[registrars] Answers to Bob Connelly's Concerns

["Michael D. Palage" <mpalage@infonetworks.com>]

Although I respect Bob Connelly, I personally disagree with his opinions and
have obtained guidance from ICANN's legal counsel, Louie Tuton, on how to
proceed in this matter. For those that are interested in this ongoing saga
read on. For those that will be casting votes, for reasons set forth below,
I hereby excuse myself from any further involvement in this NC run-off
election. Either Erica or Ken will tabulate and announce the winner.

Connelly Concern #1 - "Mystery By-Laws"

The "by-laws" which I have referred to during the last two ballots are the
Registrar Constituency by-laws (a.k.a. Constituency Articles) which we
drafted and adopted in Berlin. These can be located on-line at
http://www.dnso.org/constituency/registrars/Registrars.Articles.html .The
issues that I have put forth on the last two ballots are issues that are not
specifically set forth in the Registrars by-laws. After this election is
finally over, I will circulate proposed language to be included in the
by-laws. However, my current priorities are holding this election,
collecting the Registrars funds for the NC fees, preparing a teleconference
prior to Cairo, setting a date time and agenda for the Cairo meeting, and
drafting a Registrar position with Phil Sbarbaro on WG-B. After these issues
have been addressed I will circulate the proposed language for the by-laws.

Connelly Concern #2 - "Voting Time Frame"

I strongly believe Bob has wrongly accused me of "ignoring" of the
Constituency by-laws and has alluded to the fact that I closed the ballot
prematurely because of my dissatisfaction of the outcome. Addressing these
concerns in order. I set the original voting time table after consulting
with Ken Stubbs, the only other elected Registrar representative at that
time. The time table was set taking into account that we wanted to have the
representatives in place by last weeks NC teleconference. The nomination
process for these NC seats went on for the last several months since the LA
meeting.  I closed the voting on Friday midnight as originally announced NOT
because I was unhappy with the results. I have previously acknowledged that
I was delayed in starting the election because of reasons already discussed.

I would also like to point out that there were other registrars that
submitted a vote after the deadline which I also properly refused to record.

The current election is being held for seven days, which Bob Connelly
himself has admitted is a proper time frame.


Solution:

I have obtained guidance from ICANN's legal counsel Louie Tuton on how to
proceed in this matter. An excerpt from his opinion which Louie posted to
the registrar mailing list is reprinted below:

Wed 2/16/00 11:14 AM

Therefore, it is my opinion that an appropriate course for you as
secretariat with respect to the second seat would be to invalidate and rerun
that portion of the election.
Best regards,
Louis Touton
ICANN General Counsel

Both Ken Stubbs and I agreed with this decision and allowed Erica to take
her place as a duly elected NC representative and announced this run-off
election.

Finally, in the interest of putting any unfounded but perceived bias with
regard to this election to rest, I have notified the two other NC Registrar
representatives that I hereby decline to participate in this election any
further.  Any ballots that I have received to date will be forwarded to both
NC representatives for them to tabulate.

Best regards,

Michael D. Palage