thoughtleaders
BY MARK B. SOLOMON, SENIOR EDITOR
THE DC VELOCITY Q&A
Norm Mineta has wielded more influence
over transportation than perhaps any
public official in history. He’s 77 and out
of the public limelight, but he still has
considerable skin in the game.
the lion in winter
interview with Norman Mineta
FEW INDIVIDUALS IN THE LAST 30 YEARS HAVE
made as indelible an imprint on transportation and
public service as Norman Y. Mineta.
From his days as mayor of San Jose, Calif., through
the years he spent in Washington serving as chairman
of the House Aviation Subcommittee and the House
Public Works and Transportation Committee, as secretary of commerce under President Clinton, and, under
President George W. Bush, as the longest-tenured secretary of transportation in DOT’s 42-year history,
Mineta’s knowledge, political skills, and integrity put
him above the typical Beltway bickering and partisanship. In what might have been the ultimate nod to his
reputation and experience, Mineta became the only
Democrat to serve in the Bush cabinet.
After his retirement from public life in July 2006,
Mineta was named vice chairman of Hill & Knowlton,
the huge public affairs, public relations, and communications consulting firm. He holds that position today
and estimates he spends 40 percent of his time on
transportation and infrastructure issues.
Recently, Mineta sat down with DC VELOCITY to discuss his accomplishments, his frustrations, the present
and future of transportation in America, and the current DOT secretary, Ray LaHood, who, like Mineta, was
plucked from the other side of the congressional aisle
to serve at the pleasure of the president of the opposition party.
Q
You have spent most of your career in public
service. What is your role now that you are in
private life, and how does it differ from what you were
doing as mayor, congressman, and cabinet secretary?
AI spend much of my time on the broad issues of
business development and strategic initiatives.
When it comes to transportation and infrastructure, we
know there are limitations because of restricted available financial resources. It may be that there is not
enough money coming from public funds. We then
look at the potential for utilizing such strategies as pub-lic-private partnerships, and for determining if there
are private sources that can match or supplement existing public funds to build certain types of infrastructure. I’m not doing that much differently than I did as
a public official, except as a public official I had designated pots of money to work with, whether for roads
and bridges or for emergencies.
Q
Who are your clients and what are you telling
them today about the state of the economy and
the capital markets?
AI’m not at liberty to divulge the names of our
clients. What I can tell you is that we’re doing a lot
of what would be considered “bridge financing” of
projects. For example, a port authority may do its own
financing and underwriting for a project, but come up,
say, $80 million short of what is needed. My work
