DelawareWatch Goes Moderate

Dana Garrett has apparently been bothered by a number of comments on his blog lately.  As a result, he has started moderating comments.  I guess you'll have to somewhere else…

The Burris Reveal

Dave Burris posted the rest of the story on the subpoena to Mike Matthews for the source of the Bill Lee photo.  The short answer is that there was a…

UPDATED: Congrats Tommywonk!

Tommywonk has been announced as the representative of the Delaware Blogosphere to the Democratic National Convention. The rest of us at DelawareLiberal.net will be spending the rest of the day…

Has Dave Burris Lost It?

Go check out Down With Absolutes. Apparently Dave Burris has demanded Mike's source for a photo that he posted last week of a possibly intoxicated Bill Lee in a Dewey…

SEU Oversight Board Authority Expired

There was some question around here last week about whether or not the SEU was acting within the law that created them. There was an allegation that their term had expired per statute. Here is the pertinent part of the law:

There is hereby created the SEU Oversight Board which shall, from passage of this Act until January 31, 2008, consist of all members of the Sustainable Energy Utility Task Force (“Task Force”) appointed pursuant to Senate Concurrent Resolution 45 from the 143rd General Assembly and Senate Concurrent Resolution 6 from the 144th General Assembly. By December 31, 2007 the Task Force shall recommend to the General Assembly the composition of the Board to serve after January 31, 2008.

So according to this, their term expired on January 31st, three and a half months ago. I spoke to an assistant to Senator McDowell and confirmed that, indeed, the authority was not renewed. On the recommendation of counsel, they have continued to operate as if they were still a legal entity. This may explain why they were unable to answer whether of not they were a public body in their last meeting. According to my source, they are continuing to meet in order to solicit input on how to structure the permanent SEU oversight board.

I contacted Tyler Nixon for comment (note to self, never ask a lawyer for a comment without specifying a maximum number of words). Mr. Nixon’s full comment is below the fold.

Senator Harris McDowell, and any other person knowingly and/or wilfully disregarding Del C. 29 Sec. 8059(e)(1), is unlawfully operating a rogue quasi-agency by purporting to hold meetings and make decisions dispositive of the Sustainable Energy Utility’s future, months after the former SEU Oversight Board’s authority expired.

Report from the SEU Meeting

Things are quiet here at work this week, so I had some time to make it out to the SEU meeting at the Buena Vista Conference Center. I have never been to one of these sorts of meetings before, so I was a bit tentative. Luckily, there were some pretty smart and experienced people on hand to challenge the board.

John Kowalko was in attendance as an interested observer, as was John Flaherty. Both of them asked questions, but we all left a little disappointed. It should be noted that Copeland was the last to arrive (sorry about your dog, Charlie) at 10:29 and gave the board quorum. At 10:39, Patty Blevins had to leave, breaking quorum. So there were really only 10 minutes of official business. Half of that time was spent approving a letter written by the board’s attorney to address conflict of interest concerns. The other half was spent approving the minutes from the last meeting.

The Delaware Dem’s Newest Delegate

Rob Carver was elected to be a Barack Obama Delegate on Saturday.  I interviewed Rob on Super Tuesday.  It bears watching it again.  Good work Rob![youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFe-7vUtL5A[/youtube]