Basic Information
Email info@andrewfriedson.com
Website www.andrewfriedson.com
Facebook facebook.com/andrewfriedson
Twitter @amfriedson
Questions & Responses (All Candidates)
1- What lessons learned do you have since the start of the pandemic?
The pandemic has taught us a lot about issues we’ve never even thought about, as well as the importance of local government’s impact on our lives. Covid-19 exposed many challenges in our community and throughout county government. We were forced to communicate with residents and businesses in a way that county government never has before, and we really weren’t set up to do that. But Covid has also demonstrated that government can adapt and change if it needs to. We can start with a culture of “yes” and determine how we can solve issues rather than “no” and explain the reasons why we can’t. It shouldn’t take a global pandemic for county government to communicate directly with the people we serve, to regularly interact with and support local businesses, and to be willing to take risks, try new things, and reimagine what public services can be and what public infrastructure should look like. We weren’t perfect in our response but are fortunate to have fared better than most communities, largely due to the diligence, intelligence, and shared sacrifice of our residents. It shouldn’t take a public health
emergency for us to question what we’re doing and change how we serve residents. I am hoping we can emerge from the pandemic stronger than we were before, as a community and as a county government.
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?
There is no perfect way to manage an unprecedented crisis, but we needed to communicate better, and still do. I am not sure we can be prepared for what the next crisis will look like. But we can be better prepared to communicate clearly and consistently with what we’re doing and why. In an environment that had regrettably politicized public health here and across the country, we needed to be much better at explaining exactly what we were doing and specifically why we were doing it with metrics and data. Throughout the pandemic and going forward, we need to be reaching businesses and residents, especially those who are least connected and hardest to reach. We provided resources, but often those who needed the most weren’t even aware of our efforts. I would have liked to have moved faster to help and to be clearer about what we are doing and how our community could have benefited from it.
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 major public safety challenges in Montgomery County like in jurisdictions across the nation.
- Housing Affordability: Montgomery County is getting harder and harder to afford for most families, young workers, and aging adults.
- Mental Health: We faced a mental health crisis in Montgomery County which existed well before Covid and has only been exacerbated in these trying times
4 – What specifically do you plan to do in the 3 most pressing areas from Question 3?
Public Safety: We need to address the root causes, but we also need to focus on keeping communities safe right now. 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. But we have a lot more work to do.
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.
Mental Health: In my first budget, I worked with colleagues to expand our crisis hotline to ensure calls for help were being answered, especially in the evening hours when young people are most isolated and alone. We then expanded capacity during Covid to address the dramatic increases in calls and texts. I’ve been proud to work with colleagues since to build and expand our supports, adding mental health professionals to our schools and in our communities, and expanding wellness centers to reach every high school in Montgomery County. We have a lot of work to do to treat mental health with the seriousness and sensitivity it deserves. In the aftermath of Covid and all the issues it exposed and expanded, we need to rededicate ourselves more than ever to protect our at-risk young people, our socially isolated older adults, and our vulnerable friends and neighbors.
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?
I would support any process which would increase voter participation, enhance turnout, and
better engage more residents in our electoral process to build trust in government broadly and
at the local and state level specifically.
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’ve been referred to as “the economic and fiscal center of the Montgomery County Council” because of my relentless focus on trying to create a better business environment in our county. That’s why my first major legislative initiative was to ensure an economic impact statement is part of every bill before the County Council, so we consider the impact of policies on the budgets of businesses and residents, not just county government – because it’s their budgets that create the county’s budget. I’ve also led efforts to double down on our global strength in bioheath. I authored legislation to establish a Comprehensive Economic Development Plan which is now drafted by subject matter experts in the Economic Development Corporation with input from the private sector before the Executive and County Council who will ultimately review and approve it.
Starting with the folks who are responsible for executing the strategy, including clear metrics to hold us accountable to following through, and ensuring buy-in from all relevant stakeholders, we can move forward in one consolidated effort to grow the businesses we have, and to attract the businesses we want. Lastly, I have worked on a number of efforts to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy to support businesses and will continue to find ways to do more of that. We need to change the culture in Montgomery County so businesses know we want them, we value them, and we will work with them.
2 – How will you hold developers accountable for past, present, and future infrastructure commitments (schools, transit, roads, etc.)?
Commitments made should be commitments kept. I’ve made that a hallmark of my first term in office. 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 county government itself. 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 county government that is responsible and falls short. Every capital budget, I’ve fought to keep commitments including Poolesville High School, Woodward High School, the Capital Crescent Trail tunnel in Bethesda, Summit Avenue Extended in Kensington, and pedestrian projects on Seven Locks, Tuckerman, Falls Road and Bradley Boulevard, as examples. Following through on our commitments is at the heart of public trust in county
government.
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 morale challenges we face aren’t necessarily unique to Montgomery County, but they are very serious and we need to address it 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.
4 – What do you see as your biggest advantage or positive that you bring to the table over your competitors?
Serving on the Council during the worst public health crisis in a century has provided the greatest on-the-job training imaginable. Given my prior background scrutinizing billions of dollars in public investments, overseeing large government agencies, and in fiscal, economic, regulatory and tax policy, I felt like I was very prepared to serve when I first ran four years ago. But no background could have prepared me like these past four years. Despite facing one of the most challenging times in our lifetime, I’ve been able to build broad coalitions to make a difference and deliver results on some of the biggest issues facing our community. I’m better prepared than ever before to seize on lessons learned and build a stronger, more inclusive, more resilient Montgomery County.
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