Westminster and Carroll County officials are mourning the loss of City Clerk Laurell Taylor, who died at her home Thursday morning.

“She was a very dedicated city employee,” Mayor Kevin Utz said in an interview with The Eagle. “She did everything asked of her. She would never bat an eye at anything she had to do.”

Arrangements are pending, and the cause of death is unknown at this time, Utz said.

Utz said as a customary procedure, the Westminster Police Department is investigating the city employee’s death. That investigation is ongoing, he said.

Taylor was appointed to her post in Westminster on Feb. 11, 2002, and before then worked in the county attorney office for Carroll County Government.

“Laurell was an integral part of city operations,” Utz said.

She kept the mayor and council in order through filing documents and was also the city’s zoning administrator.

“She had a key role in the everyday function of the city,” he said. “Her untimely death has put a strain on that.”

Utz, a captain of the Westminster Fire Department and EMS responder, heard the ambulance call on his way to work and noticed the address was Laurell’s. He soon received a call from City Administrator Marge Wolfe and put all the events together.

The last time Utz saw Taylor was during the Common Council’s Sept. 28 meeting while she recorded the minutes.

Taylor bested more than 110 applicants for the clerk position back in 2002, but before that worked as the county attorney for Carroll County Government.
 
She was hired as the assistant county attorney in 1987, rising from the ranks of assistant county attorney in 1995 to senior assistant county attorney in 1995 before being hired as the county attorney in 1998. She left her position in 2001.

While working for the county, she completed several major projects including codifying and computerizing county laws, as well as helping to overhaul laws.

County Public Works Director Mike Evans had worked with Taylor during his first stop with Carroll County, and remembered her detail.

“Laurell was a very good student of the law,” he said.

Taylor actively participated in state and national organizations that affect local governments including the Local Government Insurance Trust and the International Municipal Law Officers’ Association.

She was a graduate of then-Towson State College and earned her law degree from the University of Baltimore School of Law.

Utz has appointed Wolfe as acting city clerk.

“We had to pass that on immediately to keep the city rolling,” he said.

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user comments (1)

user kevindayhoff says...

A funeral Mass for Westminster City Clerk and former county attorney for Carroll County Laurell Elizabeth Taylor, 58, of Westminster will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, October 24, 2009 at St. John Catholic Church, 43 Monroe St., Westminster.

Posted 3:53 AM, 10.24.09

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