NYC Comptroller Brad Lander and Trustees of the City’s Five Public Pension Systems Release Annual Shareowner Initiatives Report for 2025 Proxy Voting Season

New York, NY – Today, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and trustees of the five New York City public pension systems (the Systems) released the annual Shareholder Initiatives Postseason Report for the 2025 proxy voting season, ending on June 30, 2025. The Comptroller’s Office is responsible for voting the proxies of each of the Systems and implementing each of their shareholder initiatives.

“This year’s postseason report shows that principled engagement still works, even when the challenges of a changing regulatory environment create headwinds. With shareholder rights increasingly under pressure, the need to implement sound corporate governance practices to enhance long-term value is even more important. The five New York City public pension systems remain leaders on this issue, and I am grateful to our Corporate Governance and Responsible Investment team for their work at this pivotal moment,” said New York City Comptroller Brad Lander.

The 2025 proxy season was dominated by the changing regulatory landscape at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including a new Staff Legal Bulletin from the SEC concerning Rule 14a-8, as well as an increase in efforts by publicly traded companies to exclude proposals through no-action requests (up 96% since 2023). Additionally, revised guidance on Schedules 13D and 13G beneficial ownership reporting had a chilling effect on both investors and investment manager engagement.

Several states also advanced or passed laws banning the consideration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in investment and proxy-voting decisions. Against this backdrop, there was growing reluctance to support shareholder proposals, including those focused on long-term risk management. As a result, average support for ESG shareholder proposals, (excluding anti-ESG proposals) fell to its lowest level since 2018.

Despite these challenges, there were some highlights. The Systems reached agreements on 16 of the 27 submitted proposals this proxy season, and advanced strategic shareholder engagements and proposals aimed at strengthening corporate governance and transparency in the areas of human capital, climate risk and the energy transition. In addition, the Comptroller’s Office successfully defended all six shareholder proposals challenged in SEC no-action requests, ensuring each appeared on the ballot for a shareholder vote.

This year, the Comptroller’s Office, on behalf of the Systems, submitted shareholder proposals calling for the disclosure of an Energy Supply Ratio (ESR) at Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo – and the methodology for calculating it. As the energy transition continues rapidly, investors seek to better assess how banks are affected and responding. The Ratio provides investors with an important dollar-based disclosure metric that complements and supplements the bank’s existing emission-based climate disclosures.  In the 2024 proxy season, Citi, JPMorgan, and Royal Bank of Canada committed to disclose their ESR.

The Comptroller’s Office also submitted shareholder proposals to electric utilities requesting disclosure of an independent third-party evaluation of the alignment of their short- and medium-term greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets with the Paris Agreement goals of limiting global temperature rise.

Additional highlights of the Comptroller’s Office proxy season engagement on behalf of the Systems include:

Workforce Diversity, Safety and Human Rights

• Reached agreements with American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines to enhance disclosure related to their management of the growing risks associated with high temperatures, particularly frontline and ground operations personnel, including contractors.
• Reached agreements with Brown-Forman, CrowdStrike, Gap Inc., and Live Nation for disclosure of Consolidated EEO-1 Reports, which has become common market practice since the Systems launched a successful initiative in July 2020. As of January 27, 2025, more than 80% of S&P 500 companies and over 50% of Russell 1000 companies had voluntarily disclosed their EEO-1 Reports, reflecting the disclosure of the reports as a market standard practice. This marked a dramatic shift from 2018, when fewer than 1% of companies disclosed the report.
• In response to a shareholder proposal concerning its adherence of its use of AI with its Global Human Rights Policy, Uber committed to update its Human Rights Policy to reflect AI usage, disclosing its Responsible AI Principles, and including the Board’s oversight role in its 2025 disclosures.

Corporate Governance Reform

• Reached an agreement with NextEra Energy to enhance its board-level disclosure following years of engagement and strong shareholder support (including 49% in 2023 and 41% in 2024). Agreements to improve transparency were also reached with Boyd Gaming Corporation and Corpay, Inc.
• Reached agreements to strengthen board evaluation practices and disclosures with Loews Corporation, Monolithic Power Systems, Ross Stores and TG Therapeutics.

During Fiscal Year 2025, the Comptroller’s Office, on behalf of the Systems, submitted shareholder proposals to 27 portfolio companies and voted on 16,620 shareholder meetings in 73 markets globally. This includes 3,004 annual and special meetings for U.S. companies.

Proxy voting decisions for each of the Systems can be viewed on the Comptroller’s Proxy Voting Dashboard, and are available in advance of the meeting at which the votes are officially cast via proxy. To learn more about the corporate governance and shareholder efforts of the Systems, read the full annual postseason report for Fiscal Year 2025 at https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/new-york-city-retirement-systems-2025-shareholder-initiatives.

About the  five New York City public pension systems
The five New York City public pension systems comprise the City’s five public pension funds (the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, Teachers’ Retirement System, Police Pension Fund, Fire Pension Fund and Board of Education Retirement System), and, collectively, are the third largest pension system in the nation, valued at approximately $294.61 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2025.

In addition to Comptroller Lander, trustees of the 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), Antonio Reynoso (Brooklyn), Donovan Richards Jr. (Queens), Vito Fossella (Staten Island), and Vanessa L. Gibson (Bronx); Henry Garrido, Executive Director, District Council 37, AFSCME; John Chiarello, President, Transport Workers Union Local 100; and Gregory Floyd, President, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 237.

Teachers’ Retirement System of the City of New York (TRS): Mayor Eric Adams’ Appointee Bryan Berge, Director, Mayor’s Office of Pension and Investments; Greg Faulkner, Chair, New York City Public Schools Panel for Educational Policy; and Thomas Brown (Chair), Victoria Lee, and Christina McGrath, 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 Robert S. Tucker (Chair); New York City Finance Commissioner Preston Niblack; Andrew Ansbro, President, Robert Eustace, Vice President, Chris Viola, Treasurer, and Dennis Tveter, Chair, Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York; Joe Camastro, Lieutenants’ Rep., Liam Guilfoyle, Captain’s Rep., and Sean Michael, Chief’s Rep., Uniformed Fire Officers Association; and John Young, 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 Jessica Tisch (Chair); Chris Monahan, Captains Endowment Association; Louis Turco, Lieutenants Benevolent Association; Vincent Vallelong, Sergeants Benevolent Association; Scott Munro, Detectives Endowment Association; and Patrick Hendry, President, Albert Alcierno, First Vice President, Betty Carradero, Second Vice President and Mike Freeman, Chair, all of the NYC Police Benevolent Association.

Board of Education Retirement System of the City of New York (BERS):  New York City Public Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos, Represented by Karine Apollon; Mayoral appointees Marjorie Dienstag, Amy Fair, Gregory Faulkner, Anita Garcia, Anthony Giordano, Dr. Angela Green, Alice Ho, Yadira Jimenez, Jessamyn Lee, Sharon Odwin, Alan Ong, Phoebe Sade-Arnold, Maisha Sapp; CEC appointees Adriana Alecia, Debra Altman, Faraji Hannah-Jones, Naveed Hasan, Brenida Parsons; Borough President Appointees Camille Casaretti (Brooklyn); Rima Izquierdo (Bronx); Marielle Ali (Manhattan); Shirley Aubin (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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