Rehoboth residents express frustration at special meeting following Attorney General’s statement

REHOBOTH BEACH, Delaware – A special meeting of city commissioners was held in Rehoboth Beach on Monday after the Delaware Attorney General issued an opinion saying commissioners violated the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in their hiring process for City Manager Taylour Tedder.

Mayor Stan Mills was met with groans and boos as he laid out the very narrow focus of the special meeting. The purpose of the meeting, held at the recommendation of the Delaware Attorney General, was for Rehoboth Beach city councilors to comply with previously violated FOIA violations. ​

“If they don’t hold themselves accountable, we will find a way to hold them accountable under the laws of the state of Delaware,” said Tom Gaynor, a Rehoboth homeowner who led a group of residents petitioning the attorney general’s office.

The FOIA violations described by the Delaware Attorney General centered on the private discussion of Tedder’s employment contract and compensation package. In addition to the lack of transparency, residents also took issue with Tedder’s qualifications themselves.

Gaynor was frustrated by the scope of the meeting and the fact that there was to be no amendment or cancellation of the existing contract, nor any discussion of Tedder’s qualifications: “They tried today to fix the procedural error that the Attorney General accused them of. But they have no way of fixing the fact that they are entering into an illegal contract by hiring someone who is ill-equipped and underqualified for the job.”

Mayor Mills and other commissioners did not address the required qualifications outlined in the city’s charter, but defended Tedder’s ability to perform his duties at a high level. The mayor insisted that the city commissioners were unaware they had violated the FOIA throughout the hiring process: “We were disappointed that we violated some of the tenets of the FOIA. We wanted to make sure everyone understood that we assumed from the beginning that we were in compliance.”

With the new city manager’s contract and compensation package unchanged through the meeting, residents left the meeting with the prospect of litigation, as Gaynor said: “Unfortunately, the only way out from here – as the Attorney General has stated – is to take the city to Chancery Court to hold them accountable. And at the end of the day, the law applies equally to all of us, including the commissioners. They can’t just ignore laws they don’t like.”

When WMDT asked Mayor Mills if he would do things differently if he could go back to the beginning of the process, he replied, “Absolutely.”

The motion to ratify the vote on the city manager’s contract was passed unanimously by all six commissioners and the mayor.