Phil Andrews (politician)
Phil Andrews is the Director of Crime Prevention Initiatives for the State's Attorney's Office of Montgomery County, Maryland. Prior to serving in his current position, he was elected to represent the residents of District 3 on the Montgomery County Council in November, 1998, and re-elected in 2002, 2006 and 2010. In 2008-09, during the height of the Great Recession, he served as Council President, where he led efforts that protected emergency and essential services and that balanced a very difficult budget without raising taxes or laying off employees. Andrews chaired the Council's Public Safety Committee for fourteen years, chaired the County's Domestic Violence Coordinating Council from 2012-14, and chaired the region's Emergency Preparedness Council of the Washington Metropolitan Council of Governments (COG) from 2011-2012. In the latter position, he also chaired the regional task force which developed recommendations, since implemented, that have improved the region's emergency preparedness and response.
As a council member, Andrews was the chief sponsor of a number of landmark County laws, including the Public Financing of Elections Law (2014), the Smoke-free Restaurants Law (2003), the Living Wage Law (2002), laws expanding employment opportunities for people with disabilities (2010 and 2012), and the law reforming a broken police disability retirement system (2009). He has been one of the state's leading advocates for reforming congressional redistricting to end gerrymandering, and to advance public financing of campaigns.
Andrews' was born in Washington DC and grew up in Montgomery County, MD. He attended Montgomery County Public Schools before earning a bachelor's degree in political science from Bucknell University and a master's degree in governmental administration from the University of Pennsylvania's Fels Institute of Government.
Before his election to the County Council, Andrews served as the executive director of Common Cause of Maryland from 1988-1994, where he led the statewide campaign that resulted in General Assembly passage of the first limits on political action committee (PAC) contributions in Maryland state and county elections. After stepping down from that post, he served as the first Managing Director of Montgomery County's AmeriCorps program, Community Assisting Police.[1]