The new Carroll commissioners demanded the resignations of all three members of the county ethics commission yesterday and made plans to expand the board to as many as seven members.

Because of panel members' alleged "misuse of office, failure to comply with the ethics code and incompetence," the commissioners "have no choice but to immediately suspend all members of the ethics commission," according to a letter dated yesterday and addressed to ethics board members James F.W. Talley, Suzanne Primoff and John S. Harner.

"An ethics commission only has value if it has credibility," said Commissioner Dean L. Minnich. "I have serious doubts that this commission has any credibility."

Minnich and Perry L. Jones Jr., newcomers to the board of commissioners, were sworn in to four-year terms Monday with Julia Walsh Gouge, who was elected to her fourth term on the board.

The ethics board members are appointed by the commissioners.

In addition to the suspension, the ethics panel must turn over all its files and can no longer have access to county money or staff. The ethics board members can contest the commissioners' action and seek a meeting with them to discuss specific allegations within 10 days.

Contacted at his home yesterday, Talley, the ethics commission chairman, said he had heard nothing about the suspension. He has served six years and had intended to resign when his term expired in March.

He called the allegations serious and said he would consult with his fellow board members. He said he would reserve further comment until a public hearing that the county must hold before it can expand the commission.

"I have no direct knowledge of any of the comments made, but I will make a lengthy statement at the public hearing," Talley said.

Harner and Primoff could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The letter to the ethics commission members, written by county attorney Kimberly A. Millender, says the commissioners cannot "ignore the apparent misuse of office and bias in handling investigations."

Pointing to allegations of misuse of office, the letter describes how the commission "investigated" at least one private citizen while knowing it did not have jurisdiction over private citizens. That is an apparent reference to an investigation involving Gouge's daughter, business owner Jill Gebhart.

That investigation stemmed from a confrontation in December last year between Gebhart and county-hired contractor Charles Stambaugh, who was installing a sewer line from the road to Gebhart's business. The contractor alleges that Gebhart invoked her mother's name in asking him to leave her property and threatened him with revoking his bond on county contracts.

Stambaugh requested action from the ethics commission, which then questioned witnesses throughout the winter and spring about Gouge's involvement with her daughter's business, according to Gouge and several county employees who appeared before the commission.

The ethics commission members said in a letter to the county commissioners shortly before the September primary that they concluded no action was warranted regarding the Gebhart-Stambaugh confrontation. The commission also looked into an allegation that Gouge asked the contractor to drop the price for her daughter, according to a letter written by the ethics panel to the county commissioners in June.

Gouge recused herself from the vote to seek the ethics panel members' resignations.

Yesterday's letter from Millender goes on to say the ethics board showed a "sense of bias" in pursuing the matter involving Gebhart while refusing to investigate a member of a zoning review committee, also a private citizen, who could have profited from zoning recommendations that later were scrapped.

That is an apparent reference to Ed Primoff, husband of ethics commission member Suzanne Primoff and an unsuccessful candidate in this year's Republican county commissioners primary.

The letter also notes "substantial evidence" of the commission's incompetence, saying that money has been wasted on unjustified investigations and that, in one case, a lawyer's advice was ignored while hundreds of hours were spent investigating a target who had confessed.

During yesterday's commissioners meeting, the board members discussed preliminary plans to expand the ethics panel. Gouge said the ethics commission "must serve as a model of honesty, decency and integrity. This has not been the case."