Avista board may shift to one-year terms

Avista Corp. shareholders will be asked to vote on a growing corporate governance trend of electing directors to one-year terms.

Each director on the company’s 10-member board is now elected to three-year terms. As the terms are staggered, a slate of directors is up for election every year.

Company spokeswoman Jessie Wuerst said the board is asking shareholders whether all directors should be up for election every year. It is not endorsing a vote for or against the proposal.

Wuerst said the decision to take a vote was not based on any one concern, but rather reflected some of the trends happening at corporations across the country.

Company critic John Osborn, who asked the board during last year’s annual meeting of shareholders for the reforms, said in an e-mail Friday that changes are needed.

He pointed out that large institutional investors have supported such proposals at companies.

Osborn proposed a shareholders’ vote on an annual election of directors on Nov. 30. Avista’s board decided against inclusion of his resolution in part because it had already decided to call for the vote, said Wuerst.

The company also objected to Osborn’s other concerns expressed in his resolution proposal that took critical aim at the company’s operation of Spokane River dams and its stewardship of the Spokane River.

Avista’s annual meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. on May 10 at the company’s Spokane headquarters.

The firm will release its 2006 financial results on Feb. 14.