From Candidates, Competing County Plans
Officials Plan to Select New Chairman Next Month
Thursday, June 22, 2006; Page GZ18
Nine residents seeking to become the next chairman of the Montgomery County Planning Board have been interviewed in recent days by the County Council.
Officials will wait until next month, however, to select a replacement for Derick P. Berlage to head the county's most powerful, appointed board, said Council President George L. Leventhal (D-At Large).
The next few weeks will give civic groups time to evaluate applicants and forward endorsements or recommendations, Leventhal said. Applicants have received questionnaires from the Montgomery County Civic Federation, which has hosted community forums for applicants in the past but has not scheduled anything for this year.
"I've allowed extra time in the process. How long depends on what I hear about what the community wants to do," Leventhal said. "I won't schedule a vote until I have reasonable indication that anybody who wants to hold a forum gets to hold one."
Dan Wilhelm, immediate past president of the Montgomery County Civic Federation, is leading the group's ad hoc committee in charge of evaluating applicants.
"We're going to provide a recommendation to the council on the ones that we think are qualified," Wilhelm said. "We may rank them. As for a forum, we haven't decided what exactly we're going to do."
The Planning Board chairman, who works full time and is paid up to $150,000, oversees the county Department of Parks and Planning and its $100 million budget. The department's reputation was tarnished last year after a community group found building irregularities in Clarksburg Town Center, a 1,200-home community under construction north of Germantown.
The controversy led to an overhaul of planning policies and the resignation of five high-ranking planning officials, including Berlage, 49, a lawyer and former County Council member.
In all, 14 people applied for Berlage's job. Application packets were circulated to council members, along with a checklist for the council to indicate whom they wanted to interview. Applicants who received at least three votes were invited for an interview.
Those interviewed included three associated with the Planning Board: member John M. Robinson, a federal government lawyer; Royce Hanson, a 1970s-era board chairman who provided the council with a review of the department after Clarksburg; and Michele M. Rosenfeld, former lead counsel of the planning department and one of the people who resigned.
Wendell M. Holloway, appointed by the council to the Board of Appeals in 2004, also applied. Holloway, who is paid $14,000 annually, helps make decisions about zoning requests that vary from county development standards.
Applicants not interviewed were: Gerald R. Cichy, 67, a Rockville engineer and planner; Richard L. Claypoole, 61, of Silver Spring, former director, Office of the Federal Register; Tiaa Booker Rutherford, 31, a planner and consultant in Columbia, S.C.; Shelton "Shelly" Skolnick, 63, a Silver Spring engineer and lawyer; and Thomas C. Snyder, 51, of Ellicott City, a consultant on energy and environmental policy.
Today's Extra includes biographical information on the interviewed applicants and excerpts from their applications explaining their reasons for seeking the position. For complete applications, go tohttp:/
