Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 26, 1990 TAG: 9006260565
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER MUNICIPAL WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
As Trout leaves Roanoke City Council, he's apparently already thinking of a possible comeback.
A former amateur boxer, he knows that retired fighters often long to climb back into the ring for one more bout to prove they can throw and take a punch.
Fighting gets in the blood.
Political fighting gets in the blood, too.
So don't be surprised if you hear Trout's name in the next city council election in 1992. He has already made one political comeback, and some political leaders would not be surprised if he does it again.
A councilman for 16 years, Trout, 60, will leave council at the end of June because he lost a bid for re-election last month.
His political career spans three decades. He got into politics in the 1960s and was first elected to council in 1968. He remained on council until 1976, when he lost a bid to become mayor. He was vice mayor from 1968 to 1972.
When Trout left council in 1976, political analysts figured he was finished as a politician. But he returned six years later and has served on council for the past eight years.
Trout does not want to talk about his plans for still another comeback, but it has been learned he declined an offer by Mayor Noel Taylor and council to arrange a retirement dinner for him.
Councilman Robert Garland, who will also leave council at the end of the month, agreed to such a dinner, but Trout did not. He did not explain his reasons.
Councilman David Bowers thinks Trout is one of Roanoke's most resilient politicians.
"Jim Trout is spunky. What I will always remember is that he once told me that anybody can throw a punch, but not everyone can take one on the chin," Bowers said.
Bowers said Trout's ability to bounce back after a defeat is one of his strongest qualities and has even helped shape his own thinking on some things. "In my law practice, I've sometimes told some people that they have to learn to take a punch and live with it," Bowers said.
When Trout got into politics in the 1960s, he said then-City Manager Arthur Owens gave him some advice that has remained with him throughout his political career.
"He told me to stand - and to work - for things that are important, and to leave the complaints and criticism to others. I've tried to take that approach."
Trout began working on civic projects in the early 1960s when he was in the Jaycees before he became a councilman. "I have worked for projects to improve the city - to help the city reach its potential," he said. "I will leave the complaints and criticism to others. I set my course when I was a young man in the Jaycees, and I have remained steadfast with it."
Trout played a key role in the development of the Roanoke Transportation Museum, which later became the Virginia Museum of Transportation. He was an early chairman of the Transportation Museum Committee and also served on development committees for the Mill Mountain Zoo and Wiley Drive.
Trout, who took early retirement in 1987 as an economic development specialist for Norfolk Southern Corp., has focused on economic development and schools throughout his political career.
He said the issues are linked because new businesses and industries provide the tax funds to help finance a good school system. An educated work force is needed to attract new industries, and a successful economic development program helps to lighten the tax burden on homeowners, he said.
When Trout became chairman of the city's Economic Development Commission eight years ago, Roanoke was the only major city in Virginia without a municipally owned industrial park.
Trout helped to oversee the development of the Roanoke Centre for Industry and Technology, a 300-acre industrial park off U.S. 460. Half a dozen businesses and industries have located in the park, and nearly 1,400 jobs have been created.
The city recently bought 142 acres to expand the park, and Trout expects another 1,200 to 1,400 jobs will be created there.
Other council members say Trout deserves credit for pushing strongly for the acquisition and development of industrial sites, particularly in recent years.
"Trout's forte has been economic development. He did that for Norfolk Southern, and he's pushed the same thing on council. He pressed for the Centre for Industry and Technology, and that has helped," Councilman Howard Musser said.
"Trout's experience has been valuable. He digs into some things that others don't," Musser said.
Vice Mayor Beverly Fitzpatrick has known Trout for 25 years, even though he has been on council only two years. "I first got to know Jim Trout when I was the first employee of the Roanoke Transportation Museum and he was a Jaycee working on the museum," Fitzpatrick said. "I looked on him almost as a mentor."
The summer after he graduated from high school, Fitzpatrick worked as superintendent of what is now the Virginia Museum of Transportation.
"He [Trout] looks ahead. He is a visionary and a dreamer. Somebody has to dream," Fitzpatrick said.
In recent years, Trout angered fellow Democrats with his votes on several issues, particularly the ouster of Don Bartol and LaVerne Dillon from the School Board.
But he defended his loyalty to the Democratic Party, citing his record in working in the campaigns of Democratic candidates for national, state and local offices for more than 30 years.
He sought re-election as an independent in May, after first announcing he would not run, because of what he said was a misunderstanding over the status of his railroad pension.
He surprised political friends and foes alike by suddenly announcing in late February he would resign and would not seek a new term because he said he would have to take a reduction in his railroad pension when he reached 60 in April.
Three days after the Democrats nominated their candidates, Trout said he had learned he would not be eligible for a pension until he becomes 62. He said he would remain on council and seek re-election as an independent.
Some Democrats charged that his misunderstanding about his pension was a ploy to avoid the embarrassment of being denied his party's nomination for re-election. But the veteran councilman denied the charge. He said he had made detailed plans for seeking the nomination.
Trout received strong support and campaign contributions from many business leaders who usually support Republican candidates. But in the contest for three council seats, he finished fourth, behind Democrats Musser, James Harvey and William White.
Bowers said he thought Trout's votes on School Board appointments and several other issues in recent years hurt him badly.
"I obviously had problems with Jim's position on some issues in the past two years," Bowers said. "I think the public likewise had some concerns, and that is probably the reason he wasn't re-elected."
Keywords:
PROFILE
by CNB