New Castle County Council At War
The first line of the News Journal‘s story on last night’s council meeting has George Smiley stating he’s “at war.” The war is not against decency and ethics, but against brand-new council president Tom Kovach.
Council President Tom Kovach, who took office Jan. 25, has refused to sign the deed-restrictions into law because of how they were passed. In response, two council members at Tuesday’s meeting of the executive committee introduced two changes to council rules that would limit Kovach’s powers. One succeeded and the other was tabled.
Councilman Jea Street, who thinks Kovach should sign the restrictions into law, went as far to suggest that Kovach consider stepping down less than a month into his term.
“You’re just the president – you’re one of us,” Street said. “You need to sign it and do your job. If you’re not willing to do that, you need to resign now.”
Kovach said after the meeting he would not resign.
The anti-Kovach contingent also includes Smiley, Penrose Hollins and Joe Reda.
Hollins successfully got the council to pass a rules change Tuesday that would have the council vice president sign any bill passed by the council into law within five days if the president refuses to sign it. The measure passed by an 8-5 vote, but will not apply to the deed-restrictions measure, which remains unsigned and in limbo.
The council members who voted for the measure were Smiley, Street, Reda, Hollins, Kilpatrick, Cartier, Powers and Sheldon. Right now I just want to kick out the whole lot of them. What a bunch of clowns.
Gee, looks like the Demadictators don’t like having another POV in County Council. We heard murmurs of “you know, you’re not the head of NCCC, you’re just another vote” hours after Kocach won the election. Resign?!…really?
I don’t think Tom Kovach will be retreating to the hills of Cecil or Chester county anytime soon, unlike the Wisconsin and Indiana losers.
The ‘D’ fiefdom gang are now incensed that someone unlike Coons or Clark are not there to help ram crap through. Priceless!
I got this from Bill Dunn, who was at the meeting:
Ewww….. I guess there is a good reason for my County Council queasiness.
sounds like peoples wallets are being affected to me…
I thought Powers voted no. hmmmm.
The weirdest vote on this was Kilpatrick. I asked her afterwards if she was leading Reda around by his nose (upon her prompt, he had immediately tabled his verbal rule change to strip the President of the right to control items placed on the agenda).
She told me that she voted for Hollins rule because Kovach had refused to sign all of the legislation voted on during the meeting of the 8th. I got the impression that all of that legislation was still unsigned. When I checked with the clerk this morning, I found out that Kilpatrick punked me and that there were only a few days between the plenary session and when all of the legislation was signed except the controversial (and probably illegal) Resolution.
What is missing from all of the press was what Bill Dunn has reported here – the gotcha moment. Smiley protested at length that the title of the Resolution had remained unchanged since its inception, including when it went before the public hearing of the Planning Board last summer. After all was said and done and the public got one shot to speak, Jack Dirr exposed Smiley as a liar (Penrose really shit on the pubic by not allowing all of us who came prepared to comment our three minutes).
I wish Adam Taylor had bothered to include the big Smiley lie in the WNJ coverage. That was the real kicker. Even Jim Parks didn’t get it right in his coverage here:
http://www.delaforum.com/2011/JAN.%20-%20MAR/New%20rules%20(2-23).htm
If the change in restrictions won’t matter if the rezoning is not approved (as Smiley claims), and the rezoning has not been voted on yet, then what’s all the hubbub?
Can’t Kovach simply wait ’til the vote on the rezoning? If it passes, sign both. If it doesn’t, well, then why is Smiley complaining?
UI, your post is incorrect – Powers voted against.
“Hollins, Smiley, Reda, Street, Janet Kilpatrick, John Cartier, Tim Sheldon and Bill Bell voted for the measure.
Kovach, Bob Weiner, Dave Tackett, Lisa Diller and Bill Powers opposed it.”
While most people think that the Resolution is automatically not standing if the rezoning doesn’t go, Larry Tarabicos himself said last night that it is not true and that the Resolution will stand unless he and his client act to restore the restrictions (which he said they would do – for the record).
“If the change in restrictions won’t matter if the rezoning is not approved (as Smiley claims), and the rezoning has not been voted on yet, then what’s all the hubbub?”
What has George Smiley done that gives anyone a reason to trust anything he says? If he told me the sky is blue, I’d have to go check for myself.
The war is against decency and ethics, and against brand-new council president Tom Kovach.
What is on display is the corrupt Gordonberry faction of the Dem party.
“Gordonberry faction” I like that. Can I use it for future references? 😉
I’ve been looking all over the Council webpage for the FOIA form needed to obtain audio cd’s of council meetings. Anyone point me to it?
Ask and ye shall receive:
http://www2.nccde.org/landuse/documents/InformationRequestForm/Information%20Request%20Packet.pdf
“What is on display is the corrupt Gordonberry faction of the Dem party.”
That is as stupid a mis-statement as ever. In what regard are Gordonberry loyalists in this fight? Clark and Gordon are in an open war.
Smiley stood up in the council chamber on Feb 8th to declare for all to hear that he has unfriended himself from Tom Gordon and Vince D’Anna as his way of aligning himself with the black caucus (Jea and Pen) over the PAL vote. Vince and Tom are on the PAL Board and tell me that the financial problems began when Anne Farley changed the contract between the county and PAL to give a flat rate. The 40 year contract had been struck in 2000 well before the utilities rates doubled after the DP&L cap came off in 2006. The original PAL contract had included utility cost escaltors before Farley removed them. The programs the county runs in these centers day and night aren’t now paying their share of the bills. It is Greg Wilson who is the voice of reason here, fully understanding what is going on.
Smiley and his cohorts Paul Clark, Joe Reda, Tim Sheldon and evidently the newest member, Janet Kilpatrick are far removed from any kind of Gordonberry contingent.
The thug majority is aligning with the minority reps from Wilmington with back scratching along the lines of promising jobs to city residents and promising help for abating gun violence in trade for votes on the huge refinery tax break. And the other day it was a trade-off in the dispute over whether or not to agree to an emergency funding of the PAL Center utility bills in trade for support for whateverthefuck Smiley and Clark have up their sleeves.
Jea directly admitted to having screwed with Kovach as payback for the PAL Center vote in the committee meeting the other day. One thing about Street is that he always tells it like it is according to Jea.
No, this war is about control over the votes. The most disappointing is Kilpartick who has glommed onto the gang and looks to be BFF to the slimeballs.
Bill Dunn – Thanks much!, that’s not it though. The one I need is for Council. I’m calling to see if Betsy can email it.
“Vince and Tom are on the PAL Board and tell me that the financial problems began when Anne Farley changed the contract between the county and PAL to give a flat rate. The 40 year contract had been struck in 2000 well before the utilities rates doubled after the DP&L cap came off in 2006. The original PAL contract had included utility cost escaltors before Farley removed them. The programs the county runs in these centers day and night aren’t now paying their share of the bills. It is Greg Wilson who is the voice of reason here, fully understanding what is going on.”
Sorry but I call BS on this statement. Gordon orchestrated both contracts with PAL while he was in office. They need a scapegoat because they have severely mismanaged the operation there. Get your hands on the contract as it is all there clear as day.
The next thing Tom Gordon takes responsibility for will be the first. He’s a manipulator and a button-pusher, Nancy, and while I love ya, your buttons are pretty clearly labeled.
The point remains that FARLEY under Coons’ austerity planning DID ADJUST THE CONTRACT that, of course, was first orchestrated by Gordonberry…duh. Coons stripped out the escalator. The article you all should read is the one Jesse Chadderdon wrote for the Community News if you want a bit more of the story than Adam Taylor offered. Taylor was more interested in the flagrant back and forth between Hollins, Street and Weiner with good old Kovach stuck in the middle.
The Farley ‘adjustment’ was a breach of contract and the PAL should have gone after Coons legally over it.
As for Geezer, this is a point of fact not of button pushing. Like I said, the county attorney is clear-headed on what this is all about. Please ask him if you don’t believe me. He’s been walking this fine line since the issue first came up in October.
As I said, Nancy, luv ya but you’re on the wrong side if you think it was good for county taxpayers to have a county exec sign a 40-year sweetheart contract with an organization for which he had served as chairman and then rejoined as soon as he left office.
If the PAL board thought it would win, it would have gone to court. The next story Tom Gordon tells that isn’t self-serving will also be the first.
Whatever your Tom Gordon hard on is all about, Geez, it is still not addressing that the county runs programs day and night for adults and children in these facilities and should be paying its fair share of utilities or go find another building to use.
anon – After I read Chadderdon’s take on the situation, I called D’Anna and interviewed him for a story. That’s when I heard about these details. I have requested a look at the contract before and after Farley and Coons forced the adjustment and I believe that there is also an opinion on the legality sitting around too. Not to try and out your identity or anything, but you have a curious insidery take on most things NCC. The rumors are telling.
Everyone knows that Weiner has a long-standing hatred of Gordon et al (almost as long-standing as Geezers!) and it looks like he used the PAL utility bill ’emergency’ to his own ends. I am guessing that Kovach was persuaded to hunker down with Weiner that afternoon and drum up an alternative bill to address findings presented by the county auditor that the situation in the PALs was dire. This is backfiring on him now that the DEMs are rolling in the glory of using this to coordinate an anti-Kovach voting block which will serve Smiley’s agenda to a tee.
Yes, yes, everybody who ever opposed anything he did has a “long-standing hatred” of Gordon — except for those, like D’Anna, with long-standing ties to that stand-up guy Joe Biden. Don’t be a sap, Nancy. Those programs are being run there so that the PAL center has a reason for being. When he first got into office, the first thing Gordon did was end a long list of programs that had far more enrollment than anything run at the PAL center.
You’re being played.
“If the PAL board thought it would win, it would have gone to court.”
100% correct geezer, Nancy unfortunately is basing her opinions on heresay and not facts. Not everything is a political conspiracy. And threats to “out” someone will certainly not cause refrain in offering the true nature of the situation.
The politics of New Castle County make my head hurt.
Enjoying the exchange between my friends Geez and Nancy, but the point nobody has touched on yet goes to the root of the entire battle:
Gordon and pals build the PAL Center, claiming this great need to serve the youth of Hockessin, but can neither create enough programs nor generate enough revenue to keep the place running. So they conveniently turn to NCCo government, which starts running programs there and kicks in some rent money.
Fact is, PAL should be grateful for anything they get from the county because they built their own Taj Mahal and then couldn’t pay to keep the lights on.
Gordon may still have the votes on County Council but he’s finding it a little harder to pull all the strings from the outside.