ICANN expenditures on travel, salaries and expenses

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

On Friday I sent an email message to ICANN asking a few questions about
the ICANN finances, and today I received a reply from Mike Roberts, the
ICANN President.  As someone who has traveled economy to India, Pakistan,
Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and several other distant locations
recently, I was curious if ICANN was paying for economy or higher class
air fares. Apparently it pays for Business class on trans-oceanic flights.  
Mr. Roberts says that ICANN will be posting on its web page payments made
to Board members shortly, for the last fiscal year, so we should have a
better idea of the money individual board members get for these trips.
I'll write ICANN and ask for a few more details about the travel
reimbursements.


Apparently ICANN is paying the Drawin Group about $18k per month for Mr.
Roberts services, plus some support costs.  This is more than we pay most
other federal employees, I think.  In the new budget, ICANN will be paying
5 Officers compensation in the range of $100,000 to $300,000 per year, for
a total of $750,000.  One assumes the President will be at $300,000.  
This is before fringe benefits, where are budgeted at 30%, so one would
add $90,000 to a salary of $300,000, for a total cost of $390,000 per
year, for the President.  

   Jamie


--------------------------
>From mmr@darwin.ptvy.ca.us Sat Nov 13 14:12:21 1999
Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1999 11:07:17 -0800 (PST)
From: Mike Roberts <mmr@darwin.ptvy.ca.us>
To: James Love <love@cptech.org>
Cc: mmr@icann.org
Subject: Re: Request for finanical information from Jamie Love

Jamie - I assume you are referring to the financial report
that is posted on the website (under About ICANN if you haven't
seen it.) That was for the eight month startup period ending
6/30/99, which is the fiscal year boundary. See responses
below - 

- Mike
> 
> Please provide me with the following information:
> 
 
> 1.   How much money has ICANN spent on travel in 1999.

We do not break out travel as a separate line item, but in 
the reported expense of $273K for Board and public meetings,
and $57K for other meetings and travel, it is a substantial
percentage of the total. With our Board, our Supporting
Organizations, and our major advisory committees all 
having major international membership, it will be  significant
item in the budget. We do not reimburse SO and advisory
committee travel except when the Board authorizes it, so
far that has only been done for the work of our Membership
Advisory Committee last year.

The Board policy on travel is that Directors may seek reimbursement
for the costs of their travel to meetings. Some have done that
and some have donated their travel expeenses during the cash 
short startup period.


> 
> 2.   Does ICANN pay for air fares in anything above
> economy class?
> 
The Board policy on airfares is that reimbursement will be
for coach class except on transoceanic flights where business
class may be claimed.


> 3.   What are the salaries of all ICANN employees or
> board members?
>
All ICANN Directors, except the CEO, who is an ex officio
member of the Board, serve without compensation except for
reimbursement of travel and meetings expenses.  

The Bylaws also require that payments to Directors be published
at the end of each year.  This will be done shortly for
the startup period ending 6/30/99.

ICANN does not routinely publish employee salaries, however,
we do publish compensation ranges and for the current year these
are contained in the fiscal year approved budget which is posted
on the website.  
 
> 4.  What are the names of all ICANN consultants,
> how much money are they paid, and at what rate?
> 
For the year just ended, the total consulting amount of
$191K was primarily payments to the Darwin Group, which 
has a contract with ICANN for my services which also
includes the costs of my office support, computing etc.
at the monthly rate of $18k. The remainder was for
the services of Molly Shafer Van Houweling and Andrew
McLaughlin, who are, or were in the case of Molly, 
who is now in a clerkship in a federal appeals
court, fellows at the Berkman Center at Harvard Law School,
on part time loan to ICANN to assist in policy development.

> 
> Jamie
> 
> 
> -- 
> James Love / Director, Consumer Project on Technology
> http://www.cptech.org / love@cptech.org
> P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
> voice 202.387.8030 / fax 202.234.5176
> 


-------------------------------
James Love 
Center for Study of Responsive Law | Consumer Project on Technology 
P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036 | http://www.cptech.org
Voice 202/387-8030 | Fax 202/234-5176 | love@cptech.org