RE: [council] Regarding voting rules for conflict of interest - proxies
I think you are correct Tim. I believe a GNSO conflict policy will have to be
somewhat different than the Board's for the reaons you cite. In my opinion,
the most important thing is declaration of possible conflicts. I don't
personally think, especially in the GNSO, that possible conflicts should
necessarily require recusal from voting and I definitely do not believe that
possible conflicts should preclude participation.
Chuck
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tim Ruiz [mailto:tim@xxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 9:45 AM
> To: Gomes, Chuck
> Cc: Stéphane_Van_Gelder; Bruce Tonkin; Council GNSO
> Subject: RE: [council] Regarding voting rules for conflict of
> interest - proxies
>
> How do we define *conflict of interest.* For example, if we
> define it the same way the Board does we may have to exclude
> entire constituencies from the majority of Council votes.
>
> Tim
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: RE: [council] Regarding voting rules for conflict of interest
> - proxies
> From: "Gomes, Chuck" <cgomes@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Wed, July 15, 2009 8:15 am
> To: Stéphane_Van_Gelder <stephane.vangelder@xxxxxxxxx>,
> "Bruce Tonkin" <Bruce.Tonkin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Council GNSO"
> <council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
>
> Stephane,
>
> The problems you describe need to be dealt with but I believe
> it is possible to do so in an effective and transparent
> manner. In other words, I think they are solvable.
>
> Chuck
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > [mailto:owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Stéphane
> Van Gelder
> > Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 2:40 AM
> > To: Bruce Tonkin; Council GNSO
> > Subject: Re: [council] Regarding voting rules for conflict
> of interest
> > - proxies
> >
> >
> > Hi Bruce,
> >
> > Both you and Chuck make interesting points. Especially in
> the light of
> > recent discussions we've had in the Council about how
> Councillors can
> > best represent the views of their constituencies. There's no doubt
> > that if a constituency instructs its Councillors to vote a
> certain way
> > on a certain issue, said Councillors will be put in a very
> difficult
> > situation if they have a conflict of interest on that issue.
> >
> > One (easy?) way to resolve this might simply be for Councillors to
> > state that they are voting as instructed by the
> constituency and not
> > as a reflection of their own personal views. This could then be
> > recording in the vote summary that goes to the Board for
> instance, or
> > in the transcript that is made publicly available.
> >
> > However, I see several problems. The first one is that
> Councillors are
> > generally assumed to vote for their constituencies anyway, so why
> > stress that fact again? And what if a Councillor then votes without
> > stating the above, either because he forgets to, or because
> he doesn't
> > have clear instructions from his Constituency? Would people
> naturally
> > assume his vote is a reflection of his own personal views
> and accuse
> > him or her of putting those first?
> >
> > It's a difficult one.
> >
> > Stéphane
> >
> >
> > Le 15/07/09 06:01, « Bruce Tonkin »
> > <Bruce.Tonkin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> a écrit :
> >
> > >
> > > Hello Chuck,
> > >
> > >>
> > >> I agree with you that we should consider additional special
> > >> situations with regard to voting, but we will probably
> > have to deal
> > >> with them after we get finished with the huge current workload.
> > >
> > > Sounds fair to me - just thought I would mention it, while we are
> > > considering voting rules.
> > >
> > >> It
> > >> doesn't seem to me that a constituency (or in the future a
> > >> stakeholder
> > >> group) should lose a vote because their elected councilor has a
> > >> personal conflict of interest.
> > >
> > > Agreed. But at the same time I do think the issue of personal
> > > conflicts of interest need to be taken into account. So I think a
> > > mechanism that allows a constituency to retain their votes, but
> > > prevents an individual from being put in a difficult
> > situation is worthwhile.
> > >
> > > Another example in the past is how to handle elections to
> > the Board,
> > > where a candidate is a sitting Council member. There has been a
> > > mechanism used in the past where the constituency can
> > appoint a person
> > > to vote on behalf of the constituency, in place of the
> > Council member.
> > >
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > > Bruce Tonkin
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>