Why Should Delaware Care?
Months of jockeying between Gov. Matt Meyer and Senate leaders within his own Democratic Party could not only impact how Delaware operates and expands its largest port, but could also set the power dynamic in Dover for years to come.
Delaware lawmakers are again asserting themselves in a months-long power struggle with Gov. Matt Meyer over control of the Port of Wilmington.
Late on Monday evening, Democratic Senate leaders announced in a press release that they would not confirm two of five nominees that Meyer had submitted to serve on the state board that oversees the port and directs the long-delayed efforts to build a new container terminal in Edgemoor.
In the statement, Senate President Pro Tem David Sokola, Senate Majority Leader Bryan Townsend, and Senate Majority Whip Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman jointly said that they believed “this moment calls for different voices on the Board.”
It is not immediately clear what the lawmakers specifically objected to with the two nominees, who are former state Transportation Secretary Jennifer Cohan and former Diamond State Port Corporation Executive Director Eugene Bailey.
A newly posted agenda for a Wednesday meeting of the Senate Executive Committee – which confirms gubernatorial nominees – now lists Meyer’s remaining three nominees: port labor leader Ronald Kimoko Harris, former DuPont executive David Burt, and Robert Jerry Medd, the former chair of the Delaware Board of Pilot Commissioners.
The Senate leaders’ decision comes as Delaware lawmakers have also rapidly advanced a resolution to revive a long-dormant task force that would allow the legislature to scrutinize how the state – under Meyer – is carrying out plans to expand the Port of Wilmington in Edgemoor.
For decades, the Port of Wilmington has served Delaware as a state-subsidized anchor of good-paying, blue-collar jobs. In recent years, state officials led by former Gov. John Carney have hoped that an expansion at Edgemoor would add thousands of more of those jobs to the state.
Last week, the resolution to create the task force unanimously passed the full Senate – one day after State Sen. Darius Brown (D-Wilmington) introduced the measure and less than 24 hours before Meyer was scheduled to give his State of the State speech at Legislative Hall.
After the annual address Thursday, Meyer told Spotlight Delaware that he knew nothing about the efforts to revive the task force nor had Senate leaders communicated to his office the need for it.
The resolution calls for the reestablishment of the Port of Wilmington Expansion Taskforce to monitor the state’s long-delayed and controversial efforts to build the $635 million container terminal along the Delaware River in Edgemoor.
The House will consider the resolution on Tuesday.
If approved, the new group would provide monthly reports about progress at the Edgemoor development to Sokola and House Speaker Melissa Minor-Brown.
Asked about Brown’s resolution, Meyer spokesman Nick Merlino said in a statement that “adding another task force is not how we efficiently expand the port or manage taxpayer money.”
“The governor, as he said last week at the State of the State, is committed to getting this done,” Merlino said.
However, the governor’s terminology has been questioned around the future of the port, as he often talks about the expansion of the Port of Wilmington without mentioning the Edgemoor project. When asked pointedly Thursday whether he supported the Edgemoor project, the governor once again deflected.
“I leave it up to those I’m appointing to the port commission who have a diversity of viewpoints and those remaining on the port commission to make a decision about the best way forward for Delawareans,” he said.
Brown told Spotlight Delaware on Friday that the task force is needed because the legislature should be “integral” to the efforts to expand the Port of Wilmington.
Pressed about whether he holds doubts about the Meyer administration’s oversight of Edgemoor, Brown said “absolutely not,” noting that the governor has expressed support for a port expansion.
Brown also said his resolution does not create a new group, but re-establishes a taskforce that went dormant years ago – before the state in 2018 announced its privatization of the Port of Wilmington’s operations through what became a failed deal with the Emirati company, Gulftainer.
Meyer’s last fight with the Senate
The introduction of Brown’s resolution last week followed another high-profile standoff between Meyer and Sokola earlier this year.
That fight centered around nominations made by former-Gov. Bethany Hall-Long to the state port board – formally called the Diamond State Port Corporation board of directors..
Hall-Long made the nominations during her two-week tenure as governor in January. On his first day in office, Meyer sought to rescind the nominations, which the Senate had not yet confirmed.
But Sokola asserted that Meyer did not have the authority to withdraw nominees, and Senate Democrats pressed ahead with considering four of the individuals.
The fight ultimately led to Democratic Senators calling Meyer “manipulative,” “anti-collaborative,” and silent on what they said was “one of the most critical infrastructure investments in recent Delaware history” – a reference to the state’s plans to build a container port terminal in Edgemoor.
In response, the governor’s office said Senate leaders spent their time name calling, “instead of addressing the lack of transparency and self-dealing that is currently going on.”
Ultimately both sides agreed to seek an opinion from the Delaware Supreme Court, which ruled last month that Meyer could rescind the nominees made by his predecessor.
Among the most contentious of Hall-Long’s nominees were high-profile trade union leaders from the Delaware Building Trades who have maintained rocky relationships with Meyer for years and were among his fiercest critics during last year’s election.
If passed, Brown’s newly proposed legislative task force would also include two representatives from the Delaware Building Trades.
Other members would include six individuals nominated by Sokola or Minor-Brown; five members of Meyer’s cabinet; four port union leaders; a local Teamsters president; and Mayor John Carney, who in January said his relationship with Meyer “needs work.”
Edgemoor’s nullified permit
A decade ago, the Port of Wilmington Expansion Task Force sat at the heart of the debate around whether the facility should expand at the site of a former chemical plant in Edgemoor, or along a strip of land that sits near the Delaware Memorial Bridge, downstream of the existing facility.
Delaware officials ultimately opted for Edgemoor and later struck a 50-year lease deal with Gulftainer, which included mandates that the company build the Edgemoor terminal entirely with private dollars.
At the time, then-Gov. John Carney declared that the deal would allow the state to “get out of the business of subsidizing the port.”
But that promise never materialized as Gulftainer’s operations suffered in the subsequent years with financial losses, missed lease payments to the state, and an Edgemoor site that was left unbuilt.
More recently, obstacles to the Edgemoor’s construction have continued, even after Delaware ousted Gulftainer in 2023 and named Massachusetts-based Enstructure as the port’s new operation.
Most notably, a federal court last fall ruled on a legal challenge brought by competing ports in Pennsylvania and New Jersey that a permit to dredge a channel to the planned Edgemoor terminal was invalid.
In the opinion, the judge said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner when awarded the dredging permit to Delaware.
Port officials have since said that the state reapplied for the permit.
Brown – who also has served as a board member of the Diamond State Port Corporation – said it is his expectation that Delaware will be able to secure a new dredging permit for Edgemoor in a few months.
Asked how the state would do that given the judge’s opinion, he said, “We’ll continue to work with those that are involved to ensure that we have what we need.”
