County communications staff outline ‘Carroll Connect’ subscription service, commissioners seek wider use for public hearings and boards

Carroll County communications staff reviewed the county’s Carroll Connect email subscription system during the Sept. 25 meeting and commissioners urged improvements to make the service a reliable public‑notice tool for planning items, boards and commissions and public hearings.

“Carroll Connect is a gov‑delivery product...people can sign up for that from our website,” communications manager Chris Swam said, describing an email subscription platform that allows residents to subscribe to topic‑specific updates. Staff reported the system currently includes tens of thousands of subscriptions across multiple topics and that departments use it for a variety of notices — from meeting agendas to weather‑related service alerts.

Commissioners said the platform is under‑used for some subjects and not all topical lists are fully active. Commissioner Krebs and others said many residents assume they have subscribed to planning or public‑hearing notices but may not receive them when feeds are not fully configured; they asked staff to make the subscription lists more discoverable, to mark topics that are “coming soon” and to ensure legacy subscribers receive current content.

“Sometimes the presentations, not always, they're not attached and I've found lately there's another place you can go in, but as the user on that first page, I would never have known that,” Commissioner Krebs said. He suggested a focused public push and a short survey for current subscribers to identify what topics they want pushed to their inboxes.

Communications staff said the system handles bounces and unsubscribes automatically and that departments can create topic‑specific feeds on short notice. Staff agreed to work with department leaders to audit existing topic lists, improve discoverability on carrollcountymd.gov and run a subscriber survey to collect input on desired topics and frequency.

The commissioners also discussed using the service to distribute targeted notices about public hearings by subject or geography; staff said lists can be topic‑based and suggested combining citywide notices for countywide topics with district‑level outreach as needed. Commissioners asked for a public‑facing guide and suggested a coordinated communications push after staff finishes the topic audit and subscriber survey.