00:12My name is Harold John Dobb, Jr. I'm in my mid-80s, live in Omaha, Nebraska, married to a wonderful
00:18lady by the name of Mary. We have three kids and six grandkids, and during my 55 years of
00:24practicing law, I took a few diversionary trips to serve in Congress for eight years, and then
00:31there on the Ways and Means Committee, the Tax Writing Committee, on the Small Business Committee,
00:36on the Health Committees of Ways and Means, and the Small Business Committee. I enjoyed thereafter
00:42a chance to run for the Senate, but got the bronze medal in that endeavor. I'm going to do some
00:50work
00:50for the American Healthcare Association as its national CEO and president, on a turnaround
00:55project for a couple of years, back to my law firm, and then ran for mayor of Omaha and was
01:00successful
01:01in winning two elections to serve as mayor of our about 36th, 38th largest city in the country,
01:07and to be selected by George Bush, nominated by him, and confirmed by Democrat-controlled Senate
01:13to be a member of the National Congressionally Charged Social Security Advisory Board and serve
01:19as its chairman for five years. So I've had an interesting mix of private sector experience.
01:25I practiced law. I ran a company, a $20 million livestock feed company for 10 years and served
01:33in the Congress and various other public ways. But all in all, a really interesting life and
01:42one that I have enjoyed thoroughly, and I'm glad to talk to you about it.
01:50I was a route paper boy for the Omaha Monopoly Print World Herald newspaper. That's a,
01:58and was at one time a Warren Buffett Berkshire Hathaway company. I made about $20 a month
02:05after all collections and bad debts. I enjoyed that my dad would take me on Saturday mornings to the
02:14small little bank in our small town of Benson, Nebraska, a little suburb of Omaha, and I would
02:20make my deposit. Also, I had some income from mowing and cutting grass and from doing chores around our
02:27little farmstead, and then went on to have a job all through high school racking hot bread at a Omaha
02:36bread manufacturing company. And a lot of other odd jobs, some of which produced enough money that I was
02:44able to go through college, buy my first car and go through college and graduate with no debt.
02:52Of all the jobs I've had in my career, I'd like being mayor of Omaha the best because under our
02:58Omaha charter, Gary, Omaha is called a home rule charter. So the state legislature gave our city
03:05almost identical powers as if we were a state within a state. So the mayor of Omaha under our charter
03:12is sort
03:13of a combination of the CEO, the CFO, the CIO. It's a strong mayor, a part-time city council.
03:20So if Gertrude called up the hotline and was having trouble getting their cat out of the tree,
03:26I could find a public works official or a firefighter who could go get the cat down out of the
03:33tree for
03:33Gertrude. It was that kind of job that was more hands-on. In Congress, I enjoyed the public policy
03:40world. But when you fix a problem on the one side, the problem was so immense that it hemorrhaged out
03:46of the bucket on the other side. Very difficult and frustrating. Even though I enjoyed being a member
03:52of Congress, I enjoyed being mayor much more because you had a much more direct impact on the outcome.
04:03I've run for both partisan and non-partisan elective offices and have been on many boards and commissions
04:10over my lifetime. And I had a lesson taught to me by Ronald Reagan. He and I were both inaugurated
04:19in 1980 at the same time. And after we had a sleepless night of partying in Washington,
04:25he invited the Republican class of 1980 to the White House for breakfast that next morning.
04:31And I mean, I had no idea, but I ended up being seated right next to him, took out the
04:37napkin and
04:37said, would you autograph this for my three kids? And I was tickled with all of that. But he made
04:42a
04:42speech. It's been written up in three books and I'll never forget it. And it's been a guidepost in my
04:47public life, be it volunteer or official. And he said to the 52 of us that assembled at that breakfast,
04:54I've never been a legislator or a lawmaker. But I was governor of California, as you know, and
04:59dealt with a pretty interesting group of lawmakers in the state of California. And here's my challenge
05:06to you. I will stand and fight for my principles. And I exhort you to do the same. And then
05:11he did that
05:12famous B actor wink, tilted his head to the right and winked. And then he used his forefinger on his
05:19right
05:19hand and he circled in a pointing manner at his feet. And he said, I expect you to fight for
05:26your
05:26principles. As I just told you, I will mind. But to get things done, we're probably going to have to
05:31compromise. And when we do, and when we must, all I ask of you is that we fall forward together.
05:39And I always remembered that comment that he made to all of us, tried to use that as my guiding
05:45principle in the lawmaking process. And then in my service as mayor, my service as an elected member
05:51of our public university's Board of Regents, in a number of appointed positions, always look,
05:57not necessarily for the middle ground, but see if you can find compromise. And to do so means you
06:03might have to accept some things that you wouldn't prefer. But maybe the other side has some points
06:10you can accept. And when you get together, the result normally is progress. And I've always felt
06:16that that was the way to conduct oneself in public life. I found it always effective as a lawyer in
06:23conducting myself that way with opposing counsel and my clients.
06:31I've always asked myself, how would I feel if the tables were turned and the shoe was on the other
06:38foot? And that's the answer. Just expect that you would want to be treated the way you would like the
06:45outcome to be and act accordingly. And in so doing, I think that makes compromise and conciliation a lot
06:52more potentially useful in moving whatever issue it might be to resolution.
07:02That they listen, but not in a condescending way, in a sincere way. When you listen to someone else in
07:10a sincere way and absorb and truly hear what someone else is saying, what their point of view is,
07:16what their issues are, and how they feel about them, then ask yourself what the foundational credibility
07:24of the factual objective point of view is that other party has. And if they are willing to smile
07:31at you and say, Hal, I disagree with you, but we still will get along just fine.
Comments