Clarksburg advisor hopes people don't suspect cover-up

"I don't think anything will be hidden," Amy Presley, a less-than-convinced-sounding leader of the Clarksburg Town Center Advisory Committee tells the Washington Post about the planned secret meetings.

Presley's group discovered hundreds of violations and led to the scandal that has rocked the Montgomery County government and given County Executive Doug Duncan unwanted headaches as he launched his campaign to become governor of Maryland.

"I would be disturbed if people were viewing this as some closed-door settlement," she says. "We will do as we always have done and give the community updates."

Separately, she says that she hopes the closed-door process will "hasten the results versus going through the other hearings."

[Editor's note: The citizen committee should be warned that the county does not keep its word with citizen organizations when there is a dispute over county-driven development. As the Seven Locks/Kendale school issue shows, county officials will lead the citizens' committees on with discussions and opportunities to make their voices heard, but will in practice ignore the committees and stigmatize their members.

[Montgomery County citizens adversely affected by the Clarksburg scandal should keep everything in the public eye, keep raising issues about corruption, and help with any criminal investigations that may be underway.]