Exclusive: 5 of 6 Planning Board Finalists for Independent and Republican positions were Democrats in 2022 – Council to vote 2/28

Background Information

Last year on October 12, 2022, all 5 Montgomery County Planning Board members resigned (Montgomery Planning) as requested by the County Council amid multiple scandals (The Washington Post – gfted). This was precipitated by numerous events that we covered: The original scandal involving Casey Anderson liquor use on County property, Partap Verma taking a leave of absence from the planning board, along with other events we didn’t cover that you can see a summary of here (Moco360 – formerly Bethesda Beat).

This led to the County Council looking to immediately fill temporary planning board positions.

We reported on those looking to fill these positions at the time and found several applicants with red flags including some large debts, political donations, and other issues.

New Round of Applicants

The County Council set it up so that 3 of those spots would be temporary and filled again on 2/28/2023, staggering terms for a smoother transition (Moco360).

That brings us to this current piece where we have continued to do extensive research on applicants and have found some more interesting information from their previous affiliations among other things.

Here is the full County Council document for the Agenda Item for Tuesday 2/28/23 including more information on the applicants.

If you want to provide input on these appointments its imperative you do it immediately as there is not much time to send input for for them to read it. I apologize for getting our article out so late but were waiting on some very key information to complete it.

You can click here to email all county council members at once or use this form to contact them on the official website. Our recommendations are just below followed by detailed information about each candidate.

Recommendations

Before we get into the details about each candidate, here is briefly who we are recommending for each slot and why. You will see further details to support these recommendations in the rest of the article.

Unaffiliated – Leanne Tobias

Tobias is the only unaffiliated finalist that has a recent history of actually being an unaffiliated voter for multiple lengthy periods of time. She also has decades of experience in land use, planning, economic development, environment.

Tobias also supports transparency through being careful to avoid open meeting act violations.

There is a concern based on the timing of her affiliation change but given the others lack of time recently unaffiliated (or in the case of Silverstein unknown affiliation), there seems to be little other choice.

Republican – David Winstead

Again, we are going to recommend David Winstead because he has consistently been part of the Republican party. He was also the only one of the 6 unaffiliated and Republican finalists that was not actually in the Democratic party in 2022.

We do wish previous party affiliation and timing of affiliation was given more consideration prior to selecting finalists to provide more options.

Based on their resumes and the article in MoCo360 on their interviews, Shawn Bartley also seems pretty capable but I am not sure he has the same record as actually being a Republican for a long enough time.

Both Republican candidates said it is important to get more assistance from developers when it comes to school construction and capacity.

Democrat – Cherri Branson

Branson was selected last year for the interim position so it should be no surprise she is again a finalist. From limited experience, she seems to be doing a pretty good job so far and wants to provide incentives to both residents and developers alike and wants to work on helping residents better understand the processes.

Contact County Council

You can click here to email all county council members at once or use this form to contact them on the official website.

Diversifying Planning Board

A day after the previous full board was asked to resign, The Washington Post article (gifted) reported “Some officials say they are concerned about damaged public trust and dwindling confidence in an agency that helps determine how communities look and how the county will continue to grow.”

The Post also reported council member Will Jawando saying ““I’ll be looking for diversification in every way — racially, ethnically, geographically, ideologically — and for technical expertise in planning and land use,” “We need the type of body that can deal with the challenges of a county with four of the top 10 most diverse communities in the nation.””

Finalist Affiliation Data

Since two of the three positions by law are to be filled by a Republican and an Unaffiliated (aka Independent), we filed data requests to the Board of Elections to request previous affiliation data.

You can see the key law here, which has two statements related to political parties under Maryland Code §15‐102:

c (1) Of the commissioners from each county, not more than three shall be members of the same political party.

d (5) A commissioner who is appointed to fill a vacancy for an unexpired term shall be a member of the same political party as the commissioner who vacated the office.

Of the 6 finalists for these two positions that are required to not be democrats, only a single applicant was not a registered Democrat in 2022 and they were also the only person who was not a Democrat on 10/12/2022 (when the previous planning board resigned).

Planning board finalists two most recent affiliations

Note that one applicant (Donald Silverstein) changed his affiliation to Unaffiliated just the day after the planning board resigned. The others all changed their affiliations later.

Mitra Pedoeem changed affiliation about 9 days after the County Council announced the 3 vacancies on December 7, 2022.

Leanne Tobias didn’t change until just 8 days before the application period closed on January 10, 2023.

The below chart is a more complete picture of the changes in affiliation for the finalists. We will have more detailed charts below for each finalist in this category (we didn’t look at affiliation changes for the Democrats as presumably that position would be harder to get so anyone changing would change the other way).

Planning Board finalists previous affiliations – full data

Detailed Finalist Information

Articles on Interviews

MoCo360 (formerly Bethesda Beat) provided 3 articles – one for affiliation of finalists interviewed. I will highlights parts of these for each finalist below along with other information but reading these 3 will give you a good idea of the finalists.

Paul Gaiser (unaffiliated)

Paul Gaiser’s affiliation data here goes way back because we had to look further back to see what he was before 2020. Note that there is something odd in his data where it says from 1980 to 1984 he was registered “DEC” which we are categorizing as Unknown.

Paul Gaiser has a masters degree in Architecture and has a lot of experience in architecture, building, remodeling and construction.

According to the article from Moco360 which covered the Unaffiliated interviews, “Gaiser said improving community outreach and restoring confidence in the board are important.” Other important focuses were to find a good replacement for the former Planning Director, making development easier – especially for ADUs – while making it harder to tear down trees.

Mitra Pedoeem (unaffiliated)

Mitra Pedoeem has only been affiliated as a Democrat in the past 10 years up until 12/16/2022 (about 9 days after the County Council announced the 3 vacancies on December 7, 2022).

Interestingly, it seems that it took some time for her to show in the system as an Unaffiliated as she also sent an email and a hand written letter to the Board of Elections to be sure to get her affiliation changed after submitting the affiliation change online on 12/16/2022.

Mitra Pedoeem is the County’s former director of permitting services. She announced her retirement on October 26, 2022 according to the MoCo Show. According to her resume, she has 41 years of experience in local and state government departments including Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), MD in these roles:

  • Deputy Director of Administration
  • Park Development Division Chief
  • Chief of Construction Section

Previous to that she worked for Montgomery County Government and the Maryland State Highway Association.

When she was in charge of the Department of Permitting Services, The Washington Post (gifted article) reported that dozens of employees claimed hazard pay they were not entitled to according to the County’s inspector general.

“Mitra Pedoeem, who directs the permitting office, did not immediately respond to questions Friday about why department officials told employees in April that they could claim hazard pay for all inspection-related work.”

Reported in The Washington Post

In conclusion, she seems very qualified but it seems based on Party Affiliation she should have applied as a Democrat which is what she has been for a vast majority of at the very least the last 10 years (which is all we researched) but possibly all 41 or more that she has worked in these capacities.

Donald Silverstein (unaffiliated)

Donald Silverstein had the smallest amount of affiliation data. It is unclear if he was not registered to vote prior to 10/11/2020 or if he recently moved to Maryland or something else.

However, he was a registered Democrat up until 10/13/2022 (the day after the planning board resigned)

Silverstein’s resume shows that since 1995 he has worked as Executive Vice President of Design and Construction for a real estate company. There his job included “Profit and loss responsibility for the entire design and construction effort for the $1 billion portfolio of a major downtown developer and builder.”

According to the MoCo360 article, “Silverstein said the most time-sensitive matter facing the new board is the implementation of Thrive Montgomery 2050, particularly initiatives to increase the amount of affordable housing and address traffic issues.”

Leanne Tobias (unaffiliated)

Leanne Tobias affiliation data showed some interesting results. While Tobias was the last person amongst finalists to switch to unaffiliated (from Democrat) on 1/12/2023 just 8 days before the application period closed on January 10, 2023, she also is the only one who previous was unaffiliated (multiple times, over multiple years).

Tobias’s resume states she has “Decades of employment and community service on land use, planning, economic development, environment.” It also backs that up with work in these areas for various companies and government organizations.

The MoCo360 article mentioned Tobias “who initially opposed the plan [Thrive 2050] before it was adopted, conceded that its implementation must be thoughtfully executed. She mentioned the change in land use throughout the county, including more vacant retail and office space following the COVID-19 pandemic.” In in, she also mentions the planning board needing to avoid violating the open meeting act something that caused issues in the past.

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Shawn Bartley (Republican)

Shawn Bartley is part of the Maryland State Department of Education and is chair of the board for the Primary Care Coalition in Montgomery County, Maryland.

In his resume, Bartley says he is a “Proven award-winning attorney. Adept at leadership, critical thinking, decisive decision making, effective communication, public speaking, and advocacy.”

In the MoCo360 article, “Bartley said his experience living down county, mid-county and upcounty give him a unique perspective on planning matters.”

“Bartley said it’s important for planning commissioners to remember that they serve the public, not developers who come before the board with project applications. And the Planning Board and staff should be open to criticism and questions.”

David Winstead (Republican)

David Winstead has been a registered Republican since at least 2016. No other affiliations are seen in the last 10 years of Board of Elections data. Thus, we have no chart to show here.

In his resume, Winstead says “currently serves on the [Chevy Chase] Village’s Board of Managers as well as President of Montgomery Municipal Cable.”

According to the MoCo360 piece, “Winstead said his experience as secretary of transportation, along with work on zoning and land-use matters across the region, has made him well versed on capital planning and transit matters.”

Also there, “Winstead said that the coronavirus pandemic, while challenging, led many local governments to conduct hybrid meetings. The Planning Board and staff should continue that practice and other forms of outreach, to involve as many people as possible in the overall planning and development process.”

Raj Barr‐Kumar (Democrat)

From his resume, Barr-Kumar is an architect and urban planner who in “1997 [became] National President of the American Institute of Architects, the first person of color elected in 140 years, Raj has served as Principal in Charge of Planning, Design and Construction for projects world-wide for 40 years.”

In MoCo360 article on Democratic planning board finalists, “Barr-Kumar said in those sessions, it’s important that the Planning Board members and staff explain what is being proposed within affected neighborhoods, so that it’s more tangible for residents to understand.”

In our previous piece on the planning board applicants last year, we brought up some scam accusations against Raj Barr-Kuma and his brother relating to Raj’s company Barr Group International. More information on gripeo shows they sell people removal from site but the accusations appear to be legitimate based on research. Here is a video from 2013 that includes what appears to be Raj talking about this development that never happened (around 2:30).

Cherri Branson (Democrat)

According to her resume, Branson was “appointed by the Montgomery County Council to fill an interim term. Member of a five Member Commission responsible for: oversight and implementation of large- and small-scale plans through the review of development applications and subdivision decisions; providing guidance for future development; preserving historic resources, and management of the county park system of parks. Additionally, I serve as a member of the Bi-County Commission’s Audit Committee.”

In the MoCo360 piece, Branson seems to focus on getting residents involved and providing incentives to both residents and developers. She “that it’s important that residents fully understand the business of the Planning Board, even if they don’t necessarily agree with certain site plans, master plans or other work. The board could do a better job of explaining the complexities of its work.”

James Hedrick (Democrat)

James Hedrick is an interesting case. He is a 2023 Vice President of Action Committee for Transit which is a 501c4 non profit group dedicated to “better communities and better transit.” The group also strongly endorsed Hedrick for the planning board while failing to mention in their lengthy statement that he is a member of their board and Vice President. He was also endorsed by GGWash which is listed as an “Allied Group” of ACT. That endorsement does mention his position on the ACT board and also that he is a steering member for Montgomery4all another special interest group.

ACT 2023 Officers list includes James Hedrick as a Vice President

Now you may ask, why does this matter? Well the same law referenced above related to party affiliation has another statute which mentions special interest groups:

(2) A commissioner may not be selected as representing or supporting any special interest.

Hedrick is quoted in the MoCo360 article saying “If you sit there and wait for people to come to you, what you get is people like me who have an obsessive problem with housing policy and land use. And that’s not representative of the community; it doesn’t build the trust that you need.”

Brian O’Looney (Democrat)

According to his resume, O’Looney “serves as principal designer for many of Torti Gallas’ notable mixed-use projects. He has more than 25 years experience in providing programming, masterplanning, and design services to clients with a variety of technically complex building types in a range of neighborhood densities.”

Resume lists and shows pictures of many projects he was invovled in.

O’Looney on how to build back trust of the planning board in MoCo360: “Respect voices with various opinions and keep the lines of communication open.”

Alexander Ratner (Democrat)

According to his resume, Ratner works as a Federal Policy Manager currently and with the Clean Energy Leadership Institute. He “develops and implements ACEEE’s federal policy strategy on buildings, industrial, transportation, and utilities decarbonization, efficiency, and sustainability issues.”

In the MoCo360 article on Democratic interviews, “Ratner said that the Planning Board could consider scheduling meetings outside of the normal Thursday day slot and heading out to parks or other community facilities.”

He also said that “although he understood the county’s growth and infrastructure plan isn’t centered on climate change, he would like to see more measures related to sustainability in that and other plans and issues moving forward.”

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