General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up: Week of January 13-15, 2015

General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up: Week of January 13-15, 2015

Talk about your soft openings.  When the most urgent piece of legislation appears to be one that would allow smaller eateries to serve beer and wine, then you get a pretty good sense that it could be a slow January. The other bill on the fast track is a banking bill, and it passed the House unanimously. The sponsors of the bill don't fill me full of confidence that this is simply an innocuous piece of legislation.  It strikes me as a special interest bill, and the interests are those of the banks, not of the consumers.  Could someone please give us some background on the gestation and urgency of this bill? And, um, talk me down?
Wilmington City Council Votes To Not Let In More Charter Schools

Wilmington City Council Votes To Not Let In More Charter Schools

Yes, this is symbolic, but we've come a long way.
The Wilmington City Council sent a request to state leaders Thursday night: Don't allow any more charter schools to open in the city for the time being, and give the city more say over which schools get approved. Council approved 9-3, with President Theo Gregory absent, a resolution urging the Department of Education not to consider any new charter applications in the city to "allow elected officials and community representatives time to assess the impact of charter schools in Wilmington and throughout the State."
Impact is the key word and one of the biggest problem with charters - their impact on surrounding neighborhoods and schools isn't really considered - and even though the new charter law pays lip service to impact, impact alone isn't enough to stop a charter from entering a community. Try building an addition to your house without community approval. Maybe labeling the addition as a charter school would be the way to go! Whether or not a community wants a charter in their neighborhood doesn't matter. As long as a charter follows state law they can pretty much go where they want. Westgate Farms fought against Odyssey Charter moving in.  They eventually won by focusing on the historic location.  Good thing a cemetery was located there. Otherwise, Odyssey could have moved in - no matter what the surrounding community thought or wanted.
Christina Fights Back – Delay Granted, But The End Game Remains The Same

Christina Fights Back – Delay Granted, But The End Game Remains The Same

So... last night this happened:
The Christina School Board again delayed a final decision on its three Priority Schools on Tuesday night, saying they wanted to give the school communities time to study a new compromise proposal worked out between district and state officials. [...] Originally, the state had said the state and district needed to work out an agreement by last week or Gov. Jack Markell would shut the schools down or hand them over to charters or other outside operators. Some board members originally believed they had to vote Tuesday night or that takeover would occur. But Sen. Bryan Townsend, whose district includes Christina, said he called Markell's office during the board meeting and the governor's staff said they were willing to further extend the deadline.
The strike through words are my doing, and it would be refreshing if someone asked how closing these schools would actually work. Until that question is asked and answered I'll file "closure" under meaningless threat. Unless someone thinks redrawing attendance zones that bus these children out to suburban schools is actually on the table. No? Well, neither do I.
Schwartzkopf names Cape Henlopen Senior Center a “Priority” Senior Center

Schwartzkopf names Cape Henlopen Senior Center a “Priority” Senior Center

The Delaware Speaker of the House says that a low performing Senior Center in Lewes is failing, and the way to fix it is to make the board reapply for their jobs – and to replace the center's membership with seniors who are not such pains in the ass. Speaker of the House Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf says it’s necessary for board members to reapply for their jobs, and for the membership to turn over to ensure that every Senior Center member has the commitment to "not calling his office over this bullshit." "These Seniors are just a huge pains in the ass," Pete Schwartzkopf said. "I envision a Charter Senior Center that can select the best Seniors from this area to come here and play cards or do whatever it is they do." The center's board faces the cancellation of its liability insurance at the end of the month and a looming threat from the state to withhold the center’s quarterly grant-in-aid check unless significant changes are made. For more than two hours, Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth Beach, entertained questions from the 60 members in attendance and laid bare the severity of the situation facing the Rehoboth Beach center and the center’s board. The board’s actions haven’t yet driven the center off the cliff, but it’s getting close, Schwartzkopf said, pushing a piece of paper to the edge of a table as he spoke. While most of the information wasn’t new to the people in attendance, some found their complaints validated when the speaker of the House went through the center’s by-laws one by one, pointing out how, in his view, the board is violating the by-laws now or has violated them in the recent past. The by-laws are not there as a suggestion, said Schwartzkopf. They’re there to be followed, he said. [Note: this is tagged as satire, but whoever reads tags? Not me. When liability insurance is mentioned, it becomes a straight pickup from this Chris Flood story in the Cape Gazette.]
Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2015

Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2015

The 148th General Assembly convenes today for its first regular session.  Six new legislators, R Rep. Richard Collins (41st),  R Rep. Kevin Hensley (9th), D Rep. Sean Lynn (31st), D Rep. Sean Matthews (10th), R Rep. Lyndon Yearick, and R Senator Bryant Richardson, respectively replace D Rep. John Atkins (defeated in general election), D Rep. Rebecca Walker (retired), D Rep. Darryl Scott (retired), D Rep. Dennis E. Williams (defeated in primary), R Rep. Don Blakey (defeated in primary), and Sen. Bob Venables (defeated in general election).  The Senate goes from 13 D's and 8 R's to 12 D's and 9 R's.  The House goes from 27 D's and 14 R's to 25 D's and 16 R's. THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY FOR NEWBIES The Delaware State Senate has 21 members. The President Pro-Tempore leads the Senate, although the Lieutenant Governor often, but not always, presides over the senate sessions as a non-voting member (That, of course, will not happen this session as there is no Lieutenant Governor now that Matt Denn has become the State's Attorney General). Here is a list of the Senate members.  Here is a list of Senate committee assignments. The House of Representatives has 41 members, currently 25 D’s, 16 R’s. The Speaker of the House presides over the body. You can find the House membership here.  Here is a list of House committee assignments. The General Assembly is in session from the second Tuesday in January through June 30 each year. Three days a week–Tuesday through Thursday. The Senate often returns for a special session in the fall to consider nominations. The General Assembly breaks for six weeks at the end of January for Joint Finance Committee (budget) hearings and meetings. There is another 2-week break around Easter, and an additional week’s break around Memorial Day.  The Memorial Day break often enables the ‘money’ committees to finish work on marking up the budget.The typical General Assembly meets in session about 50 days a year. Come inside for so much more....
Wilmington’s Business Community Says Enough Is Enough

Wilmington’s Business Community Says Enough Is Enough

Yesterday, the NJ published a lengthy article where Wilmington's business community officially went on the record to voice their disapproval of the Williams' Administration's approach to managing crime in the city. While news and complaints about the crime problem are not new, the fact that portions of Wilmington's business community is willing to talk to journalists about their concerns is new and huge, I think. Previously, they could just reach out to the 9th floor and they usually had not just a sympathetic ear, but also an administration that at least tried to address their concerns. Not, the problem (while admittedly not that much bigger than before) is exacerbated by both the glib promises made by the Mayor and his people as well as an administration that is utterly MIA on this issue. It isn't just that no one from the Administration will speak or even be seen to be proactive on safety issues (even the perception of safety issues), Wilmington's business community has met with the Administration multiple times asking how they can help AND communicating that they can be counted on to support solutions. This effort has been met with silence.
Matt Denn Off to Great Start!

Matt Denn Off to Great Start!

Two major initiatives, and I like them both. First, his creation of a new Office of Civil Rights and Public Trust is designed to eliminate inherent conflicts within the AG's office where attorneys represent both agencies and members of the public with concerns about said agencies. This has been an issue dating back as far as I can remember. And then the new Attorney General unveiled a new bill aimed at violent offenders who are prohibited from having weapons and violent offenders who are committing gun-related violence.