Re: Selection Process

[John C Klensin <[e-mail]>]

>4. How do we deal with the situation where someone might bring an endless
>   stream of complaints against one or more IETF/IAB/etc people? I can see
>   the recent TAP/IDENT affair ending up this way -- where one aggreived
>...
>   As a possibility, might the ombudsman have the power to arbitrarily
>   reject a complaint that is deemed to be a "repeat" of a previous
>   complaint? This is, of course, completely at odds with point 3.
>   This would be similar to the double-jeopardy amendment in the US
>   Constitution.

If even the fact that a recall committee had been convened was public
(and I think it would have to be, to avoid the appearance of star
chambers), a call could be issued for anyone who had anything to say
about that particular person/position to say it by some fixed, and soon,
deadline.  If that were done, and the person at issue survived the
recall committee, it would probably be safe to impose a moratorium of
some considerable number of months on any further complaints about that
person.   This would save ombudsman-dismissal concerns, and would also
provide a period of cooling off after an explosion (probably a good
thing in general).
  Such a system fails if someone, having survived recall for some
perceived minor problem, suddenly turns into a monster, but I trust we
don't need procedures for situations like that.
  --john