Basic Information
Democratic Party – running for Montgomery County Council District 7
Website https://andreweinsmann.com/
Facebook @AndrewEinsman
Twitter @drewster711
1- What lessons learned do you have since the start of the pandemic?
Not enough ink to answer this one. First, it showed how we cut back too much on our disaster preparedness methods so that we were not capable of handling this properly. Secondly, how the county has some wonderful heroes that are not in capes that we take for granted. The everyday heroes like teachers who found ways to reach their students when MCPS did not provide an adequate system, initially for them to connect remotely. Doctors and nurses who through exhausting are still suffering from PTSD did their jobs professional. Mental Health professionals who still are living too hectic lives helping our children and others recover from all of this. We have a lot of wonderful people and wonderful systems in place but we need to be better in the future. We need to have more robust systems in place. Because when this happens again and it will, we need to have better capabilities.
2 – If you could go back and do one thing differently from what was done in the last two years in Montgomery County what would you change?
For me, it would have been getting the students back to school much earlier. They kicked that can down the road way too long. Proven studies throughout the world show that there were more adverse effects of keeping children out than having them go back to school. The families had to constantly find coverage and lose wages because of this whole debacle. The seniors who went off to college had to compete with students throughout the world that had a full year in-school learning experience. The young kids who missed playing and experimenting with their kindergarten friends did not develop social interactions skills necessary for life. They missed hugs and it took an emotional toil and theres was a lack of connectedness that the kids experienced.
I coach youth soccer and in May of 2020, we were one of the first soccer teams back to practice. We played in 3 yards x 3 yards boxes with our masks off. No real physical interaction between kids but lots of face-to-face maskless interaction from distance. No kids got sick during this time on my team but the smile and the improvement of their mental health was priceless.
3 – What do you think are the 3 biggest and most pressing issues facing our county in the next 4 years? Why?
- Public Safety: We have no greater responsibility in government than keeping our residents safe. We have higher crime rates across the board and we have communities that are scared to go out of their house after dark.
- Housing Affordability: Montgomery County is getting harder and harder to afford for most families, young workers, and aging adults. We have not allowed development to keep up with the pace that we need to in order to keep housing affordable.
- Infrastructure: We have to think hard and make good decisions about infrastructure ASAP. We have not done a good job moving people efficiently and safely through the county. We need to be able to do both.
4 – What specifically do you plan to do in the 3 most pressing areas from Question 3?
Public Safety: We need to engage and find employment opportunities for young adults between 16-25 years old and provide them hope for the future. In response, we’ve expanded our public safety budgets, increased police pay, doubled the cadet program, and we’ve provided more resources to our career and volunteer fire rescue personnel. We need to incentives police and teacher to stay in the county by providing stipends for living here as well as letting the Police take home the patrol cars so that the community feels safe. Reengage the community by sponsoring and participating in youth sports. The disenfranchised communities need to be able to trust the Police as partners in safety and be comfortable informing them when they know about trouble brewing and think right now they would rather post it on Instagram when it happens to the Police can find out when the public does.
Housing Affordability: We need more housing at every level of affordability to address this crisis and for too long we simply didn’t build enough housing to keep up supply with the growing demand. That’s why I’ve focused so much on increasing production and preservation of affordable housing: creating a $100 million revolving Housing Production Fund and raising the Housing Initiative Fund to an additional $100 million; providing more certainty for nonprofit affordable housing providers; and incentivizing housing near transit. (copied from Andrew Friedson he will have an ally in me here if elected.) But I would add look at converting old under utilized hotels and offices to convert into apartments as well if it made economic sense.
Infrastructure: First, we can do Governor Hogan’s proposal to fix 270 and 495 to the bridge with government funds and maybe, if necessary, charge a fixed toll to go across the bridge, I am for that plan as opposed to the 3P current plan. We need strong stable rail system options for people to use. We need the Brunswick line to be full service in both directions during rush hour. We need CCT to be a rail, not a bus rapid transit. We need smaller not large buses for bus rapid transit that can be reliable, fast, and efficient. We need to solve all the congestion in Gaithersburg both on the highway and on the side streets. We need to re-engineer our more urban streets to provide safer passage for bikes and pedestrians. In a 21st century society, Bike riders and pedestrians should not be dying on our streets. There are other issue but these are the ones we as the county council have the most direct control over.
5 – Would you consider supporting changes to electoral process such as open primaries or nonpartisan elections in Montgomery County to allow 155,000+ registered Unaffiliated/Independents in Montgomery County to vote locally when it counts?
This is certainly a discussion I am willing to entertain. I think it is very important that every voter’s voice is heard and they realize that even 1 vote in this election can have a drastic effect on the future of this county. EVERY VOTE and VOICE matters!!! Did I make that clear? 🙂
Questions & Responses (County Council)
1 – What is your plan to attract and KEEP businesses in Montgomery County? How can we get more businesses across the county and especially where its lacking in the Up County and East County and compete with Northern Virginia?
Economic growth is at the center of maintaining our quality of life and ensuring we can continue to provide public services to support vulnerable members of our community. I have a background in real estate both residential and commercial so I have helped business find locations that will help them grow from the ground up. I have provided funding to non-profits that fly below the governments radar and help them become visible for government funding i.e. Nourish Now, A Wider Circle and Stepping Stones homeless shelter just to name a few. I work with vocational programs and small businesses to be conduits for young adults to find jobs so that they can have hope and earn an income that can be considered a living wage in Montgomery County and stay out of trouble. I am trying to navigate the system in bio health (which has been very hard to do I am not going to lie) to help friends find the capital and location to start up a new biotech firm. I have accomplished a lot simply by working with through the private sector to make the local business economy grow. Imagine how much better I can be when I have my team learn how the government processes work and how to connect the people in need with the people that have ideas, plans, goals and the know how to get the job done. There is not rhetoric here just a hard working person who gets his teams hands dirty to get the job(s) done.
2 – How will you hold developers accountable for past, present, and future infrastructure commitments (schools, transit, roads, etc.)?
Commitments made should be commitments kept. We must continue to ensure we hold everyone accountable for the promises they’ve made – whether it’s private developers, our state and federal partners, or the county government itself. If the commitment can not be made then there needs to be a mutual understanding of how the developer can still provide funding or backing to a project that might not be completely shovel ready by the time the developer wraps up part of a project nearby. Streamlining processes and offering more clarity is important but also should be connected to closing loopholes that prevent the County from receiving what it needs. In reality, though, I have found that when we fail to fulfill commitments for schools and transportation infrastructure, it’s most often the county government that is responsible and falls short.
District 7 has had more failed promises over the past 10 years than any other part of the county and we are fed up. We have been ignored like in Ashton where it has been overdeveloped according to the community or in Derwood where for almost 20 years we have been promised a bus depot or 2 moved from our area. We are losing land to the city of Rockville because developers simply find their processes a lot less cumbersome. So in summary, the county needs to hold up its side of the bargain and the developer hold up there, and we need to streamline the process of development and stop issuing building permits for developers who do not hold up their side.
3 – What do you plan to do about the increase in incidents of carjackings and homicides in the county and decline of applicants and morale in the police force?
Public safety is a huge issue in Montgomery County, as it is in most jurisdictions across the country. Crime is rising at alarming rates, and we need to step up our ability to prevent it and respond to it. The budget we just approved increases police pay for rank-and-file and police leadership so we’re more competitive regionally to help address some of our recruitment and retention challenges. We’ve also doubled the cadet program to try and increase that local recruitment pipeline as well. The recruitment and moral challenges we face aren’t necessarily unique to Montgomery County, but they are very serious and we need to address them head-on, starting with our public discourse. We have a nationally recognized police department in Montgomery County. Like everything, it can be improved, and especially in Montgomery County, we should challenge ourselves to always be better. But we also must remind ourselves and especially those who take on these incredibly difficult jobs to keep us safe, that we are grateful for their work, understand their sacrifice, and want to work to bring everyone together to make improvements to a department that most other communities around the country would want. I have had the privilege to be at the last 5 public safety Luncheons for the City of Rockville. I am fully supportive of the police and putting violent offenders and gun criminals away yet finding alternative solutions potentially for non-violent criminals that might help them rehabilitate and find jobs quicker.
4 – What do you see as your biggest advantage or positive that you bring to the table over your competitors?
I have a unique perspective that my competitors do not have. I have served in the U.S. Peace Corps where I worked on the ground in a foreign country to understand a culture from the ground up. I have worked in the public sector so I know the bureaucracy that can be involved in decision-making. I have been a leader of many different community organizations in District 7 so I am aware of many issues on the ground for the past 20 years. I have been a local community leader longer than most of my competitors have been living in the district.
I bring ideas, critical thinking, and out-of-the-box solutions to the table. I listen to other people and try and incorporate their ideas to come up with solutions. I can look at things from different perspectives and work together to find solutions.
I work in real estate, again something none of my competition does, so I understand the plight of the first time home buyer, the ethical compromising agents are making to have buyers win deals, and why we need more housing from $1 million houses to affordable housing. The whole country is in a housing crisis and we need to rapidly do our part.
I am a publicly funded people-powered candidate. I have never thought about political power and come with a servant’s spirit to help government do the functions necessary for the public good.