by Frank Curreri, Staff Writer

Two members of the Mid-County Citizens Advisory Board unexpectedly resigned in recent months claiming they were denied the ability to disagree with Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, the man who appointed them.

Steve Mann and Cary Lamari left the board -- which advises Duncan's administration on how communities in the mid-county area feel about certain issues -- in October and November, respectively. Each had served a previous three-year term on the 15-member volunteer board and had been reappointed by Duncan in July for another three-year stint.

Lamari, from the Norbeck area and former head of the board's capital projects committee, was one of the board's most passionate and outspoken members.

In his resignation letter to Duncan and the board, Lamari said he was departing prematurely because the board's chairman, Henry Lee, told him that board members should not publicly express any position conflicting with Duncan's or adopted county policy.

"I truly have a moral conflict with this philosophy," Lamari stated in the letter. "To me, silencing dissenting opinions is counter to the purpose of an Advisory Board. I fundamentally believe you are a good Executive for Montgomery County, but there are times when citizens will honestly, sincerely and legitimately have opinions that conflict with yours."

In a recent interview, Mann said that before resigning, he was interested in running for vice chair of the board, which would have required a majority vote from the board's membership. But Mann said that Lee told him in a phone conversation: "If I was vice chair, I would have to agree with everything Doug Duncan said."

"Henry [Lee] told me there were concerns about my being vice chair," Mann continued. "And that [the vice chair] should be more judicious. I'm not just going to blindly follow what Doug Duncan says, even though I agree with 90-95 percent of the things."

In particular, Mann said that Lee was bothered because he abstained from the board's Oct. 12 vote to endorse designating Wheaton's central business district as an enterprise zone. The designation qualifies the business district for special income tax credits and other economic incentives to attract businesses and redevelopment.

"[Lee] thought I should have just voted and gone along with it," Mann said of the enterprise zone status, which was approved in November with the strong support of Duncan, Gov. Parris N. Glendening and state Sen. Leonard H. Teitelbaum (D-Dist. 19) of Silver Spring, among others.

Mann said Lee told him that another board member was going to become vice chairman. Soon afterward, Mann said, he made his decision to resign.

"I really don't have the stomach for the manipulation of the board members," Mann said. "We are not supposed to be lobbying for Doug Duncan. ... I just decided it would be better working for other organizations."

Lamari also said in his resignation letter that Lee told him Duncan "had concerns with my expressing my personal viewpoint."

But Lee disputed that account and said that neither Duncan nor any other county official approached him about quieting Lamari. Other board members, however, did voice concerns about Lamari's techniques of dissent, Lee said.

While Lee contended that he never told Mann he had to agree with everything Duncan said, he said he did tell Mann that once the board made a decision, the vice chair "can disagree but can't go out and actively try to overturn that decision."

Addressing Mann's allegation that he "rigged" the vice chair election process, Lee said he conveyed to Mann that there were concerns about his being vice chair. But Lee said those remarks resulted from reservations expressed by three board members about Mann's candidacy. Moreover, Lee said, he took a preliminary poll of the board to gauge whether it would elect Mann, and the vote showed little support for Mann to become vice chairman.

Lee said he never told Mann about his secret poll, choosing instead to be more diplomatic about the situation when he told Mann he probably could not be vice chairman. That may have prompted Mann to misinterpret things, Lee said.

Other county officials who work under Duncan also say no restrictions of a board member's public expression exist. As proof, they point out that despite Lamari's public opposition to some positions taken by Duncan, the county executive reappointed Lamari to the board last July.

"There has never been any pressure placed on anyone -- ever -- to stifle their individual voice or expression," said Natalie Cantor, director of the county's Mid-County Services Center and the person to whom the board reports directly. "And my memory is a long one. The expectation of an advisory board member is to give advice, and advice implies at times disagreeing. And you can look through a long line of [board notes from meetings] and see where the board disagrees with the county executive. We ask them to use good judgment, and that is the extent of it."

Bruce Romer, Duncan's chief administrative officer, also denied Lamari's assertion that board members are pressured to conform to county policy. Romer noted that internal debate is not uncommon for a citizen advisory board and said he feels those discussions have value.

"Certainly all individuals have a right to express themselves, and nobody in any way tries to restrain that," Romer said. "First of all, from time to time all of our citizen advisory boards kind of review their roles, and I think it's always good to do that. And I think that's what is happening. I considered it a healthy discussion, and I don't personally think it signifies any problems. I think it's a positive thing."

Nothing in the board's bylaws requires its members to reserve criticism of the county executive or his position on issues. But Lee said Lamari crossed the line in his stance on the county's controversial "Pay and Go" legislation, which was supported by Duncan and enacted by the County Council last year.

Pay and Go allows developers to pay pre-determined, upfront development fees and exempts them from so-called "impact fees" they otherwise would have to pay for schools, roads and other infrastructure required by additional development.

The board supported Pay and Go with modifications. Lamari, however, has been a harsh public critic of Pay and Go since it was enacted, writing opinion pieces against it in local newspapers and leading rallies to try and have the policy overturned.

Lee said Lamari and other board members are permitted to advocate personal positions that may be contrary to those endorsed by the board. But such dissenters should make it very clear that such stances are personal stances, not the position of the board, Lee said.

Lamari maintains he adhered to that principle in his Pay and Go opinion pieces and in his resignation letter.

"I wrote that [resignation] letter as an individual, not as a member of the Mid-County Citizens Advisory Board," Lamari said.

But Lee and other board members felt Lamari went too far when he solicited support for an anti-Pay and Go rally during one of the board's meetings.

"He could have done that before the meeting or after it," Lee said. "But I told him I thought it was improper for him to recruit for a rally during the meeting."

All of this resulted in Romer being invited to a board meeting last November to offer some advice about individual expression for board members.

By Lamari's recollection, Romer "stated that being a member of a board limits our freedom to express concerns as individuals that may be different from county or executive policy. Mr. Romer spoke of a continuum, a sliding scale of control, from volunteerism to being an employee of the county."

But Romer said in an interview that he does not feel the question about when a board members crosses the line should ever be addressed.

"That's the very question that I don't think should be answered," Romer said. "Because no line should be drawn. These community issues are complex ... and to try to set rigid rules is inappropriate because we have intelligent people on our board, and over the years they have been able to exercise it."

Still, for this article and in the official notes from last November's board meeting, Romer said of opinions offered by board members, "Sometimes it has to be tempered."

In contrast to Romer's views, Lee indicated a line should indeed be drawn for members' opinions.

Some outside observers who support Duncan feel that board members are pressured to tone down their criticisms.

Barney Evans is one of the outside critics who feels the board is not functioning entirely as it should.

Evans said that as president of the Alanwood, Gayfield, Willson Hills and Gaywoods Estates Civic Association, which represents the Layhill area, he attended six or seven meetings last year of the Mid-County Citizens Advisory Board.

"From my observation, I've always felt the Citizens Advisory Board should be just that -- an advisory board," said Evans. "What they think [the county executive] is doing right or wrong. And it seems as though it's not being used that way. When those individuals who are on the board express their viewpoints and those viewpoints may be contrary or different than the county executive's, they don't go to forward. It seems like those on the board who express contrary opinions are either dismissed or scolded.

"If you want everyone to be a 'yes' man, you're not going to get the information you need to be effective for the county," Evans said.

Bob Abrams, a former two-term board member who left the board a year and a half ago, said he was surprised by Lamari's and Mann's resignations and the debate which preceded both events.

"When I was on the panel, I used to write letters [to the editor] that were very critical of the [Montgomery County Board of Appeals] and have them published," Abrams said. "I did it and nobody ever said anything. ... I know that something bears looking into when Steve Mann and Cary both resign for the same reason."

Abrams said he is confident that Lamari, whom he worked alongside for three years on the board, never identified himself as a board member when he went against the grain of county or board policies.

"He was never in any kind of trouble," Abrams said. "Yeah, he was passionate, but that's the way to be. The role is to advise. It's not a 'yes sir' board."

In the wake of Lamari's and Mann's resignations and the decisions of two other board members to not seek re-appointment for personal reasons, the county is left with the arduous task of filling four vacancies on its Mid-County Citizens Advisory Board.

Cantor, who has been the board's assistant director or director for 12 of its 20 years, cannot recall a time when two board members resigned in the same year. But she said morale on the board is good.

Eight of the 15 board positions are either unfilled or occupied by citizen volunteers who have been on the board less than a year.

Lee also concedes that the cumulative effect of losing board members to expired terms and the resignations has "really left a void in the leadership of the [board]" and that Lamari's departure will be felt.

"Cary was an extremely hard worker," Lee said. I don't think there's anyone who would ever say he gave less than 110 percent. Cary was the hardest worker on the [board]. I don't think there's any ifs, ands, or buts about that."

Lamari, meanwhile, feels that the credibility of the board will be compromised if its members are restricted in their public expression.

"We are to communicate the community's concerns," Lamari said of the board's duties. "And if we felt the county was wrong then we were to say so. ... Their role is a noble one. ... My problem is when someone tries to hamper or stifle that voice."

Lee maintains that the board will continue to do a good job advising Duncan and his administration and that the county executive can handle any heat from his appointees.

"If anything, I think Duncan's office has always had the viewpoint that they're not going to come down on any board member," Lee said. "Basically, the county executive's shoulders are big enough that he can take the criticism."