Right Message, Wrong Signals

While Johnson thinks he is providing valuable advice from an experienced lender, the political appointee Cavendish hears the negativism of a career employee with an unknown agenda. Johnson has the resources to easily document analogous successful private-sector lending programs that use third-party lenders. He should be able to provide easily detailed examples of lender practice from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the major conduit lenders such as life insurance companies, and Wall Street investment houses. For starters, Johnson could provide a memo that highlights the salient features of the programs, the loan origination volume they purchase every year from third party lenders, and their low default rates.

Johnson's dilemma isn't just the facts, but the presentation of the facts. Johnson's best approach is to remember that he too wants to solve the problem and provide workable alternatives.

Lacking the effort to frame his critique positively, Johnson is seen as a bureaucratic obstacle whose sudden appearance after several good months makes Cavendish even more suspicious. Perhaps Johnson isn't the best person to deliver the meat of the message to Cavendish. One possible avenue is to ask permission to assemble some nonpartisan outside lenders with relevant experience so that Cavendish may vet the program himself, in private.

Johnson's strength is his experience and value as a trusted resource. While the temptation to seek out back-channel allies may run strong, he has not exhausted his own resources and abilities. Mobilizing other or even outside forces would be unlikely to change the program, and more troubling, make it difficult for them to recommend changes without seeming disloyal.

In considering how far to press his objections, Johnson must first consider how effectively he has communicated. His sense of responsibility to the agency may make him feel ethically bound to make the loudest noise, but his sense of professionalism should compel him to make the most effective noise within his unit. His first and best opportunity for change lies with supporting his superior's program with positive changes.

Having no information that his superiors are ill intentioned, Johnson can and should appeal to their sense of professionalism and public duty to create the best possible program, not simply tear down the one they have proposed. He cannot assume they have his level of knowledge or nuance. He is at the crossroads of a major professional opportunity. Smartly managed, he can only enhance his value to the organization. A halfway effort, or a negative one, will not help create a workable program. It will only damage his reputation and efficacy and, perhaps most important, his perception of himself as a community development professional.

Stephen Leflovitz is vice president of housing and finance at the National Multi Housing Council. Earlier, he was vice president of the State of New York Mortgage Agency Mortgage Insurance Fund. He has a master's degree in public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.