Council Seeks Applicants for County Board of Appeals

The Montgomery County Council is seeking applicants for a four-year term on the County Board of Appeals. The term of Edwin Rosado (Unaffiliated) will expire in September 2018. He does not plan to apply for reappointment. Applications for the position must be received no later than 5:00 pm on Wednesday, October 10.

By law, no more than three members of the Board shall be from the same political party. This position can only be filled by a Republican, a voter who is unaffiliated with a party, or a voter who is a member of another party officially recognized by the Board of Elections.

In addition to Rosado (Unaffiliated), current members of the Board include Chair John Pentecost (Democrat), Stan Boyd (Democrat), Katherine Freeman (Democrat) and Bruce Goldensohn (Republican). Members of County Boards, Committees and Commissions may not serve on more than one such group at a time.

Members of the Board receive $15,365 annually, with the Chair receiving $21,715. Salaries are adjusted annually each December to reflect 50 percent of the change in the Washington Area Consumer Price Index.

Duties of the Board of Appeals include hearing and deciding requests for variances from development standards contained in the Zoning Ordinance; hearing appeals from certain administrative decisions rendered by County government agencies; and hearing oral argument on and deciding appeals from decisions of the Hearing Examiner on conditional uses. The Board also considers and decides requests for modifications of special exceptions.

The Board normally holds weekly hearings all day Wednesday and worksessions every other week. If necessary to accommodate an extended caseload or continued hearings, the Board schedules hearings on other weekdays. Members are expected to prepare for the hearings by reading the cases to be heard and to share the workload of drafting and editing opinions or to follow-up on investigations on specific cases. Members work approximately 15-25 hours a week.

The principal jurisdiction of the Board of Appeals (concerning variances, special exceptions and conditional uses under the Zoning Ordinance) does not include the municipalities of Barnesville, Brookeville, Gaithersburg, Laytonsville, Poolesville, Rockville and Washington Grove. The normal Council practice is not to appoint residents of those municipalities to the Board, however, exceptions to this practice may occur.

Letters expressing interest, including a resume listing professional and civic experience, political party affiliation, home and office telephone numbers and an email address, should be addressed to: Council President Hans Riemer, County Council Office, 100 Maryland Avenue, Rockville, Maryland 20850 or can be emailed to county.council@montgomerycountymd.gov. Applications must be received no later than 5:00 pm on October 10. It is the Council’s policy not to consider applications received after the deadline. After the application closing date, Councilmembers will review the letters of application and may select applicants to interview.

Letters of application and resumes are made public as part of the appointment process. Any interviews held are open to the public and will be televised. A financial statement of assets, debts, income and family property interests will be required of all applicants. Only the appointed candidate will be required to make the financial statement available to the public.