Martin Management Style Said to Put Decisions in Few Lieutenants’ Hands

Under Martin, bureau and office chiefs generally have far less influence, we're told. Power instead lies in the hands of top advisors led by Dan Gonzalez and Catherine Bohigian. Among Martin’s first directives was that bureau and office chiefs should cease “independent action” until he was more up to speed (CD March 21/05 p1). Martin imposed other controls as well. For example, staffers must follow a tight script when representing the FCC at a conference or in meetings.

Martin is deemed an intelligent, seasoned regulator who has mended fences with Commission Democrats and been effective at getting majority votes on many contentious items. His ties to the Bush administration and Congress have served him well.

One Martin strength: willingness to reach out to other commissioners, especially Democrats Copps and Adelstein, said Jordan Goldstein, a former advisor to Copps. “Based on my experience there, this chairman has instituted fairer and better processes for communications among the commissioners than were there when he took over,” he said: “I think that has helped the Commission operate better.”

But many we talked to said staff influence seems to lie in Martin’s office, a shift altering how regulatory proposals emerge, with items likelier to flow from Martin’s 8th floor office than from bureaus. That has changed the atmosphere at the agency, leaving bureau staff feeling less involved, said critics. “It’s a pretty small group -- the chairman, Dan Gonzalez and Catherine Bohigian,” a communications attorney said. “Nothing of significance happens without going through Kevin or his key people,” a 2nd attorney said: “The bureau chiefs used to feel empowered to decide things. That came to a screeching halt.”

Most sources for this series sought anonymity, saying they fear for their clients or future employment. Many once were FCC employees now working in industry.

Martin tends not to delegate, a top regulatory attorney said: “Kevin does not trust very many people. He does not trust the staff to do what he wants to do. There’s where he’s wrong. That’s his big miscalculation. There’s nothing the FCC staff wants to do more than make the chairman happy and that goes from the bottom up to the top.”

Martin’s administration does not differ substantially from those of predecessors, said Blair Levin, analyst and chief of staff to former Chmn. Reed Hundt. “All chairmen only deal with people they trust,” Levin said. “When you come in… your initial instinct is to deal directly only with people you trust and then as you have more time there the circle of people you trust grows larger as you get more experience with various staff members. There is so much pressure early on until you kind of get grounded and then you want to control as much as possible.” Martin himself stands apart from most who have served as chairman, he observed: “I don’t know of anyone else who was a staffer to a commissioner and commissioner and chair. I suspect his tentacles may go deeper… What you may be seeing is that he has a great deal of institutional knowledge.”

One former commissioner speculated that the FCC’s lack of a clear majority may drive Martin to exert tighter control: “If you want to control your own agenda and don’t have the votes for it, maybe that works for him.” The commissioner said it’s often impossible for one person, or even a few people, to “keep up with everything. [Martin] is smart as hell, but sometimes you still need some input.”

Martin “certainly has his own style,” said a former senior official who represents clients before the FCC. “He makes a lot of decisions himself, but that doesn’t mean the bureaus aren’t doing anything. They do all the prep work.”

Official Says Martin’s Style Not Rare

FCC chairmen who keep decisionmaking in their own offices aren’t rare, the official said, citing Michael Powell and Hundt. In fact, despite their differences when Powell was chairman, Martin and Powell are “a lot alike” in how they manage the agency, he said. But he acknowledged that Martin “probably does consolidate a little too much in his own office. I'm not sure why he does that.” Another source said while Hundt kept a tight rein on the most important issues, Martin has taken control “to a whole other degree.”

Another former FCC staffer also likened Martin’s style to that of Powell and Hundt. “Is the chairman in charge of the agency?” the source said: “I don’t know if it’s that different than other models. Hundt came in and had a very small group of people in charge. Powell was very top down as well where he would say what he wanted and people would go out and make it happen… It’s always been top down for the last decade. The chairman is in charge of the place.”

“The old saw at the FCC was that 20% of the people do 80% of the work,” a regulatory attorney said: “It may be now 5% of the people do 95% of the work.” Another source agreed: “He just has so few people he trusts and relies on that they all do a lot.”

Martin’s management style has lessened information sharing between his office and other key parties such as commissioners and their aides and industry lobbyists, said current and former staffers and regulatory attorneys. “It’s a different way of doing things than was done before,” said a cable lawyer, describing the previous environment as having “a flow of information.”

Even Republican commissioners have borne some of the brunt of the top-down approach, said FCC officials. Staffers think Comr. McDowell received last-minute modifications to some orders because he differed with Martin over issues such as multicast must-carry, said one of the officials. The Media Bureau’s failure to consult with all commissioners before granting the NFL Network’s emergency petition against Time Warner upset commissioners, including Tate, because they weren’t involved in the process or informed before the order was unveiled, said an 8th floor staffer. Tate and her aides “have a wonderful working relationship with the chairman and his office,” said Aaron Goldberger, her chief advisor.

Media Bureau employees who Martin thinks disagree with him are cut out of policymaking, said a current FCC staffer and a former agency official. Cable lawyers and lobbyists for other media industries said they were “shocked” when they found out in Aug. that Deputy Bureau Chief William Johnson would be transferred to a lower-ranking job in the Homeland Security Bureau. That bureau is considered to be a “career stopper,” said a former agency staffer. “The willingness to go to work, camaraderie [are] suffering,” said the person, who described the previous atmosphere as the “hallmark of the FCC.”

A former FCC staffer called Martin’s administration “government by star chamber” with power restricted to the chairman’s 8th floor office. Bureau staff are afraid to meet separately with other commissioners, the former aide said. She said Martin appears successful because he’s limited his activities to “doing things that are politically expedient” while some big ticket items languish. “It’s about control, that’s all,” said another former staffer. “It enforces a certain level of discipline.”

Robert Atkinson of the Columbia Institute for Tele- Information said in part Martin simply makes decisions in a manner different from most predecessors. “Kevin Martin is running a huge enterprise,” Atkinson said. “CEOs by definition in this world can set the process, procedure and tone of decision making methodology… Some CEOs prefer to push the decision making down and out in their organization and others prefer to centralize it.” Martin has followed the 2nd course, he said.

As “CEO,” Martin has the most at stake, Atkinson said. “Kevin Martin has to take the hits when things go wrong. Presumably he gets the credit when things go right… The decision making process is critical to that. Whether his decision making process is good, bad or indifferent only time will tell. It’s certainly his prerogative.”

Atkinson said centralized management can speed decisions -- sometimes. “On the one hand, the big issues can get decided quickly,” he said: “Anything under the top 10 kinds of issues are going to get caught.” The jury is still out on Martin, he said: “Does Kevin’s management style result in faster, clearer less appealable decisions? I don’t know yet.”

Philip Weiser, exec. dir. of the Silicon Flatirons Telecom Program at the U. of Colo., said Martin’s success will depend on whether the agency moves away from legislative-type compromises on issues. “The FCC has become more of an enforcement agency and operate more like the FTC,” Weiser said: “To the extent it’s unable to make that transition, it will become less effective and potentially more of an impediment to sound competition policy.”

Martin joked about himself at the Dec. FCBA Chairman’s dinner. “One reporter… claimed that not one piece of paper gets out of the Commission without my personal approval,” he said. “That’s not true. There have been exactly 5 pieces of paper. All of the people responsible have been dealt with.” In the same remarks, he included among his top 10 reasons he finds it fun to work at the FCC: “KGB-like atmosphere grows on you after a while.” Self-deprecating humor or not, sources say Martin’s riffs included at least some truth.