New look for Bellaire council – with one exception

By Charlotte Aguilar
There will be three new faces among Bellaire’s six City Council members after Tuesday’s election that saw Trisha Pollard, Michael Fife and David Montague winning their contested races and incumbent Pat McLaughlan running unopposed.
Pollard prevailed over Jill Almaguer 1,928 to 805 to take the Position 2 seat. A 23-year resident of Bellaire, she has held a number of posts inside and outside the city. She has served as chair of Bellaire Building & Standards Commission, a member of the Bellaire Parks & Recreation Advisory Board; foreman of the Harris County Grand Jury for more than one term; and has served the state on the One-Call Board of Texas and on the Board of Regents for the Texas State University System.
Pollard received her BBA from Sam Houston State, where she was the 2013 Distinguished Alumna, and her J.D. from South Texas College of Law.
A retired attorney in the gas pipeline industry, she has been married to Randy Pollard – a CPA who offices in Bellaire – for 41 years. They have three grown children.
Fife, a resident of Town Oaks Place in Bellaire for 33 years, outpolled Susan Downs 1,645 to 994 to win the special election for Position 5, vacated by Andrew Friedberg in his successful bid for mayor. Fife is a retired oncology social worker who worked for 30 years at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
She was named by Mayor Phil Nauert as his representative on the city’s Ad Hoc Committee on the site and design for a new City Hall, police station and municipal court. When a too-shady backyard kept her from growing flowers at her home, Fife began planting the Newcastle Trail at Town Oaks Place, just north of Bellaire. Boulevard, and said that led to additional planting of the trail.
She has served on the board of directors of her homeowners association, in the Houston Junior League, and a president of the Association of Oncology Social Work.
Fife earned a bachelor of arts and master’s of social work from the University of Oklahoma.
Her husband is Dr. Creighton Edwards, an oncologist at MD Anderson. She has a son and three young grandsons.
Montague garnered 1,618 votes to Kevin Newman’s 905 to win the Position 6 seat. David R. Montague, an 18-year resident of Bellaire, worked at Shell Oil for 41 years before he retired. He cites experience with Shell as an asset manager, engineering manager, construction manager, chief information officer, planning and strategy manager, project manager and petroleum engineer in the U.S. and abroad.
Although he has not served on any city boards or commissions, Montague has attended and commented at Bellaire City Council meetings. In July of 2013, Montague expressed concerns about whether the the city of Bellaire should seek voter approval of $5 million in new bonds for Evelyn’s Park. Bellaire voters approved those bonds in an election later that year.
His other community activities include the Bellaire/SW Houston Rotary, Pathways Food Pantry, Bellaire Business Association, SPCA, Special Olympics, co-chair United Way, and Nature Discovery Center.
Montague holds a B.S. in petroleum engineering from the Colorado School of Mines.
He and wife Mary have been married for 44 years.
A 40-year Bellaire resident, McLaughlan drew no opposition in seeking reelection to Position 4 and garnered 2,330 votes.
He was re-elected to Bellaire City Council in 2012 after reaching term limits on council and sitting out a period. He’s a past board member of the Houston-Galveston Area Council of Governments and served on its Transportation Policy Council. He has also served on the Bellaire Planning & Zoning Commission and Board of Adjustment, and is a retired volunteer firefighter and EMT in Bellaire.
In a 45-year career as an aerospace engineer with NASA, McLaughlan worked on life support, rocket propulsion and structures in the Apollo, Space Shuttle, and International Space Station programs, and is a member of the NASA Alumni League. He has also worked in real estate. He holds a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Houston.
His wife, Diane, retired after a long teaching career at Condit Elementary School. They have one adult daughter.