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.
Below are some of the most important or interesting public meetings happening around the state this week.
- Lawmakers to launch hearings following governor’s proposed budget
- State to consider $1.4 million grant from taxpayers to Delmar development
- Port of Wilmington board to hear update about Edgemoor
- State regulators to consider early land-use plans at Fort DuPont, Milford, Laurel
- New Castle County Council to apologize to the public
- Sussex County Council to consider new development near Selbyville
State budget hearings to begin following governor’s proposal
Delaware’s legislative session will kick into full gear next week when lawmakers begin holding hearings to negotiate the following year’s budget. The hearings of the Joint Finance Committee will occur about a week after Gov. Matt Meyer introduced his $6.9 billion proposed operating budget.
In his budget address, Meyer said he will overcome an estimated half-billion-dollar deficit through a series of cuts, which will also free up an additional $42 million that he will put toward teacher and state employee raises, affordable housing incentives, and Medicaid, among other items.
The Joint Finance Committee hearings will feature a series of testimony from state agency directors who will explain their specific operational requests for the following year.
Hearings on Tuesday will feature a statewide financial overview, before testimony begins from the Office of Management and Budget, the Departments of Human Resources, and the Department of Finance.
Wednesday will include testimony from the departments of Technology and Information, Labor, and State.
Thursday will feature testimony from the state’s higher education institutions – Delaware Technical Community College, Delaware State University, and the University of Delaware.
Testimony from the remaining state offices and agencies will occur in later weeks.
📍 The Joint Finance Committee will meet 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at Legislative Hall, located at 411 Legislative Ave. in Dover. For information about virtual attendance for the Tuesday meeting, click here. For the Wednesday meeting, click here. And for the Thursday meeting, click here.
State to consider million-dollar grant to Delmar development
Gov. Matt Meyer’s economic development office on Monday will hear proposals for taxpayer grants to two businesses, including a $1.4 million award to the Delmar Business Center, LLC, a business entity created last year.
Shortly after it formed, the company submitted concept plans to the town of Delmar to build a business park described in planning documents as containing warehouse space alongside potentially storefronts, among other uses.
The proposed grant for the development comes a month after Meyer told attendees at Spotlight Delaware’s Legislative Summit that, through state economic development, he “wants to help promising startups become truly investment-ready.”
“We want good ideas to create jobs and to scale faster than anywhere else in the country,” Meyer said.
His comments came after his administration last year signed off on one of the largest taxpayer-backed incentives in state history:a $30 million grant to biopharmaceutical giant Merck to build a $1 billion campus near Wilmington.
📍 The Delaware Council on Development Finance will meet at 10 a.m. Monday at the Delaware Public Archives offices, located 121 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Dover. Click here for additional details, including information about attending virtually.
Port of Wilmington meeting to include update about Edgemoor expansion
The question of when – and whether – the Port of Wilmington will expand through the construction of a new container terminal in Edgemoor continues to linger on the minds of many state officials.
To do so, the Diamond State Port Corporation – the state entity that oversees the Port of Wilmington – needs to reacquire dredging permits that a federal judge invalidated in 2024, following a legal challenge from the owners of the Port of Philadelphia.
Over the past six months, port officials have repeatedly stated publicly that they are making progress in their new application to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the permits. Still no announcements have been made about them being successfully secured.
Those officials will meet publicly again on Monday. On the agenda for the meeting is an update about the Port of Wilmington’s plans to expand in Edgemoor. Also on the agenda is a presentation from the port’s private operator, Enstructure, which on Wednesday announced Eryn Dinyovszky as the new president for its Mid-Atlantic operations including the Port of Wilmington.
Her predecessor, Bayard Hogans, quietly left Enstructure last summer. At the time, the company declined to disclose the reason for his departure.
📍The board of the Diamond State Port Corporation will meet at noon on Monday at the state’s Buena Vista property, located at 661 S. DuPont Highway near New Castle. Click here for additional details, including information about attending virtually.
State regulators to considerearly land-use plans at Fort DuPont, Milford, Laurel
Before housing or commercial developments are brought before local governments, they are presented to a committee of state officials who provide feedback about potential impacts on transportation and on the environment.
A handful of plans will be presented to the committee on Wednesday, including a proposal to build 245 homes in the small western Sussex County town of Laurel, and another to expand residential development at Fort DuPont, a former military facility that operated from the Civil War to World War II.
📍Members of the Preliminary Land Use Service committee will meet at 9 a.m. Wednesday at the Haslet Armory in Dover, located at 122 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Click here for additional details, including information about attending virtually.
NCCo Council to apologize for ‘conduct unbecoming’?
In November, a fiery debate on the New Castle County Council over data center regulations ended with Councilman Timothy Sheldon flipping off Councilman Kevin Caneco.
Two months later, the Council sat for a regular, public “ethics training” meeting. During the meeting, Caneco asked about the ethics of a developer who has a land-use plan before the Council contributing to a political campaign of one of the members.
Johanna Bishop, who serves on the county’s ethics commission and put on the training session, said she did not believe that to be ethical.
Following the comments, several council members pushed back, with arguments centering around their assertions that an individual’s $600 check to a candidate is unlikely to sway a policy decision.
Caneco responded, first by asserting that there are council members “that will take every developer check they can to run a campaign.” He said that constituted “a public trust integrity issue” that other municipalities around the country have regulated.
His remarks then turned personal when he referenced earlier comments from one councilmember and said “you can’t even file your campaign finances correctly.”
Several councilmembers then interjected, with some calling Caneco’s comments out of order.
Last week, Councilwoman Janet Kilpatrick introduced a resolution that apologizes “to the public for conduct unbecoming a council.”
The New Castle County Council’s finance committee will discuss the resolution on Tuesday evening. Later in the evening, the full council will discuss it again.
Also listed on Tuesday’s full council meeting is the ordinance to impose data center regulations, which have been the subject of months of debate. But the sponsor of the ordinance, Councilman Dave Carter, said he will keep the proposal “tabled” on Tuesday and bring it back at a later date.
📍 The New Castle County Council’s finance committee will meet at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Louis L. Redding City County Building, located at 800 N. French St. in Wilmington. For more information, including about virtual attendance, click here. The full Council will meet again at 6:30 Tuesday at the same location. For more information, click here.
Sussex County growth continues near Selbyville
Eastern Sussex County’s booming building trend continues this week when the County Council considers an ordinance to change the zoning for a 183-acre piece of land from agricultural to residential.
The change would make way for the development of 352 homes along the Delaware-Maryland state line near Selbyville, just northwest of the farthest reaches of the inland bay that sits next to Ocean City.
If approved, the subdivision would be among dozens of others planned for Southern Delaware, which has been the fastest growing part of the state for more than a decade.
📍 The Sussex County Council will meet at 10 a.m. Tuesday for its weekly meeting to discuss a range of topics, including Selbyville zoning change. The meeting will take place at the Sussex County Administrative Office Building, located at 2 The Circle in Georgetown. Information about virtual attendance can be found at the bottom of the meeting agenda document here.