Mayor Will Sessoms is the CEO of Virginia Beach Inc.

VIRGINIA BEACH

On Dec. 22, Will Sessoms, Vice Mayor Louis Jones and state Sen. Kenneth Stolle rode an elevator to the 19th floor of the Norfolk Southern Corp. office tower for a meeting with top railroad officials.

The agenda: reviving stalled talks on the city's purchase of an abandoned rail corridor for a possible light rail project.

In the executive conference room overlooking the Elizabeth River, Sessoms joked about how he'd come to the meeting without a bunch of lawyers.

This surprised company executives. He also didn't bring the city manager.

"My reaction as a trained attorney was this guy has a fair sense of self-confidence about how to understand business," said Craig Lewis, Norfolk Southern's vice president of corporate affairs.

The meeting laid the groundwork for the $40 million deal that would be announced 11 weeks later. Sessoms, who'd been elected mayor in November, had yet to take office.

Six months into his term, Sessoms' aggressive-businessman style has set a new tone at City Hall. Council meetings are short. The "rocket docket," some call it. The June 23 meeting was over in 12 minutes.

The 55-year-old president of Virginia Beach Towne Bank jokes about setting speed records. Privately, some council members question whether lightning-fast meetings are healthy for city government.

"It's very much a senior-executive-CEO type of communication," said Dave Hansen, a deputy city manager. "It's finger on the button, I got stuff to do."

One of Sessoms' main missions has been to bolster Virginia Beach's stature as a player in regional affairs. Unlike Meyera Oberndorf, who was seen as a parochial mayor wary of the agenda of neighboring cities, Sessoms quickly reached out to Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim.

They've made several public appearances together, one of which was touted in a Norfolk news release titled, "The Once Frigid Relationship Between Norfolk and Virginia Beach Begins to Thaw."

In June, Sessoms was appointed chairman of the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization, a group that represents 13 Hampton Roads localities. Fraim nominated him.

"There is a sense that Will understands the broader needs of the region and not only Virginia Beach's," Fraim said.

Sessoms' desire to have Virginia Beach play on a bigger stage was attractive to business people who supported him.

"The Beach's well-being depends on Richmond, Washington and its relationship with the rest of the region," said Doug Ellis, a developer and Sessoms' friend. "There was a feeling that we needed to be networked in a more aggressive manner."

A major source of Sessoms' campaign financing was the Virginia Beach Towne Bank board of directors, of which Ellis is chairman. Thirty-two directors combined to give Sessoms $70,000 of the record $620,000 he raised.

Sessoms' ascent from Beach boy to Beach mayor seems preordained. He grew up in the city's North End admiring men of political influence. As a surfboard-toting teenager, he worked the polls for then-State Sen. Bill Kellam, a neighbor. He hammered together campaign signs for City Treasurer John Atkinson, a family friend.

After earning a business degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1976, he took a job with a national bank in Virginia Beach, rising quickly through the ranks. He married Beverly Martin, the daughter of former Norfolk Mayor Roy Martin. He ran with the Virginia Beach Volunteer Rescue Squad, an emergency services group filled with civic-minded movers and shakers. He joined the Princess Anne Country Club.

When Sessoms first ran for the City Council in 1988, Atkinson, a prominent Republican, was co-treasurer of his campaign. The other treasurer was John Malbon, son of Roger Malbon, former Beach sheriff and highway commissioner and a prominent Democrat.

With heavy bipartisan firepower on his side, Sessoms, who was a 34-year-old bank vice president at the time, raised $35,000, the most of any candidate that year, and won.

"Politics is who's got the biggest network," Atkinson said. "Who's got the biggest network starts out with how long have you lived here."

With the exception of two years at college in Richmond - he came home almost every weekend - Sessoms has never lived anywhere but Virginia Beach.

In 1992, the City Council voted 7-4 to make him vice mayor, a position he would hold for a decade. Oberndorf voted against him.

As vice mayor, Sessoms formed a powerful alliance with two council members, Bill Harrison and Linwood Branch. The three men often were called, sometimes with derision, the "three amigos."

"It was a little triumvirate," said former Councilwoman Nancy Parker, who was at odds with them on several projects.

As early advocates of public-private partnerships, the trio negotiated some of the city's biggest deals: the amphitheater, the Sportsplex, a Tournament Players Club golf course, Town Center and the 31st Street Hilton.

"If you look around this city at all the things we enjoy, those guys had their fingerprints on it," said supporter John Malbon, an oil company owner.

Some projects, such as the amphitheater, worked. Others, like the Sportsplex, failed. The Oceanfront Hilton hotel, now judged by many a success, was politically damaging to the trio, who pushed it through in a 6-4 vote a month before they all stepped down in 2002.

"I lost pints of blood on that one," Sessoms said.

As a banker, Sessoms has a natural interest in money, which he doesn't conceal. At his first City Council budget retreat as mayor, he suggested the city use some of the public utilities department's $90 million reserve fund to help balance the budget. City staffers quashed the idea because of surplus requirements.

"We're gonna get your money, Tom," Sessoms later joked with Thomas Leahy, director of public utilities.

He favors dark tailored suits and "only white shirts," he emphasized. There are no casual Fridays at his bank. He drives a jet black Lincoln Navigator with shiny rims and a vanity plate "TOWNE VB," a reference to Towne Bank. His drink is scotch.

Perpetually tan and trim, Sessoms gets up early to work out at Wareing's Gym, an old Beach haunt, where he alternates cardio with weights. He was a big runner before injuries forced him to scale back.

"It really allows me to get my head on right," he said of working out.

Harrison asked him during the heat of the campaign to give up a few workouts for a week.

"He wouldn't do it," he said. "He had to get his one and a half hours in on the treadmill before going out and shaking hands."

His small-talk humor is sprinkled with money references. Twice on a recent day he joked in different company about the expense of putting his three daughters through college. Two went to James Madison University. One goes to the University of Alabama.

"So, I'm poor," he said, chuckling as straight-faced listeners looked on.

So far, Sessoms has led the City Council with little resistance. Important decisions, such as the vote on the budget and the city's $10 million contribution to the rail corridor purchase, have been unanimous - or nearly so.

"If he sees a conflict brewing, he tries to work it out," Councilwoman Barbara Henley said. "He likes to have agreement. It's been really pleasant. He's so upbeat."

For the most part, he's avoided major political gaffes.

He did take heat for the city spending $11,000 in a tight budget year on a consultant to help write his speeches. Sessoms distanced himself from the cost, saying he was trusting the city's media department. He no longer uses the consultant. The city did spend $2,000 on a teleprompter after a last-minute request from Sessoms.

He gets along well with City Manager Jim Spore. Both see economic development as crucial.

"It's about bringing more jobs and businesses to this city and taking more tax burden off the homeowner," Sessoms said.

Light rail, regional high speed rail, the future of the Dome site on Pacific Avenue that once housed a civic center, and the possibility of a wind farm off the Beach are issues that interest him deeply. He has created a task force on alternative energy.

Sessoms regularly attends meetings with business prospects at the city's economic development offices. In August, he'll travel to the Fraternal Order of Police's conference in California to try to woo the group to Virginia Beach.

Sessoms says he also wants to appeal to people beyond the business community.

He created a grassroots task force to tackle homelessness. Towne Bank gave the organization $2,500 to get started.

He has reached out to the city's black community, setting up a minority roundtable that's been well attended.

"I respect him for opening that door and saying, 'Come to the table,' " said Sandra Smith-Jones, a School Board member who leads the group. "He's not dragging his feet. Absolutely not."

On a recent Monday, the mayor walked into City Hall at 11:35 a.m.

He signed a stack of letters. One made him chuckle. "Indigo Dunes. Haven't heard about that in a while," he said.

He returned a call to Jim Merrill, school superintendent.

"How in the world are you, Jim?" Sessoms said, with trademark exuberance.

Merrill filled him in on a deal brewing to move an educational facility from Norfolk to Virginia Beach.

"I don't want Paul Fraim to be caught off guard," Sessoms told him.

He hung up, then he called and left a message with Fraim. Then he dialed Bruce Smith. The NFL Hall of Fame inductee and Norfolk native who lives in Virginia Beach had just been charged with his third DUI. Sessoms wanted to talk with him about whether the city should move forward with plans to honor him. He left a message.

Just before noon, he hustled out of the office for an outdoor ceremony to honor senior citizen volunteers.

"Damn, I hope it's not too hot out here," he said, striding toward a white tent in the city garden. It was sunny and pushing 90 degrees.

Inside the tent, he shook the hand of every person seated along the five long rows. He made jovial small talk with a police officer, reviewed notes for his speech and chatted with event organizers.

Finally, he sat down. Sessoms looks uncomfortable only at rest. His knees start bouncing. He can look bored and restless.

Part of his nervous energy is probably related to the massive amounts of iced tea he consumes daily, friends said. At City Hall, a glass - unsweetened - seems to materialize wherever he sits down.

"He's wired from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.," Harrison said.

After the outdoor event, Sessoms walked back to City Hall for a meeting to review the upcoming City Council meeting agenda.

"Right on time," he noted, striding into the mayor's office at 1 p.m.

Aaron Applegate, (757) 222-5122. aaron.applegate@pilotonline.com