Martin Defends Leadership Style, Says He Always Tried to Be Impartial

Martin could have stayed on as a commissioner, splitting the FCC temporarily 2-2 between Republicans and Democrats. But he said it was time to go, a decision he announced Jan. 15 at his last commission meeting. In his final days, the FCC released many items, including several over the long holiday weekend. (See report this issue).

“I've been at the commission a long time, almost eight years,” Martin said. “I've been chairman for four. It was time for me to both have some new challenges and to spend time with my family.” He said he hasn’t decided what he will do next. Most of his predecessors as chairman have ended up serving on corporate boards and taking investment jobs of a kind that usually are high-paying. None in recent years has taken a job with a law firm. “This has been a great job,” Martin said. “It’s been an exciting job. These are complex issues. You have an opportunity to try to come up with creative ways to solve them.” He said he had expected that being chairman would be exciting before he was appointed. “I certainly think it’s been better than I had hoped.”

Martin said he’s disappointed that the FCC didn’t approve rules for a second 700 MHz D-block auction. He conceded that the rules for the first one didn’t make the spectrum attractive to a buyer that would build a public-private publicly safety network. But he views the 700 MHz auction as a whole as one of his successes.

“I voted with the two Republicans on some issues, the two Democrats on some issues,” Martin said of the 700 MHz auction order. “What we were able to do was establish rules that created the most successful auction the commission has ever had with the most stringent build out requirements the commission has ever had.” He said he would have liked to do more to stabilize cable rates and hopes the next commission will make that a priority. “Cable prices have only continued to climb with increasing percentages,” he said.

Martin also regrets that the FCC couldn’t approve a more thorough overhaul of Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation rules -- items scheduled at one point for a vote late last year, he said. Given another chance, “I would try something different,” he said. “I'm not sure what I would propose, but I would try something different.”

Martin was often a lightning rod for industry criticism and he sometimes poked fun at allegations that he was controlling. He is said to have concentrated more power in the hands of the chairman’s office and appointed former lieutenants to head many of the FCC’s bureaus (CD Sept 6/06 p1). Under his chairmanship, senior staff often offered options memos rather than proposed decisions on the most important policy calls. Most famously, during the FCBA Chairman’s Dinner three years ago he joked that one of the advantages of working at the FCC was that the “KGB-like atmosphere grows on you after a while.”

Martin said he always believed that senior staff had an important role but the commissioners need to make hard decisions. “In the end, the commission, the commissioners are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate and they're the ones who are responsible for making difficult decisions,” he said. “I believe that’s the way it should be.”

Martin also said the House Commerce Committee’s investigation of his chairmanship hadn’t been a distraction and several people had told him they were surprised the FCC was able to get a significant amount done in 2008 since it was an election year. “They didn’t conclude that there had been a wrongdoing, that there had been any violation of rules or laws,” he said of the committee’s report. “I thought it was old style politics and several of the things the Democrats complained about were things that happened before I was even chairman.”

Martin’s last work day as chairman, Friday, the FCC released a 67-page report highlighting Martin’s successes as chairman. “Under Chairman Martin’s leadership, the Commission has produced meaningful results for consumers,” the report said. “It put in place the appropriate regulatory framework that achieves the twin goals of spurring investment and establishing open platforms to deliver choice and innovation to consumers.” He also discussed his legacy in a number of speeches, notably Jan. 8 at AEI, where he elaborated on his continuing faith in markets balanced with the need for regulators to step in if competition falters.

Martin said his opinions “evolved sometimes in proceedings,” but his faith in competition didn’t change. “It’s not that I don’t think there’s a role for the government,” he said. “The government has a role to play not only in setting up the rules of the road so that people can compete fairly and stepping in where it doesn’t seem to be working whether that’s a market failure… or because you just don’t think that there’s a sufficient amount of competition to serve consumers.”

Martin said he always gave other members of the commission a chance to make their opinions clear before the FCC moved forward on various orders. “I was effective once I had determined what I thought was the right answer of getting that solution started,” he said. “I think that I was very effective in getting many of my proposals through at times very contentious proceedings and at time being able to work with both the Democratic colleagues and Republican colleagues.”