FIA presidential hopeful Tim Mayer promises an end to indiscriminate firings, gagging orders and presidential excess.
The American theologian, James Freeman Clarke, famously said that "a politician thinks of the next election; a statesman thinks of the next generation".
At a time, we all appear to have all too many of the former and few, if any, of the latter, Mayer has revealed his manifesto for the FIA presidential election in December. As one would expect, the American makes clear that he intends to undo all the things that his predecessor got wrong, however in this case he goes much further.
Mayer comes out all guns blazing as he claims that on Day 1 he will "roll back" the ability of the president to "fire at will" elected Senate Members.
"No institution in the world should those elected to be the watchdogs be able to be fired by the very executive they are charged with advising and supervising," he says as he promises to re-establish the Senate as a proper "Advisory Board", responsible to the Member Clubs.
Also on Day 1 he will rescind and replace "gag order" NDA's.
"In no institution in the world should those elected to represent the Member Clubs be prevented from talking to them about the issues," he says. "We will re-establish the World Councils as representatives of the Member Clubs, with a duty of confidentiality only about commercially sensitive contracts.
From the outset he will eliminate presidential control of Ethics and Audit Committees. "In no institution in the world should the critical Ethics and Audit Functions be under the thumb of the executive," he says. Adding that: "As an interim step we will re-establish full Senate control of the Ethics and Audit Committees (not President or President of the Senate).
Finally, his first day as president will see an end to control motivated manipulation of Member elected representatives, as the American seeks to re-establish the World Councils as the representatives of the Clubs, re-establish the Senate as the Member Club's watchdog and establish the Presidency as "Servant Leader".
The target after 100 days in office is to provide strategic vision & resource, with the president "laser focused" on building resource for the Member Clubs in Mobility and Sport, whilst providing stability and development for major
championships.
Promising a non-executive Presidency, Mayer will install an Executive CEO, and publicly define and publish new division of labour between the President, CEO and World Councils.
He will set clear structures and points of contact for club input, publish consultation timelines, especially for statute reforms and commission changes, and launch a public facing platform showing key commitments and timelines.
In terms of driving growth for clubs he will establish a "Grant Support Department" with the goal of not only driving club grants, but also establishing clear FIA responsibility to follow up on grants and issues to ensure genuine progress for clubs.
There will be open confidential reporting for past internal abuse, coercion or ethical breaches - not as a mechanism of retribution, but healing, with external facilitation, and the setting-up of a truly independent reporting mechanism - not controlled by the President, thereby starting the "journey to a truly ethical FIA".
As well as instituting a full review of commission structure, he will establish an independent Financial Oversight Committee.
Looking even further ahead, after a year in office Mayer promises a member focused financial strategy, to move the Ethics and Nominations Committees into a completely independent institution as part of the FIA courts system and to re-establish the independence of the Mobility Regions.
There will also be the direct election of two World Motorsport Council Members for each sport region, and the intention to broaden the remit of the "Women in Motorsport Commission" to cover all issues of inclusion.
In the longer terms he aims to drive resources to Member Clubs, the continuous review of the FIA's corporate structure, a top to bottom review of the statutes to eliminate grey areas and the elimination of statutes designed to allow the incumbent to manipulate.
He will also establish the requirement that any statute change must be published for 120 days before a vote whilst clarifying voting procedures.
All in all an interesting manifesto, and one which he clearly sets out to undo much of what Mohammed ben Sulayem has done during his presidency.
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