Tax tirade prompts call for meeting civility in Lewes

Lewes resident Thierry Poirey admits he lost his cool. But after all, he said, property assessments are a big deal, especially for the city’s least-affluent citizens.

Poirey erupted into a tax tirade during the public comment portion of the Dec. 16 finance committee meeting. The outburst prompted the mayor to call for civility.

Poirey was upset that Tina Samson, finance committee chair, decided there would not be a vote on a recommendation to mayor and city council that Lewes adopt Sussex County’s latest tax assessments.

He also called out City Manager Ellen Lorraine McCabe for saying the decision has already been made, without holding public comment.

Poirey said the lack of a decision means people who can least afford it will pay higher taxes.

“These are the people who live in affordable housing units, who live on Sussex Drive and who live the farthest away from the beach,” he said during his vociferous address. “You are asking them to pay more than their fair share, and you are asking people with mansions worth [millions] to pay less. This is what you are doing by not making a decision and tolerating the city manager saying that a decision has already been made. This is an incredible dereliction of duty on your part and, on the part of the city, an incredible lack of leadership.”

After the meeting, Samson said, “Bringing everybody up to a reasonable market assessment is obviously the right thing to do.”

She said Poirey’s point is not accurate across the board, but that if some people’s taxes go down, others will have to go up.

But, it is not what Poirey said, it was how he said it, that had some people cringing. Poirey shouted so loudly that it distorted the microphone audio.

“I talked longer and louder than I should have. I don’t deny that,” he said.

Poirey said he apologized in writing to McCabe the next day. He said he still has confidence in her ability to run the city.

He also said he apologizes to anyone he may have offended with his outburst.

Poirey said, for him, the issue started Feb. 13, when council said it would take up the tax assessment issue. McCabe said it would be on agendas in the summer, according to Poirey. But that did not happen.

The deadline for the city to adopt the county assessments is Jan. 31, 2026, so mayor and city council still have time to act. But, Poirey said, raising the issue at the 11th hour, then claiming it’s too late, is not acceptable.

At a mayor and city council special meeting the next day, Mayor Amy Marasco addressed behavior in municipal meetings.

“You’re allowed to howl at the moon. You can be passionate, because you have an issue you want to raise, but when you cross the line in a lack of civility, or when you cross the line and make it a personal attack, you’ve crossed the line,” she said. “The First Amendment allows you to yell, as much as I don’t like it, but you’re not allowed to do it to a point that disrupts a meeting, or you are bullying or harassing.”

Marasco did not call out Poirey by name, but later said she was referring to the finance committee incident because it was the most recent. But, she said, there have been other incidents that have raised the issue of civil discourse and decorum at meetings.

Rich Innes, Lewes Planning Commission chair, echoed Marasco’s comments at that panel’s meeting the same night. Poirey, who serves as an LPC commissioner, was sitting two seats away, but Innes did not mention him by name.

During a scheduled discussion on LPC bylaws, the panel voted unanimously to give the chair discretion to restrict public comments and presentations by applicants that the chair deems to be uncivil, striking the word disrespectful from the document.

An internal city working group has been meeting to establish clear, consistent parliamentary procedures for commissions, committees and boards, so they are all on the same page.

Members of all panels will go through training. The city’s goal is to roll out a new organizational plan in six to 10 months.

Marasco announced one change that will go into effect starting January. She said council will change its monthly workshops to working sessions, in an attempt to better iron out their differences, while adhering to strict open meeting and Freedom of Information Act guidelines. She called it new rules of engagement.

“We need a way to work together. You’re going to hear us disagree with one another, that’s OK. We’re going to roll up our sleeves, work as colleagues and speak to one another,” Marasco said.

The first working session is scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 28, in the Bonnie Osler Meeting Room at the Rollins Center.

Marasco said working sessions will allow council to slow the pace to make sure it has all the data it needs rather than rushing to a vote, even if it means moving a discussion to the next working session.

Marasco said the first item to be scrutinized will be the proposed home-based business ordinance.

First, Marasco is asking council to rescind the ordinance it passed 3-2 Dec. 8. 

“We didn’t get it right,” she said.

A vote could come at the Jan. 12 mayor and city council meeting.

The discussion on home-based businesses is now entering its third calendar year.

Sarah Prieto and Stephen Matthews are seeking to open a dog-grooming studio in the basement of their historic row home at 405 Savannah Road. 

Their neighbors in adjacent row homes and surrounding neighborhood are opposed, claiming noise and odor from dogs and impact on parking would be unacceptable.