What, Exactly, Is Going On In Felton?
SOMEthing is, and it stinks of the Delaware Way.
You may have missed it, but Gov. Markell vetoed a Felton charter change yesterday. I’m not sure I can even recall the last time a governor vetoed a charter change, but it doesn’t happen every day. Or even during every administration.
But the vetoed change suggests an untold story.
HB 251, sponsored by Rep. Outten and Sen. Cook, would have, among other things, established that “(a)ny person otherwise eligible to be a member of Council shall not have a family member holding an elected office for the Town of Felton nor have a family member nominated for and/or appointed to an elected office in the Town of Felton. For purposes of this section ‘family member’ shall mean spouse, parent, child, sibling, half-sibling, grandparent or grandchild.”
In other words, only one elected official per family, thank you very much. And the change would have taken effect just a couple of weeks before town council elections were held. Fortuitous timing.
While there may be good reasons to enact such a statute (just imagine Paul Clark and Pam Scott together on New Castle County Council), it does seem to clearly be unconstitutional. This excerpt from Markell’s veto message seems pretty definitive:
When a legislative body establishes restrictions on elected office, it ultimately limits the choices available to voters and restricts the ability of otherwise qualified persons to serve their community. Therefore, such restrictions should be targeted and reasonably related to the specialized demands of the particular office. Whether family members can suitably serve concurrently as members of the Town Council of Felton should not be predetermined by the General Assembly through additional restrictions on membership; it should be left to the eligible voters in Felton.
Furthermore, the language in Section 1 of House Bill No. 251 is overly broad in significant respects. For example, Section 1 also prohibits family members from serving successively on Town Council, as the language is not limited to prohibiting family members from serving concurrently. Thus, as written, the law would prohibit an otherwise qualified candidate from serving on Council if his or her family member currently serves on the Council, even if the currently serving Council member is not seeking re-election.
In addition, House Bill No. 251 would have the effect of disqualifying a person for service on Town Council merely through the nomination of a family member to that body. A person seeking office would therefore need to receive more than just the most votes, he or she would also need to secure the commitment of their family members not to disqualify them by simultaneously seeking Town office. Allowing family members to use the nomination process to limit the electoral options of their fellow citizens would not be consistent with our State’s democratic ideals. These examples reinforce the principle that the eligible voters of Felton are the best persons to determine who represents them on Town Council.
Kudos to Colin Bonini and Dave Sokola for casting the only two ‘no’ votes on this misbegotten piece of legislation.
But that’s not what interests me. I’m more interested in how and why this change ever found its way into legislative form. There must be a real story involving real people and real feuds behind it, not just some bizarre hypothetical. There’s no way any self-respecting town solicitor would allow something like this to make it before the General Assembly without some sort of backstory. So I’m calling on our loyal Felton readers (distinguishable from normal Felton citizens by their ability to read without moving their lips) to give us the inside skinny on this story.
Yes, it sounds fishy. To me it looks like something written to deal with a current situation. Hopefully someone from Felton will give us the scoop.
I think the governor was right to veto this legislation. As much as I hate family dynasties the people have to right to elect these people if they are qualified and they think this person is the best person for the job.
Just out of curiousity, who is the town attorney?
As much as progressives complain about dynastic politics, I have no problem with it because ultimately it is the voters who elect them. And to restrict someone who is otherwise eligible to serve simply because of their family relations is discriminatory, and thus unconstitutional.
So if you don’t want dynasties in politics, do not vote for them. That goes for both parties, as supporters of both parties vote for dynasties. The Bushes and Kennedys come to mind.
Is the Governor in Europe or not? It is a little weird that he is vetoing legislation and tweeting about the snowstorm while out of the country. I tweeted him today about where he is right now but he didn’t answer me. According to Celia Cohen, he left on Saturday night and is due back on Friday. But he gave WDEL a live interview this morning with no indication that he was out of the state. Where’s Jack?
He did a phone interview with CBS 3 today and said he is in London.
Indeed, he is not hiding where he is, as I saw several interviews today where he said he was in London. So Nancy is being quite underhanded in her comment, trying to gin up a false controversy, and she should be ashamed of herself. He is on a trip to Europe to bring jobs to Delaware, and I am quite proud that our Governor can do two things at once.
I am not being underhanded dear DD. I asked this question in relation to his WDEL interview. If I had heard the CBS version than I am sure that I would have been satisfied to learn that he is indeed out of the country. There was no indication of that early yesterday and my curiosity was piqued. In fact, Allan directly queried the Governor about his whereabouts this morning from the looks of their twitter page:
WDEL
Markell on his decision to go to Europe, “As we’re fighting the snow, we’re fighting for jobs in Delaware.”
WDEL
Here is the audio from Gov. Markell (via Facebook). http://bit.ly/4PolSP #delsnow about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck
I never questioned that he ‘should’ go or not based on the weather emergency. I did wonder whether he would be pulling any successes from this trip and pointed out that he made a big deal about ‘doing things differently’ than Minner in this regard. He premised his 2009 economic plan on not going after the big boys of Europe but rather on growing small business entrepreneurialship here. I guess this trip is something of a measure of the failure of his approach for this first year.
I got a few calls from people who were angry that he was spending money traveling with Stephanie McClellan and ?? right now. I only hope that the trip is fruitful, considering that Barclays just pulled more jobs and small businesses still can’t get the credit they deserve out of the major banks (think French Fryers fail).
Markell’s LIFT program is only for businesses established for three years or more from what I understand. Unless the Obama administration and Congress finalize banking reform, who’s to say when they will start to help Main Street as was promised in November of 2009. The bailout was floated as the cureall and credit tightening on Main Street was named as the crux of the fiscal crisis. Paulson pulled a bait and switch as soon as he got his paws on the hundreds of billions and that’s all she wrote.
Anyway, I just saw something about some politician who lost his job because of leaving his state while it was in a state of emergency. It is, therefore, probably something that makes politicians nervous.
There isn’t much doubt that Markell conducted interviews with Allan Loudell yesterday that didn’t indicate his locale. I asked Al Mascitti to double check for me. And as I say, I asked the Governor directly but never got a response. He is in fact running this emergency via his delegated team and I don’t think that is a problem. Would it have been better to put Matt Denn in charge? Maybe not necessary in our high tech 21st Century.
I think that the translation of whatever Nancy is trying to communicate here is that She Has No Clue.
And that apparently not enough people are reading her conspiracy theories on her own blog.
FWIW, Markell’s entire “blueprint” booklet has been pretty much tossed into the deep freeze. Look at the bright side, Nancy — he hasn’t yet donned the swim trunks for a dip in the clear waters of Rehoboth Bay.
Markell said that he would focus on Delaware businesses first. These companies may be based in Europe, but the thousands who work at Barclays, AZ, HSBC and others certainly think of them as Delaware businesses.
AZ announced they’re laying off 8,000 worldwide. They could destroy all 5500 employees here and still not meet their goal. Should Markell not try and fight for those thousands because Nancy hates one of the Governor’s staffers?
So. What, exactly, is going on in Felton?
From the Delaware State News:
Markell vetoes bill changing Felton charter
By Logan B. Anderson
DOVER — Gov. Jack A. Markell announced Tuesday that he vetoed a bill that would have made major changes to the Charter of the Town of Felton.
House Bill 251 sponsored by Rep. William R. “Bobby” Outten, R-Harrington, and Sen. Nancy W. Cook, D-Kenton, laid out a plan to prohibit family members from serving on or running for town council, it then wanted to extended the term of service for council members and would have allowed the town to use the state’s voter registration system as its source for registered voters.
“ The bill goes too far as written, so I am vetoing it. Local residents should have the ability to choose who represents them in their local office. The citizens of Felton should choose at the ballot box who represents them on council,” Gov. Jack A. Markell said.
Felton does not have election districts — every seat is at large.
During the last town election, husband and wife Miguel and Susan Corti ran for two of the open council seats. As the town’s charter currently reads, there is nothing to stop people from the same household becoming a majority of the town council.
The Kent County town’s government has five seats. Three seats were up for grabs in the 2009 election. Vice Mayor Joanne Clendaniel and Councilman Joseph Yapsuga retained their seats, newcomer Councilman Kevin Fletcher joined the ruling body winning Henry Twardus’ seat.
“ We can’t have a husband and wife sit on council,” Mayor David Kelley said, in May when council began discussions about its charter. “ That just wouldn’t be fair.”
The 2009 election cycle was a historic one for the town. It was the first election the municipality held in many years, there was also a record breaking turn out in candidates. Eight Feltonians registered to run for the three open seats.
Because of the infrequency of past elections, the town had not updated its voter registration rules. Currently, to vote in a Felton election eligible residents have to register to vote at Town Hall.
“House Bill No. 251 would have the effect of disqualifying a person for service on Town Council id a family member was nominated to run for that body. A person seeking office would therefore need to receive more than just the most votes to get elected — he or she would also need to secure the commitment of their family members not to disqualify them by simultaneously seeking town office,” a press release form the governor’s offi ce said detailing Gov. Markell’s opinion on the piece of legislations.
HB 251 will now be sent back to the House of Representatives unsigned starting the process over again, the General Assembly can now rework the bill into something the governor would sign if it so chooses.
In the meantime, Felton is gearing up for another election. This year, two seats are up for grabs. Those held by Mayor Kelley and Councilman Michael Routh.
The fi ling deadline for those positions was Jan. 15 — Miguel Corti and Anthony Carroll have entered the race for the two seats against the current council members.
Election Day in Felton will be March 1.
Thank you, JM. So the legislation was a desperate attempt to save the Felton citizenry from (themselves and) the Reign of Terror of Miguel and Susan Corti.
I shouldn’t have to do this, but kudos to the Delaware State News for providing the necessary context to the story. Something that most corporate news organizations routinely fail to do.
Heaven forbid these slack-jawed hayseeds think up something that would actually solve the husband-wife problem — election districts, for example.
Shouldn’t it be Feltoniacs? Not Feltonians.
I’m with you Geezer. There are smarter ways to deal with this issue.
Nancy sounds a little like Sarah Palin…rambling and paranoid.
She’s not upset with Markell but with his aide Stephanie McClellan, who went along on the “junket.”
I first met Stephanie McClellan when she was a Legislative Fellow assigned to the Delaware General Assembly. I’m not sure if we’ve had a smarter Fellow with a more comprehensive grasp of government ever come through the program.
Whenever she’s involved in a project, I breathe easier knowing that we’re not relying on amateurs, as we were forced to do during the Minner years. Would Nancy or anyone else really expect the Governor to go on an economic development mission with no staff?
And Markell took someone who has proven to be effective. Quel Horreur!!
Smart, yes, but with an off-putting knack of coming across as smug. I hear that not only from people who don’t like her, but even a few who do. I’ve never met her myself.
Which is why she is more likely to succeed in the bureaucratic arena instead of the elective one.
But, she’s one of those people who is so smart that others can be intimidated by her intellect and might label her as ‘smug’.
Smug or not, we need people with her brain power in government. Pipples, pipples, you’ve got to accentuate the positive.
Some people just can’t take a woman who combines great intellect and great looks!
“Smug or not, we need people with her brain power in government.”
It depends, as always, on whom she’s there to serve.
Geezer accusing someone of smugness.
Springsteen complaining of loud music.
DUDE, GEEZER! Bel just called you the Springsteen of Smug! i’d be honored.
I’ve met Stephanie McClellan a couple of times and I liked her. We talked about federal environmental cleanup policies the first time we met and remember a smart conversation, not smugness.
However, Stephanie does strike me as someone who doesn’t suffer fools all that gladly and as someone unapologetically without the some of the usual strategies employed by smart women to diffuse any threats others may perceive.
Well said Cassandra. McClellan doesn’t deal with nonsense. Speaking facts in an educated, non-rambling fashion should not be confused with smug. Willing has had issues with her for a long time now, prior to her being appointed Markell’s Director of Policy. What gives, Nancy? What is your real issue with her? Sounds like envy to me.