The Montgomery County Commissioners convened on August 20, 2026, for a meeting that included recognitions of retiring employees, a donation to a deputy whose home burned, a brief Salary Board adjournment, and a substantive Election Board meeting. The Election Board approved meeting minutes, polling location relocations, and adopted an updated ballot curing policy.
Um your supervisor wasn't able to make it today but wanted to share a note about about you. So I can take no credit for writing this. Josh P. Grant began his career with the department on March 27, 2000 as a probation officer assigned to supervision caseload in the Willoughgrove Courthouse Annex. Since then he has risen through the office to become assistant supervisor and then supervisor. Josh consistently demonstrated a commitment to staff development and officer safety through his service as a defensive tactics instructor, helping to train countless employees throughout his career. Josh exemplified dedication and a steadfast commitment to public service. His contributions have made a lasting impact on the department, his colleagues, the community, and the county as a whole. We extend our sincere gratitude to Josh for his many years of distinguished service and congratulate him on a well-earned retirement. So thank you for your service to the county. It's it's very rare that you see someone that gives decades worth of service to an organization, but to public service. So I hope you have plans to do something uh way more exciting than adult and you know, I'm not trying to put it down, but I can imagine how stressful adult probation is. But congratulations on on your retirement. Thank you for for years of service to the county. Anyway, I was just gonna I mean you did a very good job, you know. I can yeah, I tried to do that. But I want to echo everything that Commissioner Wagner said. Thank you for for 26 years of service here at Montgomery County. Um I I've kinda I've said this in the past, it's always sad to see you know somebody that's dedicated, you know, a large portion of their career here at Montgomery County. But we're also happy for you to be leaving and enjoying going into retirement. So well deserved, and I know many many will miss you. But again, we want to congratulate you for everything that you've done here in Montgomery County, all the lives that you've impacted uh in a positive manner. And uh so again, thank you and enjoy enjoy your time now. Uh just think that my first Monday morning when the alarm clock goes off early in the morning, you look at it and say, I don't have to go anywhere. So congratulations. Come on up, we're gonna grab a grab a picture with you. Congratulations. There you go. That's pretty cool. Okay, look right here. One, two, three. Great, thank you. Good morning, Commissioners. Uh my name's Gordon Gown, I'm the deputy CIO for ITS here. Um we in ITS have two employees retiring next month. Um first is uh Tom Pepe. Um has been here 49 years. He started in 1977 as a punch card operator in our mainframe room over in the courthouse. Uh since then, Tom uh went on to become our web developer. Um was here when our first web page went live in the early 80s, and has been through more website designs than I could even think about. And he was instrumental in the new website um going up and live. So he's gonna be very missed. Um I was hoping he'd make 50 years because I figured that like a big proclamation, but I think 49 is pretty good. Uh the second person's name is Roy Bickhart. Um Roy has been in IT since 2002. Um he's played many roles throughout our department from infrastructure to help desk. Uh he was our IT liaison up at DPS for a number of years. And when he told us we were retired, he was retiring. I had I was like, wow, okay, congratulations. And I found out he was 70 years old, and I was like, why have you waited so long?