Politics & Government

Mayoral Candidates Go On Defense

The first mayoral candidates' forum put the three challenges on defense as they talked about their vision for Fredericksburg.

Fredericksburg's three mayoral candidates last night debated the transparency of the courthouse project discussions, the riverfront park, jobs and economic development during a forum organized by Idlewild residents.

This was the first forum for the candidates and about 70 people attended the two-hour event at its highpoint.

Mary Katherine Greenlaw, who has served on the Planning Commission and City Council over almost a 12-year span, said her experience as a commercial real estate broker gives her the advantage to help the city with economic development initiatives.

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"Economic development is not an empty phrase," she said.  "I understand it. It is what I do as a commercial real estate broker."

Matt Paxson, the associate pastor at Fairview Baptist Church who has a Master's degree in divinity and another in public policy, portrayed his two opponents as candidates with empty campaign slogans, and no action. He said he is the only candidate with advanced education that provides him with experience in the administration of local governments.

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"With this background I know what is lacking and I know how to utilize the new tools to help our city realize its grand potential," he said.

Fred Howe, who was elected to City Council in 2010 and is a small-business owner in the city, said he wants to make the local government more transparent and he would revisit the $38 million courthouse project to reduce the size and cost. He voted against the project, but loss in a 4-3 vote. Greenlaw voted with the majority to approve the project. 

"You can only have confidence in your government when you are confident that the elected officials are operating in a transparent manner, when you believe you are receiving complete disclosure of the facts and being told the truth about the positive and negative consequences of policy decisions so you can decide for yourself the policies you want your council to pursue and implement," Howe said.

Paxson's remarks

Paxson aggressively criticized his opponents for not having specific plans to help the city move forward. He said he is the only candidate with a seven-page outline of his platform. He said Stafford and Spotsylvania counties are beating the city by wide margins in job growth and this has happened under the current City Council.

"We need new leadership, we need to go in a new direction in our city," he said.

Paxson said the courthouse project is "bloated" and he criticized Greenlaw for pushing it through without much public involvement. He said the project is on prime downtown real estate that should instead be used for a revenue-generating project.

"I think there are better locations so when I become mayor I would like to revisit the size, the scope and the location of that project," he said.

Paxson said there are too many parking lots in downtown Fredericksburg, and that City Council is not moving fast enough on developing the Riverfront Park off Sophia Street. Downtown parking should be angled to add more spaces, he said.

The fiscal year 2013 proposed budget includes $200,000 for a study on the design and uses of the Riverfront Park, but Howe has already criticized the use of the money without first knowing if the river is going to be dredged and stabilized.

"We are not moving in the right direction, but I can take us there," Paxson said.

"Do you know in the last five years how much money we've wasted on consultants and studies? It is unbelievable, and my two opponents for mayor with their combined six years of experience on Council have passed study after study after study. It is well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, getting close to seven figures. What could we do with that money? Imagine if we were to reinvest that into the arts, if we were to reinvest that into the business sector?"

Paxson said he wants to expand the GSA boundary into Fredericksburg, and that he's met with U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman to come up with ideas of how that could be done to bring better-paying jobs to the city.

City Councilman Brad Ellis, who was in attendance, challenged Paxson on how he is going to be able to get defense jobs to the city. Ellis is an analyst for a government defense consulting firm, and he said that companies like the one he works for don't want to locate in Fredericksburg because employees don't want to drive into the city from the north and because there isn't any space that can seat 50 to 100 people.

Paxson said if there's the infrastructure here, they will come.

"We will just have to agree to disagree," Paxson said.

Fred Howe's remarks

Howe said he has a passion for public service and he won't be a status quo mayor. He will push for openness and more public involvement, he said. 

. He said there are 411 registered government contractors in the city and most serve commercial markets, and only a handful of them won contracts. He wants to help them get more contracts, which will create higher-wage jobs.

"This is just one example of what we can accomplish with the right focus," Howe said. "I can bring that focus to the task drawing on my 23 years of corporate business development experience and my past 10 years experience working with my wife, Tanya, to build Utility Professional Services, which now serves six states."

Howe said if the city could build a technology park in Celebrate South, it could attract some of the government jobs that Stafford County is getting now with its office complex near Quantico.

Howe said he serves on the School Board's drop-out prevention task force and that it is critical to keep children in school, which is less of a burden on social services and taxpayers.

But he was most adamant about his displeasure with the courthouse project, which came up numerous times during the forum. 

"We still have time to get this right and do so in an open and transparent process with full disclose of the impact on the taxpayers," he said.

Howe said the city cannot continue to increase its debt and he has been pushing for city staff to provide more information on the debt capacity and the impacts to taxpayers. In response to a small-business owner who said there is too much red tape to go through before a business can open, Howe said it is a broken system. He said he wants council's support to cut the water bill fee new businesses have to pay and to make it easier for businesses to locate here.

Mary Katherine Greenlaw's remarks

Greenlaw, a lifelong city resident, portrayed herself as a consensus builder—someone who can build partnerships and relationships to get the job done. She said she has a healthy relationship with all council members and city staff, as well as the movers and shakers in the community. She said she supports expanding the technology zones, and wants to create benefits for property owners to upgrade office technology. She said she also supports the city's and Economic Development Authority's economic incentives program.

"One goal I have as mayor is to engage more folks in the process," she said. "In order to accomplish anything one must not only have a knowledge of how things work, one must also have good working relationships."

She rejected the criticism that City Council was not transparent with the courthouse project. She said there were 29 meetings on the project and only six of them were closed meetings to discuss detailed business proposals.

Greenlaw said it is time to update the city's guide for growth, called the comprehensive plan, and to focus on Sophia and William streets.

"We need a vision for areas of town and we need to work at it," she said. She said the city has secured land for the riverfront park and she supports using the $200,000 proposed in the budget to study a design and uses for the park.

"I do not know of a city in the United States that has not benefited greatly from improving and using their riverfront," she said.

Tourism is the lifeblood of Fredericksburg, Greenlaw said, and it has been a good source of revenue.

"We have so much to sell," she said. "As I said before, Fredericksburg has it all: culture, scenic river, unique small town, location, all that history. City councils love to talk about tourism, but it is time to get beyond lip service."

Greenlaw said she wants to find more funds for the arts, improve the entrance ways into the city and continue to replenish the tree canopy and build the network of trails.

She said her strength is finding a way to work with everyone.

"My campaign slogan is 'let’s work together,' because that is what I do," she said.

The election is May 1.


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