Citizen action defeated county bosses

"Civic groups, PTAs and community activists at times steered the process and at times were shut out," the Almanac reports in a summary of the Kendale ordeal.

"They rallied around opposition to the Kendale proposal and a February inspector general’s report that found that MCPS had not fairly represented the costs of the plan. Most visible was the Save Seven Locks Coalition, which used Freedom of Information Act requests and budget analyses build its case, lobbying county leaders, keeping a Web site, and printing now-omnipresent 'Save Seven Locks' T-shirts."

The big stars on the County Council were Howard Denis and George Leventhal, who acted decisively when the Inspector General reported MCPS wrongdoing earlier this year.