Our endorsements for unaffiliated and Republican seats on Montgomery County Planning Board

This month, the Montgomery County Council will appoint three people for the Planning Board, each of whom must be from a different political party. Here are our endorsements for the unaffiliated and Republican seats. We will publish our endorsement for the Democratic seat in the coming days.

First, the questionnaires

Our endorsements are primarily based on the questionnaire that we sent to applicants – and completing that questionnaire is a prerequisite in order to be considered for our endorsement.

We published all of the applicants’ questionnaire responses that we received (and a blank version is visible here). It asks applicants 23 questions about housing, land use, transportation, and community input. Some of the questions are about issues in Montgomery County, like the newly passed Thrive 2050 plan and the widening of the Beltway and I-270. Others are more broad, designed to reveal how applicants think and how they would approach the many tradeoffs and wicked problems that arise in urban planning. We also asked applicants to respond to findings from this poll Data for Progress conducted last summer showing that most Montgomery County voters want to allow more types of homes in areas where you can only build a standalone house today.

For the unaffiliated seat, we endorse Mitra Pedoeem

GGWash endorses Mitra Pedoeem for the unaffiliated seat to complete the rest of former commissioner Tina Patterson’s term, ending in 2025. Each of the four unaffiliated finalists–Pedoeem, Paul Gaiser, Donald Silverstein, and Leanne Tobias–brings a strong grasp of the issues and all said things we liked. We especially appreciated Gaiser, a residential architect who worked with the county on its accessory dwelling unit law in 2019, and his eagerness to make ADUs and duplexes easier to build.

Pedoeem is the recently retired director of the county’s Department of Permitting Services and before that the deputy director of Montgomery Parks. We believe she brings a deep understanding of how the county government works, as well as the eagerness to explore how things could be done differently. Her answers demonstrated a willingness to use all the tools in the toolbox to address our housing crisis: removing barriers to construction like high parking requirements, colocating affordable housing with libraries and recreation centers, and legalizing duplexes and fourplexes. Given the reality that projected population growth outstrips current housing targets, we appreciated that she’s willing to go above and beyond the estimated 60,000 new homes Montgomery County must build in the next 20 years.

Pedoeem is also interested in more effective community outreach. She would prioritize surveys and door-knocking – methods that connect with more people, and people who don’t always participate in local government meetings – over more traditional and less representative ways of engagement like presentations to neighborhood associations. During her interview with the County Council, she spoke movingly about emigrating to the United States from Iran in 1978 to escape political persecution. She would be the board’s first Middle Eastern member in recent memory, bringing representation to a significant portion of the county’s population.

That said, a few responses gave us pause. Some of her answers about how to produce more homes were vague. Pedoeem also supports widening 495 and 270 without toll lanes, which is a position that a lot of people in Montgomery County hold but which puts the County at a financial disadvantage. Gas taxes don’t cover the cost of road construction and maintenance, which means tolls are needed to ensure drivers pay their own way, freeing up limited funds for other, more sustainable forms of transportation. Still, we’re hopeful she would be a strong addition to the new Planning Board.

No endorsement for the Republican seat, but…

We received two questionnaires from the six Republican applicants vying to finish former commissioner Gerald Cichy’s term, which ends next year. Two others wrote us emails about why they did not submit a questionnaire.

We wanted to endorse Ryan Schulte, a young professional who works in real estate for the marijuana industry and enthusiastically answered our questionnaire. He supports building a lot more homes: over 100,000 in the next 20 years, near Metro, along major roads and commercial corridors, atop public buildings, and also supports legalizing duplexes. Schulte listed a variety of solutions to produce more affordable homes, from reduced permitting fees to social housing.

Schulte’s response to the Data for Progress poll minced no words. “LOL, a majority of every demographic is in support of [more housing], including me,” he wrote. “It seems that, generally, the two biggest factors are age and college education. The board is currently mostly people at the end of their careers. We NEED more youth on the board and someone who actually is being priced out of the housing market.” The Council did not agree, because they didn’t make Schulte a finalist, nor did they advance consultant Rita Ferrall, who also completed our questionnaire.

We would have welcomed the opportunity to consider David Winstead, who unfortunately opted not to complete our questionnaire. Winstead is the former secretary of transportation under Governor Parris Glendening and currently on the Board of Managers for Chevy Chase Village (a position that’s similar to councilmember). He contributed to this report on making denser, more walkable suburbs and represented advocates for Bus Rapid Transit along Rockville Pike. In an email to us, he described his support for building more homes near Metro and the future Purple Line, and for Thrive – though his village was critical of the plan. He’s also on the advisory board for the Suburban Maryland Transportation Alliance, a coalition of business groups that supports both more transit and more highways in Montgomery County.

We can’t say the same about lawyer Shawn Bartley. In his interview with the County Council, he said “When we avoid questions and we avoid answering…questions, it gives the perception of not being transparent.” Bartley did in fact avoid answering our questions. We’re also curious about Bartley’s purported Twitter account, and if it is indeed his account, why someone asking eleven Democrats to appoint him to public office would say Democrats are “morons” who will “ruin our country” or boast that liberals got him kicked off Facebook.

What we are asking you to do

These are semi-endorsements: the Council appoints — voters don’t elect — Planning Board commissioners. But voters do put councilmembers in their seats, and constituents can and should tell them who they feel is the best applicant to serve on the Planning Board.

If you are a Montgomery County resident, we urge you to ask councilmembers to appoint Mitra Pedoeem for the unaffiliated seat. For the Republican seat, you should tell the council to select someone who they feel comfortable working with, having represent his county, and who will treat their constituents with the respect they deserve.

You can click this link to pre-fill all eleven councilmembers’ addresses; from there, please write a personalized message, and if that doesn’t work, use this link from the Council website. It can be quick! If you don’t mind, cc Dan Reed at dreed[at]ggwash.org so we can track how many of you contact your representatives.

And don’t forget, our Elections Hub is your one-stop shop for questionnaires, endorsements process details, and our endorsements themselves. Access the hub anytime from the “2023 Elections” link in the upper right corner of our webpage.