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More than a year after four former Montgomery County Planning Board members <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/07/montgomery-planning-chair-gwen-wright-fired/" target="_blank">voted to dismiss </a>county planning director Gwen Wright, an entirely new board settled a lawsuit she brought over her termination and expressed regret over how she lost her job months before her planned retirement amid a scandal that rocked the body last year.

The agreement between the new board and Wright included a $100,000 settlement and an award renamed in her honor, the planning agency said in a statement. The county’s top award for design excellence will now be known as the Gwen Marcus Wright Award for Design Excellence.

“I’m happy to have this behind me,” Wright said Thursday afternoon. “It was a very fair settlement, all in all.”

Montgomery planning board probe: ‘No evidence’ of hostile work environment

The planning agency’s new leadership pointed to Wright’s lengthy list of accomplishments in a statement acknowledging the settlement.

“Although this Planning Board did not get to work with Ms. Wright directly due to her retirement prior to their arrival, her reputation and long-lasting impact on Montgomery County and Montgomery Planning are well known,” Montgomery County Planning Board Chair Artie Harris <a href="https://montgomeryplanning.org/montgomery-planning-board-chair-issues-statement-regarding-agreement-with-former-planning-director-gwen-wright/?fbclid=IwAR3PD4ZnRrGqVwGWbmRMPKLCXQBpW9cmvatZEyaEJQa7c0gh_vXOwB1dGXE" target="_blank">said in a statement</a> on Thursday.

Wright, who worked for the Montgomery County Planning Department for 30 years, had led the effort to build Montgomery County’s historic preservation program, improved forest conservation, launched the county’s first design excellence program, and completed a record number of master plans in Bethesda, Silver Spring, Grosvenor, Rock Spring, Montgomery Village, Westbard, Lyttonsville, White Flint II, and Chevy Chase Lake.

“She is recognized as one of the top planning directors in the country and her positive impact on the community will be felt for generations,” Harris said in his statement.

In October 2022, the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission — a bicounty agency that oversees the parks and planning departments in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties — announced that Wright had been removed from her role as planning director by a vote of the board months before her planned retirement. The agency says Wright is now categorized as “retired,” but Wright maintains that she was fired by the former board.

Rift over planning reform process frustrates Montgomery County leaders

The saga that provoked Wright’s termination began in September 2022, when the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission’s inspector general launched a probe to investigate allegations that then-Montgomery County Planning Board Chair Casey Anderson kept alcohol in his office and shared after-hours drinks with co-workers. Anderson <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/09/17/montgomery-official-kept-alcohol-in-government-office/" target=_blank>apologized</a> for having the liquor in a government building, and the county council docked his pay for four weeks, while two other members of the Planning Board were docked one day’s salary.

But the planning board’s troubles continued. Other board members were <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/11/montgomery-board-verma-anderson-wright/" target="_blank">accused of ethics violations</a>. Allegations that Anderson created a hostile work environment surfaced, leading to an independent investigation that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/04/18/montgomery-planning-allegations-unfounded/" target="_blank">ultimately found no evidence</a> to support those claims.

Amid that turmoil, Wright spoke to local TV station WJLA to defend Anderson against the unfounded allegations of inappropriate language and behavior in the workplace. One day later, on Oct. 7, the planning board <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/07/montgomery-planning-chair-gwen-wright-fired/" target="_blank">voted to remove Wright</a> from her longtime position as planning director without giving a reason for the termination; Anderson recused himself from that vote. Wright <a href="https://montgomeryplanning.org/gwen-wright-removed-as-planning-director-and-deputy-director-tanya-stern-made-acting-planning-director/" target="_blank">would have retired</a> at the end of 2022.

Days after<b> </b>terminating Wright, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/12/montgomery-planning-board-resign-thrive/" target="_blank">entire five-member Planning Board resigned</a> their positions at the urging of the county council.

Earlier this year, Wright filed a legal complaint against the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission and the Montgomery County Planning Board, seeking public records related to her termination. A spokeswoman for the commission said the agency also received a notice of claim alleging wrongful termination, and Wright’s attorney, Timothy Maloney, said the complaint also alleged retaliation for exercising her First Amendment rights. The public records dispute will be withdrawn later this week, Maloney said, and the other claims were resolved out of court by the settlement announced Thursday.

Since Wright’s termination and the implosion of the planning board that swiftly followed, the county has been working to restore public confidence in the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. The Montgomery County Planning Board — which has authority over project plans, sketch plans, preliminary plans, site plans, record plans and forest conservation plans — has undergone a complete overhaul, with the county council appointing five new members this year.

“I think that the current Board has worked very hard to resolve this,” Wright said. “They definitely pushed to get this wrapped up.”

University of California at Los Angeles, BA in English

Columbia University, MS in Journalism

Katie Shepherd covers Maryland state politics and government for The Washington Post's Metro Desk. She previously covered Montgomery County, Md., and wrote about Health & Science for the Post's National Desk. Before joining The Post, she was a staff writer at Willamette Week in Portland, Ore.

Katie Shepherd

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Montgomery County Planning Board settles with ousted planning director 

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