Reading your article, “Future uncertain for Rehoboth personnel committee” (Oct. 9), I was surprised that Rehoboth Beach commissioners Kathy McGuiness and Lisa Schlosser both declined to explain themselves, and passed up the opportunity to express support for Rehoboth Beach’s excellent City Manager Sharon Lynn, who was just recognized as City Manager of the Year by her peers in Delaware local governments. (Congratulations, Sharon!)
As I wrote in a recent letter to the editor (Sept. 27), Ms. Schlosser’s sudden and unexplained resignation from chair of the personnel committee, and then her coordinated effort with Ms. McGuiness to reject the mayor’s replacement slate for the personnel committee - joined by commissioners Coluzzi and Byrne - raises concerns that these commissioners are creating conflict with the mayor and the city manager as part of an undisclosed plan of theirs affecting the future of city personnel, including dismissal of the city manager and privatization of city services.
Although McGuiness and Schlosser declined to speak publicly on these crucial questions for the City of Rehoboth, the picture is coming into focus. First, in his letter responding to me, columnist Peter Rosenstein confirmed that he discussed dismissal of the city manager with multiple commissioners this summer. Although he non-transparently withheld the names of the commissioners who discussed this with him, his published columns serve as a roadmap of connections to McGuiness, Schlosser, Coluzzi and Byrne.
Second, in another letter responding to me, McGuiness-Schlosser surrogate Larry Myslewski unfairly slammed the city manager, by falsely claiming that she “rejected adding a resident HR expert in order to protect [her] own ambitions.” His letter non-transparently withheld from readers the fact that the HR person in question is himself. Moreover, nothing could be further from the truth about the city manager, who has absolutely no role in appointments to the Personnel Committee, as these are determined by the mayor and commissioners. What is their motivation for this unfounded attack on the city manager, if not to undermine her and continue laying the groundwork for dismissal?
Myslewski’s letter and McGuiness’s email to your reporter demonstrate their coordination, by using the same talking point about Schlosser’s supposed record of accomplishment (that is, before she abandoned the personnel committee by resigning without explanation).
It is bad enough that McGuiness, Schlosser and their surrogates are working behind the scenes to undermine and ultimately dismiss the city manager and city personnel - that is not the transparency they promised in their campaigns. Even worse, if the off-the-record discussions, which Rosenstein confirmed, have included a quorum of the board of commissioners (e.g., Coluzzi and Byrne), that’s a violation of the open meetings law under Delaware FOIA.
Kathy McGuiness, of all people, should know better given her years in government and her aspirations to now be elected Delaware’s state auditor, for which faithfulness to state law is paramount and professional auditing standards require independence and objectivity. The fact that McGuiness and Schlosser see no need to discuss their plans publicly, but can garner a majority of votes to reject the mayor’s appointments, tends to confirm that the real deliberations go on behind closed doors, which is improper and non-transparent.
It is high time for these commissioners either to explain themselves to the public, or else affirm their support for the city manager and get behind the mayor’s replacement slate for the personnel committee.
Gary Glass
Rehoboth Beach
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