Two candidates vie to be Bellaire mayor
Four-time challenger, current councilman lay out issues for the Nov. 3 election
A four-time challenger for Bellaire mayor says he is running again because no one else will step up and because for democracy to work the citizens must have a choice.
“I am running for the fourth time because no one else will. I am not saying that Andrew Friedberg necessarily needs an opponent, but having a choice of only one candidate is not good for democracy,” said Robert Riquelmy.
He and City Councilman Andrew Friedberg are the candidates for mayor.
Riquelmy is 74 and has lived in Bellaire for 35 years. He has been married for 45 years. He graduated from Texas A&M with a degree in accounting but describes himself as a carpenter. He said he has worked in remodeling and cabinet making and is employed parttime in the maintenance department of NRG Energy.
According to city records, he ran in 2007 and 2009 losing to former mayor Cindy Siegel both times. He ran again in
2011 losing to now twoterm Mayor Phil Nauert. Because former councilman Corbett Parker challenged Nauert in 2013, Riquelmy saw no need to run then.
“Robert and I get along well,” Friedberg said. “He sent me an email letting me know his intentions to run. He is always clear about his reason (to provide voters a choice). I don’t disagree with his point. I welcome collegial debate.
“I am delighted when we have contested races for city offices because it’s good for our community and the electoral process to have robust debate,” said Friedberg, first elected to council in 2009 and serving his second term.
Friedberg is 35. He works as an attorney in the oil and gas industry. He has been married for 10 years and has two children.
He is a graduate of Bellaire High School and returned to live in Bellaire nine years ago.
Friedberg completed a triple-major in economics, finance and government at the University of Texas. After graduating from UT he earned his law degree from Harvard Law School. He served as law clerk to a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
He also served six years as an administrative specialist in the U.S. Army National Guard, according to his city bio.
With the exit of current mayor Phil Nauert, who decided not to seek re-election, Friedberg says he feels it is important to maintain continuity of leadership.
“I’ve been on the council a considerable amount of time and have become acclimated to the way the city runs and the various projects we are working on.
“In a time of transition such as this, when the mayor has decided not to run for re-election and two council members are facing term limits (Jim Avioli and Mandy Nathan), I think it is important to provide continuity of leadership through the transition,” Friedberg said in July when he first announced his candidacy.
Friedberg said the major projects which have been underway during his tenure are plans to construct Evelyn’s Park and work to build new city hall, civic center and police and municipal court facilities.
He also notes work with the Texas Department of Transportation on plans to reconstruct the U.S. 59 and Loop 610 interchange as well as Uptown Houston plans to construct a bus transit center at the north end of Bellaire in partnership with the Metropolitan Transit Authority.
Three key areas
Friedberg said there are three other key areas he would like to focus on.
One is generating greater and more timely community input.
Friedberg said the council has been in a more reactive mode in the past. He would like to see the city use more town hall meetings and conduct focus groups in the community to get input from residents and business owners who live adjacent to proposed projects or are otherwise directly affected by major issues.
Friedberg also wants to make council meetings operate more efficiently.
This could include making more effective use of consent agenda items, approving mundane items as a group rather than debating them one at a time.
Nauert, Councilman Pat McLaughlan and Nathan have endorsed Friedberg.
Transparency needed
Riquelmy said transparency in leadership is a key concern to him.
“I would like, for example, to see the city attorney provide monthly reports like the city manager does. It would be important not to give away any important strategy, but residents need to be kept up to speed on litigation facing the city. Our city leaders have been lethargic about transparency,” he said, citing as one example a former employee’s fight for worker’s compensation benefits.
Riquelmy wants the city to improve the quality of its water, most of which is purchased from the city of Houston.
“Our water in Bellaire sometimes tastes like mud or fish. If engineers can desalinate water they can work to get the fishy taste out of our water,” he said.
He also said Bellaire “needs to pay top dollar to police officers” to improve recruitment.
“We need to pay enough that they won’t have to commute long distances.” Though Bellaire is considered an affluent community, he said, it is possible in his opinion to find costeffective housing.
Regarding major projects, Riquelmy said he supports efforts like Uptown’s plans to build a transit center in the northern part of Bellaire.
He said since Bellaire is part of a large metropolitan community, many people pass through daily. He said it is the city’s civic duty to support initiative that ease their transit.