Anyone who serves as mayor or commissioner in Rehoboth must be well intentioned, doing so to advance their view of what Rehoboth should be. We should thank them for their service.
Normally, there is a gradual turnover of members of the commission, providing for a continuum of knowledge of the city business and what the voting public wants and what the city can afford.
For the past few years this has not necessarily been true, since the mayor and an unusually high number of the commissioners were new, permitting proposals to come forward which a more-experienced commission would have dealt with early on without the community involvement needed to resolve these matters.
Some examples are:
• Wanting to transfer ownership of water treatment facilities rather than holding the asset and selling capacity to the county or other municipalities to help pay the cost and realize a return on the city’s investment
• Having the state Public Integrity Commission criticize the commissioners and staff for working to allow a large theater project to be approved without complying with requirements other projects have to meet
• Laws on open meetings were violated multiple times, requiring citizen complaints as well as the attorney general issuing violation notices to get the mayor and commission members to comply
• Rehoboth commission meetings have always allowed public comment till every viewpoint has been heard. There was an attempt to limit public comment to a few minutes prior to agenda items being heard meaning the people commenting would not have benefit of what was presented in the meeting
• Continuing to pursue the proposal to allow entity voting in the municipal election which was opposed by a vast majority of the voting public as evidenced by the turnout at the public meeting which had to be held on the subject to put it to rest
• The proposal to allow Jolly Trolley to run a bus service through the residential neighborhoods which would have further congested the residential neighborhoods and increased tourist parking, taking away what parking is available to the residents
• Committing city funds to the dock coming off the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal when it was supposed to be built with private funds.
Stan Mills, Jay Lagree and Patrick Gossett will not have the problem of knowing rules and regulations or charter requirements.
They have extensive prior experience in Rehoboth city government as well as their fingers on the pulse of the entire community such that their experience will assure an efficient and cost-effective functioning commission. They will also work to get the city’s financial house in order which will require skills that Stan, Patrick and Jay possess as a team based on their backgrounds, experience and knowledge of city finances.
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