Planning Board Nominees Chosen

Council Picks 2 In Montgomery

The Montgomery County Council yesterday nominated a former top aide to Gov. Parris N. Glendening and a former legislator to the county's Planning Board to help lead the debate over managing the county's growth.

On a 5 to 4 vote, the council approved Eugene R. Lynch, who was chief of staff to Glendening (D) for 18 months and deputy chief of staff for a few years before that. Lynch owns a development company that has projects along the Eastern Seaboard, and some council members asked whether his business ties might conflict with his work on the Planning Board.

Similar questions were raised about his closest competitor for the position, Tedi Osias, an official at the Housing Opportunities Commission, which often has business before the board.

The council unanimously approved the nomination of Jean Cryor, a former GOP member of the Maryland House of Delegates.

The Planning Board serves as the council's principal adviser on land-use policy and oversees the county's park system and planning agency, which together have a budget of more than $100 million annually. The part-time, four-year posts pay $30,000 a year. Board members can serve two terms.

The Planning Board and council are working to revise the county's growth policies -- a process many observers predict will result in stricter rules on development.

"We are in a pivotal time," said council member George L. Leventhal (D-At Large).

The council's nominations now go to County Executive Isiah Leggett (D), who is expected to support them.

Lynch, 50, a Democrat, would replace Wendy Collins Perdue, a dean at Georgetown University's law school. Cryor, 68, would replace Meredith K. Wellington, a lawyer and former community activist who was one of two Republicans on the five-member panel. Perdue and Wellington are stepping down after two terms.

County law precludes all five members coming from one political party, and the 3-to-2 ratio of Democrats to Republicans would remain the same if Lynch and Cryor are approved.

Twenty-six residents applied for the posts, and the council interviewed nine before voting.

Council member Nancy Floreen (D-At Large), who opposed Lynch, expressed concern about potential conflicts of interest, saying his votes could affect private business deals "in a way that none of us could follow," she said.

Floreen and three other council members, Valerie Ervin (D-Silver Spring), Michael Knapp (D-Upcounty) and Leventhal, backed Osias, who formerly headed the staff of the county's zoning Board of Appeals.

Knapp argued that the potential for conflicts was overblown and that the county's regulations on disclosing financial interests and potential conflicts should suffice.

"Because people have conflicts it is not something that should disqualify them outright. If it did, we wouldn't have candidates for anything," he said.

Voting for Lynch were Phil Andrews (D-Gaithersburg), Roger Berliner (D-Potomac-Bethesda), Marc Elrich (D-At Large), Marilyn Praisner (D-Eastern County) and Duchy Trachtenberg (D-At Large).

Lynch and Osias had promised to recuse themselves from matters that posed possible conflicts. Osias, who sought an opinion from the county's Ethics Commission about the potential for conflict, said she would recuse herself from matters affecting the housing agency.