Major Pension Funds Press Exxon for Meeting
One observer is calling it “Larry & Me.”
Exxon Corp. Chairman Lawrence G. Rawl has already turned down one request for a meeting with New York City Comptroller Elizabeth Holtzman, who manages five city pension plans that own Exxon stock, to discuss the company’s environmental record.
Now, Holtzman and officials for California and Massachusetts pension funds--both large institutional shareholders of Exxon--will be sending Rawl a second letter seeking a meeting to discuss the company’s actions since last year’s oil spill in Alaska and more recent spills in the Arthur Kill waterway between New York and New Jersey.
Rawl’s elusiveness led a Holtzman colleague to allude to the popular documentary film, “Roger & Me,” in which General Motors Corp. Chairman Roger B. Smith dodged meetings with filmmaker Michael Moore, who wanted to ask him about the effect of GM’s plant closures on Flint, Mich.
The letter will go out as soon as Monday, signed by Holtzman, California Controller Gray Davis and Massachusetts pension fund Director Paul Quirk, Quirk confirmed Thursday.
“It’s not our intent to do anything more than to try to sort this out,” Quirk said Thursday. He said the pension officials were seeking “a way of dealing with the concerns we have as shareholders.”
Those concerns include losses that Exxon will incur from the spills. Total costs for the Alaska spill are now in the range of $3 billion to $4 billion, and the company could face future liability from civil suits and a federal criminal indictment.
Holtzman, who is the custodian and asset manager of five New York City pension systems that own more than 6 million Exxon common shares, declined to comment on the new letter to Rawl. But, she said, “We’re very concerned with the apparently careless, negligent attitude with regard to the environment that could negatively affect the value of our shares.”
Analysts said Exxon’s stock, trading at around $44.50 per share at the time of the Exxon Valdez accident and closing at $46.875 Thursday, has not kept pace with other oil industry stocks, which have appreciated as much as 30% to 40% over the same period.
Bill Smith, a spokesman for Exxon, said he was not aware of any efforts to reach Rawl and could not comment on the requests Thursday.
In a letter dated Jan. 12, Holtzman asked to meet with Rawl and Exxon officials to discuss the company’s progress in improving environmental safety. She posed a number of pointed questions about the spills in Arthur Kill from a pipeline to Exxon’s Bayway Refinery, and requested detailed information about costs related to litigation resulting from the various spills.
In a response dated Jan. 16, Exxon President Lee R. Raymond said it was “premature” to meet with Holtzman, but he attempted to answer a number of her questions. “We are dedicated to your interests in protecting the environment in areas where we operate and, at the same time, providing superior financial returns to our shareholders,” he wrote.
But, he added, “Until our factual investigation (into the Arthur Kill spill) is completed, it would be premature to contemplate a meeting.”
Meanwhile, Davis, who is a trustee of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, called on Rawl to resign, blaming him for what he called Exxon’s lack of interest in environmental safety. Davis said he was speaking for himself, not for CalPERS, which owns 8.24 million Exxon shares.
“If they were interested in environmental safety, it would be a reality,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “Clearly, the CEO is not interested, and I think he should resign in shame.”
Davis, who is up for reelection as controller, has been mentioned as a possible Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in 1992.
