Jan. 7, 2020
Rule Comments, I am a retired New York State civil servant, formerly a budgeting analyst, living on a modest pension, and I oppose making it harder for my representatives to raise proposals at company annual meetings that I hope will hold corporate executives and board members responsible for their actions in the management of the companies in which my pension funds are invested. As a former long-time union member, in both the private and public sectors, I am especially concerned about the way the companies in which my pension funds are invested treat both their workers and the workers of the companies that they do business with, either as subsidiaries or contractors. I am also appalled at the heights to which executive and board compensation - the latter often for only extremely part-time work - have risen over the last four decades. It seems to me that there is a troubling level of double-dealing and crony capitalism that has infected American commerce and manufacturing, and investors have a right and a responsibility to intervene to correct such abuses. Representatives of investors, including pension fund members, must retain every possible method of questioning and correcting the behavior of corporate executives and the directors with whom far too many of them have a frankly corrupt and incestuous relationship. Thank you for your attention to my concerns, and I trust that the Securities and Exchange Commission will consider them and reject any reforms that make it harder for shareholders and their representatives to make proposals at the annual meetings of the companies in which they are investors. Charles K. Alexander II [redacted]