In August of 2023, Monte Walker was appointed interim City Administrator for the City of Howe as well as retaining duties as Chief Operating Officer for the Howe Community Facilities Development Corporation (Type B). He was hired full-time City Administrator in January 2024.

He is a graduate of Howe High School and the University of Oklahoma Economic Development Institute.

Walker began work as the City of Howe’s Director of Economic Development in October of 2014. In that year, he started a revitalization program of our historic downtown district. Seventeen months later, every building had been refurbished mostly through private funding. Five of the historic buildings had new ownership and every possible space was filled with businesses. That same year, he spearheaded a group to restart the Howe Area Chamber of Commerce where they had 60 members in the first six months of reorganization.

In 2015, he helped initiate a “Shop Local” program for Howe which led to an 11 percent increase in sales tax revenue from 2014 to 2015. That same year he gathered a group of leaders to form a committee that set out to restore a dilapidated 1893 historic former church building. Through volunteer labor and fundraising dollars, the project was concluded in 2019. The city-owned historic renovated church now serves as the home of the EDC/Chamber, Keep Howe Beautiful, the new home to city council meetings, and as an event venue called Summit Gardens.

He initiated a steering committee to form the Howe Development Foundation to help supplement the economic development Type B sales tax.

The HCFDC sales tax has jumped from $274,525 in 2014 to $558,000 in 2022.

In 2023, the board changed Walker’s title from Director of Economic Development to Chief Operating Officer.

He also serves as president of the Howe Area Chamber of Commerce, where he help coordinate the annual Howe Founders Day Festival, Howe Hall of Honor, Howe-lloween Festival, Annual Christmas Parade, and monthly networking breakfasts.