Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Councilman Fred Howe submitted an email letter of resignation to the Mayor Wednesday morning.
Councilmember Fred Howe (Ward 3) resigned as Fredericksburg's Virginia Railway Express (VRE) board member Wednesday morning, over a City Council resolution passed Tuesday evening (attached). The resoulation notes the council's opposition to HB2152, a bill that would change the voting practices of the VRE Operations Board. In an email to Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw, copied to the full council, Howe said, "the vote taken last evening does not represent in my opinion the necessary governance, the ridership and the tax paying citizens of the City and of the Commonwealth or my professional ethics — as an elected official." The complete letter of resignation is reprinted below: Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw – Please accept this email as my …
Friday, October 26, 2012
City council approved the measure in their Oct. 23 regular session
Fredericksburg City Staff will receive additional paid holidays in FY2013. City Council approved the measure 6 to 1 during their regular session on Oct. 23. City Manager Beverly Cameron told the council the additional holidays would cost the city about $10,000. In a memo to Cameron recommending the additional leave, Human Resources Director Robert Bell said, "The staff recognizes that the City is still in difficult budget times; however, staff recommends granting the additional leave as a morale boost." Ward 3 Council Member Fred Howe voted against the measure, saying he wanted the city first to report on the full additional cost to taxpayers. "We need to know the cost before we do this," he told the council. The City considered the …
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Wednesday, October 10, 2012
The Council discussed several options for reuse or renovation of the historic Renwick Building Tuesday night.
City of Fredericksburg council members took two ideas for the renovation and reuse of the historic Renwick Building off of the table during a City Council meeting Tuesday night. After a work session discussion, the council decided against donating the Renwick Building to a nonprofit as well as sale of the building to a private party. City Manager Beverly Cameron reviewed a "Renwick Decision Model" with council members during Tuesday night's work session. The Council had drafted the three part working document the previous week, with input from city staff. "The model provides very good background information to help frame the discussion," said Cameron. It is comprised of three parts: the goal, definition of objectives and definition of …
Thursday, May 24, 2012
City Councilman Fred Howe writers a letter to the editor about why he voted against the fiscal year 2013 budget on both readings.
- GOVERNMENT
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Thursday, May 24, 2012
I voted against the City 2013 budget for this very reason: important projects which were also safety related were once again put behind the zeal of another City study which was not vetted by Council but, was included in the city manager's budget. Additionally, the City 2013 budget incorporated $1.4 million in Courts interest only payment concealed within the budget as I have mentioned numerous times - City taxpayers have now absorbed yet another tax increase hidden in the assumption that the City realizes a 4-percent growth in revenues over 2012 (effectively doubling the revenue growth from 2012). What could we have done with the $1.4 million that will now be spent on an interest only payment? The Council majority that voted to build a …
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Minutes after winning the election, Mary Katherine Greenlaw told the media she wants a performing arts center in Fredericksburg and will focus on trying to make it happen.
Mary Katherine Greenlaw, a lifelong resident of Fredericksburg, said she worked every Saturday with her campaign officials since the beginning of January to win this race. It paid off today when she earned 51.55-percent of the vote in the Fredericksburg mayoral election. She defeated Fred Howe, who remains on City Council, by almost 500 votes and third place finisher Matt Paxson by almost 1,100 votes. Greenlaw said she received a call from Paxson, who told her he plans to support her during her four-year tenure. She hadn't spoken with Howe by 8 p.m. "Fred and I talked before the election and i told him 'when it's over it's over,'" Greenlaw said. Greenlaw said she also believes voters made it clear that the courthouse project planned for …
Monday, April 30, 2012
Fred Howe, who co-owns Utility Professional Services, is also a City Council member.
Question: If elected, would you support efforts to make changes to the scope and cost of the courthouse and even consider moving it further out of downtown and possibly near a city entranceway? After observing the court facilities on several occasions, I fully support providing significantly improved facilities to support associated security requirements. However, under the pretext of being forced to act, a 4/3 Council vote decided on the current plan, which is not the solution it is claimed to be. Rather than being comprehensive or long-term, it fails to address critical security and performance criteria. Future generations will be forced to bear the significant cost of this lack of vision. It is not in the citizens' best interest to…
Monday, April 23, 2012
Should the city spend $200,000 for an updated riverfront park design? Some candidates running for office are questioning the expenditure proposed in the fiscal year 2013 budget.
Some of the candidates running for office in Fredericksburg are questioning the proposed $200,000 expenditure in the fiscal year 2013 budget for an updated design of the riverfront park. Fredericksburg mayoral candidate Fred Howe said he wants city administration to justify the $200,000 that's in the proposed budget for riverfront design plans and explain how it got in the budget in the first place. He asked them for the goal and objective of the expenditure, how it will compliment or further prior designs, how local residents are part of the process and any plans to deal with dredging and protection of the river walls. Howe plans to make the request at Tuesday's City Council meeting, which is the same day that Councilman George Solley …
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Fredericksburg mayoral candidate Mary Katherine Greenlaw raised more money than her two opponents Matt Paxson and Fred Howe. Howe and Paxson loaned their campaigns thousands.
Mary Katherine Greenlaw outraised her two opponents, Fred Howe and Matt Paxson, according to the campaign finance reports filed last night for Fredericksburg's mayoral race. Fred Howe, who co-owns Utility Professional Services with his wife, Tanya, has $10,060 left, but he loaned himself $42,000, which is more than seven times the other two candidates. He also spent $18,250 on out-of-the-area consultants. He had 10 contributors who gave $100 or more for $3,150 total and 18 donors who gave under $100 for $1,646. Some notable donors are Carriage House Realty ($250), Realtor Lewis Graves Sr. with Carriage House ($250), Jewel Box ($500) and the Sale Family ($500). Howe has spent a total of $43,829.97. Howe had $7,094.80 for in-kind donations …
Friday, April 13, 2012
Fred Howe's Facebook site is closed for the rest of the campaign.
The day following an attack on his campaign Facebook page, Fredericksburg mayoral candidate Fred Howe said he will suspend the site for the rest of the campaign. He supplied the following prepared statement Thursday night: "The FredHoweforMayor campaign face book (sic) page has become a focal point of undesired political tampering and we will not allow it to be used as a tool to divert attention from those issues we find to be most important affecting our citizens and we have therefore chosen to close it for the balance of the campaign.” Howe's second opponents, Mary Katherine Greenlaw's Facebook page was attacked to by fake "likes" on the same day as Howe's. Her campaign Facebook page has not come back online yet. The attacks came about …
Thursday, March 29, 2012
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. "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 …
Hamilton
9:00 pm on Wednesday, February 13, 2013
I hope Mr. Howe reconsiders. He is is a business person in a sea of bureaucrats. He 'gets it'. more ›