Acting Chairman Copps has his work cut out for him in addressing the sad
mess at FCC these days. An anonymous post to my blog, SpectrumTalk, from an FCC staffer
reported on Copps first meeting with the FCC staff,
“When Chairman Copps gave his speech today to the entire FCC
staff, before he had said even a word, he was met by thunderous
applause. Like Obama with Bush right behind him declared that the
country he was receiving was in disarray, Copps made clear that the FCC
is in disarray and that things will be changing.”
Copps’ address to the FCC staff is posted
on the FCC website and is a great plan for short term action. As he
has written
to Comm. McDowell, he is limiting his actions during his interim period
to allow the new chairman flexibility in making major changes. He has
stated that he is removing the unusual barriers between the staff and the
other commissioners that were the hallmark of the ancienne
regime. He stated,
“Second is how Commissioners and Bureaus communicate between and
among themselves. In order for all of us to do our jobs well, make
reasonable policy decisions, oversee the regulated industries under our
purview, and represent American consumers, we must improve these lines
of communication as well. To promote more opennesss, starting this
coming week, we will have a weekly Chairman’s Office Briefing with
Bureau and Office chiefs, or their designees, and we will include a
representative from each Commissioner’s office. Opening up these
meetings will, I am convinced, significantly improve the quality of our
decision-making. It will also expedite the business of the Commission. I
also want to ensure that my Commissioner colleagues have unfettered
access to the Bureaus, with the presumption being that requests for
information will be honored, and that there will be positive outreach
from the Bureaus and Offices to them, with the presumption being that
important information shouldn’t have to be asked for—it
should be provided. I realize this is not a bureau-created problem but,
beginning now, requests from Commissioners’ offices—not just
the Chairman’s Office—should be answered directly and as
quickly as possibly, just as if the Chairman’s Office is asking
for it and without the need for running those requests through the
Chairman’s office first—the only exception I can currently
think of being the very narrow one that such requests not be unusually
time-consuming or necessitate an excessive juggling of Bureau or Office
resources. In those cases, we will attempt to craft a workable
solution.”
I agree completely with this, but it focuses on staff responses to
questions from the “8th Floor”. I hope that the
new leadership can also address the need for responsible 2 way
communications between the staff and the 8th Floor. Under the
ancienne regime the staff was discouraged from taking
any initiative. Virtually any action needed Chairman’s Office
approval – even the “hiring” of interns! There is a
need to reestablish normal delegations of authority to senior staff
managers so work can proceed without bottlenecks on the 8th
Floor for routine matters which don’t establish policy precedents.
There is also a need to encourage responsible feedback from the staff to
Commission leadership.
Thus if the staff sees a problem and wants to propose a solution they
should be encouraged to do so. If staff members are concerned about a
pending decision or an existing policy, there should be a responsible way
to express that concern and propose alternatives. In industry this is
called empowering employees. The extreme frustration of FCC employees
when they are powerless to make any internal comment on something that
troubles them both hurts morale and leads to leaks of information. A
better 2 way internal dialogue could help in both areas.