[ga] ICANN posts *redacted* Form 990 for year ending June 30, 2008

[gkirikos@xxxxxxxxx]

Hi folks,

ICANN has posted their latest IRS Form 990 for the year ending June 30, 2008, 
see:

http://www.icann.org/en/financials/tax/us/fy-2008-form-990.pdf

however it is highly redacted (page 10 shows a date of May 14, 2009, so it must 
have been posted recently). In particular, note page 43 of the PDF does not 
give the individual compensation, instead saying:

"Compensation, employee benefit and expense account information redacted for, 
confidentiality."

However, according to Guidestar:

http://www.guidestar.org/DisplayArticle.do?articleId=865#1

"Organizations that do not wish to provide hard copies of these document(s) do 
have another option: they can post a copy on their Web site. With the exception 
of masking donor's names and addresses on Forms 990, 990-EZ, and 990-PF, the 
documents must not be altered in any way."

Obviously redacting the employee compensation information is going beyond what 
Guidestar says is allowed.

The law is that anyone can ask for a copy of the unredacted versions:

http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=96430,00.html
http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=139231,00.html

"In general, exempt organizations must make available for public inspection 
certain annual returns and applications for exemption, and must provide copies 
of such returns and applications to individuals who request them.  Copies 
usually must be provided immediately in the case of in-person requests, and 
within 30 days in the case of written requests.  The tax-exempt organization 
may charge a reasonable copying fee plus actual postage, if any."

Please consider this my formal written request for the full unredacted form 
with ALL schedules unredacted. It's going to show up eventually anyway at 
Guidestar, so I don't understand why ICANN is playing these games, when they 
are supposed to be "transparent" and "accountable."

If anyone passes by the ICANN offices in-person, please do make the request, as 
they must provide an unredacted copy immediately.

Some compensation numbers did get through unredacted (pages 35 through 39), 
namely:

1) Douglas Brent (COO) $390,939 ($99,412 contribution to employee benefit plans)
2) John Jeffrey (General Counsel) $314,500 ($63,982 contribution to employee 
benefit plans)
3) Paul Levins (VP), $263,946 ($84,110 contribution to employee benefit plans, 
and $48,359 expense account and other allowances)
4) Kurt Pritz (SVP), $318,846 ($79,627 contribution to employee benefit plans)
5) Paul Twomey (CEO), $691,610 ($255,649 contribution to employee benefit plans)
6) Kevin Wilson (CFO), $153,310 ($50,198 contribution to employee benefit plans)

(some of the above might not be for a full 12 months)

Page 43 reveals Amy Stathos, Theresa Swinehart, David Conrad, Denise Michel and 
Daniel Halloran combined for a total of $1,094,308, with $278,826 as 
contributions to employee benefit plans and $115,649 for expense accounts.

Page 44 reveals Jones Day pulled in $1.6 million for legal services, the 
Ombudsman's corporation pulled in $437K, Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti pulled in 
$240K, Gibson Dunn Crutcher got $140K and Clayton Utz got $128K. 

Page 45 reveals The Wentworth Company got $589K, Interisle got $395K, Project 
Management Solutions got $338K, Iron Mountain got $327K, and Crown IT got $309K.

Page 11 reveals that 54 other employees were paid over $50,000.

For comparison with other years, see our previous post last year at:

http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/ga-200709/msg02021.html

In my opinion, these salaries (and contracting expenses too!) are far too high 
for a non-profit entity. Compensation should reflect non-profit comparables, as 
I've argued before at:

http://www.circleid.com/posts/20090105_icann_for_profit_companies_comparables/

Relevant comparables could be found for people working similar jobs at the 
USPTO, NTIA, DOC, DOJ, universities, hospitals and other organizations of that 
nature, with their inherent job security compared to the for-profit sector of 
the economy.

Sincerely,

George Kirikos
http://www.leap.com/