In response to the articles about Charles County Planning Commission members Lou Grasso, Joe Richard, Bob Mitchell and Joan Jones short-circuiting the Charles County comprehensive plan update process and killing the county’s Priority Preservation Area [“Panel speeds up ’12 comp. plan update,” “Commission kills preservation area,” Maryland Independent, Jan. 25], how did we get a planning commission that seems to have virtually unlimited and arbitrary power?

I may just be getting old, but I don’t remember voting for the planning commission. I do remember voting for new county commissioners, who have brought welcome change and openness to county government.

So why do we still have a planning commission representative of county commissioners who were voted out of office?

It is absolutely unacceptable that a commission with apparently unrestricted power be arbitrarily appointed and not elected by all the voters of Charles County.

Heidi Granholm, Bel Alton