Word: hodel
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...Hodel, a former head of the Bonneville Power Administration, took the onslaught with outward calm and an occasional smile. Iacocca was fired, he suggested, chiefly because he got too big for his britches. "The statue is more than Lee Iacocca," he said. Hodel's justification was, at best, a bit thin. He insisted that there was a "potential conflict of interest" between Iacocca's role as chairman of the governmental advisory commission and his leadership of the private Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, the group that has been spectacularly successful in raising some $233 million for the restoration projects...
...Hodel said that he never focused on the conflict of interest problem when things were going well; as late as last October he reappointed Iacocca as chairman of the commission. The conflict possibility hit him, he says, only after Iacocca indirectly raised the issue on Jan. 29. Palmer Wald, the foundation's counsel, had sent telegrams to two men who sat on both the commission and the foundation board. Wald asked them to leave one of the groups because "the chairman requests there be no crossover of commission and foundation board membership." Both chose to leave the foundation...
...Hodel grabbed the opening. The Secretary fired off a telegram to Iacocca that concluded, "Your observation of the necessity for an absence of crossover memberships on the commission and board requires that I accept your resignation." How's that? Iacocca went to Hodel's office and handed him a letter "to assure you that I have not resigned . . . nor, I might add, do I intend to do so." Iacocca also disavowed the wording of the Palmer Wald telegrams, saying he had not seen them before they were sent...
...morning ceremony at which Treasury Secretary James Baker presented the foundation with a check for $24 million, raised for the restoration by the sale of commemorative coins. Iacocca was praised lavishly by Baker for "a classic example of American volunteerism." Only two hours later, Iacocca was in Hodel's office for a 75- minute session during which the Secretary implored him to leave his post gracefully. Iacocca said he would do so only if the conflict of interest allegation were clearly spelled out. Hodel finally picked up a letter and read aloud its operative paragraph: "I have determined that this...
When he got back to Detroit that same day, Iacocca wrote the Secretary to say "I have now read the letter you handed me in our meeting today, and I + understand from our discussion that the letter is being held in abeyance." Back came a whistler from Hodel: "I wish to assure you that my Feb. 10 letter to you was effective upon delivery, remains so, and is not 'being held in abeyance...