CEOs Hearing Same Message from Genachowski, as They Make Social Calls

Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes met Wednesday with Genachowski, according to an ex parte letter Friday. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson met with Genachowski in late August, and the company later filed an ex parte about the meeting. NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker has also met with the chairman.

BT CEO Ian Livingston is scheduled to call on the chairman, and so are Dan Hesse, Sprint Nextel chief, and William Morrow, Clearwire CEO, commission officials tell us. Qwest CEO Ed Mueller is meeting with the chairman next month, said Tom McMahon, the company’s director of government relations. XO Communications CEO Carl Grivner met Thursday with Genachowski. The competitive local exchange carrier filed an ex parte late Friday because the meeting was more than a social call, said Vice President Lisa Youngers.

There’s nothing out of the ordinary about the meetings, except that more CEOs than usual may seek visits because Genachowski, unlike the two chairmen before him, hadn’t been on the commission, so the executives may not have met him, industry and FCC officials said.

Genachowski has asked that companies seeking introductions bring their CEOs, said communications lawyers who haven’t been in on the meetings. Other new FCC chairmen have made similar requests, a lawyer said.

“Every time there’s a new chairman CEOs will want to pay visits and the chairman will want to meet them, to establish dialogue at the most senior levels,” said John Nakahata, who was the FCC chief of staff when William Kennard was chairman. Nakahata said most of the early visits are true courtesy calls that don’t touch on substantive matters. “Unless you have something running to decision, at this point in time there’s not really a need to go much deeper than that,” he said.

The recent meetings will help familiarize Genachowski with current issues and allow him to tell industry chiefs his priorities, said Richard Wiley, a former chairman. “It’s good for people to get to know one another, for the chairman to meet the top people in the communications industry. Undoubtedly, he is going to express some of his imperatives in office. You can’t learn everything on paper. It’s good for people to meet who have important responsibilities in government and in the industries.”

Public Knowledge Legal Director Harold Feld said most chairmen are willing to meet with top industry CEOs. “No FCC chairman is going to tell the CEO of Time Warner or AT&T to go away,” he said. But Feld also said most of the executives should feel compelled to note their visits with a filing at the commission. “What constitutes a ’social’ visit and does not require an ex parte, especially in light of the many broad NOIs out there, is another matter,” he said. “It seems to me that -- especially in keeping with concerns about openness -- it would be much better for Genachowski to ask for filings and direct them to such general dockets as the National Broadband Plan. This is one gray area that I would hope the upcoming FCC process and ex parte reform would clear up.”

Free Press Policy Director Ben Scott agreed that, in the interest of openness, the courtesy visits should be reported in follow-up filings at the commission. “It is not surprising that CEOs are headed to the FCC to meet the new chairman,” he said. “I'd expect that happens with every new chairman. To the extent these meetings address issues before the commission, we hope these companies will file detailed ex partes that go beyond simply referencing previously filed comments. It is precisely in these kinds of high-level meetings that the public is best served by transparency.”

A “meet and greet” with a new chairman or commissioner shouldn’t require an ex parte unless there was substantive discussion on current FCC proceedings, countered Free State Foundation President Randolph May. “It shouldn’t make a difference whether the meeting involves a CEO or a paralegal. It’s a matter of what was discussed.”

Courtesy visits early in a chairmanship are typical, said a former FCC official. Less typical is the message Genachowski is reportedly delivering. “While some chairmen have been more hands on and some have been less hands on, I think there’s more of a point being made by this chairman, probably, because of the last administration at the FCC, to make sure that not only do the staff know that they're empowered but parties that come into meetings know that they're empowered,” the source said. Genachowski wants “to really get that message out that the staff are not be ignored or worked around but are now very much front and center to do what staff are supposed to do. Usually that means you visit with the staff first and with the chairman’s office closer to the end of the process.”

A problem with CEO-level meetings is that the real experts on issues before the FCC are lower-ranking Washington staffers, a lawyer said: “The person here in town probably knows a lot more things of interest to Julius” than a CEO does.

Some companies have requested meetings with Genachowski when their CEOs will be in Washington, but they haven’t heard yet if they're set. Entravision asked the chairman’s office for a sit-down with CEO Walter Ulloa when the executive is in town this week for a meeting of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said Barry Friedman, a lawyer for the owner of Spanish-language radio and TV stations. Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg hasn’t met with the chairman, said Media Relations Director David Fish. Level 3 CEO Jim Crowe hasn’t met with Genachowski but hopes to set up a meeting in October or November, said Media Relations Manager Debra Havins. - Howard Buskirk, Jonathan Make, Adam Bender