Why Should Delaware Care?
Government works best when its citizens are knowledgeable and engaged. Delaware’s government has scores of commissions, working groups, agencies and legislative committees. All must hold meetings that are open to the public. Below we highlight a few of those meetings that are happening this week.
Here is a look at some of the most important or interesting public meetings happening around the state this week.
- Data center energy costs (Statewide)
- New Castle County Council Public Safety Committee meeting (New Castle)
- Public Education Funding Commission meeting (Statewide)
- Diamond State Hospital Cost Review board (Statewide)
- Supreme Court hears Elon Musk pay package case (Statewide)
How much will data centers pay for electricity?
State regulators will meet this week to further their efforts to ensure data centers pay more for electricity than residential consumers.
The Public Service Commission, the state body charged with regulating utility services, will vote on Wednesday to begin the formal process of determining just how much “large-load consumers,” such as energy-hungry data centers, will have to pay for electricity.
Wednesday’s meeting follows the Public Service Commission’s decision last month to stop any new data centers from connecting to the grid until a new electricity rate can be determined.
The commission’s September decision came after Starwood Digital Ventures, a developer backed by private-equity, submitted plans to New Castle County to build a data center near Delaware City that would consume an additional 1.2 gigawatts per hour from the grid – or enough energy to power nearly 1 million homes, according to estimates from experts.
📍 The Public Service Commission will meet at 1 p.m. on Wednesday inside its hearing room located at 861 Silver Lake Blvd. in Dover. For additional details, including information about virtual attendance, click here.
New Castle leaders to hear PAL updates
The New Castle County Council’s Public Safety Committee will hear updates this week about the Police Athletic League of Delaware, weeks after Spotlight Delaware reported that the taxpayer-funded nonprofit’s finances are being investigated by law enforcement.
As part of the investigation, the New Castle County Police Department is probing how the nonprofit – which provides youth services to children across the state – spent millions of taxpayer dollars it received in recent years. Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings’ office has also opened an early-stage criminal inquiry into the matter.
The investigation began after former Speaker of the House Valerie Longhurst resigned as executive director of PAL in August. Longhurst stepped down after the nonprofit’s cash reserves had dwindled, and after lawmakers decided in July to freeze more than $500,000 in state grants awarded to the organization just a month earlier.
📍 The committee will meet at 4 p.m. on Tuesday in the New Castle County Council Chambers, located at 800 N. French St. in Wilmington. The meeting will also be streamed virtually on Zoom.
What should public education funding look like in Delaware?
Also this week, state leaders will continue their efforts to reform how dollars are distributed to Delaware’s schools.
The Public Education Funding Commission will meet virtually on Monday evening to discuss a funding model presentation, which could shed light on how a school’s support from the state will be calculated after the commission approved a new funding framework earlier this year. Members of the public will also be able to give their comments on the funding model.
That framework called for incorporating Delaware’s current distribution of money on a per-student basis with one that allocates money based on students’ needs, but did not provide a specific funding calculation.
The commission’s work to reform public education spending comes after Gov. Matt Meyer made the issue a pillar of his gubernatorial campaign.
Members of the public will also be able to give their comments on the funding model at the meeting.
📍 The Public Education Funding Commission will meet virtually at 4 p.m. on Monday.
Hospital board holds first meeting since lawsuit pause
The state’s hospital cost review board will meet this week for the first time since Gov. Matt Meyer announced a tentative agreement that would end a lawsuit brought by ChristianaCare, Delaware’s largest and most influential hospital system, against the regulatory body.
That agreement, though, would remove the key oversight ability of the board, known as the Diamond State Hospital Cost Review Board, to modify and veto hospital budgets it deems excessive.
The only item on the cost review board’s agenda is a closed door strategy session about ChristianaCare’s lawsuit, though board members will also hear public comments after they return from the private strategy meeting.
📍 The Diamond State Hospital Cost Review Board will meet at 10 a.m. on Tuesday at the Division of Public Health offices, located at 43 S. DuPont Highway in Dover. For additional details, including information about virtual attendance, click here.
To pay Elon, or not to pay Elon? That is the question …
Delaware Supreme Court Justices will hear oral arguments this week in a case that could determine whether Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, will receive a more than $50 billion payout.
In 2024, Delaware judge, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, twice stripped Musk of what was then estimated to be a $56 billion payment package from Tesla. McCormick first nullified the massive payout on grounds that Musk had effective control over Tesla’s board of directors, whose job it is to negotiate his pay.
After the ruling, Musk launched an offensive against Delaware, posting on X to his tens of millions of followers, “Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware.”
Months later, Tesla shareholders later voted to uphold the company’s payment to Musk, but in December, McCormick again overruled it, calling Tesla’s board “a perpetrator of fiduciary misconduct” that is not allowed to “hit reset through stockholder vote.”
In arguing that Supreme Court justices should overturn McCormick’s ruling, Musk’s attorneys said in written arguments last spring that the court should give “great weight” to Senate Bill 21’s protections against shareholder lawsuits, even though the law “is not expressly applicable retroactively.”
Musk will likely not be present at this week’s court hearing.
📍 Arguments will take place 10 a.m. on Wednesday at the Kent County Courthouse in Dover. The meeting will also be streamed on the Supreme Court’s website.
Karl Baker, Olivia Marble, Julia Merola and Nick Stonesifer contributed to this report.
