BREAKING: Paul Clark Gone in Less Than 3 Weeks
This was news to me.
Apparently it was a surprise to Paul Clark as well. He just found out.
But here’s the applicable section from the Delaware Code (Title 9, § 1114):
§ 1114. Vacancy in office.
Whenever a vacancy occurs in the office of County Executive by reason of death, resignation, removal from office or other cause, the President of the County Council shall serve as County Executive until the latter office is filled as a result of an election. If a vacancy in the office of County Executive occurs more than 30 days prior to the date of a primary election in which county officers are nominated, the vacancy shall be filled for the remainder of the term in the next succeeding general election and the County Executive elected in this manner shall take office on the first Tuesday following such election. If a vacancy in the office of County Executive occurs less than 30 days prior to the date of a primary election in which county officers are nominated, the vacancy shall be filled for the remainder of the term by the President of the County Council. If the President of the County Council becomes County Executive, the President’s office as an elected official of the county governing body shall become vacant.
Guess we’d better keep a close eye on Clark to make sure that his limited window runs out with a minimum of chicanery.
Sorry for the short piece. Gotta go to work.
Tags: El Somnambulo, Paul Clark New Castle County, Steve Tanzer Delaware
Tommy Boy had better pick out new curtains for the office NOW!!!
Good news for Paul: He can go back to Boscov’s in time for the holiday shopping rush.
I don’t get the same read. Your interpretation hinges on these words: “removal from office.” I don’t think losing a vote is deemed a removal from office.
The term of office is intact. It lasts till January I believe.. Therefore Paul Clark was not “removed” from office, but simply did not get his contract renewed to serve out another term. The contract,as any legal document would be, would continue in effect until the contract expires.
Section: 1111 “He or she shall take office on the first Tuesday in January following his or her election.”
Agreed Kavips.
Kavips: you’re reading it wrong. The CE removed/resigned was Coons. Clark, as the interim CE, does not have his term go to January.
So Gordon takes office the Tuesday after election day. Wonder if he knows?
Paul is going to ask Wendy Danner for a ruling.
I hope Gordon has the decency to let the current staff stay on through the holidays. It’s hard enough finding a job this time of year and now they have 6 weeks less to do it. It’s not just about the candidates.
Ok, Gotchu… Amazing. I’d actually forgotten Paul Clark wasn’t elected to that spot. Funny what two years of committee meetings, controversies, and a brutal primary election season will do to ones memory….
Some of Clark’s people started putting out job feelers the week after the primary.
If I’m Gordon (or Blake) and I’m taking office in mid-November, why should I wait until January to get my key players in place? Nobody owes Clark’s team another 6-8 weeks on the payroll. They’re political appointees, not beleaguered civil servants.
“I hope Gordon has the decency to let the current staff stay on through the holidays.”
Cue the diabolical laughter.
Transition is not instant and regardless of whether he held the position before or not, it is a good practice to keep some of the folks on who know where things are and what is in progress. Normally a transition team is put in place and has until January to get up to speed. It would probably be in the next administrations best interest to do this anyway. The added benefit would be to allow the current staff some security over the holidays.
It’s not about owing anyone. It is about giving people a chance to find work and not turning them out on the street at the first available chance. That doesn’t benefit anyone.
Clark knows this — and is why he is working at burrowing in at least one appointee now.
If Gordon (Blake) knows who he wants in a position, what’s the point of keeping the incumbent around? To give him/her a couple extra checks to buy holiday gifts? There are plenty of county government lifers still around (Bill Shahan and Jon Husband, for example)who would be more than happy to show the new exec where the problems are. No need to keep Paul’s pals on the payroll.
A lot of these folks are not “Paul’s pals.” They are executive assistants who do the constituent work, the payroll processing, the contract work, etc. Not everyone in government is a high level political player. Some people do they day-to-day jobs and have families, bills and obligations. Let’s not pretend that just because people work for a politician that they are all wealthy and expendable. They are still people who depend on a paycheck.
JL,
The people who are subject to losing their jobs in the turnover are political appointees. If they’re not in the merit system or union members, that’s the reality. They knew it when they were hired, and they should have realized right after the primary that whatever job security they thought they had was now gone.
I’m no apologist for Gordon (in fact, I would never vote for him), and I’m no fan of Clark’s either (although I have a friend and former coworker who will lose his job in the transition)but that’s how this business operates.
Will all of them be asked to leave immediately. My guess is no. If someone is serving in an essential role and Gordon doesn’t have someone to fill that chair, chances are the incumbent will stay for a while. But it’s delusional to think that the people who hold these jobs now will be on the payroll through the end of the year just because most government transitions occur in January.
Clark was not the only person caught off guard by this. Gordon’s campaign manager told me today that they have been thinking they were coming into office in January (if he wins in November).
I don’t guess the new administration – whoever it is – will have much choice than to keep people around for a while since there will be no transition period. Adam Taylor told me he is writing a story about it for tomorrow’s News Journal. I am guessing that there may be some quotes by Gregg Wilson saying Clark will be staying around until Jan.
By the way, Clark is supposedly pushing at least one land use project through – the Odyssey Charter School up in Hockessin – for his friend Shawn Tucker and Harvey Hanna developers.
I just noticed you guys don’t have any share /tweet/ facebook buttons. What’s up with that?
Similar events occured twice, when Council Presidents C. Douglas Buck and Henry Folsom filled out the terms of a CE. January was the transition month.
Wait, does this impact the county council president that was elected in a special election? I’d look it up, but gotta run. Hoping someone checked.
No because Clark was not elected. He was appointed to the vacated position.
This only concerns appointments and there is no provision in any other elected position in the state of Delaware to be filled by appointment, rather than a special election, other than the Executive of NCC.
That is one law waiting to be stricken. Coons supposedly tried to have it stricken mid-2010 and the legis thought doing that would be ‘badly timed’ eg ripe for court action. Now there is no danger of that. Let’s get it changed!!!
I agree with JL. While all the people in question might be ‘political’ appointments in the sense that they don’t fall within the merit system, some are much more political than others.
While I have no problem with Gordon getting rid of Clark’s hired political guns (they really served him well, now didn’t they?), I know a few of the affected people who are wonderful public servants who are also getting caught up in this. They deserve a chance to transition, either to an ongoing job in county government, or to a possible state or federal position. I have tremendous regard for some of these people, and you would too if you knew them.
They serve the public, and they are proud to do so. They deserve due consideration from the incoming Chief Executive. I hope he will give that to them.
Word on the street is that Gordon’s cleaning house. Effective ASAP. Here we are, for better or for worse.
Well, he’s not County Exec yet.
I don’t like to see people lose their jobs, but they do, often with little or no notice, and many of them are wonderful servants who just happen to not be on a public payroll. Do we need to move these county employees to other government jobs? They should be allowed to apply for whatever vacancies exist and be considered like any other applicant would be.
True, Mike. But some of these people are valuable to taxpayers and constituents. Plus, this is an unusual circumstance, one that has just surfaced.
I’ve been on both sides of this in my time. The first time, back in 1984, the D’s lost the State House of Representatives. In the Delaware General Assembly, those who lose are off the payroll the day after the election. Chuck Hebner, who was going to be the new Speaker, told us that we could work through the end of the year while an orderly transition took place. Gave me time to find a new job, and enabled us to serve constituents who, after all, still needed service, while the R’s staffed up. Always appreciated it, and never forgot it.
The second time, I was told I had twenty minutes to vacate my office. Never forgot that one either.
So, no one knew that this section was in the code until NOW . . . what a joke!!! . . . seems to me that is an easy fix . . . council gets together and agrees to put a freeze on Clark doing any “chicanery” amends the Code so that the language is uniform in both sections the Jan. 1 date stands and all are happy in whoville.
The reason that doesn’t work, Linda, is b/c the applicable section is in the Delaware Code. And you can bet that the Delaware General Assembly isn’t meeting in emergency session to consider this.
@El Som: Can you answer this? Is there some “legal” time frame under which a new administration is “required” to make changes before it becomes “political”. I do not know if I am asking that correctly so in layman’s terms do they have a window in which to fire people without any legal repercussion and when that window closes it becomes more difficult?
Thank God and good-by Paul Clark…