FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com THE COURIER SUN • FEBRUARY 16, 2017 17 oped BY CONGRESSMAN GREGORY MEEKS Every few weeks, New Yorkers invest large swaths of their paychecks into American companies. New York City employees alone have invested nearly $60 billion of their retirement money into U.S. public companies. These investors are diverse and include the city’s firefighters, teachers, police officers and civil servants. Since their financial futures depend on it, New Yorkers and Americans have a right to know what kinds of companies they are investing in and whether those companies follow the best business practices. A widely acknowledged best practice is ensuring diversity on corporate boards and in senior management. Recent studies have shown that companies with diverse boards and management teams perform better financially than their industry peers do. Yet, U.S. companies continue to resemble vestiges of old boys’ clubs despite the business case in favor of diversity. A recent study released by Deloitte revealed only modest gains in corporate diversity from 2012-2016, with women and minorities seeing “little change in representation at Fortune 500 boards.” Making matters worse, not all companies are transparent about their diversity data and practices. Without robust diversity disclosures, middle-class investors are then left to make financial decisions — which have a direct impact on their bank accounts, livelihoods, and futures — with insufficient information. Investors deserve more, and they have demanded more information on how companies consider diversity when choosing their directors. For example, in 2015, nine retirement systems including those in New York City and State sent a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requesting better disclosures to “evaluate board nominees’ gender, racial and ethnic diversity.” In response, the former SEC Chair Mary Jo White instructed her staff to revisit its current rules on diversity disclosures to make them more effective. Unfortunately, former Chair White announced her resignation shortly after the election of President Donald Trump, leaving the important work on enhancing the agency’s diversity disclosure rules undone. With no indication that President Trump’s SEC nominee, Jay Clayton, will continue his predecessor’s work, Congress must step in and do its part. That is why I recently introduced the Improving Corporate Governance Through Diversity Act (H.R. 970), which will require more robust diversity disclosures from public companies and federal contractors. In addition to requiring companies to release data on the racial, ethnic and gender composition of their boards and c-suites, it will also require these companies to release any plans or strategies they have incorporated to improve diversity at their most senior levels. When it comes to corporate diversity, making a profit and doing what’s morally right are not mutually exclusive. These principles can work hand in hand. Our companies can make a profit and also reflect America’s highest ideals of equal opportunity and inclusion. Congressman Gregory Meeks represents the 5th Congressional District, which includes most of southeast Queens and the Rockaway Peninsula. This early 20th century picture shows Palmetto Street looking east toward Onderdonk Avenue under the elevated M train line in Ridgewood. Note the trolley tracks running below the elevated structure at right. Send us your historic pictures of Queens by email to editorial@qns. com, or mail printed pictures to A Look Back, c/o The Queens Courier, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361. All mailed pictures will be carefully returned to you! letters & comments TRUMP’S WALL, BIG OR SMALL, WILL COST A FORTUNE Donald Trump said he could build the wall on the Mexico border for $4 billion. Trump estimated that the wall would be somewhere between 30 and 90 feet tall, and would be about 1,000 miles long. Let’s work with the lowest estimate, 30 feet. According to construction economists, it would cost about $10 billion for the concrete panels and $6 billion for steel columns to hold the panels (including labor). Then there’s another billion for concrete footing for the columns and another billion for the concrete foundation. We’re up to $16 billion already. But we’re not done. Those materials are heavy and you’re going to have to transport them to many areas that are currently inaccessible to construction vehicles. So let’s add another $2 billion to build roads so the 20-ton trucks can deliver the materials. And don’t forget another 30 percent for engineering, design and management. Current tab? $25 billion. But let’s continue. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that wall maintenance will exceed the initial construction cost within seven years. $50 billion for a wall that Mexico will not pay for. Robert LaRosa, Whitestone SUPPORT THE TROOPS & SUPPORT THE USO I had served in the United States Navy in the Vietnam era and found the USO a home away from home. The USO has been a pillar of support for our troops, as they fought, and continue to fight, in some of the most desolate and dangerous places on earth. The USO has launched a critical initiative to aid in the recovery of the 50,000 men and women who have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the thousands more who are suffering from wounds and from the invisible wounds such as post-traumatic stress. The USO supports programs that aid our wounded heroes, their families and their caregivers. They receive no funds from the government but from donations from people like you and me. So those who can please donate to the USO. The address is: The USO, P.O. Box 96860, Washington DC 20077-7677. Frederick R. Bedell Jr., Glen Oaks Village ILLEGAL TRUCK PARKING PLAGUING JAMAICA I just don’t understand why this continues to be an issue year after year in this community, with completely illegal issues such as illegal parking of large tractor trailers on our streets. On Feb. 4, while driving from downtown Jamaica to Long Island, I noticed four large waste tractor trailer trucks parked all weekend inside the LIRR tunnels at the Merrick Boulevard and Archer Avenue location. After 9/11, this astounds me that such trucks continue to do this, and besides the fact that it is illegal for overnight storage. Coming back, several of these same awful-smelling trucks were parked all along 168th Street and Douglas Avenue location. Where is the enforcement? Where is Community Board 12? Where are our elected officials? The total lack of respect in this community by not only the people, the businesses but the powers that be is appalling. We are not talking about curing cancer; we are talking about illegal parking by commercial trucks. Joe Moretti, Jamaica Corporations must diversify for investors’ benefit A LOOK BACK
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