By Adam Pagnucco.
Earlier this month, Bethesda Magazine reported that the county council received 67 applications from residents seeking to fill the remaining portion of departing Council Member Gabe Albornoz’s term. Yesterday, the council revealed that it will be interviewing just three of them in public.
Are these the best choices to fill Albornoz’s seat? We don’t know. On what basis were 95% of the applicants eliminated? We don’t know.
And we won’t know.
First, a bit of process. When a council seat becomes vacant, a new council member is picked through a special election. However, when the vacancy occurs with a year or less of the term remaining, the council fills the vacancy through an appointment. Since this process was established in 1998, the council has made two appointments to fill vacancies: Donnell Peterman to replace District 5 Council Member Derick Berlage in 2002 and Cherrie Branson to replace District 5 Council Member Valerie Ervin in 2014. In both instances, the council indicated its preference that the appointee not run for election in the year of their appointment, and both Peterman and Branson abided by it.
I was a chief of staff for a council member in 2014 when the council replaced Ervin. At that time, 18 residents applied for her seat and their names were released to the public. Fourteen of them were scheduled for interviews. One withdrew; the applications, resumes and letters of support for the others were published. Videos of the public interviews on January 17, 22 and 24, 2014, are available for viewing on the council’s website.
This year’s process was different. When the process began, Council President Kate Stewart announced, “In an effort to attract the best applicants to serve for less than one year, initial application materials will be kept confidential.” Now we know that that requirement was used to withhold 95% of the applicants’ names from the public.
Last week, I submitted a Maryland Public Information Act request seeking the names of all the applicants. Council attorney Christine Wellons wrote back to me:
I’m unable to provide the requested records because Section 4-311 of the General Provisions Article prevents the disclosure of “a personnel record of an individual, including an application, a performance rating, or scholastic achievement information.”
The personnel exemption is a longstanding exception to the Maryland Public Information Act. However, this is no ordinary personnel appointment. This appointee will wield all of the powers of an elected county council member. The appointee will vote on land use policies, legislation, budgets and other appointments (such as department heads and members of boards and commissions). The appointee will preside over an office and staff that is funded by taxpayers, who will also pay the appointee’s salary and benefits. The appointee might even cast the deciding vote on certain issues.
Furthermore, the council’s withholding of the applicants’ names is a break from precedent. In 2014, the council released all of the names and interviewed 13 people – or 72% of the applicants – in public. They did not use the personnel exemption as an excuse to prevent disclosure. This time around, only 3 applicants – 5% of the total – will get interviews and the other 95% will never be known.
This is an unwarranted and draconian reduction of transparency. What public purpose does this serve?
Now we get to the three finalists: former Silver Spring Regional Director Reemberto Rodriguez and former Board of Education Members Shebra Evans and Henry Lee. All have experience in county agencies. Notably, Evans was rejected by voters in her reelection bid for the school board a year ago. As a council member, she would have substantially more authority than she did on the school board.
Are these the three best choices for Albornoz’s seat?
We don’t know.
We won’t know.
And that’s because the county council doesn’t want us to know.