Rehoboth Beach Mayor And Park City Kathy: LLC’s Are People, Too
This is why we have the Tip Line.
I can’t make this up. Rehoboth Beach’s shiny new mayor Paul Kuhns and Rehoboth Beach Commissioner/would-be State Auditor Kathy McGuiness want to give LLC’s, wait for it, the right to vote.
From the Cape-Gazette:
“Voting rights for limited liability companies are on the agenda at a town hall meeting set for 2 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 2, at the Rehoboth fire hall in Rehoboth Beach.
The Rehoboth Beach Commissioners are considering a proposal that would allow residential property owners who own property in an LLC to vote if they own at least 50 percent of the entity. The ordinance specifies the principle of “one person, one vote,” meaning that if a person is a resident and owns property in an LLC, that person is entitled to one vote, even if the person owns multiple properties in LLCs. The ordinance also does not allow proxy voting on behalf of LLCs. The ordinance also requires those who hold property as an LLC to sign an affidavit attesting to their eligibility.
Commissioner Patrick Gossett, who opposes the ordinance, laments:
“Sometimes I think Rehoboth is getting Alzheimer’s, because we’re really forgetting who we are. And making changes like this makes you take further steps,” Gossett said.
Oh, the December 2 meeting? Takes place during the Rehoboth Beach Marathon.
Kuhns has had a hard-on for LLC’s for quite some time. Kuhns was quoted in the Cape-Gazette over a decade ago as saying:
“I think the downtown business people should have a right to vote as much as, or more, than someone who just moved here six months ago.”
According to our tipster, there are no letters on file requesting or demanding this change. It is the priority of Kuhns and chief proponent McGuiness. It is being rushed through, first brought to a Town Commissioners’ meeting on October 30, public comment scheduled for Saturday. Why the rush? Because the General Assembly reconvenes in January and, if the Town Commissioners approve the proposal, the change requires a change to the Town Charter. Guess which two legislators would be responsible for running that Charter Change in Dover. How about Pete Schwartzkopf and Ernie Lopez? Need I go into the ties that both have to Park Slope Kathy? Didn’t think so.
According to our tipster, the proposal would add 700 more prospective voters to the rolls, a 50% increase, meaning that these ‘non-people’ voters would represent the difference in any close race. How ‘non-people’? According to the tip, of the 350-plus LLC’s in the city, over 200 are commercial businesses and dozens of others are held by developers.
Our tipster asks the questions:
“Will Pete actually sponsor this? What will happen there? Will our elected state officials see the madness of this proposal?” This ordinance would not have gotten as far as it has w/o Pete & Ernie Lopez being in the loop. It’s possible they could be shamed out of sponsoring it, but, when it comes to cozying up to Kathy McGuiness, history suggests that shame is not one of their considerations.
Even beyond how horrible this is for Rehoboth – the precedent is atrocious. Citizen’s United 2.0 on steroids. Just what the country needs right now.
These business owners could always choose to live in the city, or move their businesses elsewhere.
Defeating this McGuinness person should be a top priority. Schwartzkopf might be immovable — but then, we haven’t really tried to oust him — but she should be stopped here at jump.
Whoops, I misread that. This seems to be a move to allow people to own their houses as LLCs, rather than owner-occupied.
In other words, Kathy wants to make it easier for people to evade taxes (by listing the property as a business) without losing their vote.
I agree Democrats should be held to principles, but the ones I care most about involve stealing. Unfortunately, the ability to steal or help others to do so seems to be what motivates many Democrats to run for office.
Of the 700 or so “new” voters that will be allowed to vote if this happens, I’m sure there are multiple Llcs owned by individuals or small groups. If each Llc got a vote, this would have the effect of giving some wealthy property holding companies multiple votes.
It is a brazen disenfranchisement of actual Rehoboth residents on its face.
I’m having a hard time parsing the residency requirement involved. The talk at the link about property held in trust leads me to believe some people don’t own their homes as individuals but as corporate entities. But I can’t tell if this applies to people who just own the property but live elsewhere. Not enough background info to make it clear to someone like me who’s not up on the current requirements.
At the link, Commissioner Patrick Gossett is quoted, “To go into an LLC is a choice. Voting is a privilege, and I think we need to address it in that regard. There are only nine communities that allow nonresident voting, and we’re extending that.”
So I can’t tell if this would extend the vote to people who own houses that they rent out, which is what Gossett’s quote makes it sound like.
Sussex Watcher might be able to help out here.
Here’s an older article on it. Still sounds idiotic. http://www.capegazette.com/article/rehoboth-proposes-llc-leaseholder-voting/145264
Under the proposal, a person would be eligible to vote on behalf of the LLC if that person owned at least 50 percent of the property. Thirty-day leaseholders would also have the right to vote.
Donna Mabry, 221 Hickman St. said there were 1,100 artificial entities in Rehoboth. Half of each entity would give each entity two votes, she said, which could lead to more than 2,000 new voters added to the rolls. City spokeswoman Krys Johnson said the city did not have information on how many properties are owned in LLCs, as the property deeds do not list members of an LLC.
McGuiness said the intent is to have “one person, one vote.” However, as proposed, the ordinance does not prohibit voting as a resident and as a representative of an LLC, prompting Commissioner Toni Sharp to ask, “Is that what the ordinance says?”
Several people in the crowd shouted “No!” in response.
The ordinance also does not explain how ownership interest in an LLC would be demonstrated.
City code currently allows leaseholders who own 10-year leases to vote. Kuhns said that statute is outdated as few places have 10-year leases anymore. The draft ordinance calls for changing the leaseholder voting requirement to 30 days,
My handy guide on complicated Rehoboth Beach matters is that if McGuinness is for it, I’m agin it. I despise opportunists, and I can smell her opportunism all the way up in Hockessin.
Voting rights for LLCs = Citizens United on steroids = assault on individual voting rights = political stupidity at its maximum production = supporters,endorses etc. of such legislation as unqualified for office (be they Republicans or Democrats) = a guaranteed “no” vote from this legislator on any Rehoboth Beach “Charter Change” including any such “mustard gas proposal” = “NO” support/endorsement/vote from this legislator for any individual statewide candidate who does not refute and reject such voter-usurping lunacy.
Representative John Kowalko
The clowns in Rehoboth overspent millions on a new city Hall (which basically got the old Mayor tossed from office) and they doubled the rental tax with little notice or public input from 3% to 6% in one fell swoop, rather than a reasonable incremental phase in. Not good……They better get their act together down there!
“So I can’t tell if this would extend the vote to people who own houses that they rent out”
Yes it would. There are a lot of reasons the issue arose. One of them is that in Rehoboth, non-resident property owners can vote. See below (from the charter and the proposed change).
The crux of the issue is that freeholders (property owners, resident or non-resident) can vote. LLC’s cannot. The proposal is to allow LLC’s to vote (as if they were a freeholder). The proposal would allow up to 2 votes per LLC (each owner holding a 50% interest). Of course, any one qualifying under one or more provisions (freehold, leaseholder, etc.) would only be allowed to vote once. So the crux of this is the number of votes per LLC.
To put it in context. I live in Lewes. If I owned property in Rehoboth Beach I could vote in their elections as a freeholder. If I want to double my votes, I just form an LLC with someone to own the property and then we get 2 votes. What I don’t know is how the voting works if the property is jointly held (i.e. spouses). Is there still only one vote or do each get to vote as freeholders?
“At such Annual Election, every natural person, male or female, who shall have attained the age of eighteen (18) years and who shall be a resident, freeholder or leaseholder, and who is registered on the Books of Registered Voters of the City of Rehoboth Beach, shall have one (1) vote. The voter registration deadline is now 30 days prior to the date of the Annual Election.”
“Freeholder by a natural person that holds title of record to real property in the City through a valid revocable trust where the natural person is both grantor/settler and trustee of the valid revocable trust”
“If a person elects to register to vote under this provision, the same person would not be permitted to vote a second time even if they qualified to vote under a separate category.”
“three Commissioners must either have the qualifications of a resident Commissioner as defined above (i.e. a bona-fide resident and domiciliary of the City) or be a freeholder of real estate located within The City.”
Thanks, Dave. Appreciate the legwork. So I take it Gossett was saying, “We’re already one of nine places in the country that allows this, so extending the vote to LLCs is expanding it.”
This could be addressed at the state level. If real Democrats ran the state they would ban the practice of allowing non-residents to vote. Hey, if conservative states can usurp municipal rights on immigrant and LGBT issues, we can do it over representation issues.
I wonder if they would hold LLcs to the “must be 18 years of age” rule? That might narrow the 700 new voters down to about 200.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Delaware, Connecticut, and New Mexico are the only three states in the country that allow non-residents to vote in municipal or town elections.
However, nine other states allow non-residents to vote in other limited cases. For instance, in Montana, non-resident property owners can vote in county and sewer districts, and in Arizona, they can vote in pest control, agricultural improvement, power, and water districts.
https://ivn.us/2015/11/09/voting-rights-of-people-who-own-property-in-multiple-states-taxing-districts/
Yes, they have to be a “natural person” 18 years of age. Here is the draft proposal. Not sure it’s the latest version, but it’s close.
http://www.capegazette.com/sites/capegazette/files/2017/11/field/attachments/Draft%20Ordinance%20Charter-Elections.pdf
Worth reading the online News Journal and Cape Gazette stories of 12/2 that reported on today’s Town Hall in RB on this issue. Kuhns and McGiness started out saying that they want a transparent process to decide whether LLCs should have voting rights — a transparent process that they are fast-tracking in the middle of winter when most voters are away? But maybe they learned their lessons today. 100 people at the Town Hall, about 40 spoke, and 95% of the speakers opposed their proposal. Two people spoke in favor. Interesting, since they claim they are pushing this proposals because dozens of people have complained to them over the years that non-resident LLC owners can’t vote in City elections. Really? So the people who want them to do this were outnumbered 95% to 5% today. Maybe McGinnis should be elected to statewide office — sounds like the voters in Rehoboth would be happy to get rid of her.
Thanks, RP, for the report. I suspect the number of people there today is why they want to extend voting rights to people who don’t live there and won’t show up when Grabby Kathy wants to take away some more of their rights.
As the News Journal reports, McGiness has gotten election money from LLCs whose ownership is unknown. Kuhns is an ex-Wall Street guy. They are like two peas in a pod in believing that corporations and LLCs are entitled to the same rights as real people. Imagine a local town in Delaware taking an even more extreme position than the Supreme Court. At least the Supreme Court hasn’t ruled (yet) that corporations and LLCs should have voting rights.
I;m hopin the other beach towns in Delaware are watching this stuff. If the state legislature votes to agree with Kuhns and McGinnis and give voting rights to non-residents that own LLCs or corporations in RB, what’s going to happen in Lewes or Dewey Beach or Bethany? Let’s see if the Ds in the state legislature have the guts to stop this now, before it gets farther, and tell RB to stop this garbage. Will the Ds in the legislature say they are not going to take Citizens United to the next step of voting rights. What’s next after that ? Rights of artificial intelligence (bots) to vote? Oh wait, maybe Park City Kathy is artificial intelligence. Any thoughts on that one?
Well, the other guy who is in on this is Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf. This proposal doesn’t get this far w/o the support of McGuiness’s #1 Fanboy.
Since this proposal would require a legislative Charter Change for the town, and since Pete and Ernie Lopez represent the area, they would be the sponsors in the General Assembly.
Since there is a very real possibility that McGuiness could be the next State Auditor, it’s time that we take a closer look at her background. Everything she does is suspicious to me until proven otherwise. For someone who has only been on the radar screen for a scant few years, she comes with quite a few red flags attached. Let’s see…residency, party affiliation, a certain State Senator, closeness to Schwartzkopf, access to gobs of money for no apparent reason, and this. Maybe the last two are related. Betcha there’s more.
“Very real possibility” Park City Kathy could be state auditor??? So, maybe all of us in RB should contribute to her campaign, to get her out of town. Although doesn’t sound like she needs contributions from those of us who are mere residents. You are right to be suspicious of her. I’ve been around here a long time and she lies constantly, sometimes about trivial stuff, but still, how do you know what comes out of her mouth is true or not? Some of us can’t figure out how she won reelection with a higher number of votes than she has gotten in the past.
The News-Journal weighs in with a lengthy article. Judging from the campaign contributors the article lists, it seems the Lingos are big Park City Kathy fans.
You guys are bagging me up. LOL. OTOH this is as serious as it gets. Thanks for the tip that Kuhns is from Wall Street.
@Nancy: Huh?