Comments on ICANN Draft FY13 Operating Plan and Budget

[Ken Stubbs <kstubbs@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My comments here are made in my capacity as a member of the ICANN 
community and reflect
_solely my individual views_.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the draft operating plan and 
budget.
One of the key components of the upcoming budget year will be the 
treatment of funds received
from applicants for new TLD's. (I speak here not the the New TLD 
evaluation process ..)
I AM SPEAKING ONLY TO THE MONEY COLLECTED FROM THE APPLICANTS
...
ICANN has received approximately_*1/3 of a billion..repeat.. 1/3 of a 
billion $$$*_.. To fund an evaluation and processing of less than 2000 
applications.
At the time that this process was started the community was informed 
that the processing the applications would be completed on a "cost 
recovery basis".
Given the fact that a significant number of applications will be 
utilizing a relatively small number of technical back end providers and
given the fact that many of the applicants are major corporations ( many 
publicly held), it would appear to me that the
cost to process and evaluate these applications will be far less than 
the total amount of the funds that had been collected from the applicants.
The current ICANN CEO stated at the recent London Reveal that any 
surpluses would be used as "the community sees best".
There is no logical way that ICANN can justify putting a surplus into 
some sort of a "rainy day reserve fund", nor do
I recall over this multi-year process any specific instructions or 
resolutions from the community that ICANN could act
in the manner indicated by the CEO in his comments today.

1.First of all, the applicants (as well as the community) have every 
right to insist on a complete and concise accounting of the funds tendered..
2. Secondly.. a reasonable assessment should be made by appropriate 
independent experts as to the potential exposure
ICANN may have as a result of this process moving forward. This would 
help in provision for a properly computed amount
My personal feeling is that a significant amount of money ( well in 
excess of $100 million after allowing for cost recovery & appropriate 
reserves)
SHOULD BE REFUNDED TO THE APPLICANTS !

The funds that I've been referring to in my comments above relate only 
to the application fees tendered to ICANN.
The community still has the need for significant input as to its desires 
on how ICANN should use the proceeds from the auction was of contested 
TLD strings.
Ken Stubbs