Tate Seen as Consensus Builder, Complement to Martin

Tate, 49, a former dir. on the Tenn. Regulatory Authority (TRA), was sworn in Jan. 3 for an FCC term ending in 2007 and is expected to participate in her first FCC meeting Jan. 20. During her TRA service, she also was chmn. of NARUC’s Washington Action Committee and member of NARUC’s Consumer Affairs and Gas Committees, but not the Telecom Committee, and was on the Federal-State Advanced Services Joint Conference. Tate was appointed to the TRA in Feb. 2002 after being an aide to 2 Tenn. governors, and was TRA chmn. in 2003-04. Earlier, Tate was an attorney and legal mediator experienced in family, divorce and probate law.

TRA Dir. Sara Kyle described Tate as “a mediator. She tries to get people to sit down and talk before their positions harden. She listens to all sides to gain insight and find common ground. She respects people’s positions, even when she doesn’t agree with them.” Kyle said she doubts Tate will have any problem getting up to speed at the FCC. “We in Tennessee have kept current with what the FCC is doing in telecom” so Kyle expected there wouldn’t be anything truly surprising in telecom for Tate in her new FCC position.

TRA Dir. Pat Miller said, Tate during her 3-year stint on the TRA, was an “energetic and innovative” member and a strong consensus-builder. He said Tate joined the TRA during its consideration of whether to support BellSouth’s Sec. 271 long distance entry: “She came in at a point where the parties were very far apart.” He said Tate took it upon herself to “persuade them to start talking again and work to develop a settlement that we could accept.” He said he and Tate haven’t always agreed, but said she “can disagree without being disagreeable.”

Miller said Tate had a knack for fostering compromises that everyone could live with but could make decisions when she had to: “We've had cases where the parties remained at loggerheads despite every effort at compromise, and we had to make a decision. She considers regulatory solutions as a last step, but when a decision was necessary, she wasn’t afraid to make one.”

Tate also was willing to step outside the adversarial case process to get affected interests talking, colleagues said. For instance, Tate acted as mediator in organizing a meeting on E-911 between VoIP providers and BellSouth to discuss controversial issues where the TRA lacked jurisdiction, said NARUC’s Brian Adkins, who lobbies lawmakers on telecom matters. “Something that was emblematic of her style was that she convened all the players to talk it through,” he said: “One of her passions has been E-911 issues.” Adkins said industry participants had positive responses to the gathering: “The folks from the companies said it was tremendously helpful to do this.”

During her time on NARUC’s Washington Action Committee, Tate pushed for closer ties between state regulators and members of Congress. Adkins described her as “a networker, cajoling folks to get more involved with their federal delegations.” Tate didn’t comment for this article, and her staffers didn’t respond to our inquiries.

As the FCC’s 2nd Republican, Tate is well-suited to work with a split Commission, following Chmn. Martin’s lead, said observers. “I'd call her similar to Martin in her style,” said Adkins: “If there’s one thing Kevin Martin has been noted for, it’s that without a majority he has been able to get a tremendous amount done. I'd suspect that she'd have smooth relations with the Democrats on the Commission.”

While Tate lacks experience in media regulation, since states don’t regulate there, colleagues said she is known for doing her homework. NARUC Gen. Counsel Brad Ramsay said that 2 months before she was to take her TRA seat, Tate asked for background information on telecom and its major state issues. “I sent her a ton of stuff,” Ramsay said, which she read quickly and then called with questions. “I've been here 15 years and that’s never happened before,” he said: “It says to me that at least on substantive issues, she believes in doing her homework and in being prepared.” The TRA’s Kyle said Tate knows how to tap staff and other resources for the background she needs to ask effective questions. “She won’t need long” to grasp media issues pending at the FCC, Kyle said.

It looks as if Tate may get a chance to do her media homework. Observers don’t expect substantive action on contentious media issues until a 5th commissioner starts work. Major pending media matters include decisions on national cable ownership caps and newspaper-TV station cross-ownership, cases that were punted back to the FCC after court losses (CD Dec 8 p2). Another big pending matter is whether to loosen limits on TV ownership within markets. “Our expectation is that they will wait to fill the 5th seat” before acting on major media rules, said Craig Aaron, communications dir.-Free Press. “Martin has skillfully managed things,” he said, “but they'll then move quickly once they have votes in place.”

It’s too early to tell what Tate’s stance on media issues may be, said one media activist. “I'm going to go in with an open mind and hope she has one,” said Andrew Schwartzman, exec. dir. of the Media Access Project. He said Tate may follow Martin’s lead on issues she hasn’t dealt with before: “I wouldn’t be surprised if she starts out as, and even remains, a reliable supporting vote for Martin.” -- Herb Kirchhoff; Jonathan Make