The four incoming members of the County Council say they are confident that incoming County Executive Marc Elrich will help grow the local economy, despite concerns among many business people that his policies will be unattractive to businesses and will stifle development.
Incoming at-large members Gabe Albornoz, Will Jawando and Evan Glass, along with incoming District 1 member Andrew Friedson step into their new roles on Dec. 4, all say attracting more business to the county is paramount.
Albornoz said Thursday that in the coming weeks, he said he would be transitioning out of his role as director of the Montgomery County Recreation Department and meeting with Elrich. Albornoz noted that the two have worked together in the past tracking outcome measurements for afterschool programs.
Albornoz, who lives in Kensington, said he thinks the new county executive understands the importance of economic development, but wants to make sure it is done strategically.
“Marc’s point is that we do it responsibly and in a way that doesn’t impact people’s quality of life, and that we have the infrastructure to match that growth,” he said. “If we’re gonna stay competitive as a region, we have to ensure that we advance economic development, and I think Marc understands that,” he said.
Albornoz, 42, called Elrich a “passionate advocate” and said his pragmatism would be key to “looking at all angles of an issue” and building a consensus with the council.
Albornoz said one of his priorities is to change the budget process from annual to bi-annual. By approving the budget every two years, Albornoz said, the council and the board of education will have more time to evaluate what programs and services are most needed. He said there is too little time between the annual budget deadline of July 1 and Aug. 15, when the council must submit a statement on anticipated future fiscal needs, which will help shape the next budget.
“What often occurs is that budgets are just rolled over [from one year to the next]. And I think that’s a particular problem in our school system,” he said.
Jawando, a Silver Spring resident, said he too would be focused on created a more business-friendly climate in the county.
“We’ve all heard about the reputation that it’s hard to do business here,” he said. “We really need to have an intense focus on our small and medium-sized business here. We need to just have a more customer service approach.”
Jawando, 35, said he’s not worried about the perception that Elrich is anti-business.
“He [Elrich] understood that that was an issue, and I think he tried to address it in the general election, but we [county executive and county council] are co-equal branches of government. And a majority of the council believes that we have to make the county more business friendly. And Marc has expressed that too, and I take him at his word.”
Jawando added that his other priorities for the upcoming council session would be to expand early childhood education, a staple of Elrich’s agenda, and include more career and technical education programs in the public schools.
Glass said he plans to devote the next three weeks wrapping up his time as executive director at Gandhi Brigade Youth Media. He said the core issues he hopes to focus on in the upcoming council session are transportation and strengthening the social safety net.
Asked about his thoughts on working with Elrich, Glass said he was confident that the incoming county executive would “put together a team that will serve the county well.” Glass said he has known Elrich for the last 12 years.
“He and I share an interest in updating and modernizing the county workforce to make sure that it serves the community, and does so in an efficient manner,” Glass said.
Glass, 41, who lives in Silver Spring, said he has gotten to know the three men who will soon be his council colleagues well over the course of the last 18 months, when they have been campaigning. Asked about Albornoz’s suggestion to institute a bi-annual budget, he replied that he was always open to new ideas.
Friedson, 32, said his goals include growing the private sector economy.
“That means making sure that we are supporting our existing businesses and helping them to grow,” he said. “And it means making some thoughtful changes and reforms to modernizing county government. Our needs are growing and we need to make sure our economies and our revenues are also.”
Friedson said in response to a question about Elrich’s pledge not to raise taxes that there was “no appetite in the public for a tax increase,” and that he was committed to making the county more business-friendly. Friedson said this could be accomplished by making the county permitting process less burdensome for companies, and doing a “top-to-bottom” review of county spending to make sure taxpayer dollars are being spent most efficiently.
Friedson, who lives in Bethesda, said businesses should not be deterred by the fact that Amazon is unlikely to choose Montgomery County as the location for its HQ2 headquarters. Friedson said there are many reasons why Amazon chose the county as one of its 20 finalists, and that other companies will be attracted for similar reasons.
“We’ve had improvements to Metro. We have opportunities to invest in transportation. We can get our economy moving,” he said.
Dan Schere can be reached at Daniel.schere@moco360.media
