Proxy-access proposals that would have allowed big shareholders in Westmoreland Coal Co. and Chipotle Mexican Grill to list their own board candidates were voted down in proxy balloting.
The Colorado companies are among 75 publicly traded firms New York City comptroller Scott M. Stringer targeted for proxy-access proposals on behalf of the city’s $160 billion pension funds.
Stringer last year unveiled the Boardroom Accountability Project to create bylaws that would give shareholders who have owned least 3 percent of a company for at least three years more power to elect independent directors.
The targeted companies — including Exxon Mobil, Netflix, Whole Foods and Broomfield-based Level 3 Communications — were selected based on the project’s priority issues:
risks associated with climate change, lack of board diversity and excessive CEO pay.
“We thank our shareholders for their overwhelming support to defeat the proposal offered by the comptroller of the City of New York,” Westmoreland chairman Richard Klingaman said in a statement that followed Tuesday’s vote. “We opposed that proposal because of its specifics and motivations, but not because we disagree about the importance of proxy access. The board will consider this issue further. The board and management remain committed to shareholder interests of good corporate governance, transparency, and creation of long-term value. We do what we say we will do.”
Shareholders in Chipotle, which has struggled against claims that its executives receive outsized compensation, last week narrowly defeated a similar Stringer-backed proxy-access measure
, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings made late Friday.
There were four other shareholder-initiated proposals. None of them passed, the Chipotle filings said.
Alicia Wallace: 303-954-1939, awallace@denverpost.com or twitter.com/aliciawallace
