Candidates Start Filing in Bellaire

Mary Michael Fife, a resident of Town Oaks Place in Bellaire, filed as a candidate Monday for the special election that will be held November 3 to fill the unexpired term of Place 5 City Councilman Andrew Friedberg.
Friedberg, who earlier had announced his resignation to run for Mayor of Bellaire, made it official Monday, filing as a candidate for Mayor.
And Place 4 City Councilman Pat McLaughlan, who also had announced his intention to run for reelection, filed his formal paperwork as a candidate in the November 3 municipal election.
Fife has not been a previous member of a city board or commission. She was recently asked by Mayor Phil Nauert to serve on the Ad Hoc Committee advising the city on the site and design for the new city hall, policestation and municipal court.

She did address the city council in July, 2012, about the concerns of her neighbors about the development of Evelyn’s Park.
Although Fife expressed gratitude to the Rubenstein Foundation for donating the nearly 5-acre tract to the city of Bellaire, she and her neighbors raised questions about whether there would be adequate parking at the new park.
The Evelyn’s Park Conservancy and the city of Bellaire have an agreement with Bellaire United Methodist Church to allow parking at the church — across Bellaire Blvd. from the park.
Some nearby residents have, however, recently expressed frustration that some park visitors have been parking on the residential streets.
Fife said she has become an “enthusiastic supporter” of the new park.
She has one son and is the proud grandmother of three young grandsons.
A retired oncology social worker, Fife has been a resident of Bellaire for 33 years. She and her husband, Dr. Creighton L. Edwards, is an oncologist at Baylor College of Medicine.
About 15 years ago, Fife said the trees in her yard grew too tall for flowers to bloom in her backyard, so she began planting flowers along the Newcastle Trail in Bellaire. “As it turned out, other people along Newcastle began doing the same thing,” Fife said.
Friedberg was elected in a runoff election held on December 12, 2009, to serve his first term in Position No. 5 (which commenced on January 5, 2009). Prior to his election, Andrew served on the Bellaire Planning and Zoning Commission. An attorney in the oil and gas industry, he has been involved as a committee chair with the Houston Bar Association and was a participant in the Houston Young Lawyers Association Leadership Academy. He is also an active member of the Bellaire Historical Society.
He is a 35-year resident of Bellaire and has broadly participated in city affairs prior to being elected to council. Pat was a long-time Bellaire Volunteer Firefighter/Emergency Medical Technician and has served on the Board of Adjustment, the Facilities Committee, the Planning and Zoning Commission and the Sunset Review Committee. McLaughlan is a retired aerospace engineer who worked for NASA.