Queenstown commissioners enter closed session for legal advice on USDA project

QUEENSTOWN, Md. — On Jan. 22, 2026, Queenstown Commissioners Bryon Callahan and Al Hardee voted 2-0 to leave a special meeting and hold a closed session to obtain legal advice on a U.S. Department of Agriculture project, the meeting record shows.

Commissioner Bryon Callahan moved at 1:03 p.m. to leave the special meeting "to enter into a closed session to obtain legal advice on [a] USDA project" from the town attorney; Commissioner Al Hardee seconded the motion and the vote was recorded as 2-0. Town Manager Amy Moore, Town Attorney Lyndsey Ryan, attorney's assistant Jennifer Dindinger and engineer James Cook were listed as present in the meeting record.

The minutes appended statutory language from the Maryland Open Meetings Act and related guidance describing the narrow categories that permit a municipal board to meet in closed session. The written record states the closed session’s purpose as obtaining legal advice; the minutes do not report any substantive discussion from the closed session in the public record.

At 2:17 p.m., Callahan moved to adjourn the closed session and resume the special meeting; Hardee seconded and the motion passed 2-0. With no further business, Callahan then moved to adjourn the special meeting at 2:17 p.m.; Hardee seconded and the vote was recorded as 2-0.

The minutes close with the notation "Respectfully submitted" and the town manager’s signature line. The public minutes identify the stated purpose for the closed meeting but do not disclose the legal advice or other deliberations that took place in the closed session.