The Board of Appeals was scheduled to hear Case BA829D (Donna Gorjon's appeal) and vote on meeting minutes. However, the meeting was halted after two board members raised concerns about the sudden removal of Chairperson Jean Ryan by the County Council the previous evening (September 16, 2026). Citing potential illegality and compromised process, they refused to participate, resulting in a lack of quorum. The hearing was suspended indefinitely.
Is that good now? Are we good? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Good morning. I'm still reverberating. Oh, make sure the sound is off on the body. Okay. No, it's fine. No problem. I'm still getting reverb from someone. It's not me. I hear it. Completely all. Okay. So good morning. Today is September seventeenth, twenty twenty-six, and this is a scheduled session of the Howard County Board of Appeals. Last night I returned from a trip abroad, and this morning I was advised by an email from the administrator of the county council that our chairperson Jean Ryan was no longer a member of this board. I've come to learn that this removal was made by the County Council. In good conscience and with respect to the citizens here today, I cannot participate in any hearing until I am fully apprised of this removal, which may be illegal. Once again, I feel we are in jeopardy of intimidation and interference by the council on how we make our decisions. That is not fair to me as a member of this board, nor is it a m is it fair to any of the citizens who have shown up today and done their homework to present. I'm done, so you can have all the word you want. As she's correct, last night we learned that the county council had some emergency meeting to remove effectively Chairperson Jean Ryan. We are supposed to make our decisions independently. Not the political wishes of our county council. But what after happened to Chairman Ryan, the message to every member of this board is clear. This is me doing the job, my job as a board member. I'm not comfortable to participate because I have serious concerns about the fairness and legal integrity of this proceeding and whether any decision we make today can withstand review by a court. I will not allow myself to become a party or proxy for the county council, and I will not ask these parties to go through a hearing when I have serious concerns that this process itself has been corrupted and compromised. For this reason, I will not participate in this hearing. Unfortunately, that gives us uh not a quorum to even hold a meeting. And I apologize to everyone in the room that we're not able to move forward. These statements are obviously a surprise to me, and I'm assuming to Miss McCurdy. So we're stuck here. But as on that, I guess uh we will suspend this hearing uh until further notice. Thank you for coming, and I apologize again.