Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
The Carroll County Board of Commissioners held its weekly open session on Thursday, October 8, 2026, at 9:00 AM in Room 311 of the County Office Building. The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silent reflection, followed by Priority Carroll reports from commissioners, a recognition ceremony, and a reordered agenda that placed a discussion on expanding the supermajority requirement for tax increases early in the session. Commissioners unanimously approved several routine grants and purchases, and after extensive debate, voted to direct staff to begin a process to permanently ban data processing centers from all zoning districts while extending the current temporary deferral.
October 8th, 2026 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. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic for which it stands. And we will have Commissioner Krebs lead us off with priority Carroll this morning. Commissioner. Thank you. Um Tuesday. Um three of us attended the annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce. Um they have their election of officers on that day. And it was a wonderful event every year we have uh many years. They've had um Dr. Anbambasou, who is the chairman of and CEO of Sage Policy Group, and he gives us a very humorous and entertaining and um delightful economic impact of the county, the state, and the country and and uh what's what's going on and um not often that you have people of interest for economics that are actually fun to listen to. And I think everyone always enjoys the presentation. One of the best things that was there, they had a very large group of students there from the Finance Academy at Carroll County Public Schools, and they had a big group from Gerstell and seeing our young people um learning about the economy and finance and caring about it and asking good questions was very enlightening. But um some very good points that that he was making and part of it was about the economy is actually doing very well, surprisingly, but there's there's a big gap between people that already have things that are getting wealthier and people that are trying to get started. So that was of interest. I think we read about that a lot. Um I don't know that's it's any different than it's been in in the past, but it seems to be you know, entry level is more difficult getting getting moving. But uh um if anybody he does a newsletter, I get it's very inter very interesting, the Sage Policy Group. But um that's what we did on Tuesday, and I think it gave us an idea that we're in good shape here in Carroll County. Um thank you very much, Commissioner. Uh Commissioner Garrett, I know you said you were good. Commissioner Gordon, anything? Uh I've got a couple of things real quick. Um Chris, if you could just bring the photo start bringing the photos up there. So as Commissioner Krebs had mentioned, we uh Commissioner Kyler, Commissioner Krebs, and I all attended the uh chamber breakfast uh annual meeting, which again wonderful event. Uh number of elected in the room, including uh Kevin Dayhoff, uh, Dan Huff, who's not in the photo, and Tom Baird there, all from City of Westminster, uh Denise Bieber and a number of county staff members were rec uh uh uh representing uh economic development in the county. Um but you know, to me the thing is a strong economy doesn't happen by accident. Uh it takes employees employers willing to invest, people willing to work and local leaders willing to listen and create an environment where business can grow. Um it's always a great event. Uh it was wonderful seeing the students we had there. I mean, there was definitely one or two good questions from the students, but uh to sort of follow up to Commissioner Krebs's comments. It does show what we do very well in our community, but as all things we have to adapt and continue to move forward and you know, whether it's trying economic times, global issues or otherwise, we do a very good job in Carroll County of collaborating and uh it was a good morning. And uh it was a good morning.