On the very same day that you write to Nancy Victory, http://www.icann.org/correspondence/icann-to-doc-19jul02.htm reassuring the US Department of Commerce that you will take better account of the concerns of the various supporting organizations and advisory committees, you also had the gall to seek direct authorization from a 6 person, self-appointed, non-elected Committee that has all the powers of the full Board, but none of its checks and balances - for explicit permission to disburse more than a third of the .org application fees, some $125,000, to an independent consultant, the purpose of which is to "partly examine .org applications". All that cash and for only half the job?"

http://www.icann.org/minutes/prelim-report-19jul02.htm

And more important, who is "the consultant" exactly? Would it be correct to assume Joe Sims is connected in some way to this disbursement? What possible reason can there be to keep details of this engagement secret. Was the reason sufficiently compelling to ignore ICANN's founding principles of openness and transparency?

How is such behavior by you and your Staff consistent with a bottom up policy development process? Consistent with the DoC directive? Why is this information not on the front page of the ICANN website, as New and Noteworthy?

I think you owe the community an explanation, don't you?

Sincerely,

Joanna Lane