Isiah Leggett

Who is Isiah Leggett?

Isiah "Ike" Leggett is an American politician from the U.S. state of Maryland, currently serving as the executive of Montgomery County, Maryland. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Born in Deweyville, Texas, Leggett attended Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and, after serving in the Vietnam War with the U.S. Army, earned a law degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C. In 1986, he became the first African-American elected to the county council in Montgomery County, Maryland and served on the council through 2002. He remains the only African-American ever elected to that body at-large. For two years, Leggett served as the chairman of the Maryland Democratic Party before leaving that position to run for office once again. Leggett was elected County Executive of Montgomery County in 2006, the first African-American to hold that office. Since taking office, Leggett has worked to put the County’s fiscal house in order while strengthening critical County services in education and public safety, and helping the most vulnerable. In the four years before Leggett took office, County spending grew by over 40 percent. In his first five years in office, County spending was held to zero percent. Responding to the worldwide recession that hit in 2008, Leggett closed budget gaps of over $2.6 billion, eliminating 10 percent of County government positions, while imposing furloughs, wage freezes, and changes in retirement and health benefits to save the County money. At the same time, Leggett put tens of millions of dollars into building and preserving thousands of units of affordable housing in the County, establishing a CountyStat office to ensure “real time” performance of County services, and set up a multi-agency Positive Youth Development Initiative to ensure positive programs for at-risk youth. He worked to strengthen the County’s biotechnology and life sciences sectors and also established the “311” Customer Service as a single point of entry for residents seeking County services. During Leggett’s first five years, serious crime went down in the County by 24 percent and Fire & Rescue response times to County fires improved dramatically.