PEPCO manhandles, expels small stockholders from stockholders meeting
On the 18th of May, supporters of OurDC who own PEPCO stock attempted to attend the corporation’s stockholders meeting. This is a basic right of anyone holding stock in a corporation. All but a few were delayed, shunted to an overflow room, then pushed and shoved by security guards and cops before being removed from the building.
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One of the excluded stockholders owns 1,500 shares of PEPCO stock inherited from her grandmother. One of the few stockholders to get in reported that the meeting room had been pre-packed with people who did NOT appear to be stockholders, probably PEPCO employees, so as to exclude actual stockholders.
While OurDC’s stockholders and other small stockholders were effectively detained in the overflow room, hundreds of protesters assembled outside, demanding entry to the building and blocking 9th st to passing traffic. When ther stockholders emerged, they told tales of being pushed, shoved, manhandled and generally assaulted by security guards while in the overflow room. These guards went so far as to threaten stockholders with tresspassing charges for attempting to attend the PEPCO stockholders meeting!
Not surprisingly, massive pay increases for PEPCO CEO Joe Rigsby and other senior executives were approved, even as PEPCO is asking for a $42M rate hike, even as PEPCO “pays” the highest negative tax rate (taxes minus subsidies) and has the lowest consumer satisfaction of any corporation in the DC area.
