Clarksburg Fallout Remains to Be Seen

Although Duncan did not directly control the major planning agency, the Department of Park and Planning, which reports to the County Council, his pro-growth message resonated through the government.

"The culture is one I would call subservience to developer interests," said former council member Blair G. Ewing (D), whom Duncan helped oust in 2002. Working with Silverman that year, Duncan used several hundred thousand dollars, some of it raised from developers, to help elect a council more attuned to his agenda.

Silverman, over Duncan's objections, was also instrumental in getting Berlage appointed chairman of the Planning Board. Before Berlage took the job, he was a member of the County Council and was Silverman's predecessor as chairman of the land-use committee.

Under Berlage, according to the council report, the Department of Park and Planning operated on "autopilot," indifferent and at times hostile to the entreaties of the public.

During his 3 1/2 -year tenure at the 900-employee planning agency, Berlage has been praised as a visionary with a strong interest in mapping the county's future development and paying attention to transit and aesthetics. But his management style has also been regarded as hands-off and at times inattentive. That, in turn, led to a leadership vacuum, a casual system of record-keeping and a culture that ceded considerable power to staff -- and the benefit of the doubt to developers, community critics say.

At a Planning Board hearing Feb. 10, when planner Wynn Witthans came to discuss changes in plans sought by one of Clarksburg's builders, Berlage appeared to underscore what the council report found.

"Just give us whatever presentation you think we need to have," Berlage told Witthans as she began to outline changes in plans for Clarksburg Town Center.

In June, Witthans resigned after admitting that she had recently altered a site plan to bring it in conformance with other documents. She said the mistake was brought on by heavy workload.

Silverman's committee controls land-use policies and is charged with overseeing the planning department. But it didn't pay sufficient attention, investigators concluded.

"The Council's approach to overseeing the Planning Board's activities did not identify the underlying structural problems," the Office of Legislative Oversight report said.

Although he is a longtime Berlage backer, Silverman in recent weeks tried to set a course to show that he is taking a hard line on problems at the agency.

"It is the Planning Board that is ultimately responsible for their own internal procedures and regulatory processes. If they didn't think they had enough personnel to handle certain things, or if they needed changes in the law, they had an obligation to come to us," he said.