Montgomery County’s entire planning board, the five people responsible for giving the green light to development proposals and guiding growth in the Maryland county, resigned Wednesday after months of controversy.
“I’ve never seen anything quite like this,” Gabe Albornoz, president of the Montgomery County Council, said to News4 moments after the announcement.
Board Chair Casey Anderson, Vice Chair Partap Verma and three other members, Gerald Cichy, Tina Patterson and Carol Rubin, all resigned after months of controversy filled with accusations of infighting, misconduct and serving alcohol in the office.
“It’s a sad day in Montgomery County, but we felt there was no other option but to accept the resignations of all five planning board members,” Albornoz said. “The county is, you know, a large county. We’ve always had our set of controversies, but just not quite to this degree.”
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In addition to development and the county’s master plan, the planning board is responsible for the park system. Albornoz said even though the county council lost confidence in the board, which they appointed, he still has faith in planning department staff.
“I think it will be pretty close to usual,” County Executive Marc Elrich said. "You know a lot of the people who really do the work every day are the staff, and the staff are still pretty much there and intact."
During a media briefing Wednesday, Elrich said he doesn’t think too much will change while council works to appoint an interim board, but he did say the situation was “a bit of a mess.”
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The planning board meetings for Thursday night and next week have been postponed.
The council is now working to find interim board members and will start the process of finding permanent replacements later this month.
