Carroll County Board of Commissioners Open Session – April 23, 2026
Carroll County Board of Commissioners Open Session – April 23, 2026
On Thursday, April 23, 2026, the Carroll County Board of Commissioners held its morning open session in Westminster. All five commissioners participated. The board began with the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of reflection, then honored youth and community programs, approved Fire and EMS cancer-screening and Stop the Bleed items, advanced two planning text amendments, heard one remote public comment, and discussed public comment rules and a future communications policy.
Presentations and Proclamations
- The board proclaimed April 23, 2026, as Bring Your Child to Work Day. Human Resources staff brought 12 children of county employees from departments including Citizen Services, Roads, Planning and Land Management, and Human Resources to introduce them to county government.
- The Carroll County Career and Tech Center Carpentry Program presented its Tiny Home Project. Instructor John Mercinger said students, including earlier cohorts who raised capital through student-run enterprises, are building the first tiny home and may sell it to fund future projects.
- A Maryland Building Officials Association representative voiced strong support for the trades, noted that his son is a master electrician who went through Carroll County Career and Tech, and announced an additional donation to the project. The group gave commissioners commemorative plan sets, and Jason Green was recognized for his help with county permitting.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Catherine Adelaide, a member of the Carroll County Republican Central Committee, offered condolences to Commissioner Kiler's family after the loss of his grandchildren's friend, promoted upcoming Republican and Maryland Right to Life events, and reported on legislative priorities. She expressed appreciation that assisted suicide legislation was defeated before introduction and that two infanticide bills died in the General Assembly. No other remote or in-person public comments were heard.
Discussion Items
- Budget Transfer – Cancer Screening Tests and Diagnostics: Chief Michael Robinson said the Department of Fire and EMS needs to purchase cancer screening kits and diagnostic services for all 228 uniformed employees after a Maryland Department of Health grant award was reduced from the initial request. Staff recommended transferring $24,001 from Grants Unallocated to the Innovative Cancer Screening Grant. The commissioners noted a discrepancy between the motion and resolution language ($24,001) and the resolution text ($24,401), then approved Resolution O-26.04.
- Approval to Purchase – Cancer Screening Tests: DFEMS requested approval to buy OneTest multi-cancer screening test kits from 20/20 GeneSystems for $62,700. Robinson said 20/20 GeneSystems is a single-source provider and that the purchase will be 97% reimbursed through the FY26 Maryland Professional and Volunteer Firefighter Innovative Cancer Screening Technologies Grant. He noted that firefighters' overall cancer rate is about two to three times that of ordinary citizens, that the Delegate Jim Malone Act now requires annual testing for career firefighters, and that a companion volunteer testing law was recently signed. All 228 DFEMS uniformed personnel will be tested by the end of June. The purchase was approved.
- Grant – Stop the Bleed Program: Robinson requested approval to submit an FY26 grant application and accept a $2,500 award with no county match. Funds will be used to purchase bleeding-control kits, expand community training in schools, businesses, and civic organizations, and reinforce training for career and volunteer personnel. The board approved the grant application and award.
- Accessory Dwelling Units (HB 1466) – Request for Referral to Planning Commission: Staff presented state legislation requiring jurisdictions to adopt local accessory dwelling unit laws by October 1, 2026. Comprehensive Planner Tiffany Fossett summarized requirements: allow ADUs on lots with single-family detached dwellings, limit ADU size to no more than 75% of the primary dwelling, exempt ADUs from density calculations and growth controls, and restrict certain parking and setback requirements. Commissioners raised concerns about HOA restrictions, setbacks, septic capacity, sprinkler requirements, adequate public facilities/concurrency, owner-occupancy, and the potential for ADUs to become commercial rental units. The board directed staff to work with the Planning and Zoning Commission to draft a text amendment.
- Planned Commercial Centers Text Amendments – Request for Public Hearing: Staff reviewed proposed amendments to Chapters 155 and 158 to remove residential uses as an accessory use in Planned Commercial Centers, while allowing existing dwellings approved before December 18, 2025, to continue as permitted rather than nonconforming uses. Deputy Director Daphne Daly said only two such residential Planned Commercial Centers exist, both in the Freedom area. Commissioners criticized the design, safety, parking, and affordability of those projects and said better mixed-use design guidance is needed. The board directed staff to schedule a public hearing, specifying removal of Section 155.092D and modification of accessory-use language in Chapter 158.
Administrative Session and Policy Discussion
- Commissioner Gordon raised a constituent's reported dog-incident case and asked staff to examine dog-control and neighbor-notification processes.
- Commissioners discussed whether to restrict politically oriented public comments, whether evening meetings would improve participation, and how to make public communication more welcoming and transparent. Several commissioners emphasized that they value public comment and do not want to eliminate it.
- The board approved a motion to have staff, with two commissioners, develop a written communications policy after the budget season and present it to the full board.
Key Outcomes
- Approved Resolution O-26.04 for the $24,001 transfer to the Innovative Cancer Screening Grant, with a noted $24,401 figure in the resolution text.
- Approved the $62,700 purchase of cancer screening test kits from 20/20 GeneSystems.
- Approved submission and acceptance of the $2,500 Stop the Bleed grant.
- Directed staff to draft an ADU text amendment with the Planning and Zoning Commission.
- Directed staff to schedule a public hearing on removing residential accessory uses in Planned Commercial Centers, with a December 18, 2025, legacy provision for the two existing projects.
- Directed creation of a communications/public-comment policy by staff and two commissioners.
- Approved closed-session minutes from April 16, 2026, for a legal/potential litigation matter.
- Reviewed upcoming calendars, including a Farm Bureau meeting that may be rescheduled and a May 5 chamber breakfast that was canceled.
All votes were approved by voice vote without recorded opposition.
Meeting Transcript
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Thursday, April twenty-third, two thousand twenty-six open session for the Board of Carroll County Commissioners. As we always do, we'll begin with a Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silent reflection. So we're going to move through the first segment of our agenda as rapidly as possible. Commissioner Krebs, you are up first today. But I was at opening day last week for Sykesville baseball, and I did not realize at the time, but there was a longtime resident of Fairhaven, which is a continuous care retirement community for people that are older and they live there. But there's a resident that's been there, his name is Alan Borgman, and he's 85 years old. And he kicked off his 20th season, and you're going to see a little video, as a youth baseball umpire on opening day for Little League. And he's been umpiring for 20 years. He's 85 years old. And he also sang the Star Spangled Banner after the Pledge of Allegiance. It was really cool. He stood behind the plate, and he he coaches and teaches kids how to be umpires as he goes every weekend and has been doing it for many years. So I wanted to show you this little video to show you how important uh people's service can be and their mentorship to our youth. We watch the screen, it should come up. Sound. We have picture but no sound. You can read it. All the others in school, you should better read that. Audio is not coming through the system. That's okay. All right, you can read it. 85-year-old umpire celebrates 20th season. There he is, after he sang the Star Spangled Banner. And it's right adjacent to this. These fields are loaned to us or rented to us from Fairhaven, which thank goodness we have those. There he is, Mr. Brogwin. There he is. That's it. So just want to show you how um valuable people's time is for our with our youth and what what an inspirational what an inspiration this gentleman is, and I thank him and the parents of the kids down there just love him, Mr. Allen. Next, we also had an Eagle Scout project. This is just a picture of it. Eagles are Boy Scouts that have have to do a certain service project before they get the highest honor of being an Eagle. And this young man's um Eagle Scout project was how to properly dispose of a battered or faded or torn U.S. flag. Um you're not supposed to throw flags away, you're supposed to respect the the flag. And there he scan on this QR code, it tells you how you take care of your flag and what do you do when it's old instead of throwing it in the trash. There's supposed to be a way to dispose of it. So he put together a flag retirement box. It's sitting in the town of Sykesville, um, right by there. Where is that? The townhouse, and there's an actual box that he made that you can put them in, and then every so often the different Boy Scout troops actually have a ceremony to retire all of the flags, and they burn them. They burn them respectfully so that they're not just thrown in the trash. So if you are interested in that, it shows you even how to care for the flag and how it's supposed to be flown. The American flag always flies above then the state flag and then the Carroll County flag. There's a certain order of of how you're supposed to display and take care of your flag. You're never supposed to let it you know drag on the ground. You that's why you hold it up.
openpublica.com