meeting to plan your next steps. There are lots of next steps you could take after this, including
 

• Contact pension fund staff to request a meeting about the Divest Tesla campaign

• Start organizing pension fund members to support the campaign

• Show up at the next meeting of the city’s pension fund board of trustees

• Work with the council member on pressuring pension staff to Divest Tesla

• Write an op-ed or LTE for your local paper about the campaign 

• Put your next big Tesla protest on the map and organize to make it as large as possible.
   

Only you can decide what your next steps will be, but having passed a city council resolution you’re well-placed to turbocharge your campaign from here. 

If you’re ready to lead a campaign to pass a City Council Resolution to Hold Musk Accountable, fill out this form and someone from our team will be in touch.
 

THINGS TO KNOW: 

​​

• What is a city council resolution?
   

       A city council resolution is a non-binding statement from the city council.
 

• Why does passing a city council resolution matter?
  
  When a city council passes a resolution, local media (TV, print, and radio) often report on it and it also gets traction on social media. It forces council members to publicly take a side on an issue and is a useful tool for further organizing. City council urging divestment from Tesla puts pressure on the staff and trustees of the city pension fund to act; a resolution calling on the city to not take on any new contracts to Tesla sends a powerful message and market signal.
   

• What happens after the resolution is passed?
  
  That’s up to you! If your resolution includes divesting public pensions, a natural next step would be to set up meetings with the staff and trustees of the city pension fund and urge them to commit to divestment from Tesla.
  
  If you are seeking to block future contracts or terminate existing contracts, you may want to consider submitting FOIA requests to obtain any government communications related to investments in or contracts with Musk’s companies. In the end, the next steps are up to you, but our team will help where we can!
   

• What progress has there already been in this campaign?
  ​
  Lots & lots. Here are a few highlights:

  • $20+ billion Danish pension fund, Akademiker, divests from Tesla

  • Dutch pension fund, ABP, divests its $600 million stake in Tesla 

  • 23 New York Senators and 28 Assembly Members publicly call for the State of New York to divest its $1 billion in shares from Tesla 

  • Leading candidate for the New York City Comptroller race, Justin Brennan pledges to divest NYC’s pension from Tesla

  • Major public-sector labor union in Canada calls on Canadian public pensions to divest from Tesla

  • The American Federation of Teachers, one of the largest labor unions in the country, calls on BlackRock, Vanguard and other asset managers to explore divestment from Tesla

  • 8 State Treasurers write an open letter to Tesla board