Howard County’s ousted Board of Appeals chair sues council, office of law

Howard County’s former appeals board chair sued the County Council and the county office of law, claiming officials violated open meeting laws and denied him due process last month when they convened a closed-door meeting to oust him.

Gene Ryan’s complaint, filed Tuesday, asks Howard County Circuit Court to void his removal — and to block the office of law and all sitting council members from participating in any new proceedings to remove him.

Council chair Opel Jones has said the meeting Sept. 16 was convened so quickly that he and another board member did not have enough time to see the messages inviting them to attend. He said he does not believe Ryan received due process in accordance with the county charter.

“It’s sloppy to say the least,” Jones said in an interview Thursday.

The other four council members and representatives for the law office did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.

The suit marks the latest escalation in a more than yearlong conflict between some members of both the appeals board and County Council. Its origins trace back to a series of appeals board decisions in 2025 that did not sit well with some community members.

In one high-profile case, the board sided with a Highland man who bypassed state and county permit requirements to build a go-kart track for his son. In another, the board upheld a county staff decision that found the chemical company W.R. Grace & Co. did not violate zoning rules with its plans to add a pilot plastics recycling plant adjacent to residential neighborhoods.

Council members Deb Jung and Liz Walsh criticized the board’s decisions and complained that some members had grown combative with the county’s office of law.

Ryan’s complaint also describes a disagreement over the proper role of the county attorneys in advising and representing the appeals board.

Tensions with Jung and Walsh led Ryan and two other board members, Vice Chair Lynn Foehrkolb and Felita Phillips, to resign in protest in the fall of 2025, saying that council members’ conduct had interfered with the board’s independence and its handling of appeals. They later rescinded their resignations and remained on the board.

Attempts to smooth over the simmering conflict have largely failed. Last summer, the appeals board sought to overhaul its rules and regulations, but the effort stalled before council. In February, council members passed a bill barring themselves from hindering, obstructing or disrupting the deliberations and decisions of county boards and commissions.

A month later, Ryan said he learned that a county law office staffer had lodged a complaint of sexism and racism against him. The county’s human resources office hired a third party to investigate the allegations, which Ryan has denied.

The accusations were deemed unfounded, Councilwoman Christiana Rigby said last month, but added that “other elements of conduct” led her to change her position on Ryan’s removal.

According to the lawsuit, the council met twice in June to discuss the personnel issues and directed council member David Yungmann, who first appointed Ryan to the appeals board in 2019, to notify him that elected leaders would remove him if he did not resign.

The suit states that Ryan met Rigby in her office on Aug. 31, and she told him the appeals board needs a “fresh start” and he should have resigned.

On Sept. 16, Rigby, Walsh and Jung convened a special closed-door meeting and voted to remove Ryan, effective immediately. Jones and council member David Yungmann, who was attending a funeral, criticized the speed with which the meeting was convened.

According to the suit, a meeting agenda was posted one minute before it was set to begin at 10 a.m. Rigby, Jung and Walsh convened the meeting at 10:13 a.m. and went into closed session at 10:21 a.m. They voted to remove Ryan and ended the meeting by 11:01 a.m., the suit states.

Amid all of the infighting, some citizens have faced delays in getting their land use and zoning disputes resolved by the influential appeals board.

The parties embroiled in the lawsuit also are grappling with how to move forward.

All five local legislators, county solicitors, Ryan and his attorney, Lydia Lawless, met publicly Wednesday. They debated what sort of hearing they were holding, whether to allow public comment or move the meeting behind closed doors, and pushed one another to answer whether Ryan was still seated on the board of appeals.

“I don’t even know what we’re doing right now,” Jones said. “It’s an embarrassment.”

“I think we’re trying to litigate amongst ourselves something that’s going to have to get litigated by somebody else,” Yungmann said.

A few minutes later, council went into closed session and took one more vote to remove Ryan from the board. The motion passed 3-1.