[ncdnhc-discuss] Conflict of interest

[James Love]

Kent,

Getting back to first principles, the main thing is to understand why (some)
governments (all over the world) enact rules that limit political activity
by the civil service, or prohibit civil servants from interfering in
legislative affairs.  There is a widely shared concern that there should be
independence between various powerful actors or branches of the government.
You see rules that limit commingling of:

-    The staff the carry out the day to day functions of the government
-    The elected heads of those governments
-    The groups that set the rules (the legislative branch)
-    The groups that revolve disputes (the judicial).

I personally think separation is a good idea, and the lack of separation a
bad idea.

Likewise, in the corporate world (including the non-profit world) you have
ideas like independent auditors, and criticism when say Arthur Anderson was
both a consultant and an auditor to Eron.  In an institution like ICANN,
where there are lots of concerns over misuse of power, it makes sense to
have systems that inspire confidence, rather than on that breeds distrust.

Note also that I support the inclusion of Potters Yachters as an NCC member
and of Dave Crocker as an NCC representative from his NGO, and agree with
both you and Dave on some substantive issues and disagree on others, and my
views on the separation of staff and the various legislative bodies (the
DNSO) are not meant to be taken as personal attacks on anyone.  Like Michael
Froomkin, I encourage the ICANN staff (including you or Andrew) to
particpate in the list discussion and to share views and answer questions.

   Jamie

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kent Crispin" <kent at songbird.com>
To: "NCDNHC List" <discuss at icann-ncc.org>
Sent: Friday, March 15, 2002 3:25 PM
Subject: Re: [ncdnhc-discuss] Conflict of interest


> I'm sorry, but one further note on the hatch act: the general
> restrictions (the ones that apply to general government employees) are:
>
> Federal employees may NOT:
>
>     - use official authority or influence to interfere with an election
>     - solicit or discourage political activity of anyone
>         with business before their agency
>     - solicit or receive political contributions (may be
>         done in certain limited situations by federal labor or other
employee
>         organizations)
>     - be candidates for public office in partisan elections
>     - engage in political activity while:
>          0 on duty
>          0 in a government office
>          0 wearing an official uniform
>          0 using a government vehicle
>     - wear partisan political buttons on duty
>
> Even if thse rules were directly translated to the ICANN context, my
> case is a very long way from violating any of them -- I don't even have
> an ICANN uniform (well, I have a couple of t-shirts -- but those are
> available to anyone).
>
> --
> Kent Crispin                               "Be good, and you will be
> kent at songbird.com                           lonesome." -- Mark Twain
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