Andrew Pierce is passionate about what it takes to make laws and develop policies. So when the Edmonds City Council drafted resolutions last month urging federal officials to ban rail transportation of crude oil and coal through Edmonds, it was Pierce who took the lead.

Pierce is the council’s just-hired legislative/executive assistant, a position created as part of the city’s 2016 budget. In his job, Pierce not only oversees administrative functions for the city council office (duties that used to be filled by a part-time person) but also assists in researching and drafting legislative proposals for the seven-member council.

“Andrew was certainly our best candidate and had many qualifications to do this job,” said Edmonds City Councilmember Adrienne Fraley-Monillas, who worked with City Council President Kristiana Johnson to conduct the hiring process.

To say Pierce is qualified may be an understatement. A military veteran who served in the Navy from 2000-2004, he holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from University of California Berkeley and a law degree from the University of New Mexico — although he said he doesn’t intend to practice law because his interest lies in “lawmaking and policy.”

Pierce said he chose to attend law school because “I wanted to understand how laws are interpreted and made. I noticed that all the scholars and minds that I would read, they were lawyers. So I kind of had that mentality if I go that route, it would open up doors to where I want to be.”

To that end, working for the Edmonds City Council is a good fit, he said.

“It’s fun for me,” said the 34-year-old Pierce, who started his City of Edmonds job June 1. “I’m a complete policy wonk. Anytime I can sit there and get elbow deep in these issues and explore the debate from all sides objectively – that’s what I love to do.”

Fraley-Monillas said the council sought a legislative assistant with experience not only in performing “high-level detailed research” — in many cases at the national level, as was the case with the oil and coal train issue — but also in writing ordinances and resolutions.

They found that background in Pierce, who during law school interned with the New Mexico State Legislature, where he served lawmakers by drafting legislation and conducting research. The emphasis during his New Mexico legislative work was to be “apolitical,” Pierce said, “because we were working for everyone. You have to present unbiased facts to get a proper conclusion so learning in that environment was really great.”

Pierce, who joined the Navy after completing high school in New Mexico, points to one experience in particular that inspired him to follow his current career path: serving as a member of a U.S. Navy envoy that conducted a United Nations’ peacekeeping mission in East Timor. After the Southeast Asian nation achieved independence from Indonesia, Pierce assisted in delivering food and medicine, and also helped set up orphanages.

“After that is when I really got interested in how government works,” he said. “When you grow up in the United States you take for granted how peaceful our processes are, and when you see other processes around the world it enlightens you a lot more.”

Pierce graduated from law school in 2012, and in 2015 convinced his wife Sarah to make the move to the Seattle area, which both of them had fallen in love with during previous visits. (At the time of their move, the couple had one son, Gabriel, and were expecting a second child. Gabriel is now 2 1/2 and Michael is almost 4 months.)

Prior to the move, Pierce took and passed the Washington State Bar exam. He then found a job at a downtown Seattle law firm coordinating training and professional development activities. But when he came across the Edmonds City Council job posting, “I said, ‘that’s exactly what I’m looking for,'” Pierce recalled.

From the council’s perspective, Pierce’s skill set gives councilmembers an opportunity to serve as a proactive legislative body, Fraley-Monillas said.

“Just imagine at a state level or national level elected bodies in the House and Senate doing nothing but being reactive to the president or governor’s proposals?” Fraley-Monillas said. “That’s what this council has been doing for many, many years. Now we can actually pass legislation that is important to us and the citizens of Edmonds.”

After 45 days on the job, Pierce said that he enjoys his work and so far is able to keep up with the demands of serving seven councilmembers. “I’m trying to figure out what’s pressing, what can wait, and keeping open lines of communication with everyone so we all know where we’re at,” he said.

— Story and photo by Teresa Wippel