Candidate questions mayor’s transparency in Rehoboth

With just days to go before the 2019 election, the Rehoboth candidate calling for transparency in government called out the mayor for not being transparent when he voted to approve the candidacy of another candidate.

Candidate Mark Betchkal said Aug. 7 that he had received documents showing Mayor Paul Kuhns, using his city email, had personally reached out to candidate Edward Chrzanowski to run for office.

In an email dated May 27, Kuhns said he had heard that Chrzanowski was thinking about running for commissioner.

“I think that is great and I would provide support, behind the scenes, and be willing to recommend you to others as a good choice for one of the two seats,” wrote Kuhns. “I do believe that you would be a good addition for what is becoming a very favorable and equitable future for our community.”

A month later, during a commissioner meeting June 21, the mayor and commissioners voted on whether the six people who had filed for the election – Betchkal, Chrzanowski, Charlie Garlow, Susan Gay, Gary Glass and Suzanne Goode – met the city’s qualifications to be on the ballot. Prior to the meeting, at least two people filed a challenge to Chrzanowski’s candidacy. He filed as a resident with the address of 46 Pennsylvania Ave.

One of the challenges came from Brian Patterson, the long-term partner of candidate Glass. Patterson claimed Chrzanowski is registered to vote in Mercer County, N.J., and does not own any property in Rehoboth. According to Sussex County records, planning commission member Rick Perry owns the Rehoboth property Chrzanowski listed as his residence.

Patterson also said that, as of 2017, Chrzanowski lived in Philadelphia with his husband, while listing a home in Washington, D.C., as his residence.

At the time of the challenge, Chrzanowski called all of Patterson’s accusations ridiculous. “Rehoboth is my domicile. It’s where I pay my taxes,” he said. “I spend more time here than anywhere else.”

Chrzanowski said he’s a trustee in multiple property-owning LLCs in town, including 46 Pennsylvania Ave., but he said he’s running as a resident, not as a freeholder. “I’m not eligible as a freeholder, and I never said I was running as one,” he said.

Betchkal said he’s not questioning Chrzanowski’s candidacy. He said this is another example of Kuhns failing to be transparent. The mayor had a significant conflict of interest, he said. Not only should he have not voted on the issue, he should have recused himself from the discussion altogether, he said.

“It would have been easy to do. There wouldn’t be this issue and Ed probably would have gotten approved anyway,” said Betchkal.

Betchkal said he got the information from former Commissioner Jan Konesy, who got the information through a Freedom of Information Act request to the city. He said he recognizes this issue is being brought up at the eleventh hour, with the election Aug. 10, but he said the FOIA request went out weeks ago, and the city is responsible for not responding sooner.

This isn’t the first time Betchkal has questioned Kuhns’ transparency. He has been questioning the relationship of Kuhns and Clear Space officials ever since the theater company proposed a new Rehoboth Avenue home months ago. FOIA requests made by Betchkal revealed the mayor, other commissioners and the theater company were working together to figure out a way to make the proposed location on Rehoboth Avenue work.

Betchkal also notes, Kuhns established created a water and wastewater rate working group with little to no input from his fellow commissioners, and then tried to have that group meet in private. In response to a complaint, the Attorney General’s Office ruled that wasn’t allowed. Kuhns also unilaterally decided the city’s personnel committee should meet in private. Again, the AG’s Office ruled that wasn’t allowed.

In an email Aug. 7, Kuhns said he saw no reason to recuse himself on the Chrzanowski issue. He said voting on Chrzanowski’s qualifications as a candidate is part of his job, and it was based on information provided by Chrzanowski to the city.

“I am a citizen and therefore have the right to support a candidate,” he said. “There is no personal input.”

Kuhns said the city’s delay in responding to the FOIA request occurred because there have been a lot of FOIA requests in the past six months and that has caused a backup in the process.

Kuhns said he doesn’t think this has anything to do with transparency.

“I am entitled, as a voting citizen, to support whomever I choose, and I do not need to share that with the public. It is a personal choice,” he wrote.

The municipal election is 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 10, in the Rehoboth Beach Convention Center, 229 Rehoboth Ave. There are six candidates for two open seats. Incumbent Commissioners Stan Mills and Toni Sharp are not running for re-election.

New voting machines

The state recently implemented the use of new voting machines that will be used in Rehoboth’s municipal election for the first time. They will be the same voting machines that were used during the Cape Henlopen school board election in May.

Upon arrival, voters provide identification to election officials and sign a tablet. Voter names are automatically recorded into a secure, online system ensuring voters can vote only once.

Voters walk to the booth and insert a piece of paper into the machine. After voters select candidates using a touchscreen, a summary is printed on the paper, creating a paper record. Voters then hit the vote button. Each vote cast is stored within the system’s internal memory. Voter data is recorded using a random file name to protect voter anonymity.

For more information on the new voting machines, go to the Delaware Department of Elections website at elections.delaware.gov. The website provides a short video on how to use the machine properly.