Meet Nancy Floreen
I’m excited to be running for a third term on the Montgomery County Council. For thirty years, this wonderfully diverse and fascinating community has been my passion, and it’s been such a privilege to be part of it. When my husband and I moved here in 1980, I was working as a lawyer for the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. My focus quickly moved to our new home, where our three children would grow up.
I loved being a room parent, and then president of the PTA, for my children’s schools. They attended six different MCPS schools, benefiting from so many dedicated and talented teachers. My first engagement in community matters came when our neighbors wondered whether a big new office building could possibly comply with county zoning requirements; it didn’t, though it took several years of litigation up to the Maryland Court of Appeals to persuade the builder that we were right. That led to two terms serving on the County Planning Board, from 1986 to 1994, where I learned so much about the challenges of balancing all the different needs of the community.
I ran my own law practice in Rockville for six years, representing more than a dozen community associations across the county. Then came a stint as community aide to U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski, and exposure to the critical interactions between federal, state and local governments. After serving as mayor of our town of Garrett Park – my first direct involvement in electoral politics – I decided to run for an at-large seat on the County Council in 2002. I was gratified in that election, and again in 2006, to be the leading vote-getter among the four successful candidates for at-large seats.
My time on the Council has been precious. I have had the privilege of sponsoring groundbreaking legislation to ban smoking in restaurants and legislation establishing the Housing Initiative Fund with dedicated revenues. I also initiated the Infrastructure Financing Work Group to recommend creative sources of funding for Montgomery County’s long under-supported needs. But in many ways I get more satisfaction from the parts of the job that do not grab attention: working through the budget to make sure that our schools have the resources they need, expanding our economic base so we have the revenues to protect the vulnerable among us, and developing transit alternatives and other environmental programs to ensure that our children and grandchildren will inherit a county that is just as vibrant and beautiful as the one I, my husband, and my three children have cherished.
