In the coming days, the County Council will move to fill a key post – a vacancy on the five-member Montgomery County Planning Board – with the choice apparently coming down to two applicants with distinctly different backgrounds.
While at least four finalists for the planning board seat officially remain in the mix, multiple sources say the appointment is likely to go to either Natali Fani-Gonzalez, 33, a former lobbyist for Casa de Maryland who now runs her own public relations firm, or Dennis Kamber – who is nearly four decades Fani-Gonzalez’s senior, and whose resume includes 50 years of experience as a civil engineer both in the Washington region and around the country.
At stake is a four-year appointment to a part-time, $30,000 per year position on a board that serves as the council’s principal adviser on land use planning decisions. In addition to reviewing and approving the detailed plans submitted by private developers, the planning board’s many responsibilities include crafting changes to the so-called “master plans” that govern growth and development in areas throughout the county.
If the existence of the planning board represents an effort to insulate technical decisions – often with large economic stakes attached – from political pressure, the maneuverings on appointments to the planning board are hardly immune from political considerations. (No more than three individuals on the five-member board may belong to the same political party.)
If appointed, Fani-Gonzalez – a Kensington resident who unsuccessfully ran for state delegate in this year’s Democratic primary – would be the planning board’s first Hispanic-American member. It would also mean that two of the board’s five seats would be held by minority group members, at a time when the county’s overall population has become majority-minority. In addition, the naming of Fani-Gonzalez would place a member of the so-called millennial generation on the board, at a time when the county is seeking the type of development that will attract millennials – and help offset an aging population base.
The appointment of Kamber, a Poolesville resident who lives in the county’s agricultural reserve area, would give the board greater geographical diversity: At present, only one of the board’s members is from the Upcounty area, with the remaining members residing in Silver Spring and Potomac. (The geographic distribution of the planning board has been an issue in the past: Nearly three decades ago, then-County Executive Charles Gilchrist vetoed a council appointment because it would have created a board comprised entirely of Bethesda residents.)
Fani-Gonzalez’s appointment is said to have the support of the council’s only Latino member, District 4 Councilmember Nancy Navarro, as well as Fani-Gonzalez’s one-time employer: Casa de Maryland, which advocates for Latino and immigrant populations throughout the Washington region.
But Fani-Gonzalez also has picked up support from the Montgomery County Sierra Club chapter as well as a couple of key local business associations: the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce and the Maryland Building Industry Association. The chamber gave Fani-Gonzalez a “highly recommended” rating, while singling out Kamber for a somewhat lesser “recommended” ranking. “We especially look forward to the perspective that Natali can add to the [board] representing the younger population of the County and the Hispanic population,” added S. Robert Kaufman, the Building Industry Association’s senior vice president, in an e-mail this week to council members.
But Fani-Gonzalez’s initial status as the favorite for the appointment was called into question Tuesday, when the council conducted televised interviews with Fani-Gonzalez, Kamber and two other finalists for the post: Charles Kauffman of Bethesda, an attorney who serves on the county’s commission on aging, and Victor Weissberg of Silver Spring, a long-time Democratic activist and transportation specialist who now works for the Prince George’s County Department of Public Works. (There were a total of 25 applicants for the slot, with five subsequently invited to interview for the post based on an informal poll of County Council members; one finalist, Mohammad Siddique of Montgomery Village, a telecommunications engineer, withdrew his name prior to the interviewing process.)
Kamber – whose professional credits include serving as principal civil engineer during construction of the Verizon Center in downtown D.C. and work on preventing future storm damage in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina – was said to have boosted his chances for appointment with an interview in which he demonstrated a strong grasp of the workings of the planning board as well as the key land use and planning issues facing the county.
While terming himself “primarily a technical person,” Kamber added, “I do have a knowledge of the development process in Montgomery County,” adding that “there was a point where I had a lot of interaction with the planning board” earlier in his career.
The same interview session with council members served to highlight what has been a criticism of Fani-Gonzalez's possible appointment in some quarters – that she lacks a background in planning and zoning issues.
“I know I don’t have the land use expertise you usually see on the Planning Board,” Fani-Gonzalez told council members. She added: “I come from humble beginnings…I understand what it means not to have the right infrastructure in certain communities, because I’ve lived through it. I haven’t written a report about it, but I know how it feels, and that has a value.”
Fani-Gonzalez, whose family emigrated from Venezuela to Montgomery County when she was young, sought to emphasize her background in community engagement, declaring: “It’s not a secret that I’m an immigrant. I’m also Hispanic, and that’s a community you don’t see often coming to the planning board…I do come with a strong background in coalition building.”
It has been rare for planning board appointees not to have some background in planning and zoning. “It’s a plus, but it’s not critical,” said one former board member. But another board veteran termed such prior experience “relatively important” given the technical nature of many issues within its jurisdiction.
County Council President Craig Rice said Thursday evening that a vote on the Planning Board vacancy would “probably” occur at the council meeting scheduled for Oct. 7, although Rice added that “we might be ready” by next Tuesday’s session. He confirmed that he has started informally polling his colleagues on their choice to fill the vacancy, which was created when former Planning Board Chair Francoise Carrier left office this past summer. Casey Anderson, who was already serving on the board, was then designated as the new chair (a full-time position that pays $200,000 annually), still leaving the board short by a member.
