New York City Comptroller Lander and the City’s Pension Funds Release 2022 Shareholder Initiatives Postseason Report

New York, NY — New York City Comptroller Brad Lander today released the 2022 Shareholder Initiatives Postseason Report jointly with the five New York City Retirement Systems (NYCRS). The annual report highlights the work of the Systems to achieve corporate change through the efforts of the Bureau of Asset Management’s Corporate Governance and Responsible Investment team.

“As long-term investors responsible for providing retirement security for decades to come, the New York City Retirement Systems actively work with portfolio companies to align their business strategies and policies to create sustainable shareholder value. When a company’s behavior is not aligned with its mission and objectives, it endangers its reputation and risks destroying long-term shareholder value. I am grateful to our Corporate Governance and Responsible Investment team for their work to ensure companies are doing more of walking the walk, and less of talking the talk,” said New York City Comptroller Brad Lander.

“In 2022, the New York City Retirement Systems (NYCRS) successfully engaged portfolio companies in order to promote sound governance and create more sustainable business practices,” said Bryan Berge, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Pensions and Investments, chair of New York City Employees’ Retirement System Board of Trustees, and designated trustee for the New York City Police Pension Fund, Fire Pension Fund, and Teachers’ Retirement System. “NYCRS will continue to take action to support initiatives that protect long-term shareholder value and ensure retirement security to New York City’s active and retired employees.”

The Systems engage portfolio companies through shareholder actions and proxy voting to promote sound corporate governance and sustainable business practices that will protect and enhance long-term shareholder value. As trustee and investment advisor to the five New York City Retirement Systems, Comptroller Lander is responsible for voting the Systems’ proxies and implementing the Systems’ shareholder initiatives.

During Fiscal Year 2022, the Comptroller’s Office, on behalf of sponsoring Systems, submitted shareholder proposals to 25 portfolio companies and actively opposed the election of two directors at Amazon, Inc.

Season highlights include:

• Leading up to the May annual general meeting, all five Systems led a “vote no” campaign to oppose the election of two Amazon directors due to their inadequate oversight of the company’s health, safety, and labor practices which have repeatedly been found to violate state and federal law, workers’ rights, and Amazon’s own human rights policy. Amazon shareholders outside of the board cast 27% of their votes against director Judith McGrath.

• Since 2020, the Comptroller’s Office has spearheaded efforts to make disclosure of EEO-1 Reports a norm among S&P 100 companies. During this proxy season, the Office successfully engaged with 11 additional companies who committed to disclosing this workforce diversity data, now totaling more than 90 S&P 100 companies.

• Following engagement from the Comptroller’s office, Ford, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley committed to publicly disclose a Board Matrix with the self-identified race and ethnicity of each director.

• Carbon-intensive electric utilities Duke Energy and Dominion Energy enhanced their disclosures so that investors can assess whether their capital expenditures align with their commitments to achieve net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050.

• First-time shareholder proposals to curb opportunistic use of executives’ 10b5-1 stock trading plans received a historic 49% of support at Abbott Laboratories and 49.5% support at McKesson Corporation. The Securities and Exchange Commission has since announced stronger safeguards against insider trading.

In addition to robust corporate engagement, the Comptroller’s Office voted on 16,426 shareholder meetings during the proxy season, including 3,280 annual and special meetings for U.S. companies. The annual report covers proxy voting and shareholder proposal outcomes for the 12 months ending June 30, 2022. It includes detail on each shareholder proposal.

The report can be viewed in full here.

Proxy voting decisions for each of the Systems can be viewed here, and are available within 24 to 48 hours of electronic votes being submitted.

In addition to Comptroller Lander, the trustees of the aforementioned systems are as follows:

New York City Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS): Mayor Eric Adams’ Appointee Bryan Berge, Director, Mayor’s Office of Pension and Investments; New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams; Borough Presidents: Mark Levine (Manhattan), Donovan Richards (Queens), Antonio Reynoso (Brooklyn), Vito Fossella (Staten Island), and Vanessa L. Gibson (Bronx); Henry Garrido, Executive Director, District Council 37, AFSCME; Tony Utano, President Transport Workers Union Local 100; and Gregory Floyd, President, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 237.

Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS): Mayor Eric Adams’ Appointee Bryan Berge, Director, Mayor’s Office of Pension and Investments; Chancellor’s Representative, Benjamin Schanback, New York City Department of Education; and Debra Penny (Chair), Thomas Brown and David Kazansky, all of the United Federation of Teachers.

New York City Fire Pension Fund (Fire): Mayor Eric Adams’ Representative Bryan Berge, Director, Mayor’s Office of Pension and Investments; New York City Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh (Chair); New York City Finance Commissioner Preston Niblack; Andrew Ansbro, President, Robert Eustace, Vice President, Edward Brown, Treasurer, and Eric Bischoff, Staten Island Representative and Chair, Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York; Liam Guilfoyle, Captains’ Rep.; James Brosi, Chiefs’ Rep., and Christopher Jensen, Lieutenants’ Rep., Uniformed Fire Officers Association; and Peter Devita, Marine Engineers Association.

New York City Police Pension Fund (Police): Mayor Eric Adams’ Representative Bryan Berge, Director, Mayor’s Office of Pension and Investments; New York City Finance Commissioner Preston Niblack; New York City Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell (Chair); Chris Monahan, Captains Endowment Association; Louis Turco, Lieutenants Benevolent Association; Vincent Vallelong, Sergeants Benevolent Association; Paul DiGiacomo, Detectives Endowment Association; and Patrick Lynch, John Puglissi, Joseph Alejandro, and Artie Egner, all of the NYC Police Benevolent Association.

Board of Education Retirement System (BERS): Schools Chancellor David C. Banks, Represented by Seritta Scott; New York City Comptroller Brad Lander’s Representative Alison Hirsh; Mayoral: Vasthi Acosta, Marjorie Dienstag, Gregory Faulkner, Dr. Angela Green, Kyle Kimball, Alan Ong, Maisha Sapp, Karina Taveras, Gladys Ward; Thomas Sheppard (CEC); Geneal Chacon (Bronx); Tazin Azad (Brooklyn); Kaliris Salas-Ramirez (Manhattan); Sheree Gibson (Queens); Aaron Bogad (Staten Island); and employee members John Maderich of the IUOE Local 891 and Donald Nesbit of District Council 37, Local 372.

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