The Montgomery County Council has whittled down the nominees for temporary appointments to the Planning Board to eleven people:

Raj Barr‐Kuma
Cherri Branson
Francoise Carrier
Norman Dreyfuss
Barbara Goldberg Goldman
David Hill
William Kirwin
Vincent Napoleon
Roberto Pinero
Amy Presley
Jeff Zyontz

This rushed appointment process is turning into a train wreck with a number of problems already emerging:

First, showing a lack of transparency let alone interest in public input, this information was posted less than 24 hours before the interviews that are to be held tomorrow with the appointments made on Thursday. Normally, the Council must appoint a politically balanced Board but the Council has failed to provide information on the political party of applicants. The Council hasn’t posted any minutes since July, so this lack of transparency is now seemingly the rule rather than the exception.

Second, though avowedly temporary, the appointments are for indeterminate length: “Temporary, acting appointees will serve until a successor is qualified and appointed under Section 15-103 of the Regional District Act.” This could be a long time. The Council has also decided that these “temporary” appointments are immune from the county executive’s veto despite their potentially lengthy nature.

You can review the resumes submitted by the applicants below or at this link: