Riviera holders reject political disclosure measure

Wednesday, May 16, 2001 | 10:56 a.m.

Shareholders of Riviera Holdings Corp. aren't ready to be trend-setters in the area of political campaign funding disclosure.

In a lightly attended annual meeting of shareholders Tuesday at the company's Riviera hotel-casino in Las Vegas, voters soundly rejected a proposal brought by Derek and Michael Schaefer, joint holders of 778 shares of common stock, to publicly disclose political contributions of any amount by the company.

The Schaefers' father, Las Vegas political activist Michael Schaefer, lobbied for the proposal at the meeting and said he would continue working to convince other companies to establish disclosure policies.

"I'm hoping that if one company takes a stand, it would be emulated by other public companies," the elder Schaefer said after the vote was taken.

The final count was 151,428 shares for the proposal, 1,493,540 against the proposal, 503,867 abstaining and 497,268 shares unvoted.

Management opposed the Schaefer proposal, saying it could have had a detrimental effect on operations and that most of the information sought in the proposal is available through each candidate's campaign contribution filings.

William Westerman, chairman of Riviera Holdings' board of directors, said the company was obligated to give a fair hearing to the Schaefer proposal, first aired last month when Riviera filed a proxy statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Riviera officials said the company already has a policy in effect addressing political contributions, with the board's executive committee making recommendations on each candidate for public office who submits a request for a contribution.

In the only other proposal before shareholders in Tuesday's half-hour meeting, four nominees for director were confirmed, including Westerman, Robert Barengo, James Land and Jeffrey Silver.

Westerman has been chairman and chief executive officer of the company since February 1993.

Barengo, also a director since February 1993, served in the Nevada Assembly from 1972 through 1982 and is president and sole shareholder of Silver State Disseminators Co., which compiles and distributes racing information in the state. He also is chairman of the Nevada Dairy Commission and until April 2000 was a director of Saxton Inc., a financially troubled Las Vegas building company.

Land, who has served on the boards of several companies, has been a director with Riviera since January 1999.

Silver, a partner with Gordon & Silver law firm of Las Vegas, became a director in February.

Riviera Holdings operates subsidiaries that are the parent companies of the 2,100-room Riviera and the Riviera Black Hawk in Black Hawk, Colo.