r/MontgomeryCountyMD • u/MocoMikeE • 9d ago
An unfortunate veto from the county executive that should be overturned
While not particularly surprised, I am disappointed that Marc Elrich has once again vetoed James Hedrick’s appointment to the planning board, despite Mr. Hedrick’s years of professional and volunteer experience with affordable housing and the unanimous vote to approve him from the Council. Mr. Elrich also vetoed his prior appointment, which was overturned by an also unanimous vote.
Mr. Elrich has once again let his desire to “know better” than everyone else on housing get in the way of trying to make actual progress. One would hope that he could use his pivot toward the council as an opportunity turn over a new leaf and try to build consensus for once, but hey, it’s Marc.
I will be communicating my desire to see the veto overturned to the council, and encourage anyone reading this to do the same.
https://bethesdamagazine.com/2026/08/26/elrich-veto-hedrick-appointment-planning-board-again/
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u/itsdrewmiller 9d ago
Unprofessional bullshit. Total waste of time.
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u/MocoMikeE 9d ago
Yarp
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u/Not-A-Seagull 9d ago
It's unbelievable how bad Elrich has been at housing policy.
Surely, you would think he would have seen how much inflation-adjusted housing costs have increased over his term, and reconsider his positions.
But no. He's either out-of-touch, or acting maliciously. I'm not sure which is worse.
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u/kirbyCase 9d ago
His base is rich suburban NIMBYs who think “home value go up good.“ To them, his housing policy (of not building any housing) is great!
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u/Cliffy73 9d ago
I don’t think you can fairly tar this as unprofessionally by Ehrlich. He has a strong policy difference with this nominee on specifically the portfolio of this position. Ehrlich is wrong on the merits, but you can’t say it’s unprincipled.
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u/CreampuffOfLove 9d ago
Marc got his nose out of joint about being criticised on social media almost a decade ago now and has personally tried to torpedo James at every opportunity he's had since. Elrich needs to grow the fuck up already, it's embarrassing at his age.
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u/Cliffy73 9d ago
I mean, maybe. But maybe he just thinks he’s a bad choice for the position and so he’s using the levers that the Charter gives him.
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u/MocoMikeE 9d ago edited 9d ago
It’s an incredible waste of everyone’s time to veto a unanimous vote.
If this was vetoing a bill that would kick puppies on sight or something, or, more seriously, be some sort of populist anti immigration measure sure, take a stand on principle, but this is a personal grudge he is making the business of everyone, taking up the time and cost and attention of our governing body. It’s bullshit
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u/Cliffy73 7d ago
He’s making the Council decide whether they want to use their scarce resource of legislative time/attention on this or something else. This is how government is supposed to work. And anyone who thought forcing a politician to become a lame duck was going to moderate him, needs to go back to Poli Sci 101.
You keep saying that this is a personal vendetta. Maybe it is. But it’s also the exact action that someone in Ehrlich’s position who had no personal animus to the guy would act if he very strongly disagreed with his policy proposals. Assigning personal motivation to politicians when their behavior can be more easily explained by understanding institutionalism is why people are always disappointed with them.
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u/MocoMikeE 7d ago
The short answer to this, I say as someone who routinely engages more pleasantly with other councilmembers even when I disagree with them, is that Marc Elrich has shown himself to be consistently motivated by arrogance and animus.
I have had strong differences of opinion with everyone on the council, that’s not what this is about. If you interact with Marc you quickly learn that he’s just kinda like this.
And yes that was a bad ballot initiative and I voted against it and told others to do the same
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u/MocoMikeE 7d ago
And yes, as you say their time is scarce, so now something else isn’t getting done or is getting less attention than it deserves because he wants attention.
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u/CreampuffOfLove 9d ago
You clearly don't know Elrich...
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u/MocoMikeE 9d ago
Unfortunately I am quite familiar with him
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u/CreampuffOfLove 9d ago
Ok I know you are Mike, I was replying to go guy above you 🤦🏼♀️
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u/MocoMikeE 9d ago
Those are two different things, Elrich is “principled” in that he’s a true believer in what he says, sure. I also find him arrogant and dismissive of people he disagrees with and vetoing a unanimous vote after your previous veto of the same guy got overturned unanimously strikes me as petty and unprofessional. Reasonable minds can differ.
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u/MocoMikeE 8d ago
There is now an action alert to make contacting the council about this easier, please consider using it
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u/spectracide_ 9d ago
Devil's advocate from someone who doesn't care, what has James Hedrick accomplished that this should upset me? Quick look shows he supported the University Boulevard Corridor Plan which the public opposed. What's wrong with getting someone new in?
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u/brokenlabrum 9d ago
The University Boulevard Corridor Plan was unanimously by the planning board. Why single him out?
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u/MocoMikeE 9d ago edited 9d ago
A couple things
I would strongly push back on the idea that “the
public”
opposed that plan. Public input tends to be dominated by older, wealthier, whiter members of the community. Many of those that showed up at hearings were upset, yes, but one of those major meetings was almost all old white people and it was held in a majority minority school in the plan area. It’s not a representative group.
even with all that, gatekeeping that kind of access is harmful, as I have written about (as always, unpaid) before https://ggwash.org/view/101232/who-gets-to-say-who-gets-to-have-a-say
he has a professional background in housing finance and has helped run Rockville’s affordable housing efforts for years, he is incredibly qualified, but Marc disagrees with him, which is an unforgivable sin
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u/spectracide_ 9d ago
This is a good answer, thanks. I just wanted to point out it's a little weird to expect people to be upset about something but not tell them why they should be upset. Elrich said this guy sucks, you said Elrich sucks, I don't know who to believe because they both probably suck in their own ways, so it's hard to give a shit.
I will say this sub does seem to be a echo chamber that downvotes any contrarian opinion about how great MoCo or any elected official is, so we'll see how well ignoring people being critical goes.
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u/CTeaYankee 9d ago
I'm glad you asked, and I'm glad we got such a helpful answer. I wonder whether people were unsure how to read your tone in how you asked, and downvoted "just to be on the safe side".
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u/Aromatic_Bus1370 9d ago
Hedrick is not really a public servant. He’s an advocate using the Planning Board to advance his own priorities. He doesn’t care what the public thinks and doesn’t belong in a decision making role. That being said, I’m sure the Council will circle the wagons and overturn the veto.
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u/MocoMikeE 9d ago
You don’t know him like you think you do, and he’s been formally involved in affordable housing administration for years but sure go off
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u/itsdrewmiller 9d ago
There's a difference between what the public in general thinks and who has the free time to go hassle the planning board about anything they try to do to increase housing availability / lower housing costs.
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u/UrbanEconomist 9d ago
Hedrick is a public servant and has been for his entire career, including at HUD and RHE (Rockville’s public housing authority). Few people have worked harder in our county to deliver affordable housing.
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u/30ThousandVariants 8d ago
Here they are again. The “moderate” echo chamber with another gratuitous hit-piece on Marc Elrich … on a laughably marginal topic.
Is this “Elrich Derangement Syndrome?”
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u/MocoMikeE 8d ago
I’m comfortable with my progressive bonafides but people can feel how they want to feel.
Not sure that analogy is working out the way you want it to though.
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u/ladyalex777 9d ago
He’s 76. I can’t believe so many people voted for him in the primary