DATE: Monday, July 21, 1997                 TAG: 9707210066

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A8   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   71 lines

HORROW'S STYLE PUTS CITIES IN CHARGE OF DESTINY

Rick Horrow says Hampton Roads residents will have plenty of input into whether they pay hundreds of millions of dollars to build a series of regional projects. But 1999 is the soonest voters would be able to have a say.

Horrow, the Miami-based consultant and hired gun for the Hampton Roads Partnership, has laid out an informal timetable for his ambitious plan, which includes a referendum in mid-1999:

He will continue to hold a series of public meetings, begun in April, until the fall. He will spend two or three days each month in Hampton Roads, meeting politicians, business leaders and civic groups.

By the fall, Horrow will begin taking formal proposals for projects, will announce the criteria by which projects will be evaluated, and will name a committee that will sort through the proposals.

By mid-1998, the committee and city officials are to have evaluated the proposals and funding options, and decided whether to go forward with a plan.

If a plan is put together, the General Assembly would be asked in fall 1998 for permission to raise taxes and hold a referendum.

So far, Horrow appears to be hitting the right notes.

``Our City Council was pretty impressed with his presentation,'' Virginia Beach Vice Mayor Will Sessoms says. ``I've heard nothing but positive things from the business community.

``But when he gets down to specifics, such as how the projects will be paid for, things will get real interesting.''

Horrow says he managed to avoid any major mistakes or controversy in Oklahoma City, where he spearheaded a $300 million plan to build nine major projects in 1993, in part by listening to the advice of a local panel of experts.

An advisory board also has been formed in Hampton Roads. The board includes James K. Spore, Virginia Beach city manager; John L. Pazour, Chesapeake city manager; Arthur L. Collins, executive director of the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission; James B. Oliver, Norfolk city manager; Harry Lester, president of Virginia Beach Vision; and Cameron Blandford, vice president of Newport News Shipbuilding.

It is no coincidence that city managers dominate the advisory committee. They've been talking about a Horrow-like plan for more than two years.

Horrow first came to Hampton Roads 18 months ago to speak to a Chamber of Commerce meeting. Area city managers, who knew of Horrow's work in Oklahoma City, had urged the chamber to invite him.

A few months later, Norfolk Mayor Paul D. Fraim asked the region to hire Horrow after hearing him speak at a sports-facility seminar.

For nearly a year, the region's leaders vacillated. Meanwhile, Horrow quietly made four trips to Hampton Roads to meet with those who had doubts, including Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf.

Before meeting with Horrow, Oberndorf called Oklahoma City Mayor Ron Norick, whom she had met in Norfolk in 1988 at the dedication of the attack submarine Oklahoma City. She was won over by Norick's strong endorsement of Horrow.

``I told Meyera that your region should hire him, that I'd use him as a consensus builder and try and put a plan together that makes sense for your community,'' Norick says.

In late March, the region's mayors and city managers unanimously asked the Hampton Roads Partnership to hire Horrow. It did so on April 28.

Partnership president Barry DuVal says Horrow has no deadline pressure, unlike the partnership's experience with a failed bid to bring major league hockey to Hampton Roads earlier this year.

``We were under intense pressure from the National Hockey League to get that done'' in three months, DuVal says. ``This is completely different. Rick has laid out a basic timetable, but if it takes longer to do this, then so be it. We're going to take the time to lay the foundation to make sure it works.'' MEMO: [For a related story, see page A1 of THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT for this

date.]

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