Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 18, 1995 TAG: 9508180044
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY AND FRANK GALLAGHER STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
On Thursday, Wishneff got his second client: the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center.
The commission unanimously agreed to hire the 17-year city government veteran part-time for a "limited duration" and for an amount that will be negotiated later.
The action was needed because Wishneff's last scheduled work day is today, but the commission's work isn't finished.
Wishneff knows better than anyone else the ins, outs and related minutiae of dozens of contracts the commission has entered into during the past three years, said City Finance Director Jim Grisso, one of five commissioners on the joint Roanoke-Virginia Tech panel.
Some of the agreements, such as the conference center construction contract, have yet to be completed.
"We have a need to continue the business of the commission," said City Manager Bob Herbert, the city's other representative on the commission. "With Brian [scheduled to leave] Friday, we had to find a way to accomplish that."
The commission also agreed to negotiate with Wishneff on his payment for the job, how long it will last and how many hours per week he'll put into it.
Herbert said he doesn't expect the arrangement to last more than three or four months.
"My concept is, and I think the commission would generally agree, that the director will be a city employee who will handle many other duties in addition to the executive director's work," Herbert said.
In December, the commission advertised for a permanent, full-time executive director. It hoped to have the director at the helm by April, when Wishneff and some other city workers on loan to the commission were to have returned to their regular city jobs.
Five or six people besides Wishneff expressed interest in the post, Grisso said. But because of his experience on the project, Wishneff was the only one seriously considered.
The hang-up was that he proposed working as a hourly consultant, while Herbert insisted that the director should be a city employee.
Months passed with little action. The commission's lease on office space expired; Wishneff moved back into city hall as a special projects coordinator, rather than in his former position as economic development chief.
On Aug. 8 Wishneff announced he was leaving to form a consulting business specializing in public-private partnerships. His first client is a group trying to snare a major-league baseball team for Northern Virginia.
In other action Thursday, the commission:
nLearned that in its first three months, the conference center posted a slightly higher deficit than had been projected.
Revenues for the center's first quarter were about $225,000, about $5,000 higher than expected. Total expenses, however, were $356,000, about $10,000 more than budgeted for, said hotel General Manager Gary Walton.
Thus, the center's operating deficit of $113,197 was about $5,000 more than the commission had projected.
The conference center was expected to lose money during its first three years, Herbert noted. The city and Tech have set aside funding to cover the operating deficit.
"I think that ... [hotel operator] Doubletree should be complimented," Wishneff said.
"A new business is like a new baby: It has to learn how to crawl and how to walk," Walton said.
Approved an additional payment to Doubletree to cover higher-than-expected expenses related to the hotel's opening.
The resolution authorizes the commission to reimburse Doubletree Management, which operates the hotel and conference center, $37,477 for "reasonably necessary but unauthorized expenses that the management company incurred on behalf of the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center."
by CNB