Concerns raised over proposed changes to Rehoboth charter

Rehoboth Beach commissioners continued to discuss possible charter changes at a meeting Feb. 9. Altogether, 15 proposed changes were moved forward for final wording, but a couple received pushback because of concerns the changes could discourage potential commission candidates.

The first proposed charter change eliminates mileage reimbursement for nonresident commissioners. Currently, nonresident commissioners are allowed to submit for mileage from their permanent home to attend any commissioner meeting or committee meeting. The mileage rate is what the Internal Revenue Service uses, which is currently 70 cents per mile.

Commissioner Chris Galanty is the only nonresident commissioner on city council. He said he had no intention of submitting for mileage, but he thought it could deter nonresidents from running for office. Businesses provide employees with travel expenses, he said. 

Commissioner Patrick Gossett is currently a resident, but used to be a nonresident commissioner. He said he’s in favor of keeping the reimbursement.

Pointing to a recent commissioner candidate who lives in Florida, but wasn’t elected, Commissioner Mark Saunders suggested a cap of some kind would be needed because the city wouldn’t want to reimburse that person twice a month. There was discussion of an applicable mileage cap or monetary cap.

City Manager Taylour Tedder said records show a commissioner hasn’t used the ability to collect mileage reimbursement since before 2020.

City Solicitor Lisa Boren Ogden said the recommendation came from her legal counterpart at the state legislative level. This was pointed out because the General Assembly is not in favor of this.

Ultimately, a majority of commissioners voted in favor of removing the reimbursement.

The second charter change that has the potential to diminish the commissioner candidate pool would introduce a section eliminating the ability of two people from the same household to hold office at the same time.

Commissioner Susan Stewart introduced the change, which was done in response to constituent concerns raised this past summer when Jeffrey Goode, the husband of Commissioner Suzanne Goode, ran for office. Ultimately, Jeffrey was defeated easily by Stewart and Galanty.

Goode said she’s against it. Let the voters decide, she said.

Galanty said he recognizes the concerns, but the power of decision is in the electorate. This stymies democracy, he said.

Despite the concerns, a majority of commissioners voted in favor of moving the proposed addition forward.

Other charter changes 

Commissioners are moving forward with a wording change that would affect the way property taxes are collected, from a hard cap to a percentage-based approach. Currently, the city has a hard cap of $3 million it is allowed to collect in property taxes, but it’s only a couple hundred thousand dollars short of that cap right now. 

During a previous discussion, commissioners talked about a property tax of 0.15% of the fully assessed value of all real estate located in the city. At the Feb. 9 meeting, commissioners moved forward a tax rate of 0.1%, which would increase the current amount collected to a little less than $3.6 million.

As part of the discussion on property taxes, Gossett recommended wording be added that an assessment be done every five years. A majority of commissioners agreed.

Another change would allow the city to use property tax assessments done by Sussex County. There doesn’t appear to be any support from the current makeup of city council to use the county’s tax assessment, but a change in the wording would allow future councils to do so.

Commissioner Craig Thier has been against this proposal from the beginning. He said he’s not confident the objectives of the city and the county will ever align, which means if a city property owner appeals to the county, they might not get a fair appeal.

Another proposal that moved forward increases the maximum fine the town can assess from $500 to $2,500, and removes the penalties of imprisonment and being ordered to work while imprisoned.

One proposal removes the mayor’s civil and criminal jurisdiction because Rehoboth Beach has an alderman and assistant alderman with those jurisdictions.

Moving forward is a proposal to update the process for fixing commissioner salaries by allowing commissioners to fix the salaries by ordinance. An ordinance to increase salaries may not take effect earlier than six months after the ordinance is adopted.

There was one proposal that failed because it wasn’t seconded. Goode proposed a change that would limit the ability of how much money commissioners could borrow without going to referendum. Currently, the amount is $6 million. Goode proposed $1 million, but didn’t receive a second, so the proposal failed.

There is no specific timetable set for when the proposed changes will be back to commissioners for a review of the final wording and vote. However, it is expected to be soon because there is a bit of a timetable if the proposed changes are going to take effect this year.

Every municipality in the state has to get approval from both chambers of the General Assembly. The state legislators are in session until June 30, so the proposed changes need to be submitted in a timely fashion to allow time to go through the legislative process.