State Pension Chief Expects to Be Axed(corp reform push alienated big busi

I love it when GOP hypocrites (Anne Sheehan, an official in Schwarzenegger's Finance Department, and Ronald Alvarado, an appointee of former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, and a DINO named Tom Maeley) try to sell the idea that this fellow should have spent more time fulfilling his responsibility to get the best rate of return for retiree, rather than spending some of his time going after corporations, when his fund earned a 23.3% return in 2003 and gained 4.6% in the first nine months of this very rough year. :-)

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-calpers30nov30.story
CALIFORNIA
State Pension Chief Expects to Be Axed(corp reform push alienated big business)
The CalPERS head, an advocate of corporate reform, has alienated big business. Unions, retirees and consumer groups want him to stay.
By Marc Lifsher
Times Staff Writer

November 30, 2004

SACRAMENTO — The head of the California Public Employees' Retirement System said Monday that he was being ousted from the board of the nation's largest public pension fund, where his efforts to use its $177-billion investment portfolio to push an array of corporate reforms have roused the ire of business interests.

Sean Harrigan, president of CalPERS since early 2003, is a union official who serves on the pension fund's panel as the representative of the state Personnel Board. He said he had been told that a majority of his fellow Personnel Board members would vote Wednesday to replace him when his CalPERS term expires early next year.

CalPERS controls the retirement funds of 1.4 million state employees and retirees. Investing its huge pool of money gives the fund clout as it uses its big ownership stakes in companies to influence their behavior and advance causes such as reining in executive pay.

Harrigan accused members of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration of lobbying to have him removed, but he didn't offer solid evidence. He said corporate and political interests — including Walt Disney Co. and supermarket giant Safeway Inc. — were "trying to take out one of the most outspoken advocates on behalf of corporate governance in the country." <snip>