Why Should Delaware Care?
Attempts to penalize homelessness have become a topic of controversy across Delaware, including debate over an anti-panhandling ordinance in the city of Dover, which critics view as another effort to punish poverty. While city council leaders appear prepared to forge ahead with a final vote on the ordinance, some residents and council members are asking for more transparency and information gathering through a meeting with the Department of Justice.
Ahead of a final vote on Dover’s contentious anti-panhandling ordinance scheduled for Wednesday night, city leaders and residents remain divided on its legality, and whether current state laws would make the ordinance moot.
The ordinance, which would prohibit pedestrians from stopping and standing on street medians, has faced threats of legal challenge by the ACLU of Delaware and other community activists since it was introduced in late October 2025.
Last week, Dover resident and community activist Chelle Paul called on the state Department of Justice (DOJ) to testify before city council about state laws for disorderly conduct and pedestrian safety that could allow local law enforcement to charge individuals with unsafe loitering in roadways, without the need for the proposed city ordinance.
“Loitering is not the only code violation that individuals are violating with regards to public safety,” Paul told Spotlight Delaware. “You see the different codes that are already on the books that can address some of the issues.”
A handful of city council members raised similar ideas to Paul about relying on already operational state laws during a discussion of the ordinance at a Dec. 8 council meeting.
Two of those same elected officials, Councilmen Roy Sudler and Brian Lewis, told Spotlight Delaware this week that they would like to hear from the DOJ for maximum “clarity” before voting on the ordinance.
At the same time, however, City Council President Fred Neil and Councilman David Anderson, who introduced the anti-panhandling ordinance, dismissed calls for a meeting with Attorney General Kathy Jennings, saying they intend to move ahead with the plan to vote on the ordinance at the Jan. 28 meeting.
“Everybody knows the current state law doesn’t work,” Anderson said. “If we want to do something, we have to do it at our level.”
Neil said he already has a sense from previous conversations with the DOJ and a presentation from Kent County Deputy Attorney General Dennis Kelleher in October that the state will not prosecute for the smaller crimes the city is concerned about, so another meeting with the DOJ is not necessary.
Confusion, finger pointing over AG meeting
When asked whether they had reached out to the attorney general’s office for a meeting, council members pointed fingers at one another, or said they were unsure about the status of the meeting request. showing some of the confusion and division about the ordinance that has overtaken the council in recent months.
In an email exchange on Tuesday, Jan. 27, that Spotlight Delaware was copied on, Neil wrote that Sudler was “refusing” to invite the Attorney General to speak with city council, proving members had “heard enough from her office.”
Sudler responded that there had been a “miscommunication,” as he had never been asked to contact Jennings’ office. He said he would like to have her attend a meeting to clarify residents’ and council members’ concerns.
It is unclear if any elected official has contacted the Attorney General’s office in recent weeks.
Dover Police Chief Thomas Johnson said at a Dec. 8 city council meeting that he “wasn’t sure” whether the existing state statutes were being enforced by state courts. Johnson said he and his officers have found that the DOJ is so inundated with more serious crimes that it cannot devote much time to prosecuting lower level charges, like disorderly conduct or traffic safety violations.
The Dover Police Department, Johnson said, supports the proposed city ordinance as a matter of traffic safety.
Johnson did not respond to Spotlight Delaware’s request for comment about calls for Jennings, or another representative from the DOJ to speak before council.
Mat Marshall, a spokesperson for Jennings’ office, wrote in a message to Spotlight Delaware that the Attorney General has not received a “formal invitation or request” to attend a Dover City Council meeting, but that representatives from the office would be willing to answer any questions that council members have about state laws, if asked.
Marshall also wrote that there are a “wide range of enforcement options” that remain in effect, including disorderly conduct, public intoxication and prostitution, which would address similar quality of life issues to the anti-panhandling ordinance.
The potential charges referenced by Marshall are the same ones that Paul said she would like clarification on, and that Neil and Johnson said were not adequately being prosecuted to address the safety issues they see in the city.
Constitutional questions
Since being introduced by Anderson in late October 2025, the so-called pedestrian safety ordinance has been the subject of hours of debate among council members, pushback from residents and even warnings of a legal challenge by the ACLU of Delaware.
Anderson said he asked for the ordinance to be revised to ensure legal compliance and has consulted with City Solicitor Dan Griffith a number of times. Since its introduction, the only formal revisions that have been made to the ordinance clarify that it only applies to street medians, not sidewalks or other pedestrian walkways, and that violators would first be issued a written warning before receiving a fine on a second offense.
In 2024, Jennings told all municipalities not to enforce any anti-loitering and anti-panhandling laws on the books, after the ACLU sued the state and the city of Wilmington over their regulations.
Anderson said this week he is confident the ordinance is narrowly tailored to address pedestrian safety, not panhandling, so it will overcome any legal challenges. It could even serve as a model for other jurisdictions seeking to implement pedestrian safety laws, he said.
Councilwoman Julia Pillsbury also told Spotlight Delaware that she is prepared to vote on the ordinance without any additional conversations with the DOJ.
“I would hate to see it drag out and have the whole ordinance postponed indefinitely,” she said.
Sudler and Lewis, on the other hand, said they would like to have a discussion with the Attorney General’s office before voting on the ordinance, in order to gather more information and address the concerns their constituents raised about other state laws.
“If we have to prolong this vote so we can get more information, that’s what we need to do,” Sudler said.
The other four members of the Dover City Council – Andre Boggerty, Gerald Rocha, Donyale Hall and Tricia Arndt – did not respond to Spotlight Delaware’s request for comment.
Dover Mayor Robin Christiansen, who does not vote on ordinances but takes part in city council meetings, said the existing state laws are “difficult to enforce,” making a city ordinance more necessary.
While the ACLU and local activists, including a petition with more than 300 signatures, have raised legal concerns about the anti-panhandling ordinance, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law Professor Mark Graber said it is difficult to predict whether the ordinance would be considered sufficiently “narrowly tailored,” or “too vague” to pass constitutionality challenges.
However, Graber said, the already existing disorderly conduct and pedestrian safety state statutes that some residents and elected officials have pointed to as an alternative might have a better chance of enforcement and passing legal muster, because they have been on the books longer.
“The big difference is precedent and longstanding interpretation [for the state laws],” he said.
Get Involved
The Dover City Council is scheduled to vote on its anti-panhandling ordinance on Wednesday, January 28. The meeting’s public comment period begins at 6:15 p.m., and the official meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. inside the Dover City Hall, located at 15 Loockerman Plaza.