St. Mary’s County’s water and sewer utility is going paperless. The Metropolitan Commission, known as MetCom, has launched Diligent One Community, a new online platform for public meeting agendas, minutes, policies, and records, implemented at its Aug. 27 Commission Meeting.
MetCom describes the move as part of a broader trend among local governments investing in technology that supports open meetings and easier public record access. The new system offers five main improvements: a public transparency portal for viewing meeting materials, minutes, and resolutions; constituent engagement tools letting residents subscribe to meeting updates and submit public comments online; ADA-compliant accessibility across desktop and mobile devices; a searchable, centralized repository of past meetings and supporting documents; and streamlined cloud-based archiving intended to reduce paper use, duplicate files, and local data storage needs.
The switch mirrors one St. Mary’s County’s own government made roughly six months earlier. County government transitioned from its longtime BoardDocs system to the same Diligent platform on Feb. 17, 2026, covering the Commissioners of St. Mary’s County, the Planning Commission, the Board of Appeals, and other county boards — meaning residents will now find agendas and minutes from both county government and MetCom hosted on a similar, ADA-compliant interface.
MetCom itself is not a county department but an independent, quasi-governmental nonprofit created by the Maryland legislature in 1957, operating under Section 113 of the St. Mary’s County Code. It receives no county tax revenue, funded entirely by the ratepayers it serves — roughly 16,000 homes and 850 commercial establishments across the county, supported by more than 300 miles of water mains and 200 miles of sanitary sewer lines. MetCom is governed by a seven-member Board of Commissioners appointed by the Commissioners of St. Mary’s County, plus one non-voting representative from Naval Air Station Patuxent River. The board meets the fourth Thursday of every month at 3 p.m., and meetings are open to the public.
Residents can access the new portal at metcom.community.diligentoneplatform.com/Portal/.
