Residents of Montgomery County, Maryland have lost confidence in the members of the Planning Board, their ability to appropriately carry out their responsibilities, and the entire parks and planning system the Board oversees. This Council and the next have a unique opportunity to reset the process. The Council can restore mutual respect, transparency, accountability, and partnership between the Planning Board, Parks, Planning, and residents. This can be done if this Council and the next take appropriate care and time with upcoming appointments and stop the rush to approve Thrive Montgomery 2050. 

Our planning and parks institutions are broken. They must be fixed. The actions listed below will do that.

• The position of Planning Board Chair will become vacant by June 2023. The County Council must not appoint as Chair any current member of the Planning Board. Under the direction of the current Chair, the Board has repeatedly violated the Open Meetings Act, failed to require the registration of lobbyists, and actively favored some organizations and individuals over others. Some members (and some staff) have shared the current Chair’s derogatory characterizations of residents who did not share his views. This must not be rewarded or allowed to continue.

• The positions of Planning Director and possibly Parks Director also will be vacated in the next several months.  As a key part of oversight of the Planning Board, the Council must direct the Planning Board that no current member of the Planning Board be appointed as director of Parks or Planning and the Council should encourage a nationwide search for new directors. Both departments need new leadership open to community input, respectful of the law, and mindful of the need to balance various constituencies.

• The Council must fully engage in its oversight role in regard to the ethics and accountability of the Planning Board and the Planning and Parks Departments. This includes but is not limited to closer oversight of the department work plans and budget requests. If additional legislation is needed to ensure full transparency and accountability, including clear ethics regulations and enforcement mechanisms, the Council must work with our state delegation to develop and pass such legislation. Laws and regulations should apply to appointees and employees and include explicit requirements that commissioners and staff must function as advisors, not advocates.

• The Council must get Thrive Montgomery 2050 done right rather than done fast. Although some may argue there has been plenty of outreach and time spent on Thrive, most of it has been attempts to make up for the Planning Board’s mismanagement of the process, The Council has made a good faith effort with the hiring of a consultant to broaden outreach and more fully address racial equity and social justice issues. But there is simply not enough time to do that plus other necessary changes, including a full RE/SJ review of the final document, before the deadline for the current Council to vote. To that end, the Council should vote to reject Thrive Montgomery 2050 in order that the major shortcomings identified by Nspiregreen, citizen groups, and the Council itself can be properly addressed and corrected.

In the longer term, we recommend that our elected officials examine restructuring the overall parks and planning system, including measures to restore the norms of public input and confidence that have been undermined in recent years.  The steps described above are absolutely necessary to begin that process.