Despite the efforts of Rehoboth Beach officials to shroud the hiring of City Manager Taylour Tedder in relative secrecy, the Cape Gazette has performed an admirable public service with its enterprising reporting on the story.
First, we learned that Tedder’s annual salary exceeds that of Gov. Carney by 46%, and that his compensation includes a $750,000 interest-free loan that will be forgiven if he remains on the job for seven years. This unprecedented package comes just as city commissioners hiked property and rental taxes, parking rates and wastewater meter fees to close a deficit of more than $4 million.
Next, we learned that Tedder was hired despite not meeting city charter requirements for at least four years of prior city manager service and four years of engineering experience. Mayor Stan Mills said the city plans to seek General Assembly approval of charter changes to accommodate Tedder’s hiring – but not until 2025, when the city manager will already have been on the job for seven months.
Finally, Mills promised a public explanation of how commissioners decided upon the lucrative terms of Tedder’s contract, but then reneged on that commitment, citing Delaware’s somewhat oxymoronic Freedom of Information Act.
Weak though it is, FOIA states: “It is vital in a democratic society that public business be performed in an open and public manner so that our citizens shall have the opportunity to observe the performance of public officials and to monitor the decisions that are made by such officials in formulating and executing public policy ...”
Democracy is threatened when public officials feel empowered to ignore existing rules and make questionable expenditures of public funds with no sense of accountability to the citizens they are supposed to represent.
As official obfuscation continues in the Nation’s Summer Capital, it is worth remembering the motto of the major daily newspaper that covers the nation’s actual capital: Democracy Dies in Darkness.
Perhaps state Attorney General Kathy Jennings will agree that light needs to be shed on the machinations of Rehoboth Beach commissioners. It is time to illuminate the darkness.
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