ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 24, 1996 TAG: 9603250096
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SERIES: Profiles of the Candidates
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
PAT GREEN SAYS he plans to forge a partnership of regional cooperation with Roanoke County.
Pat Green is a local businessman and 23-year valley resident who owns a company that sells credit insurance and auto-refinishing products to car dealers in five states.
Although he's never been involved in local politics before, he is a past president of the Rotary Club of the Roanoke Valley and was a local delegate to a White House conference of small-business leaders.
The 55-year-old South Roanoke resident sees big changes on the horizon for city government, and he says it's going to take a businesslike attitude to deal with them.
"You are the customers of City Council," he told residents at a March 14 Raleigh Court debate. "When you ask for something, we've got to respond."
Downsizing at the federal and state levels is going to shift the burden for providing many government services to localities, Green says. To cope with that, the city is going to have to forge relationships with its Roanoke Valley neighbors, especially on issues such as transportation and utilities, he said.
Regionalism is an issue that city politicians such as Mayor David Bowers have dogged for years, largely unsuccessfully. Green says that's because politicians let parochial attitudes interfere.
As a political novice and non-native of the city, he said, "I didn't grow up with the preconceived notions that Roanoke ends at the city boundaries of Roanoke. I have a deeper vision than a lot of people who have lived here all of their lives."
Green said that as mayor, he could forge a partnership with Roanoke County, and perhaps Salem, to keep Valley Metro buses running without creating a special transportation district that would levy a 2 percent tax on gasoline. He opposes the dedicated tax, while Bowers favors it.
Green says city government has become too insular, with too many people left out of the process.
"If I'm elected, I'm going to have a lot more citizens and people from the private sector involved," he says. "A lot of people tell me, 'Pat, I'll volunteer to do a lot of this work gratis, if you'll give me some input.' And that's what I want to do."
PAT GREEN
Republican candidate for Roanoke mayor
Address: 3161 Stoneridge Road S.W.
Age: 55
Occupation: Owns an insurance agency and auto-refinishing products wholesale distribution business
Political offices held: None
Marital status: Divorced, remarried
Telephone numbers: Home, 345-8521; office, 989-5096
E-mail: Hokie69aol.com
Monday: Profiles of candidates to fulfill the remaining two years of the term of former Roanoke City Councilman (now state Sen.) John Edwards.
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Pat Green. color. KEYWORDS: POLITICS MAYOR PROFILEby CNB