Rich Parsons, a top consultant for Johns Hopkins University and its Science City plans, is a man with a resume full of accomplishments, a Rolodex full of contacts and no stranger to controversy.
As the former president of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce, Parsons has been the unapologetic champion of development in the county. But for many environmentalists, preservations and self-styled “smart” growth advocates, he’s considered an enemy.
“His willingness to say absolutely anything means it’s hard for us to defend against him,” said Pamela Lindstrom, a longtime leader of the local Sierra Club.
Donna Baron, who has put together a neighborhood coalition against Science City, was asked her view of Parsons.
“Can you just put ‘groan’ in your story?” she asked.
This is not Parsons’ first fight. He has spent his career in conflict — lobbying for gun control in state legislatures across the southern U.S. in the late 1980s, rebuilding the Maryland Democratic Party, fighting for expansion projects with the Washington Board of Trade, and trying to resurrect the struggling Montgomery County Chamber at the turn of the century — but he still seems surprised by the vitriol.
“These projects make a difference,” he said, his once flashing blue eyes suddenly downcast.
When Parsons took over the Chamber about a decade ago, the organization was on the verge of collapse. Members were dropping off, funds were drying up, the county was auditing the group for misallocating funds from a disastrous merger with a publicly funded jobs training program.
“I walked into that job with about two weeks’ of operating cash in the bag,” he said.
His work was miraculous, said former Maryland Del. Gene Counihan, who hired Parsons at the chamber.
“He was the full-time guy that applied the vision and the hard work to bring the membership back and to provide the strategic vision,” Counihan said.
If Parsons had limited himself to cleaning the books at the Chamber, he might have avoided further controversy. But Counihan and the board wanted him to lead. And members were tired of hearing promises on big-ticket development projects like the Purple Line, the Corridor Cities Transitway and the Intercounty Connector.
Parsons pushed them all — especially the ICC.
“That’s where I got my friends,” he said.
