Cast Your Vote For Scandal of the Year
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Tags: Delaware, Delaware Blogosphere, Scandalous!
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This is a toughie. I think KWS’s election was scandalous, but we have probably not seen the full flowering of the scandal machine that the INs COm office will become.
I’d say party money spent on Carney – but that was a little parochial and inside baseball-y.
Workforce Housing? Paul Clark and the New County Council moves to save builders by throwing the rules out the window and calling everybody a racists….? Yes – that is it.
I voted for Workforce Housing but it was tough. The nepotism scandals were really competing this time, as well as poor oversight.
Anyone remember the “Prince” Still ‘Spank-Boy/Madam-Ex’ scandal?
Delaware Psychiatric Center — a place charged to care for the ill and vulnerable (and doing so on taxpayer dollars) found to be a place where patients were abused and maltreated. Add to that how the state largely circled the wagons to minimize and ask taxpayers to pay no attention to the little man behind the curtain, while the problems did not seem to abate. This to me is emblematic of the whole Delaware Way business — and in this scheme patients were hurt. Every level of the Minner administration failed on this one and I suspect continues to fail at DPC.
Ditto Cassandra. The state failed in its most sacred of responsibilities.
Workforce housing is good policy. Only in the DL world could finally looking out for the interest of working families be on the par with abusing, stealing from, and endangering the lives of the mentally ill be on the same level.
Or put another way, only someone on a developer’s payroll could whitewash the economic ruination created by unlimited development affecting the 800,000 Delawareans NOT living in Wilmington (…… who will soon be forced into overcrowded schools, be made to drive on overcrowded highways, and be resigned to drink sewage stained well water because of inadequate sewers) … by equating it on the same level as the criminal mistreatment of a score of the mentally ill.
Both are tragic. One ruins 800,000. The other 10.
I chuckle at the statement that workforce housing is good policy…. “Yeah, I say: but only for the developers….”
Hey, kavips,
Check your facts. Workforce housing is only for NCCo. No such program in Kent or Sussex. They may be having development issues, but you can’t lay them at the door of WFH.
WFH is coming to a county near you soon.
The Sussex County Council had talked about WFH in their meetings in the past two months or so.
It is a developer-driven issue since it serves noone but developers.
David-The term WFH is only window dressing. Those of us living here are aware of the terms of the agreement between developer and county. In short, the developer receives expedited approval and waiver of some regulations (though some have since been re-attached), and INCREASED density of projects on the books, in the pipeline, and in a vision. The county and council repeatedly states this is to help the fireman, nurse, blue collar worker get a home. And Dave, there are firemen, nurses, and blue collar workers who stand at the meetings, and say “But I don’t need any help…” You may be misguided in thinking this is to thwart low income or Section 8 Housing. It is not. For many of us, it is a density issue. There is no economic basis here in the targeted WFH area. Infrastructure is absent via roads,sewer, schools, mass transit etc..It is a MONSTER NCC Council is in the lab creating. They expedite and permit increased housing density, into a market area that ALREADY has overflowing, available housing of the very same price range–without any agreement or consideration for sewer, roads, schools etc.. NCC gets the transfer tax, and lower NCC services gets shillings to support the impact. We in the Appoquinimink area are really not ripe, nor needing this opportunity. However, I read in the Milton, Milford area, that teachers, nurses, EMTs, policeman etc., can’t afford housing because of beach price influence, so maybe……..
didn’t they announce an amendment to do away with the expedited review?
Unfortunately, infrastructure isn’t built until there is a need–taxpayers would lose their minds if they have to pay more to build a school that will be a quarter full because there are new homes planned 10 years down the road. Look at Rt. 299–it is a mess, but DelDOT won’t do improvements until the road is failing. The MOT area is where people are going to be buying new houses now that north of the canal is built out. Hell its the farmers fault, they shouldn’t have sold all their land to developers….
The majority of the fault here lies with the state, ie schools and DelDOT and mass transportation.
Yes anon, they did announce an amendment. Sorry, if I was not clear in my (though some have since been re-attached) comment above. I was trying not to be laborious of every point.
The fact remains this bad policy has tenacles across so many agencies that impacts so many households. It has been disguised as benevolent to the “up and coming”, when in fact it’s a boondoggle to the “here and hanging in there”.
It is not a class war. It is a density dump war–with no other provisions in place EXCEPT housing.
I agree, the whole planning system for the state is a failure.
I’m amazed at the poll results…. the scandal of the election of unqualified and dishonest KWS is second only to the DE Psychiatric Center mess! Where was everyone before the election when this woman could have been stopped in her tracks, since the same information we have now was already available then??? All but Jason and a couple of other people endorsed her and gushed about what a wonderful candidate she was, taking all her BS at face value despite many clear and reliable warnings. You have only yourselves to blame for all the scandals yet to come thanks to KWS and her personal entourage of shady characters, all of whom will benefit financially from her election, but at our expense!
OK, I can’t stand it anymore. I have to comment on this workforce housing debate. If this is supposed to be a liberal blog, why is David Anderson the only one weighing in for affordable housing? Not everyone can afford — or even wants — a $350,000 McMansion on a golf course. I don’t know about you, but I am getting older and would like a nice townhouse in my dotage. I agree this has been a PR disaster, hastily and suspiciously conceived, and the term “workforce housing” conjures up Section 8 quonset huts. But this is housing for people who earn 80 to 120 percent of median household income for New Castle County (100 percent is $52,419, and 120 percent is $62,903). That would be teachers, cops, nurses, government employees — not crack ho’s. And for those who are worried about the cost of infrastructure such as sewer and transit, those services can be provided much more cost effectively to taxpayers if density goes up. Before you gasp at the notion of “more density,” even with a 50% density bonus for workforce housing, the density in NCC’s S zoning would still be less than the Sussex County base density of two units per acre. That’s a ridiculous waste of land that creates MORE traffic congestion and air pollution. You don’t sound like liberals, you sound like NIMBYs on this issue.
Oh please. No one here is against affordable housing. We’re against unsustainable growth.
You can’t have affordable housing without increasing density above what it is now. My point is, carefully prescribe design and performance standards and density can build community, provide infrastructure and services more cost effectively, enhance affordability and reduce pollution and congestion. To anon, Sussex has a moderately priced housing ordinance and they just passed an ordinance to encourage more multi-family housing.
THE NEWS JOURNAL SAID IN ENDORSING KAREN WELDIN STEWART,
“…SHE HAD EXTROARDINARY EXPERIENCE IN DISMANTLING TWENTY THREE INSURANCE COMPANIES.
AND HER KNOWING HOW TO TAKE
AN INSURANCE COMPANY INTO RECEIVERSHIP, PRESENTS RARE INSIGHT INTO HOW THE COMPANIES OPERATE.”
THE CAPE GAZETTE, OF SUSSEX COUNTY,
ENDORSED KAREN SAYING
“KAREN WELDIN STEWART’S EXPERIENCE ,
KNOWLEDGE OF COMPLEX INSURANCE ISSUES AND HANDS-ON STYLE
MAKE HER THE MOST QUALIFIED CANDIDATE FOR INSURANCE COMMISSIONER.”
RON WILLIAMS OF THE NEWS JOURNAL SAID
“KAREN WELDIN STEWART IS THE MOST QUALIFIED AND EXPERIENCED CANDIDATE IN RECENT MEMORY.”
KWS WON THE ELECTION. NOW SHE AND WE FACE THE REAL CHALLENGE AHEAD, WINNING THE INCUMBENCY. THAT WE ARE DETERMINED TO DO.
ELLIOTT JACOBSON
THE SHADY ENTOURAGE
Lee Ann, the deal is whether you limit the density to ‘nodes’ or growth zones. That was the discussion that Charlie Baker led in 2005. Not only that but that the WFH would be enacted in conjunction with Transfer of Development Rights to ensure that dedicated ‘growth zones’ were established. With such broad by-right now in place in the WFH, now acceptable levels of growth becomes instant morass and a very expensive High Density Urbananization of a rural environment. Density ‘all over the place’ is horrible ‘planning’.
The uncoupling of the density from mass transit marked the dearth of smart growth planning behind our county NCC decisionmaking as does the fact that density is being planned for the most rural areas of our state….not to mention that prior to the housing bubble’s bursting, places like Issac’s Glenn were vehemently objectionable because they ignore the AG district. AG is one of DE’s biggest industries and AG needs AG land to sustain itself.
Smart growth tenets require that growth be held to where the infrastructure exists.
You guys want the public to foot the bill for the roads and sewers socanal? Then pllease show me DelDOT’s dumping plans for Sonecha’s Bayberry Beltway (301) and replacing those plans with light rail. Get with the 21st Century.
Gabriel, whoever are you? This place is an echo-chamber. They love your style of filth-mongering.
The state agrees and is recommending that WFH not be allowed just anywhere but in specific zones tied to transit and other infrastructure.
Another side of ‘work force housing’ that is untenable is that is is calling for a new bureaucracy in county hall to administer it.
Who says those mid-level earners who will be seeking to play this housing ‘lottery’ will not be recipients of more political payback for GTVO etc.. that the unions already enjoy. Who says the new affordable housing will be fairly distributed? I personally doubt this corrupt county environment can be trusted.
Joan Deaver is going to be looking into the Sussex Land Trust as soon as she takes office. She was denied a look into their finances as a private citizen yet that is the equivalent to what NCC is planning for us.
In the WFH amendment, Penrose agreed to remove the provision that allows these affordable units to be bought as rental unit investments. The hue and cry for his head from the growth lobby was heard county-wide.
The planning council was evenly split 3-3 on how removing the rental provision would supposedly destroy the viability of the ordinance.
If it is ok to rent these units, why then have a huge bureaucracy built up to implement the ordinance at all.
Lee Ann, that is admirable of the state.
What the people in the Appoquinimink (sp?) district don’t like is that the thousands of homes already in the WFH pipeline will go forward without a Chancery ruling and we all will be dearly feeling the pain in taxes etc to raise the schools etc. needed to retrofit this uptick in population.
“carefully prescribe design and performance standards and density can build community, provide infrastructure and services more cost effectively, enhance affordability and reduce pollution and congestion”
OK, Show me where that’s actually happened in Kent County. I live just north of Magnolia, a real hot development zone, and it seems to me that a lot of the proper planning for infrastructure hasn’t happened. Most of the roads in my neck of the woods were not designed for all of the traffic they’re now getting. Additionally, it doesn’t look like they have the room to widen some of the roads to create the room that they need. Regardless of one’s feelings on the issue, planning in this state hasn’t worked. Either state government needs to take care of it, or you’ll have the mess you have now, with each county doing it’s own thing.
Nancy is right. In my area, we probably have has much population as some small towns in Kent County, but since we’re in unincorporated Kent County, the State Police will need to eventually beef up patrols,etc. costing the state more money.
Why is Lee Ann Walling not listed as a choice for Scandal of the Year?
Nancy and Elliott
The news outlets you cited only published the press releases her campaign put out on which both of you collaborated. Repeating all that garbage again here doesn’t make it any more true. What IS true and factual is my first-hand information about KWS. You know very well that she lied and connived to fraudulently get herself elected, with help from both of you, of course. And both of you should be ashamed of yourselves.
Gabby, I had nothing whatsoever to do with KWS’s campaign. I am her supporter. She is going to do a great job for the consumer.
Lee Ann- I sense your frustration of a well intended plan executed as a misguided missile. I promise some of us are very well informed of the comprehensive plan, and 10 year plan, and everything else thrown out there, by both state and county. What the reality is in our area was, people ALREADY moved here without WFH, and ponied up the money necessary, as a bedroom community to job areas. With that base alone, we are already 2 schools behind, and have kids in trailers. We can easily wait 5-7 years from suggestion to open door for a new school. A high school 7-10. Our roads are beat to death, as many are “country”, and we have ONE maybe two units of EMTs servicing this WHOLE BELOW THE CANAL region. I could go on. Again, many of the occupations you mention live here already in droves. Both neighbors to me on the left are county police. The neighbor on the right is state police. Across the street is GM retiree, and I could go on down the street like that. Brandywine area is mothballing schools, and is direct access to transportation and I95 corridor to even more jobs. Why not there. I know they are working on the one area up there to get it up and going. Shouldn’t we see how that pans out before we start committing other areas to such legislation? Additionally, and maybe a small point. I have grave concerns, when at a county meeting, to be told, that the county will enforce whatever deed restrictions are decided upon the dwellings of WFH. Yea right, the county is broke now. We can’t get another EMT down here, but let me send the guy who’s looking for a stockade fence! How in the heck, do they think they will enforce deed restrictions on scattered WFH, throughout neighborhoods, when local neighborhood associations can’t even do it? Not to even imagine of “yup, those 2 are workforce housing–broken shutter–book ’em”,hold on, this one is not WFH, drive by…”. The clown who uttered those words, should be run out of town just on the false sense of enforceability, and gentrification he tried to extend. We know it’s density and not Section 8, we know more people increases our tax base. But we also know, a house is up in 3 months–a school is years–a road is a decade–and on and on and on. We need all of this already. Passage of WFH fully, pushes us beyond handicapped to hopeless. The homes are already here, in the price range, that need no designation of WFH. Come and see.
Brian,
Check your facts. Sussex has had an “affordable housing” program for two years now. It hasn’t worked because the market went belly-up.
LeeAnn,
To call the Sussex programs “workforce housing” is to make people think that they’re the exact same thing as what’s up in NCCo. They’re not.
Mark H., Kent is up to its eyeballs in lawsuits — more than 30, many of them courtesy of John Paradee. They aren’t in a position to consider the finer points of design standards. The state, which funds 90 percent of the roads, 70 percent of the schools, all the jails, all the school-bus transportation, the State Police, etc., etc., would like to have more of a role in land use — but there is significant resistance in the legislature and at the local level. State taxpayers, for the most part, still don’t realize that a short-sighted land-use decision in Sussex County or elsewhere costs everyone who foots the state bill for infrastructure, schools , environmental cleanup — the list goes on.
House Dem leadership bringing back John Atkins and pretending he’s changed. The new HML earned a place in hell for that one.
Lee Ann, it’s a tad difficult to understand your stance on WFH in NCCo. In one argument, it appears you happily use the NIMBY label to dismiss those of us against the ordinance as written by the pro-developer NCCo Council. The next argument, you say a lot of what is our concern.
Forget the budding, adversarial relationship with Nancy, she wrote well on the issue, as did Joanne. Heck, consult with Leann F on this. Sure, she is firmly on the same side of the argument as us, but you will learn we are nothing of the NIMBY group, but more of the do-it-right group. Doing it right, by the way, includes looking at all currently available options, including the copious available inventory that qualifies in dollar value and transportation availability as defined by NCCo themselves! They have not done that.
Why do we need legislation when there are over 2,000 houses on the market in NCCo and about 70% of them fall in the 200k-250k range? we dont need to build new houses, we need to sell the ones on the market.
THE NEWS JOURNAL
That paper, David Ledord, Greg Burton and much of its staff are the biggest scandal of all. Fear mongers and salacious spreaders of hyperbole. Spit!
Living in Sussex, I guess I probably just give NCC too much credit just for TRYING. Despite a 19-page letter from DNREC detailing why a huge borrow pit to be located near other huge borrow pits could cause an environmental disaster, Sussex approved rezoning the 200-acre site. Two choice quotes from the probable next president of the County Council, Vance Phillips, as quoted by the Cape Gazette:
“If a man can’t sell his dirt then something is wrong,” and “The natural resources are there to serve us.”
I also agree that the market has taken the wind out of the WFH sails, although former Sen. Amick told me about door-knocking in the Back Creek area and seeing McMansion after McMansion with hardly any furniture inside. Some of these folks may have “qualified” Back in the Day, under the very loose terms that we all now decry, but how many bit off more than they could chew?
I mentioned in #15 that WFH has been a PR disaster, hastily and suspiciously conceived, with the term “workforce housing” evocative of Levittown. (Now the DE State Housing Authority has switched to “attainable housing.”)
I guess, R Smitty, I am rooting for NCC to come up with a version that is still effective while calming citizen concerns. The version the state saw at PLUS on 12/23 fell short in terms of effectiveness.
I also agree that the market has taken the wind out of the WFH sails, although former Sen. Amick told me about door-knocking in the Back Creek area and seeing McMansion after McMansion with hardly any furniture inside. Some of these folks may have “qualified” Back in the Day, under the very loose terms that we all now decry, but how many bit off more than they could chew?
Honestly, under the right program (which, of course, would require subsidies or some kind of “grant” to the sellers or buyers), I wouldn’t mind WFH-eligible families to be allowed to move into these homes, so long as they can show they would be able to afford the utilities and life’s staples to stay there (not to mention the NCCo property tax), beyond mortgage payments.
In this economy, with thousands of houses within that price range that NCCo themselves defined, and then many others in available inventory, there should be no talk of present-day development, pushed by that same government, to yet flood the inventory even more. They should focus on getting the current inventory moved. THAT would be an economic stimulus, it would get people homes they long to acheive, it would get empty homes occupied, the infrastructure already exists, and NCCo can get their precious transfer tax. Additionally, it reduces the possibility of more absentee landlords, which tends to happen in the vacuum created when buyers, with the intent to live on that property (not landlords), disappear.
the buying of mcmansions and not being able to afford furnishings is nothing new. when capano and double s were building all the mcmansions on old baltimore pike it was very common to see homes with families in them that had a kitchen table and a sofa and tv and that was it down stairs. its nothing new.
and there is a new tax credit for first time home buyers this year of up to $7500.