For Immediate Release: Tuesday, December 7, 2021
President Albornoz says: ‘We must work together on a holistic and sustainable approach to fully recover from the pandemic and address long standing inequities in our community’
ROCKVILLE, Md., Dec. 7, 2021—The Montgomery County Council today unanimously elected Councilmember Gabe Albornoz as president and Councilmember Evan Glass as vice president. They will serve one-year terms as Council officers. Council President Albornoz just completed his term as vice president and chairs the Council’s Health and Human Services Committee. He also is a member of the Council's Public Safety Committee.
“We must work together to take a holistic and sustainable approach to fully recover from the pandemic and address long standing inequities in our community,” said Council President Albornoz. “For me, it is critical to keep past challenges and successes in mind, as we plan for the future remember that we all succeed when we all succeed.”
We must close the gap on health disparities in our community, put an end to childhood hunger and shore up our safety net services. I am confident that we will meet these challenges with resolve. The moral compass of this Council and previous Councils has always pointed toward just social policies and the relentless pursuit of the common good.”
In addition to ongoing pandemic recovery efforts, Council President Albornoz will focus on breaking down barriers in public health, ending childhood hunger, building a sustainable food assistance framework and balancing principled policy initiatives with fiscal responsibility.
Council President Albornoz was elected to the Council in 2018 and represents all Montgomery County residents as an at-large member of the Council. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.
Throughout his term on the Council, he led and focused on providing top-quality health and wellness care to all residents, worked to enhance educational opportunities for young people, dismantle barriers to achieving racial equity, expand safety-net services, provide first responders with the resources necessary to serve in a culturally competent way and promote innovation and economic development opportunities.
Council President Albornoz’s career has always been focused on helping others and making government more responsive and effective. Before his service on the Council, he was the director of Montgomery County’s Department of Recreation for 12 years and led the department through the Great Recession under the Leggett administration.
Under his leadership, the department expanded programming to vulnerable populations and created innovative programs such as Excel Beyond the Bell, TeenWorks, and Tech Connect, which helped close the achievement and opportunity gap for thousands of young people and senior residents. The department also constructed four new senior centers, six new recreation centers and implemented major renovations to six others during his tenure. Council President Albornoz is widely respected for his ability to forge collaborations and effect lasting change.
Before joining Montgomery County Government, Council President Albornoz also worked as the deputy director of the Latin American Youth Center’s Maryland Multicultural Youth Centers. He is a graduate of Leadership Montgomery, the University of Maryland Rawlings Fellowship program, and the Presidential Leadership Scholars program, which is a collaboration of the William J. Clinton, George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, and Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Foundations.
Council President Albornoz is a lifelong Montgomery County resident and is deeply committed to the County and its people. He graduated from Walt Whitman High School, received his Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of Maryland, and an MBA from The Johns Hopkins University. He is dedicated to his family, public service and advocating for just social policies.
Watch In the Loop to learn more about Council President Albornoz and his plans for the year ahead here. Read his full remarks on being elected Council President here.
Council Vice President Glass serves as the Lead for Homelessness and Vulnerable Communities on the Council’s Health and Human Services Committee and is a member of the Transportation and Environment Committee. He was also elected to the Council in 2018 as an at-large member and is the first LGBTQ+ Councilmember in Montgomery County.
In addition to his Council committee assignments, Councilmember Glass is the Council’s representative on the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’ National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board and the National Association of Counties’ Transportation Committee and its Large Urban County Caucus.
During his first term on the Council, Councilmember Glass initiated and led the passage of the Montgomery County Pay Equity Act, the LGBTQ Bill of Rights and the Oversight and Small Business Investment Act. He also spearheaded efforts to expand food composting, made public buses free for all residents under the age of 18 and put forth the Montgomery County Charter amendment to add two new Council districts.
Prior to his Council service, Councilmember Glass was a CNN journalist and served as executive director of Gandhi Brigade Youth Media. He lives in Silver Spring with his husband and their rescue beagles.
Learn more about Council Vice President Glass here.
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Release ID: 21-493