THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 16, 1996 TAG: 9605160517
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
The Hampton Roads Partnership, a public-private organization established to tackle regional issues, named Newport News Mayor Barry E. DuVal as president Wednesday.
Lauding the inaugural meetings as ``historic,'' members of the partnership envision it as the lead forum for regional issues. They hope the group will set Hampton Roads' agenda for economic priorities.
The group will focus on strategic issues facing the port, privatization and high technology economic development, DuVal said. But subcommittees will discuss the proposed professional sports arena, transportation and tourism.
``This is a unique opportunity to create a vision, a strategic plan'' for the region, DuVal said.
The group incorporates, for the first time, representatives from the public sector, the area's largest companies, the educational community and the military. Previous regional groups have included one or two sectors. The 53 members of the group's standing board of directors reads like a ``who's who'' list of the region's leaders.
Despite being the two-year culmination of a Mayor and Chairs Caucus initiative to bridge the gap between the public and private sectors, few surprises emerged from the Hampton Roads Partnership's first meeting Wednesday at the Airport Hilton in Norfolk.
Norfolk Southern Corp. president and CEO David Goode and John O. Wynne, president and CEO of Landmark Communications Inc., were named co-chairmen. Hampton Mayor James L. Eason and Daniel A. Hoffler, chairman of the board of Armada Hoffler, a commercial real estate and construction group, were named co-vice chairmen.
Norfolk Mayor Paul D. Fraim was elected treasurer of the group while Cameron Blandford, assistant to the chairman and president of Newport News Shipbuilding, was named secretary.
Besides the officers, a regionally diverse executive committee representing both the Peninsula and South Hampton Roads was installed.
They included J. Robert Bray, executive director of the Virginia Port Authority; James V. Koch, president of Old Dominion University; former State Sen. Hunter B. Andrews; Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf; Suffolk Mayor S. Chris Jones; Robert Wilburn, president of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation; Charles E. Brinley, president and chief operating officer of Dominion Terminal Associates; Dr. Hermann Grunder, director of the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility; and Edward L. Brown Sr., international vice president of the International Longshoreman's Association.
The organization's officers will sit on the executive committee.
Many questions about the organization are still to be answered. Another meeting probably will be scheduled within the next two months, DuVal said.
DuVal, who announced that he would not seek re-election for mayor of Newport News earlier this year, was approached by members of the group about the position of president. The president is responsible for the daily management of the partnership's programs and will earn $100,000, according to the preliminary budget.
The Hampton Roads Partnership's budget ranges between $330,000 to $390,000, Fraim said. Each side, the public sector and the private sector, contributed approximately $167,000. The various municipalities have approved their contributions to the budget. MEMO: Consultant to be hired to study whether to build sports arena/C1
ILLUSTRATION: Hampton Roads Partnership Co-Chairmen
David Goode
John O. Wynne
KEYWORDS: REGIONALISM by CNB