This story was updated at 8:30 a.m. Dec. 16, 2022, to include comment from Partap Verma.
A former Montgomery County Planning Board commissioner accused former Planning Board Chair Casey Anderson of improper conduct, and two former commissioners said the County Council acted improperly in its oversight of the board during a public hearing before the state delegation Thursday night.
The hearing was about two state bills put forth by State Sen. Ben Kramer (D-Dist 19), which looked at the structure and transparency of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. Partap Verma and Carol Rubin, former commissioners on the Planning Board, provided more details into what allegedly occurred in recent months at the commission.
Verma accused Anderson of keeping investigations by the commission’s inspector general open, when they should have been finished or closed. Anderson likely did this in order to use information against people at a later date, Verma said.
Verma said one of the investigations involved “a former commissioner on a state ethics violation, and another against a sitting council member. In both instances, the former chair in an abuse of power directed the [inspector general] to not close out the cases, when both cases were either resolved or had no active issues associated with them.”
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