The following petition was sent to all members of the Delaware State Senate this morning:
“We are petitioning to respectfully and urgently request that the Senate Rules & Ethics Committee review the appropriateness of Senator Nicole Poore’s sponsorship of HB 355.
We also respectfully request that this bill be reassigned from the Senate Elections & Government Affairs Committee to the Senate Executive Committee, whose membership is the same as that of the Senate Rules & Ethics Committee, to determine whether Senator Poore’s sponsorship of this bill has violated Senate Rules.
We further request that consideration of HB 355 on the Senate floor be delayed unless/until the Rules & Ethics Committee determines whether Senator Poore violated Senate Rules in her sponsorship of this legislation.”
The reason for the request is due to Sen. Poore’s sponsorship because the bill places her as being on the Ft. DuPont board at the same time as she is co-Chair of the Legislative Bond Bill Committee:
“The Board they (Poore and Rep. Heffernan, if HB 355 passes) serve on asks for the money, and the legislative committee they serve on gives them the money”, Jack Guerin of FightDECorruption said. “If that’s not a classic conflict-of-interest, I don’t know what is.”
As many of you know, the Ft. DuPont project has been the subject of controversy since its inception, with Rep. Longhurst and Sen. Poore being the sole legislative sponsors of every bill concerning it.
We’ve covered it since Day One:
https://delawareliberal.net/2022/01/31/yet-more-scandal-hits-the-delaware-city-boondoggle/
Truth in advertising: I assisted in the development of the petition and the correspondence to the senators.
Although not part of the petition, I intend to ask the Senate Rules & Ethics Committee to also consider whether Poore has used her position with Jobs For Delaware Graduates to place students in jobs at the project. I will also call for the General Assembly to arrange for an independent audit of all public funds that have been dedicated to the project. While I don’t know the total amount, we know that over $15 million has been allocated since 2015 alone.
The Senate, unlike the House, has adopted stringent ethics requirements. You can find them here under Section 17 which, by the way, did not exist when Dave McBride and Nicole Poore were in the top two leadership positions.
Maybe, just maybe, the disinfectant of sunlight may finally shine on one of the most ethically-dubious projects in recent Delaware history.