Well, good morning, and thank you for joining us today for AutoZone's fiscal 2015 stockholders meeting. It's a pleasure to welcome everyone here today. I'm Bill Rhodes, Chairman, President and CEO, Customer Satisfaction and also a Director of AutoZone. Of course, it would not be an official AutoZone meeting unless we started with our cheer and pledge. I'd like to ask Waseem Wahhabi to come up and get us started.
Come on, Waseem. Good job. Thank you, Waseem. Well, it's great to have you all here today. But as you know, no meeting at AutoZone also starts unless we read an extra mile story.
So Angela Butler, will you read us an extra mile story? Sure.
This extra mile story comes from WB RB Diesel out of McDonough, Georgia. It reads, To whom it may concern, our OTR truck broke down on Sunday evening in Mount Airy, North Carolina. While in the process of trying to get to our driver, my mechanic had an accident in our service truck. We were able to get him moving with a radiator from the AutoZone in Mount Airy, North Carolina with the help of John Vance. John and his co workers went above and beyond to deliver parts on the side of the road to MyMechanic.
John was also able to point us in the right direction to find parts for our OTR truck. Although they were helpful, the next day presented other problems with the service truck. MyMechanic had to travel to Greensboro, North Carolina to pick up the parts for the OTR truck and on its return, the power steering pump went out. That's when we called Justin Tweed at the AutoZone in Kings, North Carolina. Justin and his coworkers were so quick to respond with parts and delivery that MyMechanic was up and running in record time.
We are in the diesel repair business and customer service is a rarity. We are very pleased with the customer service we receive on a daily basis here in McDonough, Georgia from Cody, Gilbert and Frank, but are especially pleased that we were able to get the same level of service from not 1, but 2 AutoZone stores in the state of North Carolina. We will continue to use your products as often as possible and push our customers in your direction due to the level of service that you have provided our company. Thanks again for all your assistance. Sincerely, Jalaina J.
Morris, President Scott Elliott, Vice President.
Thank you, Angela, for that great story. Now I'd like to officially call the meeting to order. First, I'd like to introduce the other members of our Board of Directors. As I call your name, please stand. Doug Brooks Linda Goodspeed Sue Gove Butch Graves.
Anderson Gamaris was not able to be with us due to a previous commitment. Pitt Hyde, Brian Jordan, Andy McKenna, Lou Nieto and George Marconic, Thank you all very much for your great service. Please join me in welcoming. Now I'd like to introduce our senior management team, the Executive Committee. Each of these AutoZoners, like every AutoZoner, has customer satisfaction in their titles.
I'd first like to introduce our Executive Vice Presidents, Mark Finestone Bill Giles Bill Graves Tom Neuber. Thank you, guys. I'd also like to recognize our Senior Vice Presidents, Phil Danielle, Ron Griffin, Jim Griffith, Bill Hackney, Rod Houssell, Charlie Ples, Al Saltiel, Mike Womack and Kristen Wright. Thank you all very much. I appreciate it.
Next, I'd like to introduce Mr. John Ruko from Computershare, our transfer agent, who will tell her to vote for us. Thanks for being here, John. Kristin Wright will now report on the giving of the notice of this meeting and the presence of a quorum.
I'm presenting to the meeting a complete list of the holders of record of the company's common stock on October 19, 2015, who are entitled to vote at this meeting. I've also received an affidavit from Computershare stating that on October 26, 2015, the mailing of the notice of meeting, the proxy and a postage prepaid return envelope to stockholders of record as of the close of business on October 19, 2015 was commenced. A tabulation of the proxies received from stockholders indicates that more than a majority of the outstanding shares are represented at this meeting and a core of its presence.
Great. Thanks, Kristen. Before we proceed to the first order of business, if proxies have not been filed or if there are any stockholders who will be voting in person who have not registered, please file your proxy to register with Kristen at this time. If you've not voted your proxy and would like to vote by ballot, please raise your hand and a ballot will be handed to you. In accordance with the notice of the meeting, the first order of business is the election of directors to serve until the next Annual Meeting of Stockholders.
I'll now ask for a nomination of the slate of directors as listed in the proxy statement and sent to all stockholders.
Bill, I nominate Douglas H. Brooks, Linda A. Goodspeed, Sue E. Gold, Earl G. Graves, Jr, Innocence Guimaraes, J.
R. Hyde, D. Brian Jordan, W. Andrew McKenna, George R. McKonick, Jr, Louise P.
Nieto, William C. Rose, 3rd, for relation to the Board of Directors.
Great. Is there a second?
Bill, I second the nominations.
Great. We've not been notified of any other nominations. Therefore, I now declare the nominations closed. The second order of business is the ratification of the appointment of Ernst and Young LLP as the registered public accounting firm of the company for the 2016 fiscal year. Ernst and Young has been selected by our audit committee as the company's independent registered public accounting firm.
Ernst and Young is an independent registered firm of public accountant certified public accountant, and they state that at no time have they had any material financial interest in or any connection with the company or its subsidiaries or predecessor other than as its auditors. Richard Wright is here with us today representing Ernst and Young. Will you please stand to be recognized, Richard? Thank you, and thanks for all your help. I'll now ask for a motion on this matter.
Bill, I move that the appointment by the company audit committee of Ernst Young and Company Independence Registered Public Accounting for the 2016 fiscal year be hereby ratified and approved.
Is there a second?
Bill, I second the motion.
The motion to ratify the appointment of Ernst and Young LLP as the independent registered public accounting firm has been made and seconded. Is there any discussion? The 3rd order of business is the approval of the amended and restated AutoZone Inc. 2011 Equity Incentive Award Plan. I'll now ask for a motion on this matter.
Bill, I move for the approval of this plan.
Is there a second?
Bill, I second the motion.
The motion to approve the amended and restated AutoZone, Inc. 2011 Equity Incentive Award Plan has been made and seconded. Is there any discussion on this item? The 4th order of business is a non binding advisory vote on executive compensation or say on pay. I'll now ask for a motion on this matter.
Bill, I move for the advisory resolution regarding say only pay to be approved.
Is there a second? I second the motion, Bill.
The motion on the advisory vote on executive compensation say on pay has been made and seconded. Is there any discussion? The 5th and last order of business is a vote on the stockholder proposal regarding political disclosure and accountability. This proposal was presented for a vote by the Comptroller of the City of New York acting as the custodian and a trustee of several New York City Retirement Funds. The proponent will have 5 minutes to present the proposal and I will make a statement on behalf of the Board following that presentation.
Are you prepared?
Morning. My name is Jimmy Yan. I'm here to present the proposal. Apologize for being late. I was not checking the weather, so the rain ruined my nice planned walk over and had to figure out downtown Memphis parking.
So glad to be back again this year as here last year and especially glad to be here because this is my hometown. So good to see you all again, and congrats to Memphis Football for making a bowl game. That was a I kept following Memphis Basketball and then all of a sudden, football came out nowhere. So representing New York City Controller Scott Stringer and also the trustees of the 5 New York City pension funds, presenting this proposal to ensure full Board oversight for full transparency of corporate expenditures on political activities. The New York City Retirement Systems, this includes our teachers, firefighters, police officers and all other sanitation workers, all their employees, are very long term and very diversified investors.
We hold 65,800 shares of AutoZone and expect to be to continue to be a long term holder for a very, very long time as we are with everything. As long term investors, we have key practices we believe will protect our investments and promote long term value. This past couple of things that we asked for the Board review all expenditures from the corporate treasury that support political activities and that the Board publicly report the company's political spending. The reason we're asking this is we're not opposed to political spending by companies. In fact, we think this is often a very good thing for you to influence policies that can help your business and your business opportunities.
But there are some risks like with everything, there's always a risk side of things, and we want to assure that corporate assets on politics are aligned with your with the company's business strategy and that shareholders are the Board has is able to confirm that. And that it can never be the case that these resources are deployed at the whim of executives' local preferences. Political spending creates legal, regulatory and reputational risk for any company. So we advocate that boards receive regular and complete information about corporate spending on politics. At AutoZone, the company's website describes the nominating committee receiving periodic updates.
We think it will be optimal to or appropriate for shareholders to know how often this information is being received, whether the information is complete and to understand all the categories of spending in the Board reports and to know what contributions are to 501 for social welfare organizations that may be used for political purposes. We think that transparency promotes accountability. We urge the boards we urge boards to publicly disclose all corporate assets being deployed on politics. Your website states that political contributions of all types are subject to extensive public disclosure requirements. It's not exactly true.
Any AutoZone contribution to Super PAC, for example, or 501(4) or the social welfare organization can be made completely anonymously. Accordingly, we as shareholders have no way of knowing whether significant or de minimis corporate assets are being spent on politics unless you as a Board tell us. We urge the Board to enhance the oversight and describe how often it receives information about categories and urge you to commit to disclosing its these expenditures, including those categories that the laws don't compel reporting at this time. And I understand that management has been in a dialogue with my colleague at the in New York talking about and so we hope that, that might lead to a successful resolution of this proposal. Thank you for your time.
Thank you, Ms. Gian. As the chair, I'll waive the requirement for a second to this motion. The Board of Directors of the company opposes the comptroller's proposal and recommends that stockholders vote against it for the reasons set out in our proxy statement. The Board carefully considered the proposal and concluded that it is not in the best interest of AutoZone or our stockholders.
For this reason, the Board recommends that stockholders vote against this proposal. Is there any further discussion on this proposal? Okay. If you're voting in person, please mark your ballots. The polls are now open.
Please pass your ballots to the aisle for collection. Volunteers, will you please collect the ballots of anyone voting in person? Kristin, do we have the results?
Yes. There are present at this meeting in person or by proxy, 26,740,935 shares of the company's common stock, representing 87.72 percent of the 30,485,243 shares deemed to be outstanding as of October 19, 2015. Based upon this report, all 11 directors have been duly elected. The appointment of Ernst and Young LLP for fiscal year 2016 has been ratified and the 2016 amended and restated AutoZone, Inc. 2011 Equity Incentive Award Plan has been approved.
The advisory vote of the stockholders on equity compensation executive compensation has been approved and the stockholder proposal regarding political disclosure was not approved.
Okay. At this point, I'd like to open up the floor for any questions anyone has. If there's no further business, I'll call for a motion to adjourn the official portion of the meeting.
Bill, I move for the meetings to be adjourned. Is there a second?
Bill, I second that motion.
I'd like to thank our stockholders for your continued confidence in our mission, and I'd like to thank all AutoZoners across the globe for their commitment to saying, yes, we've got it, and for living the pledge in their daily activities. Now let's proceed to deliver another great year in fiscal 2016. The meeting is officially adjourned. But before we go, Waseem, you want to come up here and close this out?