The move toward a county police department in Carroll will remain stalled if the Board of Commissioners doesn’t decide soon on a referendum, officials said.

The Maryland General Assembly required that there be a countywide vote if the commissioners wanted to move forward with reorganizing the police force into a countywide agency with an appointed chief. But the commissioners still have not voted to approve the referendum despite an Aug. 11 deadline to get the measure on November’s ballot, said Commissioner Michael Zimmer.

“I’ve been pushing bring this to a vote since May. If it doesn’t come to a vote, there’s no referendum,” Zimmer said. “If we fail to pass an ordinance, it means we’ll continue with the status quo, with policing split between the Sheriff’s Office and the [State Police] resident trooper program.”

The commissioners had previously voted to abolish the resident trooper program and reduce the role of the Sheriff’s Office in favor of a county police department, but were overruled by the General Assembly with the requirement for a referendum.

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Commissioner Dean Minnich said he felt no urgency to move forward with the referendum, since it would be difficult to make the case for a countywide police force when the planning process he’d intended had been halted by the state legislature.

“It would give an advantage to the Sheriffs’ Associations...they’d be in a much better position to lobby and campaign than we would,” Minnich said. “I don’t see it happening this year.”

Sheriff Kenneth Tregoning, in a letter to The Examiner Friday, urged the commissioners to move forward with the referendum.

“The board majority may prefer to circumvent the legislative process by not adopting the ordinance, which will eliminate the referendum and public oversight of the policing issue,” Tregoning said.

Tregoning advocated for the consolidation of police powers in the Sheriff’s Office — and a raise in deputies’ pay and benefits to bring them up to the same level as other departments — but insisted he’d go along with whatever the outcome of the referendum would be.

Commissioner Julia Gouge could not be reached for comment.

msantoni@baltimoreexaminer.com