Re: [ga] ICANN spending gone wild -- IRS Form 990 comparisons for years ending 6/30/2006 and 6/30/2007

[Danny Younger <dannyyounger@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi George,

I took up this issue the other day on the at-large list and obtained the 
following URL from ICANN's CFO:

http://www.icann.org/en/financials/fiscal-30jun07.htm

regards,
Danny


--- On Tue, 9/9/08, George Kirikos <gkirikos@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> From: George Kirikos <gkirikos@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [ga] ICANN spending gone wild -- IRS Form 990 comparisons for years 
> ending 6/30/2006 and 6/30/2007
> To: ga@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Tuesday, September 9, 2008, 5:44 PM
> Hi folks,
> 
> GuideStar.org published the IRS Form 990, for the years
> ending June 30,
> 2006 and June 30, 2007. They are available for free
> download in PDF
> form (registration required).
> 
> Comparing the two statements, it's clear that
> ICANN's spending has gone
> wild.
> 
> For the year ending 6/30/2006, there were 20 employees paid
> over
> $50,000. The top 5 were:
> 
> Name,     Compensation,      Contributions to benefit
> plan/deffered
> compensation 
> 
> Andrew Savage              $132,914     $15,120
> Theresa Swinehart         $122,556     $24,881
> David Piscitello               $109,371     $19,531
> David Conrad                  $106,250     $15,000
> Tim Cole                          $95,201       $20,967
> 
> Totals for Top 5               $566,292     $95,499
> 
> For the year ending 6/30/2007, there were 37 employees paid
> over
> $50,000. The top 5 were:
> 
> Name,     Compensation,      Contributions to benefit
> plan/deffered
> compensation 
> 
> Andrew Savage              $188,385     $17,152
> David R. Conrad              $184,150     $35,677
> Theresa C. Swinehart      $231,695     $34,249
> Denise M. Michel             $198,330     $49,160
> Amy A. Stathos                $183,008     $36,139
> 
> Totals for Top 5               $985.568     $172,377
> 
> This is an outrageous 74% increase year-over-year for total
> compensation for the top 5.
> 
> Furthermore, Denise Michel managed to have an expense
> account for the
> year ending 6/30/2007 of $130,465 (none of the other top 5
> had an
> expense account for that year). For the prior year, though,
> the TOTAL
> for expense accounts and other allowances was $26,727 for
> the top 5
> employees. Thus, an almost 400% increase in one year!
> 
> For the year ending 6/30/2006, Paul Twomey received
> compensation of
> $459,244.44, employee benefits of $19,200 and an expense
> account of
> $146,928.93. For the year ending 6/30/2007, though, through
> Twomey's
> company Argo Pacific, $722,079 was paid for total
> compensation, and
> $219,345 for employee benefits.
> 
> Other key employees with year over year comparisons (where
> available):
> 
> Name      Compensation for year ending 6/30/2006, 
> Compensation for
> year ending 6/30/2007, Percentage Increase
> 
> John Jeffrey               $205,699.92          $275,560   
>       +34%
> Melanie Keller            $115,250.07          $226,672    
>      +97%
> Paul Levins                  n/a                      
> $210,695        
>   n/a
> Kurt Pritz                     $189,335.16         $286,600
>          
> +51%
> 
> Other financial details (including spending on contractors,
> etc.) can
> be seen in the PDFs, available for free at GuideStar.org.
> 
> The IRS Form 990 was designed to promote transparency,
> which also part
> of ICANN's mission. Frankly, the compensation committee
> has a lot of
> explaining to do to explain this enormous increase in
> spending,
> especially in a time of global economic weakness. ICANN is
> making
> VeriSign's 7% annual increases for .com registrants
> look tiny by
> comparison. If instead ICANN was more frugal, cost savings
> can be
> passed on to domain registrants, who ultimately fund
> (directly or
> indirectly) nearly all of ICANN's activities.
> 
> I would like ICANN to produce a report comparing these
> employee costs
> to those of comparable employee grades at the NTIA or
> Department of
> Commerce, over each period, or alternatively, other
> non-profit
> corporation averages.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> George Kirikos
> http://www.kirikos.com/