Office of the Comptroller

Comptroller Scott Stringer has day to day oversight of the pension funds, which are actually operated by separate boards.

City Comptroller Scott Stringer on Thursday announced a broad campaign to let shareholders nominate directors at U.S. corporations. The effort takes the form of shareholder proposals the city’s five pension funds—which together are worth $160 billion—fired off to 75 companies.

As we reported when divestment from gun stocks became an issue in 2013, and when Comptroller Bill Thompson first ran for mayor in 2009, the city often tries to wield its weight as a big investor to achieve change at the corporations in which its pension funds owns stock. Sometimes the asks concern corporate governance, but often they embrace social causes like fair wages and environmental sustainability.

You can see what the pension funds have campaigned for, and how they’ve fared, in year-by year reports here.