Since my election in 2024, I have been trying earnestly to bring accountability and oversight to spending decisions in Rehoboth Beach. This has included excessively lavish contracts in 2025 during the hiring of an in-house counsel for Rehoboth Beach, and the well-known 2024 city manager compensation package and its annual increases.
Certain high-ranking city employees and elected officials appear to be engaging in a vicious retaliation campaign, consisting of vague media insinuation and personal attacks, in addition to inhibiting my oversight abilities serving on the board of commissioners. These individuals have shared personnel matters with news outlets without my knowledge and permission. They have allowed accusatory personnel issues to be disseminated in public session instead of conducting those discussions in executive session as mandated by basic decorum. In an effort to avoid questions, as of August 2025, the city manager has refused to respond to my queries except during public session. He communicated this refusal in writing. The Sept. 8 workshop included innuendo by the in-house counsel that I was leaking information. I have never done so.
I have requested two things with regard to the ongoing litigation: 1. Material updates to the commission given our fiduciary obligation to pay for the lawsuit’s defense, which the city solicitor had not been doing until I demanded it; and 2. the city attempt a dialogue with the plaintiffs’ attorney for a possible settlement in response to plaintiffs’ initial offer, which the city refuses to do, including after two members of the board voted in favor of holding a meeting to advance settlement possibilities.
Following weeks of specious justifications by the in-house counsel not to share lawsuit updates with the entire board, she relented due to her likely ethical obligations to keep the entire board informed. Nonetheless, she continues to make gratuitous editorial comments about the plaintiffs, which is unlikely to resolve the litigation favorably for taxpayers footing the bills. Along with the mayor, she ignores the need for commissioners, whom she kept in the dark until late July, to work together toward a settlement. The current strategy continues to bleed taxpayers unnecessarily.
I am trying to find reasonable solutions, and as a result, I am being subjected to retaliation and personal invective by some colleagues. The resultant climate of vitriol, slander and character defamation benefits no one.
It’s long past time for the mayor to show leadership and to take fiscally responsible action to end the lawsuit.
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