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Wicomico County · County Council · 2026-08-04
Recap With Transcript
This page was drafted automatically from the meeting recording or transcript and has not been reviewed by a human editor. Names in particular can be transcribed wrongly. The linked recording and transcript are the record — not this summary.
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The council's August 4 session was dominated by two subjects that had nothing to do with each other: data centers and the Wicomico County Nursing Home. On the first, council voted unanimously to adopt Resolution 125-2026, a temporary moratorium of up to one year on accepting or processing any permits, site plans or development approvals for data centers while the county waits on a state impact study due in September and works through its comprehensive plan update. More than a dozen residents spoke, nearly all in favor, and several asked the county to go further and ban them outright.
The second subject arrived during general public comment, after the council had already met in closed session about "an administrative function" and a personnel matter at the nursing home. Roughly two dozen residents — families of former residents, current employees, recently terminated employees, clergy, and the NAACP — described a facility they said had deteriorated sharply since a new administrator arrived in April, with staff terminations, outsourced jobs, and cut activities and snacks. Council members expressed alarm but repeatedly said the charter gives the county executive, not the council, authority over hiring and firing there. Council also passed a $11,050,000 bond bill, a surplus-property disposition bill, a fire chiefs recognition bill as amended, and the FY27 internal audit plan.
Council opened by going into closed session under the Open Meetings Act to discuss an administrative function and a personnel matter at the Wicomico County Nursing Home, then reconvened in public and approved the consent agenda unanimously. Councilman Josh Hastings presented a proclamation naming August 2026 Black Philanthropy Month, recognizing the Black Excellence Community Fund, a giving circle of the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore. Representatives accepting the proclamation said the effort is in its fourth year and that similar funds nationally raised $11.5 million over the past year.
The data center public hearing drew about a dozen speakers and ran close to an hour. Nearly every speaker supported the moratorium; several said they wanted a permanent ban. Residents raised electricity demand, water consumption, noise and light pollution, diesel backup generators, farmland loss, and the small number of permanent jobs data centers create. The Wicomico Environmental Trust focused on process, urging the county to use the pause to update its zoning code and suggesting a companion resolution directing the planning department and planning commission to coordinate with the City of Salisbury. One speaker, who identified himself as Nigel Clark, argued against a flat ban and for negotiated parameters that would put a facility in an industrial area away from homes. Resolution 125-2026 passed unanimously.
The fire chiefs bill, Legislative Bill 2026-05, was the night's most contested county business. As introduced it would have recognized the Wicomico County Fire Chiefs Association and given it a formal role in discussions about countywide fire service agreements and budgets — including, in the original language, the Salisbury fire and ambulance budget. Four speakers, including Salisbury City Council member Melissa Holland and a former council member, objected to volunteer chiefs having any say in what the county pays Salisbury for fire and EMS service outside city limits. Vice-President Jeff Merritt offered two amendments: one adding the county executive alongside the director of administration to the required twice-yearly meetings, and one striking the Salisbury fire/ambulance reference and replacing it with "countywide ambulance and fire budgets." Councilwoman Shanie Shields moved to table the bill pending a work session; the motion failed 4-3. Both amendments were adopted and the bill passed unanimously as amended on a roll call.
Two other bills passed without public comment. Legislative Bill 2026-06 sets a procedure for disposing of surplus county property other than by public auction, requiring any private sale proposed by the county executive to come to council for approval. Legislative Bill 2026-07 authorizes up to $11,050,000 in general obligation bonds for a salt storage building ($1 million), Leonard's Mill dam improvements ($1 million), the Mason Dixon parking lot master plan ($1 million), airport hangar fire suppression ($3.9 million), hangar relocation ($1.6 million), passenger parking lot expansion ($2.3 million), and $250,000 in contingency. The county finance director said staff will travel to New York in late September to meet with S&P and Moody's, with the sale set for the second October meeting and closing in early November. The county's current rating is AA+.
Council also introduced Legislative Bills 2026-09 and 2026-10, with public hearings set for September 1 at 6 p.m., adopted the FY27 internal audit plan (Resolution 126-2026), and approved a hotline services contract (Resolution 127-2026).
Speakers made a largely environmental and infrastructure case. One resident said data centers employ an average of 30 to 50 full-time workers, that an average facility uses as much electricity as 100,000 homes against a county population of about 104,000, and that a medium facility can use 300,000 gallons of water a day while a large one can use 5 million. Another noted Salisbury's entire daily pumping is roughly 4 to 8 million gallons. Councilman Joe Holloway said staff research showed more than 180 wells went dry during a short 2007 drought. Several speakers pointed to Prince William County, Virginia, and to rising electricity bills.
Planning director Tracy Taylor told council she meets regularly with other Eastern Shore planning directors and that data centers were the main topic at a recent two-hour MACo affiliate meeting. She said a state report is due in September and that MACo has warned counties a complete ban would likely end in litigation. She then walked through a list of state preemptions the county has absorbed: the 2011-12 tier law, which she called a de facto downzoning of the A1 district; solar siting rules that override local regulations and allow up to 5% of the priority preservation area for solar; a requirement to allow manufactured and modular housing by right; a coming accessory dwelling unit provision; and the Housing Certainty Act, which will extend the county's vesting period from three years to five.
Councilman Josh Hastings said he had worked on data center reform for four years and helped put together the state study bill, which the General Assembly passed, the governor vetoed, and the legislature overrode. He said Amazon had pulled its proposed Calvert Cliffs facility that afternoon. He also argued the issue is unavoidable — smartphones, medical records, social media and credit cards all run on data centers — and that because the PJM grid spans 13 states and 67 million people, a facility built in Virginia or New Jersey affects Wicomico electric bills regardless of local zoning.
A Salisbury Planning Commission member raised a point several council members said was new to them: battery energy storage systems attached to data centers, and whether volunteer departments covering most of the county's land area are equipped for lithium-ion fires. Taylor said she would add fire hazard to her list of considerations.
The objections to Legislative Bill 2026-05 were about Section D, which would have let the volunteer fire chiefs' association make recommendations on the Salisbury fire and ambulance budget. Robert Taylor, a county resident, called it "unnecessary and inappropriate" and said the chiefs can already make any suggestion they want, noting that Salisbury handles roughly half of the fire and EMS calls outside the city. Salisbury Council member Melissa Holland asked that the funding-recommendation provision be struck and said accountability should stay with elected officials. Another Salisbury resident said city taxpayers pay twice — city and county — for the same fire service.
Council President John T. Cannon said the bill's purpose was simply to codify recognition of the volunteer chiefs so that future executives and councils must engage them. Councilwoman Shanie Shields said she supports volunteers having a voice to explain their costs but not a vote. Councilman Joe Holloway pressed on why the bill had not gone to a work session, why the Salisbury fire chief was not included, and who had requested the legislation; Cannon said the chiefs had. The Salisbury fire chief, present in the room, said he was not prepared to speak on whether he wanted a seat. Councilman James Winn, participating by Zoom, said he attends the chiefs' meetings, that the chiefs want nothing to do with the Salisbury budget, and that he had presented them the amended legislation and had their support. The underlying city-county fire service agreement remains unsettled; Merritt said he raises it at every meeting.
This was the longest and most emotional stretch of the night. Speakers asked everyone with a nursing home concern to stand, and most of the gallery did. Two sisters described their mother's care from 2022 until her death in November 2024, and said that on recent visits the familiar staff were gone and employees appeared to be looking over their shoulders. A current nurse, a volunteer, and at least two terminated employees spoke. One terminated employee said seven people representing more than 100 years of combined service had been let go, including one with 18 years, and that she was fired for insubordination over a deadline she said she was never given. A 12.5-year employee said she was told by phone that she was terminated. Employees said the facility's required daily direct-care hours per resident had fallen from a 3.4 standard to 3.0 to 3.2, that billing and MDS coordination are being outsourced, that evening snacks and activities have been cut, and that the facility is rated four stars while surrounding homes are rated two. Several dated the change to April 9 of this year, when a new administrator arrived.
Speakers from the NAACP and the Phi Delta Kappa sorority recounted the home's founding in the 1960s to serve African American residents who had nowhere else to go, and asked who holds fiduciary responsibility for it, how often the council and executive meet with its administrator, and whether it is being privatized. One speaker said the administrator told her that if the county intended to sell, it would not have hired her. A PAC 14 producer said County Executive Julie Giordano stated on video in July that she would not privatize the facility.
Council members said their authority is limited. Holloway said the shift to charter government decades ago moved operational authority to the executive and that the council "can't sit up here and tell you we can fix that problem." Cannon said the executive hired the administrator, that the nursing home is not a county department so the hire did not require council confirmation, that terminations appear to fall under the executive, and that the county attorney will sort out what oversight the council holds in its separate role as the Board of Health. Councilman David Ennis read from a letter by Delegate Sheree Sample-Hughes, highlighting three recommendations: an annual audit, quarterly meetings with the council, and a community-based advisory board including health care professionals, families and council representatives. Shields urged employees to organize collectively and to write to state legislators, the governor and the attorney general.
In council comment, Vice-President Jeff Merritt read a prepared statement responding to what he described as false accusations that he and the business he formerly co-owned funded or printed signs for a group called No Queens Wicomico. He said he has no involvement, provided no funding, printed nothing, and sold the business in March. He named as accusers the county executive in a recorded interview, a sheriff's deputy operating under what he said was a fake social media profile, and a third person. He said if the rhetoric stops, the matter ends; if it continues, he will bring documentation to each of the seven remaining meetings of the term and pursue legal remedies. He said he did not intend the statement as an attack on the county executive. The transcript contains no response from the executive's office, which was not represented at the podium.
Councilman Josh Hastings presented a proclamation naming August 2026 Black Philanthropy Month and recognizing the Black Excellence Community Fund, a giving circle of the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore. Representatives accepting the proclamation said the fund is in its fourth year and that comparable efforts nationally raised $11.5 million over the past year.
Passed unanimously after a lengthy public hearing. It imposes a temporary moratorium of up to one year on accepting, processing, reviewing or approving permits, site plans and development approvals for data centers, or until the county adopts regulations. Staff said the pause allows the county to review a state data center impact study expected in September and to address the issue in its comprehensive plan update. Most speakers supported the moratorium; several asked for an outright ban, while one urged negotiated siting standards instead.
Passed unanimously as amended on roll call, recognizing the volunteer fire chiefs' association as a countywide organization entitled to participate in discussions about fire service agreements and policies. Two amendments were adopted: one adding the county executive to the required twice-yearly meetings, the other striking the reference to the Salisbury fire and ambulance budget and substituting "countywide ambulance and fire budgets." A motion by Councilwoman Shanie Shields to table the bill for a work session failed 4-3.
Passed unanimously on roll call with no public comment. The bill amends Chapter 22 of the county code to set a procedure for disposing of surplus county property other than by public auction; any private disposition proposed by the county executive must be approved by the county council and completed within two years. Councilwoman Shields called it an important transparency measure.
Passed unanimously on roll call, authorizing up to $11,050,000 in general obligation bonds and bond anticipation notes. Projects include a salt storage building ($1 million), Leonard's Mill dam improvements ($1 million), the Mason Dixon parking lot master plan ($1 million), airport hangar fire suppression ($3.9 million), hangar relocation ($1.6 million), passenger parking lot expansion ($2.3 million), and $250,000 contingency. Staff said the airport portion will likely be issued on a taxable basis, with rating meetings in late September, sale in October and closing in early November. Current rating: AA+.
Both introduced unanimously. 2026-09 amends the airport turning radius of the A2 airport overlay district in the county zoning code. 2026-10 repeals and replaces the county's official critical area map, which staff said is mandated by the state. Public hearings are set for September 1 at 6 p.m.
Passed unanimously. The plan contains five audits and one advisory review: accounts payable and encumbrances; grants (narrowed to the airport and planning and zoning); an advisory review of leased vehicles requested by the council president; an overtime audit limited to the Department of Corrections; a WEX fuel card audit covering two years of transactions; and a cash controls audit of the solid waste division. Councilman Holloway asked whether the county executive's office had requested any of the audits; the internal auditor said not that she recalled. Vice-President Merritt said he remained disappointed that last year's grants audit ended inconclusive and pressed for it to be completed this time.
Passed unanimously with no discussion, approving a hotline services contract between Compliance Line LLC and Wicomico County.
Roughly two dozen residents — families, current and terminated employees, clergy, the NAACP and a sorority that helped found the facility in the 1960s — told council the home has declined sharply since a new administrator arrived in April. Speakers said seven employees with more than 100 years of combined service were terminated, that direct-care hours per resident had fallen from a 3.4 standard to 3.0–3.2, that billing and MDS coordination are being outsourced, and that evening snacks and activities were cut. Several asked who holds fiduciary responsibility and whether the facility will be privatized; one said the county executive stated on video in July that she would not privatize it. Council members said the charter places personnel authority with the executive and that the county attorney is reviewing the council's oversight role as Board of Health.
A PAC 14 producer said the civic center was originally conveyed with a promise that no alcohol would be sold there, and asked the county to at minimum disclose to event organizers and attendees when alcohol will be served — particularly at Christian concerts — or to stop selling on Sundays. Councilman Holloway said he had not supported allowing alcohol sales there.
Vice-President Jeff Merritt read a prepared statement denying any involvement with the group No Queens Wicomico and saying accusations that he or his former business funded or printed its signs are false and defamatory. He said he sold the business in March and named the county executive, a sheriff's deputy using what he described as a fake social media account, and a third person as sources of the claims. He said he will bring documentation to each remaining meeting of the term and pursue legal remedies if the accusations continue, and that the statement was a response rather than an attack. No response from the executive's office appears in the transcript.
data centers land use fire service nursing home budget bonds public comment audit
Based on the auto-generated transcript of the August 4, 2026 Wicomico County Council meeting, as archived by PAC 14. Personal names are rendered inconsistently in that transcript; anything that could not be matched to a known official is given by role instead.