Exxon’s Rawl Won’t Meet With Shareholders : Energy: The oil company called a meeting on its environmental record ‘premature.’ It was requested by large institutional shareholders.

Exxon Corp. on Monday called “premature” a request that company Chairman Lawrence G. Rawl meet with institutional shareholders to discuss Exxon’s environmental record and investigations into oil spills, the second time the company has sidestepped such a request.

But Exxon spokesman Bill Smith did not completely rule out a meeting between Rawl and the managers of the California, New York and Massachusetts public pension funds, which together hold more than 14 million shares of Exxon--more than 1% of the total outstanding.

The managers sent a letter to Rawl on Friday pressing for a meeting as soon as possible to discuss Exxon’s plans for dealing with environmental problems.

“We have been viewing Exxon’s recent environmental problems with increasing alarm,” the managers wrote. “Exxon’s overall accident record is creating the perception that management cannot deal effectively and responsibly with environmental issues.”

The letter was signed by New York City Comptroller Elizabeth Holtzman, California Controller Gray Davis and Paul Quirk, executive director of the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Board.

Citing the massive oil spill in Prince William Sound last year, as well as more recent spills in the Arthur Kill waterway between New York and New Jersey, the letter added, “Exxon is creating enormous potential financial liabilities that may harm the economic performance of the corporation.”

Rawl has not yet responded formally to the request. But Smith, speaking from Exxon headquarters in New York, said: “We are still investigating the problems they want to find out about, and we answered all the questions they had asked. (Rawl is) saying it’s premature because the investigation into the events is not completed.” Smith emphatically denied that Rawl or any Exxon executives are attempting to dodge the fund managers. “We will consider a meeting, but it is still premature,” Smith said.

It is the second time that Holtzman has sought a meeting with Rawl. In response to her first request, Exxon President Lee R. Raymond answered several pointed questions about Exxon’s recent spills but said investigations were continuing and that a meeting with Rawl would be premature.

The answers apparently satisfied Holtzman, said her spokeswoman, Nancy Young, “but she was put off by the fact that it was not Rawl who responded to her.”

She added that Holtzman and the others still wanted a face-to-face meeting but declined to say whether they would take further actions if turned down again. “She can’t imagine they would turn down a meeting with such large shareholders,” Young said.

Holtzman herself declined to comment until she receives a formal response from Exxon.

Exxon has set aside $1.68 billion to cover 1989 costs from the Alaska oil spill, and analysts said the total costs now approach $3 billion.

The shareholders are not the only ones seeking a meeting with Rawl. Environmental commissioners for the states of New York and New Jersey have proposed a meeting Friday with Rawl and about three dozen other top executives of oil companies operating along waterways between the states, site of a rash of recent spills and other mishaps.