Position review committee recommends two top hires; departments request dozen more positions including stormwater engineer and fire staffing

The Carroll County Position Review Committee briefed commissioners on Monday and recommended two positions as the highest priorities for FY26 funding: converting a temporary stormwater program engineer to a permanent role in Planning and Land Management and adding a fourth maintenance specialist to the Recreation & Parks community parks crew.

Deputy County Administrator Deb Effingham told commissioners the committee considered 28 requests and that each role brought to the meeting was ranked as a high priority by at least four of six committee members; the two recommended positions earned the strongest consensus.

Why it matters: these staffing additions would change daily service capacity in development review and park maintenance and carry multi‑year budget implications. The meeting also gathered presentations from departments asking the commissioners to consider a wider slate of positions during FY26 budget deliberations.

Stormwater program engineer request Chris Hine, Bureau Chief in the county’s Bureau of Resource Management, asked commissioners to make a temporary stormwater program engineer position permanent. He described a long run of regulatory changes that increased review complexity — notably the 2010 stormwater code revisions and subsequent permit (NPDES) and county responsibilities — and said that a previous restructuring had reduced stormwater review capacity. Hine recounted using contracting and a temporary county hire to control an evaluation backlog and said the temporary position’s funding expires this June. He recommended permanent status so the bureau keeps two program engineers and a review technician on staff.

Hine gave two operational reasons for the permanent post: maintaining a…