Five Questions With Mayoral Candidate Fred Howe

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 pursue a plan that requires additional courtroom construction in less than 20 years by demolishing one of the buildings we are now re-constructing!

The current plan is overly expensive; does not consolidate operations to increase efficiency, solves court needs for less than twenty years, memorializes use of the Executive Plaza, requires more sheriff's staff than a consolidated solution, doubles security screening equipment requirements,  increases prisoner hazards, does not meet State mandates, and remotely locates the Commonwealth’s Attorney. The published price is misleading in that it does not include associated costs, such as land purchase, personnel increases, and operational increases, all financing expenses, lost tax revenue, parking, renovations to the Executive Plaza or renovations to abandoned historic properties.  The ultimate property tax increase will significantly exceed the published 10%.

Parking, personnel protection and juror security, which are state mandated, are totally ignored by the current solution.  Under the current plan, these issues will ultimately need to be solved, but at a considerable additional expense to taxpayers.

Any viable court solution must include a re-use for and adaptive renovation of the historic Renwick courthouse building.  The current plan not only ignores Renwick, but proposes to abandon the structure, with no purpose identified for its future.

We must halt the current direction, regroup and quickly move forward on a new path that solves current operational and security problems.  We will then develop a plan to provide for future court requirements in a long-term and fiscally responsible manner. The plans we propose must include citizen involvement to a much greater extent. Plans for the public to see will include the $1M and $10M dollar solutions that the Sheriff and I jointly proposed in closed session, which were not considered by the voting majority of the council. If the citizens of Fredericksburg desire to have new courthouses, then potential locations adjacent to the entry points to the City or near the Police Station must be considered while weighing the Sheriff’s ability to adequately secure multiple Court locations. Citizen involvement and awareness are critical before key decisions are made.

The funds cannot be returned, but they can be more appropriately used to prevent additional tax burdens.

Question: What vision do you have for the Riverfront Park and how are you going to make that vision happen in your first tenure?

Improvements to the city's riverfront, arguably the major potential attraction to the downtown area, have languished for want of a master plan to coordinate the separate potential attractions into a single vision.  Significant resources have been invested in procuring likely properties and a great deal of supposition expended in back-of-the-napkin planning.  The concept continues to lack overarching vision or direction.

Chief among the unresolved issues is just how the natural forces at play will be accounted for and managed.  No amount of inspiration should be lavished on the task until it is determined fully what can be anticipated from the Rappahannock.  Will it be useful to dredge the river to ease the silting that has resulted from the dam removal?  Would that effort increase its utility and scenic quality commensurate with the costs involved, or would it just amount to shoveling against the tide, requiring continual effort to maintain?  Could the dredging reclaim significant, usable property that could become part of the new waterfront, even, perhaps, providing a level of protection against further losses?  These questions require serious attention before fixing on a direction and goals to enhance the riverfront.  The need to proceed deliberately is not, however, a reason to continue to shrink from the task. Citizen involvement and awareness are critical before key decisions are made.

Question: What do you think should happen with Oktoberfest and why?

Oktoberfest is a major attraction to the City of Fredericksburg. When 8000-10000 people come downtown for a day for a celebration, it should be a financial boon to the entire downtown. If our planning for such an event is inadequate or it needs adjustment, as a large number of our downtown merchants believe, the plan needs to be re-evaluated. Citizen involvement and awareness are critical before key decisions are made.

Question: There is an abundance of retail and restaurant jobs in Fredericksburg, and not as many high-paying wage jobs. What specific plan do you have to get more high-paying jobs in Fredericksburg

Providing financial incentives to those who want to locate in Fredericksburg is not economic development.  Economic development is the successful effort of identifying, attracting and establishing a home for long-term producers with high-paying jobs, which balance the economic complexion of our community.  For too long, Fredericksburg has courted price-sensitive retail.  Although a temporary boon, we are now paying the price of over-reliance on a single economic model. It is time to change our direction and focus on a broad-base model that holds a sustainable future for our children. We owe much to the existing businesses that have grown and sustained our economy.  Economic incentives should be available to them.  Incentives should not be designed to provide an unfair advantage to arriving businesses over their existing competitors, simply because they are new arrivals.  The city's incentive programs need to be restructured to be fair and result in true economic development.

Maintaining and improving our infrastructure, while providing city maintenance crews with the critical tools they need to service our city and keep it polished, is a critical first step to effective Economic Development. Citizen involvement and awareness are critical before key decisions are made. The business community, our University, our major corporations, our arts community, our philanthropists, and our ordinary citizens have to be made a part of the Council’s decision making process to enhance our economic development.

Question: Most people seem to support the Arts and Culture programs in the city. But what specifically do you want to do to help these programs perform better and to increase boost overall progress in the arts? Do you think you can help get a performing arts center for the city and how?

Large and small cities around the county and overseas are including the arts and culture programs in their efforts to reinvigorate their local economy. There are consistencies in these programs. The most important lessons from the resurgent cities concern leadership and collaboration. Initial leadership in these cities came from a variety of key institutions and individuals, whether public, non-government or private developers. In all cases, the leaders of revitalization in the successful cities saw that it was in their interest to improve the local economy. Regardless of who initiated the turn-around, economic redevelopment efforts spanned decades and involved collaborations among numerous organizations and sectors.

These concepts are consistent with the plan I propose as a Mayoral candidate. One of the key platforms of my campaign, which I will insist upon, is citizen involvement. As I consistently state, “Our city is rich in physical and intellectual resources, which should be prudently exploited.  Citizen involvement and awareness are critical before key decisions are made.  Before that is possible, the public must trust that Council is listening and performing in their best interest.” We must march forward together to accomplish this goal.

Creating the appropriate model means finding what the citizens want for the future of our city. That means involving the arts community, which among others, consists of our Fredericksburg Centers for the Creative Arts, the Art First Gallery, Liberty Town Art Workshops, UMW Galleries, our James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library, our Camber Chorale, Fredericksburg Festival for Performing Arts, Celebrate Virginia Live  2012, our plethora of historical museums, our  Fredericksburg/Spotsylvania National Military Park,  with our city government, with University of Mary Washington, with MediCorp Health Systems,  local philanthropist, businessmen, and other interested citizens.

Creating a true vision for Fredericksburg, based upon a complete picture of the city,  which may or may not lead to a performing arts center, can lead to the coordination of all of these entities to create a vision. Then the City must take steps to create the most effective means of manifesting the vision. To do this, the City Council and staff must be an integral part of accomplishing this long term solution. I as the Mayor will take the responsibility to start this process, but it is imperative that we work together going forward. The final concept would be developed with the cooperation of the arts community, the city government, the business community and the citizens to increase the cultural, economic and tourism base which will make the city rise to its full capacity.