Hello PeeringDB Board, Stewards and Governance Lists,
I'd like to firstly thank the board work their work thus far and bringing
PeeringDB forward.
The concerns being raised here, were also raised on the PeeringDB Facebook
page, a post which has since been deleted by an unknown source. A partial
screenshot of the thread has been attached for prosperity. This deletion of
the post isn't the concern here, however its deletion is disappointing.
The issue I would like to ask the board for clarification on is contract
issued with 20C, LLC for procurement and maintenance of PeeringDB 2.0. This
software is a great step forward for PeeringDB and the Internet community
in general, however there are some uncertainties as to how this contract
was reached. A board member is principal at 20C, LLC.
>From the Board Meeting notes, an immaterial contract was reached with 20C,
LLC between the boarding meetings of 8 December 2015 and 7 January 2016. As
quoted from 7 January 2016 Meeting notes:
*Discussion of when to launch.*
*Aaron clarified a contract with 20C, LLC will be completed before launch.
Proposal of March 1st, 2016 with announcement to be made by admins as soon
as logical. Matt is comfortable with the schedule from a coding and release
perspective. No motion made, but also no objections to the schedule. Matt
and the admins will drive.*
It's important to note that at this point, no conflict of interest was
expressed in the board meeting notes, further to that conflict of interest
declarations from the directors and Secretary/Treasurer were not received
until 2 December 2016, nearly a full year after the immaterial contract was
agreed to.
The contract with 20C, LLC was executed prior to 6 April 2016 Board
Meeting, without a board vote. While I understand this may be with-in the
Chair's powers and responsibilities, such a large contract, representing a
majority of PeeringDB's funds should have full board oversight and
approval. Given the relationship between a board member and 20C, LLC, from
an external party this could appear as an impropriety.
As such, as part of this transparency request, I'd like for the following
information to be disclosed:
1) PeeringDB's financial controls policy.
2) Confirmation that the impacted board member abstained from discussion
and votes relating to procurement of PeeringDB software and ongoing
maintenance contracts.
Appropriate disclosure and a statement from the board can hopefully close
this issue.
I thank the Board and Stewards for their time tonight and everyones
devotion to PeeringDB.
--
Tom
