Montgomery County Councilmembers Will Jawando and Andrew Friedson made their cases for County Executive before a live audience in a Renters Alliance-hosted forum hosted at Montgomery Community Media’s Studio A Thursday evening.
The Democratic candidates in the County Executive race, who are colleagues on the Parks committee, answered questions from four local journalists, including MCM’s Suzanne Pollak and the founding editor of Maryland Matters Josh Kurtz, about their positions on several rent-related issues, including rent control and housing availability.
The primary point of contention between the two council members was rent stabilization. In June 2024, Montgomery County passed legislation on rent stability, which effectively prevents landlords from raising rent on units by more than 5.7% per year. Jawando has championed and voted in favor of rent stabilization measures during his time on the council, while Friedson has expressed concern over alienating developers with the policy.
Friedson argued in the debate that because of developers’ aversion to building properties in areas with rent stabilization, Montgomery County is now facing a housing shortage.
“We don’t have enough housing,” Friedson said at the debate. “So any policy that we put in place that reduces the amount of housing […] is not going to solve the problem, it will worsen the problem.”
Jawando countered that developers would eventually come back to Montgomery County and that the county could achieve both sufficient housing and rent stabilization, accusing Friedson of “giving away the store” to housing developers urging the audience to “reject the zero-sum game” Friedson proposed.
“The idea that this is impacting profitability [is] not true at all,” Jawando said. “We’re not Akron, we’re Montgomery County. People want to be here.”
Both candidates voiced their support for Good Cause Eviction, a bill in Annapolis which prevents landlords in Maryland from evicting tenants without reasonable cause, such as failure to pay rent or property damage. Friedson, however, argued that the rent stabilization provisions included in the Good Cause Eviction bill is holding up an otherwise positive initiative in the Maryland State House.
“One of the reasons we don’t have Good Cause Eviction right now is because legislators in Annapolis have specifically cited our legislation in Montgomery County and not wanting to inhibit the amount of housing that gets built,” Friedson said.
But Jawando countered that the benefit of rent stabilization merited its inclusion in the bill, advocating for an “and not or,” approach to rent stabilization in state legislation.
The candidates took an amicable tone with each other, even declining chances to rebut each other when asked about issues with county office coordination. Additionally, both candidates expressed dissatisfaction with current County Executive Marc Elrich (D), with Friedson calling him “persona non grata in Annapolis.”
County Council Member Evan Glass was initially scheduled to appear for the debate but pulled out due to illness.
