NYT: CA Pension (Calpers corp. governance) Activist Expects to Be Ousted

[DeepModem Mom]

California Pension Activist Expects to Be Ousted
By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH
Published: December 1, 2004


A prominent figure in the corporate governance movement, Sean Harrigan, the president of California's large public pension fund, said yesterday that he expected to be ousted today from the board in retribution for stands it had recently taken on topics like executive pay, boardroom cronyism and high health care costs.

"This is nothing more than an effort to assault the voice of Calpers," Mr. Harrigan said yesterday in an e-mail message, using the abbreviated name of the California Public Employees Retirement System. Mr. Harrigan has been a trustee of Calpers since 1999 and president since 2003.

A career labor union official, Mr. Harrigan arrived at Calpers after being appointed by Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, to a state board that handles personnel matters for the civil service. One duty of that panel, the State Personnel Board, is to elect a trustee to the 13-member board of Calpers. The five-member personnel board is scheduled to vote today on returning Mr. Harrigan to Calpers for another year.

Mr. Harrigan's situation at Calpers became public this week after a group of union presidents and leaders of retiree and consumer groups wrote the State Personnel Board, saying they had learned that there was "an attempt to remove Sean Harrigan" and urging the board to re-elect him when it votes today.

The letter also expressed the belief that Mr. Harrigan was being opposed by the administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and business groups because of Calpers's corporate activism. The governor and business groups say they have not interfered in Calpers's affairs....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/01/business/01calpers.html