Members of the Howard County Council and the county’s Board of Appeals met this week to air their differences after three members announced plans to resign over what they viewed as political interference.

Board of Appeals Chair Gene Ryan, Vice Chair Lynn Foehrkolb and board member Felita Phillips had said they wanted their resignations to become effective Dec. 31 so they could wrap pending cases. But at Monday’s joint meeting, board members showed signs of changing their minds while some council members appeared to do damage control.

Foehrkolb pledged she would remain on the board until she signed rulings on unresolved cases, even if that meant staying on into 2026. Ryan and Phillips repeated that they couldn’t continue with the current dynamic, but stopped short of saying they couldn’t be persuaded to continue.

“I want to stay,” Ryan said. “I just want them to leave us alone.”

The board members have accused Council members Deb Jung and Liz Walsh of political interference and coercion. The two councilwomen have dismissed the claims and said they have a right to speak out about high-profile cases involving their constituents.

The feuding officials sat face to face Monday for a frank discussion of the conflict. The stakes are high for the council members, each of whom is responsible for appointing one person to the appeals board. Three vacancies would leave the five-member board without a quorum and unable to meet, effectively halting the county’s process for property owners to appeal land use and zoning issues.

Jung attended the meeting, but Walsh did not due to a prior commitment. Walsh said she told council members of the scheduling conflict and they moved forward without her.

Council Vice Chair Opel Jones, who moderated the meeting, said discussing the conflict out in the open was a good thing.

Members of the council and board took turns recounting the events that led to the wave of resignations.

Over the summer, Foehrkolb told Jung that she was thinking of resigning by the end of the year. Finding a replacement would fall to Jung, so the councilwoman started looking for a potential nominee.

At the same time, several contentious appeals cases were underway, including W.R. Grace & Co.’s controversial plans for a pilot plastics recycling plant.

Jung and Walsh sided with residents in opposing the plant and criticized the appeals board.

Board members said the councilwomen’s actions and remarks “lit a match” among angry residents. Ryan said he was disturbed when an opponent of the plant showed up in his driveway and approached his 14-year-old daughter.

“It’s a shame when we have to wonder if we’re safe being on this board,” Phillips said.

Board members also said they were frustrated that their efforts to update their rules and procedures stalled before the council. Discussions that were supposed to concern the rules updates veered to pending cases, board members said.

Ryan asked those in the room if they remembered “Choose Civility,” a county library campaign that took off in the aughts and lives on as magnetic bumper stickers still easy to spot in the region.

On Oct. 22, Jung’s chief of staff China Williams contacted Foehrkolb to say they had identified Andrea LeWinter, a land use attorney, as a replacement and asked Foehrkolb for her resignation.

Foehrkolb said she was surprised to learn that her replacement had already been vetted — and felt a little suspicious. She typed out an email replying that her resignation would be effective Dec. 31, in hopes that she could tie up some open cases. Foehrkolb also wrote in her resignation letter that she was concerned council members had blocked the board from updating its rules and procedures over the summer and for “inciting the public against the lawful decisions of the board.”

Jung said she isn’t trying to push Foehrkolb out, but that the public has a right to say what they want about cases. She said she’s grateful to the Board of Appeals.

“It is not an easy thing to do,” Jung said. “It’s not easy being a council member either.”

The meeting didn’t answer every question facing council and appeals board members. It’s still unclear whether board members could change their minds about the resignations before Dec. 31 — or if they’d want to.

Ryan and Phillips said they won’t continue without some assurances from the County Council.

Jones, the council vice chair, said he’s working on legislation to “protect board members and commissioners against interference from council members.” The language will be based on a section of the county code that addresses county council interference with the executive branch, he said.

If council members haven’t interfered with the appeals board, as they say, they should have no problem with the bill, Jones said.

In the meantime, the council has homework to do, Jones said. “We gotta fix it.”