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Vermont Exxon-Mobil Proxy Votes Cancel Out
Vermont Exxon-Mobil Proxy Votes Canel Out
Two different fund managers handling Vermont retirement funds voted “180 degrees opposite” last May on whether Exxon-Mobil should restore a Mobil Corporation lesbian, gay and transgender anti-discrimination policy, according to State Treasurer Jeb Spaulding. The initiative was defeated when 27percent of shareholder proxies were voted in favor, leaving Exxon-Mobil as one of just 10 Fortune 100 companies without an anti-discrimination policy.
Voting share proxies in a conscious and deliberate manner to advance state economic and social interests was a campaign issue for Spaulding in the 2002 election.
The management of the retirement funds for teachers and state employees rests with the Treasurer’s office, but the fiduciary responsibility is vested in each fund’s board of directors, Spaulding explained. He had begun a discussion with the state employees’ retirement fund board regarding voting proxies in February, he said. “But it’s a long educational process.”
In search of examples to illustrate why Vermont’s shares should be actively voted, Spaulding said he called various fund managers to find out how they had voted on several questions during annual meetings this spring. He discovered that two different fund managers for the teachers’ retirement fund had voted in opposite ways on the Exxon-Mobil anti-discrimination policy question – one voted for and one against.
Spaulding noted that nondiscrimination language is state policy and law. “I find it inappropriate that a fund manager would vote against such a policy. I regret that we didn’t get this going in time to have an impact on this vote,” he said. “I didn’t know I’d have this opportunity to impact an issue of importance for the gay and lesbian community. I was unpleasantly surprised,” he added, to find that some proxies had been voted against inclusive policies.
Some proxy issues are strictly money-management related (such as “expensing stock options”), and “some are just the right thing to do,” he said.
The opposite votes by separate fund managers demonstrated that the state “does not have a defensible policy,” Spaulding said. The board governing the state employees’ retirement fund has authorized the Treasurer’s office to search for a firm (through a bid process) to help the state develop proxy-voting guidelines and to monitor and audit the proxy voting of fund managers.
Spaulding was meeting with the state teachers’ retirement fund board as OITM went to press. He planned to seek that board’s support for a similar effort.