“This Is Sussex County”
The other day Jason linked to a Cape Gazette story about mudslinging — literally — in a Sussex County Council race, as a Councilman John Reiley was accused of unethical behavior for accepting many truckloads of dirt from a developer.
His accuser was fellow Councilman Mark Schaeffer, erstwhile mayor of Smyrna, where he generated controversy almost as fast as building permits around the turn of the millennium. (This letter to the editor of the Cape Gazette recaps his career, which would need a lot more white squares to qualify as checkered.)
Schaeffer threw his stink bomb during a council meeting, angering council President Mike Vincent, who uttered one of the most cluelessly ironic things I’ve ever heard a public official say on the record.
“I’m tired of these politics,” Vincent declared. “This is Sussex County, and to do some of the things that have been done in this political race is a disgrace.”
He’s got to be fucking kidding. Yeah, it’s Sussex County, all right. And given its political history since the turn of the century, this doesn’t even make the top 10 list.
SuxCo is the place where Vincent’s predecessor, Republican poobah Vance Phillips, left the state in disgrace after a sex scandal involving his grooming of an 18-year-old aide. Where Republican Eric Bodenweiser had to withdraw from a race for the state legislature when he was indicted on felony charges in a different sex scandal.
SuxCo is where state Sen. Brian Pettyjohn got re-elected after receiving a slap on the wrist for taking a loaded gun aboard an airplane. Where its onetime sheriff, Jeff Christopher, refused to accept that he couldn’t act as a police officer until the state Supreme Court slapped him down.
SuxCo is where the County Council spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in court defending its practice of opening meetings with a Christian prayer. Where a school district had to spend taxpayer money settling a lawsuit by two Jewish families over its insistence on Christian prayers at school events — and then harassed one of the families so badly they left the county (the other wisely stayed anonymous).
SuxCo is where onetime state Rep. John Atkins embroiled himself in a years-long string of behavior so bad the GOP kicked him out. It’s where nominal Democrat Pete Schwartzkopf wagered that SuxCo voters didn’t care, welcomed him into the Democratic Party, and saw Atkins re-elected. Which brings us to another SuxCo nominal Democrat, Kathy McGuiness, who’s such a self-dealing narcissist she can’t see anything wrong with the corruption she’s been convicted of.
Reiley didn’t deny accepting the soil, but he did deny it was unethical. His defense was, basically, that everybody does it. This is the same defense McGuiness deployed at her trial — hiring her own daughter couldn’t be wrong if everyone else was doing it. Had the venue been SuxCo, it would have worked.
Reiley and McGuiness might be right about everyone doing it. They’re wrong about that making it OK. Similarly, Schaeffer is right about the ethics of Reiley accepting the gift, but wrong about it being an offense Reiley should resign over. If Schaeffer held himself to that standard he would have resigned from every public position he previously held.
Vincent, for his part, seems to walk around in a permanent state of denial. I have no idea what he did before getting elected — he’s a lifelong Seaford resident but his bios say nothing about any work history, just that he was a poobah at the local volunteer fire company — but back in 2014, in the wake of I can’t recall which scandal, Vincent played the same “shocked, shocked!” card, penning a News Journal op-ed claiming that Sussex County was being misrepresented.
Sorry, Mike. I don’t know if you’re trying to convince others or only yourself. Delaware’s other two counties exhibit plenty of graft, self-dealing and petty assholishness among its political classes, but on a per capita basis, they can’t compete with the smug ignorance and casual corruption that make Sussex County’s politics the scummiest in the state.
There is one part of his statement I do agree with: It’s a disgrace.
Oh shit.
We’ve all known this, but putting the pieces together and seeing the whole picture… Wha a bunch of grifters and scumbags.
Those were just off the top of my head. There are probably others I’m forgetting, and I welcome any additions readers might recall.
In retrospect, Eric Bodenweiser should have continued his pursuit of elected office and stonewalled any prosecution. This is now the standard defense for candidates and office holders now that they are immune to all laws.
Eg sexpest Smynk
While I do see the potential for an ethical dilemma for Riley, it is (was) common for builders and DELDOT to drop topsoil spoils for free upon request. Once I had DELDOT drop 8 dump truck loads on my property so I could build some raised flower beds. I tried to tip the DELDOT driver but he declined. My neighbor got enough to fill in a failed man made pond. My other neighbor up the road was Reiley.
You’re not a public official.
I do wonder about why they’re giving it away. There are lots of places where topsoil is a salable commodity.
Everybody does it.
Time is money. Two dump trucks working a site with an excavator you dump the dirt as close as you can. The more you can dump on a single site the better.
The story got better…..”On Thursday, two days after 3rd District Councilman Mark Schaeffer asked Councilman Rieley to consider resigning amid concern over dirt trucked free of charge to the Rieley farm, near Millsboro, Councilman Rieley fired back, presenting evidence he says links Mr. Hopkins’ Planning & Zoning voting record and projects for his business, Hopkins Construction.
“We’ve found Keller has been approving developments and then accepting contracts to work there,” said Councilman Rieley. “He absolutely should have recused himself in each of those instances or declined to take contracts to work there.”
Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control data and Planning & Zoning minutes show permit approvals for Hopkins Construction projects endorsed by the commission and Mr. Hopkins casting affirmative support, Councilman Rieley claimed.
Mr. Hopkins, appointed to Planning & Zoning in November 2016, said Monday that he had not seen Councilman Rieley’s evidence.
………Petition for transparency
Meanwhile, a petition launched Sunday through change.org asks Sussex County Council to immediately implement policies to ensure transparency and trust in all those involved in land-use decision-making.
“The current Council election campaign has brought to the surface what the public and residents of Sussex County have long suspected,” the petition states.
Started by Marcia Sabo Williams with Sussex2030, a nonpartisan grassroots group that advocates smart growth, it will be presented to council Sept. 19.
Land use and sprawl is Mr. Hopkins’ main campaign issue. He favors high-density rezoning along Del. 1, from Lewes to Milford, to concentrate development in that corridor.”
https://baytobaynews.com/stories/race-for-5th-district-sussex-county-council-seat-heats-up,88087?fbclid=IwAR3y4UbEyE6TcH2gbeO39957BphOkhug6SMkjLxGLwmahxtqtpSNfz4NPQc
What interests me is what relationship exists between Schaeffer and this Hopkins character. I refuse to believe that Schaeffer isn’t up to something.
If you’re going document mining, be sure to remember that Schaeffer likes to put things in his wife’s name and under various LLCs.
Subtext: Schaeffer wants to be president of county council. He has one vote now, Cindy Green. With Hopkins, he’ll have a majority and can do whatever he wants.
Hopkins has already begun talking about rewriting the land-use plan early – it’s supposed to go until 2028. He’s backed by Marty Ross, who was Vance Phillips’ consigliere.
You don’t like Mike Vincent, I get it. But President Schaeffer will be a thousand times worse.
I don’t know Mike Vincent, and I don’t doubt that he’s better than the alternatives.
I figured Schaeffer was up to something. Sounds like he wants to repeat the Smyrna process, where rapid development led to the usual problems. He hid his interests behind lots of dummy LLCs. Anybody who wants to dig should start there.
My concern about Vincent is his political smarts — is he as naive as he sounds, or is he just trying to manage the PR? What was his job before public office? Schaeffer is persistent and if not exactly smart, at least shrewd. Is Vincent up to the task of getting rid of him?
The putting things in his wifes name works a number of ways – check to see how many ‘minority/wormen owned business grants” theyve received. Im sure everyone remembers mikes famous harley on rt 13. well he put that as a business owned by his wife and when they divorced she owned the business and he had no recourse to do anything. twas quite the funny affair.
Mark the Shark Shaeffer, former Mayor of Smyrna, former DRBA Commissioner, protégé of Mike Harkins. Developer, politician, ballot harvester and if you can think it he is that but not an alter Boy. Sharky was his nick name while Mayor of Smyrna and for good reason. He was a very divisive force in Smyrna politics and the beat continues. BUCKLE UP, THIS IS NOT A DRILL.
Reminder: Schaeffer got into office in Sussex because the Dems couldn’t dredge up a warm body to run against him.
From reading the DSN article, it sounds like Mark the Shark and Hopkins want to build even more developments in the Route 1 area, making traffic even worse than it already is in Coastal Sussex. Schaeffer is in the real estate game. So the more building going on the better for him and for Hopkins.
Here in Smyrna we remember Schaeffer as the POS that tried to extend the town into lower New Castle county and was soundly rejected, no one wanted him or Smyrna’s cops here. Have no doubt he’s up to no good in Sussex, and it all comes down to the word Developer. This state is suffering the same fate as my native Long Island and Middletown is the proof.
As a Suxco political observer, this potential Schaefer-Hopkins alliance is concerning. As a proud Shark, I am offended that Schaefer was given that nickname. Skunk would be more appropriate. I shall file a motion with Judge Bill Lee next weekend.
‘Judge Bill Lee’. Old Delaware politicos never die, they just lose upward.
When Sharky was DRBA Commissioner, he called himself the Commiss from the old TV show. When he left the DRBA, they had to take his badge away. He didn’t want to give it up something like TRUMP. Sharky was of the “HAMMERHEAD” species. Cold, brutal, ruthless and unmercyful. He really loved that badge.
Loved the free travel, too. You know the old saying — pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.