The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS)has asked the U.S. Senate Banking Committee to urge federal regulators to leaveintact a court decision giving the company’s owners the right to access itsballots to seek approval of director election procedures.
Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox hassaid he wishes to move forward by asking an incomplete Commissioner’s panel toapprove a proposal nullifying the court ruling and precluding shareowners frombrining shareowner proposals that would allow them to nominate directors throughproxy ballots. The proposed rule changewould eliminate the proxy access rights for the 2008 season.
“This ill-timed proposal before a sub-set of the Commissionis unfair, unwise, violates the core principle of ‘do no harm’ to shareowners,and is contrary to the very purpose for which the SEC was established,” DennisJohnson, Senior Portfolio Manager of CalPERS’ Corporate Governance, said at ahearing of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. “The Commission should stand for morecorporate democracy, not less democracy. For all the sophistication of our markets in the