Whose Government IS It, Anyway?

The Paradee Family’s, apparently. Government by, of, and for the Paradee family. The Paradee name has been big in D circles for decades. The old man was chair of the Kent County Democratic Party.  John got a job as a staff attorney when I worked for the Senate.  While we had some excellent staff attorneys (Frank Murphy, Jeff Clark and Tim Willard come to mind), there was always room for someone whose only credential was political cronyism. John Paradee, who pretty much everybody grew to dislike, and quickly;  and Becky Batson, who called the President Pro-Tem without irony ‘Uncle Thurm’. He’s now an attorney wired into all sorts of projects, and she lobbies on behalf of the powerful and connected.

Fast-forward to June of this year. SB 178, to be quickly followed by two substitute bills, is introduced on June 25.  The bill ‘allows the Kent County Levy Court to impose a lodging tax, not greater than 3%, in Kent County‘. The Bill is sponsored by Sen. Trey Paradee, aka Charles Paradee III. On its surface, the bill appears innocuous as it follows on similar legislation being enacted for the other two counties, plus some select municipalities, throughout the state.

However, this bill is different. Although it was not properly noticed in the bill synopsis quoted above, SB 178 provides that:

…The revenue collected from the imposition of the local lodging tax shall, when collected, be directed to the Kent County Regional Sports Complex Corporation, a nonprofit organization, which operates the County-sponsored DE Turf facility located in Kent County near Frederica. The Kent County Regional Sports Complex Corporation shall use the revenue provided exclusively for the DE Turf facility to allow the facility to remain competitive by advertising, promoting, and providing incentives for use of the facility, to establish a program to benefit youth by providing to youth organizations and scholastic institutions the opportunity to use its facility at reduced cost, and to maintain, improve, and support the facility through the payment of costs, expenses, and associated debt.

No other lodging tax legislation included such language specifying how the money was to be used.

Although the synopsis in the bill that ultimately passed had been changed, you will see that, once again no notice as to how the money would be used was in the synopsis.

Enter John Paradee, who has been involved in this controversial project since at least 2017.  In 2017, Kent County Levy Court went against the recommendation of its Planning Services division and approved, by a 4-3 vote, a rezoning that enabled the continuation of the project. John Paradee was an attorney for those seeking the rezoning.  (BTW, Paradee’s fingerprints are all over legislative initiatives pertaining to Kent County development proposals, including this plan for a publicly-funded access road to the Dover Mall). The bills were passed, but the expansion plans have stalled. Nobody wants to talk publicly about this. But, I digress.

The Delaware Turf Sports Complex had already benefited from an $18 million DELDOT project to open an interchange at South Frederica specifically for the purpose of providing access to the complex. which opened in the summer of 2018.

John Paradee is a member of the DE Sports Turf Board Of Directors, along with the usual suspects.  This board is the Kent County definition of the Delaware Way. Paradee not only actively pushed for the passage of his brother’s legislation, but, according to this News Journal article, which is a must-read:

With the hotel tax revenue, DE Turf says it would be able to bid for tournaments with more teams and bigger crowds. 

John Paradee filed an application with the state for the development of ‘a hotel, restaurant and retail development on a 21-acre field adjacent to the sports complex’ two days after his brother’s bill passed the General Assembly. On the application, there were three listed owners of the 21-acre field, all limited liability companies.

John Paradee’s name is listed on the LLC’s filings held by the Delaware Department of State. He has represented at least one of the entities, JMER Properties LLC, at municipal government meetings.

In an email, John Paradee disputed the assertion that he would benefit from the proposed lodging tax “in any fashion whatsoever,” calling any suggestion otherwise “wholly unfounded and utterly reckless.”

He also said he was “not at liberty to divulge” information about the LLCs ownership stakes. 

I guess we just have to take his word for it. That he won’t get a penny, not even legal fees, from the building of this massive complex. Regardless, we know that he pushed for the bills, serves on the DE Sports Turf Board, and immediately upon passage of his brother’s bill, filed applications for development on behalf of three LLC’s.

And here’s more great reporting from the same News-Journal reporters, Karl Baker and Sarah Gamard:

The News Journal also found that Sen. Paradee sponsored his legislation only after similar language failed to be inserted into the Bond Bill. 

Multiple sources said lobbying support for the bill came from Nancy Cook, an 83-year-old former senator.

Cook did not reply to numerous requests to comment for this story.

Let me make this clear: If they couldn’t sneak this into the Bond Bill despite the presence of Queen Nancy, it had to emit an unpleasant odor.

Oh, and just when you thought the Paradee gaming-of-government story had been told in its entirety, we now get this. It turns out that, yet another Paradee, sister Jacqueline Paradee Mette, is a member of Gov. John Carney’s legal team. She may or may not have been involved with this legislation. Either in helping to pass it on behalf of the governor and/or ensuring that he signed it. Here’s what we do know, however. John Paradee filed the development proposals two days after the bill was passed. The bill was not signed into law until mid-July.  Did he have assurances that there would be no problems from the governor’s office?

The governor’s response to this latest article?

“We don’t comment on details about the governor’s deliberative process,” wrote the governor’s spokesman, John Starkey, in a text Monday. “The governor has confidence in his legal team and their ability to give him straightforward advice.” The governor’s office also did not comment about whether Mette conducts legal review for any legislation authored by her brother.

That’s not nearly good enough. At best, it’s a non-denial denial. At worst, it essentially confirms that the ethical guardrails are not protecting the public from these kinds of blatant conflicts-of interest.

This ethical stinkbomb is terrible by any governmental standards. Were the General Assembly inclined to do the right thing, they’d pass legislation in January removing the designation for the use of the funds.  They won’t.