DATE: Saturday, August 9, 1997              TAG: 9708080021

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   61 lines

HAMPTON CITY MANAGER LEAVES A FRIEND UP NORTH

There is loss but also opportunity in Bob O'Neill's recent job switch from Hampton city manager to Fairfax County executive.

The loss is more obvious than the opportunity, because O'Neill played a key role in the revitalization of downtown Hampton and in efforts to move Hampton Roads forward as a region. He won several national awards and is the subject of a chapter in a new book titled, Banishing Bureaucracy: The Five Strategies for Reinventing Government. Partly because of O'Neill, Peninsula localities have cooperated to a degree that makes South Hampton Roads localities resemble the Hatfields and the McCoys.

Norfolk Mayor Paul D. Fraim said of O'Neill, ``When the region was searching for a formula to regionally fund an arena, Bob was one of those people - one of the few people - everyone in the region felt could comfortably broker such a deal, could be trusted to broker such a deal.''

The term visionary is overused, but O'Neill hatched big, new plans that will benefit Hampton and Hampton Roads many years into the future.

Hampton Roads' opportunity lies in the fact that a person who understands this region and who believes in cooperative effort is now running the state's largest and richest locality.

The timing is perfect. As more power and responsibility devolve from the federal government to state government, the relationship between state government and localities becomes ever more important. Will state government do to localities what the federal government did to states for years? That is, will state government mandate that localities provide new services and pay for them themselves?

If Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia could speak with one voice on important matters such as transportation, education and welfare, they could dominate state government.

L. Douglas Wilder didn't carry most of Virginia when he was elected governor. He carried Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads and few other places. That was enough.

That's because Hampton Roads contains a fourth of Virginians and Northern Virginia contains a fourth of Virginians. Together, that's half. The trick is the togetherness.

Art Collins, executive director of the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, said that with O'Neill in his new position, Hampton Roads should more fully develop its relationship with Northern Virginia.

Fairfax, after all, accounts for about two-thirds of all Northern Virginia's population. It practically is Northern Virginia.

Hampton Roads would be foolish not to form a coalition with Northern Virginia to meet both regions' needs.

Perhaps, if the two regions had more clout, the state would be less likely to drive away a locally popular Tidewater Community College president for the crime of insufficient subservience to Richmond. Perhaps the state would be less likely to strip localities of control of their revenue sources.

Now, when Hampton Roads leaders discuss their need for a Third Crossing, someone in Northern Virginia will know very well what they're talking about. And Northern Virginia has a leader whom South Hampton Roads leaders like and trust.

The loss to Hampton and Hampton Roads was great. So is the opportunity. Virginia's two most populous regions should make every effort to capitalize on it by creating a common agenda now.

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