DelDOT’s Carolann Wicks Resigning

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1. El Somnambulo says:

   February 18, 2011 at 9:13 pm

   This was almost certainly the Governor’s call. I think it was a tough one. On one hand, Wicks was damaged goods, we all know that. OTOH, bringing in someone not familiar with the culture is gonna be difficult.

   There’s no doubt that legislators were pushing to have her ousted. Some of that anger is misplaced, IMHO, and more deservedly resides with the truly incompetent Minner regime and some grandstanding Sussex County legislators. But there’s no denying that the Indian River Bridge was a fiasco of cosmic proportions, and that she is hardly blameless there.

   While Jack ultimately likely had no choice but to pull the plug, it’s gonna be real tough for any newbie to deal with the various crises facing this agency.

   Let’s hope he pulls another Collin O’Mara out of his pocket.

2. Jim Westhoff says:

   February 18, 2011 at 9:42 pm

   Let me say a few things about my boss.

   I don’t know anything about all the issues that have been detailed in the paper. That’s not my area, and a few pay grades north of my own. Ask me how DelDOT plows roads — I’m your guy.

   What I do know is that it’s a real shame. I can write that because I sat in many meetings with her, accompanied her to numerous public events, and she never failed to impress. She started her career in DelDOT, and came up through the ranks as an engineer. She could stand up before a group of residents, answer questions about road design, then answer another a question about the latest bond bill.

   Despite the enormous amounts of vitriol lately, she’s always kind, friendly and professional. I remember one morning, when there was a particularly scathing article in the paper, I saw her in hallway, she stopped me and asked about my kids, and laughed at the lame anecdote about my son.

   She’s a genuinely good person, and she will be missed.

   Jim

3. Dana Garrett says:

   February 18, 2011 at 9:43 pm

   “Let’s hope he pulls another Collin O’Mara out of his pocket.”

   Please, not another Mike Matthews look alike! 🙂

4. Anonymous says:

   February 18, 2011 at 11:14 pm

   Collin O’Mara is is likely far worse of a train wreck than Carolynn Wicks. Be careful what you wish for. The details will likely surface soon. If not, they will surely surface before the next election cycle.

5. Another Mike says:

   February 18, 2011 at 11:19 pm

   Jim, there are a lot of nice people in the world, but that doesn’t mean I want them in positions of leadership. DelDOT is in need of new blood. Wicks is likely a fall girl, but she was in charge when the IR bridge fiasco and the other stuff happened.

6. Newshound says:

   February 19, 2011 at 2:14 am

   I was so unhappy with Sec. Wicks that one day last month, without fanfare, I went to the DelDOT headquarters and stood with a sign that said: Nix Wicks!

   Life is good.

7. Newshound says:

   February 19, 2011 at 2:32 am

   Here’s a person who’s in need of a high profile government-type job (tongue in cheek) 😉

   http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20110218/NEWS/110218050/Pam-Scott-wife-NCCo-Exec-Paul-Clark-resigns-land-use-attorney?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home

8. El Somnambulo says:

   February 19, 2011 at 8:28 am

   Right, Anonymous. You know all, you’re just unable to share it publicly. I think Port-a-Potty’s got a model with your name on it.

9. Jim Westhoff says:

   February 19, 2011 at 1:37 pm

   Newshound, I guessed I missed it last month when you came by with the sign. Did you really do that, or wasvyour post a little hyperbole?

   Mike, you are right about nice people. I posted because there has been so many rotten stuff posted about her, I felt like piping in. Even if it matters little.

10. Newshound says:

    February 19, 2011 at 4:54 pm

    Jim, it’s hyperbole, but I really wanted to do that. No personal offense to Wicks; however, Markell is correct in his political calculus at least in attempting to change public percetion with the agency. I was seriously shocked when the Gov. decided not to force her out after the Rabb-Rizzo realignment.

11. La Narcolepsia says:

    February 19, 2011 at 10:22 pm

    Good luck getting another Collin O’Mara to come here. Carolann and Ralph Reeb were thrown under the DART bus and took the fall for Mark Brainard and others in high places who now feign shock at what went on. Disgusting.

12. Geezer says:

    February 20, 2011 at 8:25 am

    If you have an answer, short of the FBI’s involvement, of getting Mark Brainard and Ruth Ann Minner to pay for their involvement, everyone is all ears.

13. Geezer says:

    February 20, 2011 at 8:28 am

    Newshound, you’re showing that you don’t understand how rotten things get done in a bureaucracy like DelDOT. Carolann Wicks was not part of the problem; she was someone the rotten eggs had to work around to do their deeds. She was on the engineering side and was plugged into the job when Nathan Hayward left — not because she would further the Minner gang’s shenanigans, but because she didn’t know enough to stop them.

14. El Somnambulo says:

    February 20, 2011 at 9:00 am

    Yep, not knowing enough to stop them is what got her fired. It boggles the mind how many required steps in the process were bypassed over and over again. The Lewes story in today’s paper is but another hard-to-believe clusterbleep.

    As the evidence mounts, it’s clear that Wicks’ only defense is that she didn’t know what was going on in her department. And, all due respect, that’s no defense.

15. Geezer says:

    February 20, 2011 at 9:06 am

    I didn’t bring it up as a defense, just as the reality. Her lack of understanding of how the real estate operation works is a big reason she got the job in the first place. Do you really think those involved told her the truth about any of this?

16. El Somnambulo says:

    February 20, 2011 at 9:24 am

    I’m with you. In hindsight, I can just see what passes for the Minner brain(ard)trust slapping high-fives when they’ve figured out that they can thumb their nose at the collective public without impediment.

    I REALLY hope some Federal agency is investigating the whole lot of them. They stole from the taxpayers, pure and simple, and violated their public trust for their own gain and, most especially, the ill-gotten gain of their connected ‘friends’.

    Wonder how Ruth Ann is coming on that autobiography of hers. Wonder if there will be one sentence of demonstrable unvarnished truth in the whole thing.

17. Newshound says:

    February 20, 2011 at 1:43 pm

    Sadly, I know all too well about a lot of the inerworkings of DelDOT – and since the early ’70s, no less. EL Som and nearly every other Delawarean this side of the Mason-Dixon line clearly see the big picture.

    Like Freebery and Gordon, Minner and Brainard are shielded by the bureaucracy of politics, especially when their administrations are filled with like-minded (oftentimes unwiting) accomplices. Worse, they know that it’s nearly impossible to be ‘charged’ with something legally during and after their terms are up.

    They use the very system to their advantage.

    Unfortunately, the FBI cannot always go back in time to worry about real mismanagement and corruption (even though I would like them to). The citizens, reporters and very administrators who work for ethically-challenged pols should speak up and hold to account such egregious shenanigans. As the great Supreme Court justice Loius Brandeis once said, “sunshine is the best disinfectant.”

    For the past few decades, there’s been a dark shadow cast over the Diamond State – the same state that doesn’t seem to sparkle so brilliantly any more.

18. Geezer says:

    February 20, 2011 at 2:07 pm

    Looking back at what I wrote in a flu-induced fevered state, I should make amends: Wicks was a mostly unwitting part of the problem. Unfortunately, once someone gets plugged into the bureaucracy, the fellowship of the foxhole takes hold: The guy in the next cubicle might be a crooked son of a bitch, but he’s one of the only people who understands what an uphill fight you face. Pretty soon you’re trusting him even though you once knew you shouldn’t.

    I’m reaching this realization after re-reading today’s story about the purchase of the car dealership property near Lewes. It includes quotes from Cleon Cauley, the governor’s designated clean-up man, defending the agency. It doesn’t take long, apparently, for Stockholm Syndrome to set in.

19. Another Mike says:

    February 20, 2011 at 7:04 pm

    Time to stop the excuses for Wicks. I think I was much too nice in my earlier post. Clearly, she was aware of the decision to not answer reporters’ questions, to not get two appraisals, everything. She could have stepped up and said “we will not operate this way any longer.” But she obviously had no interest in that.

    It’s time for a criminal investigation, and leaning on Wicks might help bring the heat on those who may be more directly responsible, such as the former governor who lives in Milford.

    Wicks was the leader of that rotten agency. She must be held responsible for everything that happened there. If she wants to go to jail to protect Minner, Reeb, Brainard and everybody else, fine.

20. Unstable Isotope says:

    February 20, 2011 at 7:15 pm

    I guess I’m not feeling a lot of love for Wicks after reading the latest NJ article on yet another dodgy real estate deal by DelDOT.

21. Geezer says:

    February 20, 2011 at 9:11 pm

    “It’s time for a criminal investigation,”

    Has everyone forgotten the FBI’s involvement in the Milford deal?

22. La Narcolepsia says:

    February 20, 2011 at 10:15 pm

    This all points out the dilemma of picking the next secretary. Carolann worked her way up through the ranks and she was a refreshing change after Nathan and much welcomed by the beleaguered troops. But she is an engineer who was just politically inept. Can you find a politician who actually knows something about the very complex world of road-building, transit, real estate and infrastructure financing? This isn’t like being secretary of state. You actually have to have some knowledge and skills other than politics. Carolann (engineer), Nathan (politico), Ann Canby (policy wonk run out of Delaware in a similar real estate debacle), Kermit Justice (politico-felon) — the hit parade.

23. La Narcolepsia says:

    February 20, 2011 at 10:24 pm

    As the evidence mounts, it’s clear that Wicks’ only defense is that she didn’t know what was going on in her department. And, all due respect, that’s no defense.

    El Som, after today’s story – I agree with you.

24. Bill Dunn says:

    February 21, 2011 at 1:39 pm

    Here is a copy of the statement I gave in front of the JFC on Thursday afternoon:

    Good afternoon,
    I’m Bill Dunn, for those who don’t know me, I’ve been described as a community activist and am presently Vice-President of both the Milltown-Limestone Civic Alliance, a regional civic umbrella group in central New Castle County and the Civic League for New Castle County, a county-wide organization who tends to focus on land development and Quality of Life issue throughout New Castle County.

    I am here today to speak about DelDOT’s lack of commitment to uphold their responsibility to adequately address and oversee road improvement needs in New Castle County.
    TITLE 29
    CHAPTER 84. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
    8404. Powers, duties and functions of the Secretary; provision (4) states:
    To collect and analyze statistical and planning information on all modes of transportation and make studies required to carry out state transportation programs; to coordinate and develop, in cooperation with federal, state, county and local governmental agencies, comprehensive balanced transportation planning, programming and policy for the movement of people and goods within the State; to prepare a statewide master transportation plan that is consistent with the state’s social, economic and environmental needs and goals;
    Many of us, who are actively involved in community planning groups, don’t feel that the Secretary and her staff are doing that AND that they interpret the use of the word “cooperation” in the provision as a justification to NOT demand “comprehensive balanced transportation planning”.
    In general conversation Secretary Wick’s has stated, that
    DelDOT does not get involved or interfere in the County Land Use process of determining if the zoning is correct, if the application is proper use for the zoning, if the plan meets [local development plans] UDC or if the type of development should occur at the location, regardless of the negative ramifications of poor applications of these processes by other governmental bodies.
    How does this conform to the Delaware Quality of Life act 9 DE 2603?

    Last year, there was a meeting that the Secretary and members of her staff had with Sen. Blevins, Rep. Hudson, area civic leaders and residents from the Little Falls Retirement community regarding the Hercules property and the regional traffic issues that may develop seeing its close proximity to Barley Mill Plaza and its redevelopment plan. It was noted to the Sec. that if both plans were to move forward based on present NCC UDC, problems would likely occur. If intersections such as Rt. 141 & Rt 48 were to become overwhelmed, because of those projects and the County’s weak traffic requirements, a DelDOT evaluation would require a TIS, based on the Dept. standards evaluating out three “signalized” intersections and would likely demand millions of dollars of expense to the taxpayers to bring it up to expectable standards. After having this pointed out, the Sec. continued to contend that it is the Dept. position to not interfere with the development planning process in the County.

    By taking the positions that she and her Department has taken, it is my belief that she is abdicating her responsibility to defend and protect the residences of this State and is subsequently strapping us with financial burdens that we can’t afford and clearly should fall on the development community who seem to be focused on “return on investment” despite its long-term impact.

    NO ONE that I interact with in numerous community and civic organizations says NO DEVELOPMENT or “Not In My Back Yard”. That’s something that has been trumped up by developers to discredit people whose primary interest is the health and welfare of their individual family and homes. And, something the Quality of Life Act is supposed to do on their behalf.

    I would encourage members of this committee to demand a written commitment by the Secretary and her Department, to take a responsible roll in development planning and establishing standards with appropriate minimums that can not be disregarded or circumvented by other governing bodies.

25. Capt.Willard says:

    February 21, 2011 at 1:58 pm

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA- The DELAWARE WAY!!!!-as usual.
    You people kill me.
    You are ALL a hilarious bunch.
    Call for ACTION and TAKE TO THE GODDAMN STREETS!
    I’ll sure as hell show up.

26. Nancy Willling says:

    February 21, 2011 at 3:04 pm

    Good Job Bill Dunn!