Mayor Sam Sullivan's office registers ecodensity website through privacy firm that protects "confidential contact information from prying eyes"

July 5, 2007

Mayor's office snags domain Ecodensity.ca

By BILL TIELEMAN, 24 HOURS

Why did Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan's office have the website ecodensity.ca registered by a consultant using a privacy firm that says it protects "confidential contact information from prying eyes" instead of by city staff?

Vision Vancouver Coun. Raymond Louie calls it another example of "strange behaviour" by Sullivan.

But Sullivan's chief of staff Daniel Fontaine and the consultant involved say it's not an issue and that registration is being transferred to the city.

The move follows reports last month that Sullivan had personally filed a trademark application for "eco density." Sullivan says he will turn that copyright over to Vancouver.

Ecodensity.ca was registered last year through a company called privacy.ca, which says it "allows you to control what information is published about you."

Louie says Sullivan is "doing things off book, separate from the city."

But consultant Mike Klassen, who registered ecodensity.ca and other ecodensity URLs for Sullivan's office, says it was simply convenient to do it that way. And Fontaine says neither he nor Sullivan knew ecodensity.ca was registered through privacy.ca.

Klassen, who created Sullivan's Non-Partisan Association political website, notes that his company name was listed as registering the website, making it no secret he was involved.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION NOT PUBLISHED IN 24 HOURS

Klassen said he "didn't know" why the Mayor's office asked his company, Thinking Cap Inc, to register the websites rather than doing it through city staff.

"I'm their trusted web guy and try to give them good service," he said. Klassen also runs Sullivan's personal mayoral website, which is operated by the city.

But city staff are capable of registering websites as well. An Internet search shows that Marianne Hammond, webmaster for the city of Vancouver, registered the domain name "ecodensity.mobi" for the city on June 26, 2007. [Mobi is a new website extension designed for mobile device websites.]

And two possibly enterprising individuals have also registered ecodensity website names.

Thomas McCallion, a Vancouver resident, registered ecodensity.info on March 31, 2007 while ecodensity.net was registered to Hugh Smith of White Rock on June 23, 2007.

Both Fontaine and Klassen said they have no idea who McCallion or Smith are and that neither is connected to the city or the NPA.

Klassen said there have been some difficulties transferring the ecodensity.ca website over to the city due to Internet registration processes but that ecodensity.com and ecodensity.org had recently been successfully transferred to the city.

Klassen was recently appointed to a volunteer position with the Vancouver City Planning Commission and according to his own personal blog, has been "a new media consultant to a host of election campaigns throughout the decade and managed political election campaigns for "a provincial cabinet minister" in 2005 and for "a candidate for Vancouver council".

Councilor Louie remains skeptical of the explanations on how and why ecodensity domains were registered, however, particularly the use of the privacy.ca service.

"I don't know why it would be necessary to hide the identity of whoever registers the website if the intent was always to transfer it to the city," Louie said. "The entire exercise by the mayor is a surprise not only to council but to the whole city."