Jan. 7, 2020
Rule Comments, Dear Mr. Clayton and the SEC, The proposal to change how shareholders are heard by the companies they invest in is completely unacceptable to me as an independent investor. I own a very small business and am held to high standards by the companies I sell my products to. As such, I believe that larger, public companies need to be held to the same or higher standards, by the public as well as shareholders. As shareholders, we 'own' a piece of the company, and as such, we have every right to speak out and make proposals that the companies and other shareholders should listen to and vote on. I own and vote my shares annually and expect to see other shareholder proposals added to proxy votes and meetings as well. I was happy to vote on subjects like Chinese sourcing, labor practices, among others at companies. I also vote for board members AFTER I read their histories. I am tired of seeing these lists repeat names from company to company, like an old club. That is not good governance. I do not approve of many CEO compensation schemes or the way the boards who send the proxies say I should vote to 'approve' (they want it approved because it is in their personal interest- not necessarily the company's or workers interest). I DON'T. I feel that too many C-suite members are self-interested to an extreme point, and that has been borne out with poor decisions of mergers (with platinum parachutes for C-suite and nothing for anyone else) or buy outs, or in last year's case after the tax scam law, buybacks of stock to inflate values, which are then used to enhance self-selling of vested shares. These behaviors hurt others. That was never a historical way to run a company, and I still think it is a poor and unacceptable approach. The last thing corporate boards need is more power. Companies need to held accountable- sometimes that's up to small shareholders to do. I do NOT want any changes to how my votes are counted and I certainly do not want them to be dismissed on any level- I want shareholders to participate and that means including their proposals at annual meetings. I fully reject this idea that the SEC is trying to sell to independent investors like myself. NO! Do not do it. It is the wrong approach. stacy r [redact]6