THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 15, 1997 TAG: 9702140092
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVID M. POOLE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: 154 lines
THINK OF Richmond's Old City Hall as one of those historic homes in Norfolk's Ghent neighborhood.
From the outside, the house retains the grandeur befitting one of the city's first families of a bygone era. On the inside, however, the mansion has been divided into apartments of varying shapes and sizes.
The drawing room, living room and kitchen have become a spacious reception hall on the first floor. The second-floor rooms have been converted into rambling two-bedroomers. The attic is now a pair of efficiencies with funky roof lines.
In Richmond, Old City Hall stands as a Gothic granite tribute to Richmond's 19th century standing as king of steel and tobacco. The National Historic Landmark, built between 1886 and 1894, was restored in 1983 and 1984.
Then the interior of the building on East Broad Street was divided into offices, many of which are occupied by lobbyists and newspaper reporters seeking proximity to the State Capitol, located just a few paces out the back door.
Norfolk Southern Corp. has a suite on the third floor, and the Virginia Coal Association keeps offices on the fourth.
Lobbyists representing Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk and Chesapeake lease desk space in a temporary office on the drafty first floor. A fast right outside their office and they're in the General Assembly Building. Straight across the lobby and they're out the door to the Capitol.
Other government lobbyists squeeze into broom-closet-size desk spaces. The union guys hang out in a rambling fourth-floor office that has the barren furnished feel of a fraternity house.
In addition to serving as an annex for special interests that swarm around the annual General Assembly sessions, Old City Hall is the first stop on the nightly round of receptions hosted by special interests ranging from the horse industry to the Fraternal Order of Police to the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame and the Retail Merchants Association. Lawmakers and their aides show up most nights to nosh on boiled shrimp and imbibe at open bars.
Most afternoons, the mouth-watering aroma of crabcakes or stir-fry wafts through the building. Tenants who have nothing to do with politics can't help but sneak downstairs to spear a jumbo shrimp.
``I've been known to snitch a little when I walk by the tables,'' said Roger C. Wiley Jr., a lawyer who works on the second floor.
Visitors to a fourth-floor suite are greeted by a poster of a young Sally Field from the film ``Norma Rae.'' She is standing in the factory, tools in her belt, defiantly holding aloft a sign that reads, ``UNION.''
In a corner office, R. Michael Mohler mans the command post for the Virginia Professional Fire Fighters.
His fellow firefighters from Fairfax County cover his shift for two months each winter so he can look after their interests in the General Assembly.
He tracks a few dozen bills and the state budget. ``But the main thing is heart-lung,'' he said, referring to the union's prized section of workmen's compensation law.
The law creates a presumption that any firefighter with a heart or lung disorder acquired the condition through his or her employment.
Being a union man is not easy in a General Assembly that leans toward the green of the state's corporate interests. There are times when Mohler wishes he were back climbing ladders and hauling hose.
``Going into a burning building is more dangerous than lobbying the General Assembly, but more enjoyable,'' he said. ``It's hard to know your outcome in this place. Fighting fires is easier to measure.''
Stan Tretiak never leaves visitors thirsty.
A refrigerator in the corner of his second-floor office is stocked with Coors and Coors Lite.
After all, Tretiak manages Coors' government affairs operations for 17 Eastern states.
``I'd like to offer you one, but it's a little early - even for me,'' he told a visitor one morning last week.
Tretiak belies the image of a pot-bellied beer flak. He is approaching 50, but has the lean waist of a long-distance runner. The marathon medals hanging on his wall prove it.
At the Assembly, Tretiak tracks the state's alcoholic beverage control laws that could affect the company's marketing and promotions.
For instance, Virginia prohibits beer companies from depicting present or past professional athletes in promotional materials placed in stores. The law meant that Coors had to obscure NASCAR driver Bill Elliott's face with a helmet a few years ago.
Tretiak also keeps an eye on pollution measures that could affect the company's plant in the Shenandoah Valley.
Last year, Tretiak opposed a controversial bill that would forgive polluters if they voluntarily 'fessed up for problems. This year has been a slow one, with environmental bills reaching an early compromise.
``There's happy fish in the Shenandoah River,'' Tretiak said, ``and it's not because we put beer in there.''
David L. Bailey Jr. was the pastor of a church back in 1982 when an opportunity came to work as a lobbyist for the Virginia Council of Churches.
``I was bitten by the bug,'' Bailey said.
Today, Bailey runs his own lobbying firm that occupies an old courtroom that takes up nearly half of the second floor. He subleases space to other lobbyists. Sentara Health Systems has a windowless cubicle underneath a loft. The volunteer firefighters have a closet-sized room to one side of the old courtroom.
When Bailey outgrew his old office in the basement a few years ago, he never considered leaving Old City Hall. He said the location is ideal for the annual Assembly sessions, but even better for the other nine months of the year.
He can step across the way to the General Assembly building to catch lawmakers who stop in town for study commissions. He can be back in his office within minutes.
As a former preacher, Bailey feels uneasy about crashing the almost nightly receptions held in the lobby.
So he copes with the aroma of food the best he can.
``Sometimes we have to close the door; it's too distracting,'' he said.
Karen Harwood has a ``squawk box'' on her desk that looks like a police scanner.
But instead of broadcasting reports of fires and shootings, the device crackles with the proceedings on the House and Senate floors.
The squawk box allows Harwood, a lobbyist for the Fairfax County government, to monitor the proceedings as she studies the fine print of bills covering her desk.
``It gets like this in a matter of two or three days,'' said Harwood, a lawyer for the county.
Localities are big players at the legislature, mainly because Virginia is a ``Dillon Rule'' state, meaning localities need state authority to levy taxes or enact regulations.
As the state's largest locality, Fairfax County is the biggest player. It keeps three full-time lobbyists in Richmond during Assembly sessions. A slew of elected and appointed officials shuttle in and out of the office. After all, the Fairfax County delegation comprises nearly a quarter of the House of Delegates.
``Should we go over and peer down on our delegation of 17 and make sure they are behaving themselves?'' asked Fairfax Executive Kate Hanley, visiting a few weeks ago.
Harwood said her job is mainly defensive, to stop homebuilders from restricting zoning rules or governors from taking away local taxing authority.
``Ninety percent of what we do is damage control,'' said Harwood, a Fairfax County lawyer, renowned around the third floor for her wall-shaking laughter.
Robert Matthias, a lobbyist for Virginia Beach, sat across the room with his cowboy boots propped up on his desk. Virginia Beach rents a desk from its big suburban friend to the North.
``We have more in common with Fairfax than we do with Norfolk,'' Matthias said. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
Photos by JAY PAUL
Old City Hall is the first stop on the nightly round of receptions
hosted by special-interest groups.
Richmond's Old City Hall is at far left, the Capitol in foreground.
Lobbyist Dan LeBlanc, AFL-CIO president, and Jim Leaman,
secretary-treasurer, work at the City Hall offices.
JAY PAUL
The statue of George Washington on the grounds of the Capitol
``overlooks'' the Old City Hall in Richmond.