Unless HRT is fixed, Beach wary of light rail

VIRGINIA BEACH

Longtime proponents of extending light rail into Virginia Beach are professing disgust with revelations of mismanagement at Hampton Roads Transit and say the agency must be overhauled before any partnership is possible.

Mayor Will Sessoms, a Beach light-rail supporter, said he's disappointed and "disgusted with the situation."

"HRT has to be fixed before I could ever ask the council or citizens to form a partnership with them," he said.

The city is considering a light-rail project that would extend the Norfolk Tide line across the Beach to the Oceanfront. Officials this year bought a $40 million vacant rail corridor - $10 million of that was city money - for a possible project, and many city redevelopment plans in the works are based on light rail.

A Beach project would require the city to work with HRT, the conduit for federal money that would make the project possible. A state investigation of HRT found that the agency withheld information about the true costs of the 7.4-mile starter line in Norfolk as estimates ballooned to $338 million from $232 million. The agency also ignored procurement rules.

Vice Mayor Louis Jones, who has not taken a stand on light rail, said of a Beach project, "If I had to vote on it today, I'd vote no."

Beach Councilman Jim Wood, an HRT board member, is asking HRT President and CEO Philip Shucet to present at next month's board meeting a plan for doing a "top to bottom" review of the agency.

"There's zero confidence in the agency, and that has to be rebuilt before we can move forward," Wood said.

Any actual vote on light rail in the Beach and whether to work with HRT is months or even years away. A contractor hired by the agency is preparing a $5.7 million Beach light rail feasibility study expected to be finished in May.

Revelations about that study, central to the light-rail question in the Beach, appeared in the recent audit. The audit says former HRT President Michael Townes may have improperly influenced which company to hire to perform the study. Townes told selection committee members that litigation, involving other work done for the agency, was possible against one of the two companies competing to do the study. He suggested they instead hire HDR Inc., a Nebraska-based engineering firm, the audit said.

"I'm not pleased that that occurred in the midst of the procurement process," Shucet said, "but I can tell you without question I have faith in the professionalism of the firm doing the Beach study."

The HDR study is expected to answer questions about the route, cost, number of expected users, locations of park-and-ride lots, possible road closures, environmental impacts and noise.

Many Beach council members have said they are reserving judgment on light rail until they see the study results.

Sessoms said this week of the study: "It certainly appears there could be a cloud."

Councilman Bill DeSteph said, "Do we trust the study and what these people are doing? I don't know the answer. Do we have to hire a new firm to do a new study and at what cost?"

Wood said he has confidence in the study.

"It's been done in a very open way with input from stakeholders on both sides, pro and con," he said, adding that city staff's involvement in the study gives him faith in it. 'I have every confidence that what we get from this study will be realistic information."

Beyond that is the question of whether federal, state and city money would be available and whether Beach residents would support light rail if a referendum were held. A majority of council members have said they favor a referendum. Residents voted down light rail in 1999.

Meanwhile, the city and HRT are talking. Sessoms and Shucet met Tuesday afternoon.

"He and I see the situation the same way," Shucet said. "I can understand why it would be upsetting. We need to regain some confidence with the city of Virginia Beach."

HRT's problems don't appear to have altered how city leaders feel about light rail in the Beach. Supporters, including Sessoms and Wood, say they still support the concept, assuming HRT can be rehabilitated.

"We are going to be under even more scrutiny," said Carolyn McPherson, executive director of Light Rail Now, a Beach pro-light-rail group. "It could perhaps give citizens a higher degree of confidence."

Light-rail skeptics, including DeSteph and Councilman Bob Dyer, said HRT's problems raise additional concerns.

"It obviously sends up a caution flag," Dyer said. "Quite frankly, it justifies the rationale for having a referendum because that would force transparency and a more robust citizen education process."

John Moss, chairman of the Virginia Beach Taxpayer Alliance, said, "I want the issue debated on the merits, but I do think there's a question of whether HRT can oversee the extension project, and my conclusion is they cannot. They have lost the high ground of objectivity and integrity."

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