After successfully leading a petition drive to repeal a height allowance designed to encourage steeper roof pitch, Bethany Beach property owner Dan Costello is again leading a charge against a change in the town. This time, it’s referendums themselves that are what he’d like to see kept as they are.
The petition process yielded some questions and concerns for council members, town staff and citizens at the end of last summer. That, in turn, led to an effort to clarify the process and remove what some viewed as obstacles to a clear and fair process.
Under the guidance of the town’s Charter and Ordinance Review Committee (CORC), led by Vice-Mayor Tony McClenny, efforts have been under way for months to overhaul the referendum process, and Costello has had input all along the way.
But as of the committee’s most recent meeting, the distance between Costello and the committee still existed — something McClenny chalked up to “a difference of opinion” while noting unanimous support from committee members despite Costello’s objections to proposed new requirements and formats for petitions.
At the council’s May 18 meeting, council members were ready to discuss the proposed changes recommended by CORC, as well as a renewed move to limit voting in municipal elections by non-resident property owners to a maximum of eight persons per property.
Costello informed the council that his objections to the “specific format” that was developed for petitions remained. Moreover, he said, the proposed act had changed between the last time he had seen it and how it was presented in the council’s briefing packet, and he wasn’t sure that enough discussion or public input on the current version had been obtained.
The core of the proposed change would create a framework for petitions in which petitions for repeal of adopted legislation would be required to provide more clear and extensive information on the identity of petition signatories, petition circulators and the subject ordinance they’re seeking to repeal.
McClenny had developed a framework document that allowed one signature and set of signatory information per page, with the full text of the subject legislation included and a place on each page for the circulator to attest to their own residency and the authenticity of the signature.
Costello had said from the start that the format was actually burdensome to petition circulators, who would be required to carry larger stacks of paper while trying to obtain signatures and who would be required to sign or copy their signature onto each petition page as their certification.
Under the revised version before council this week, multiple signatures could be collected, with the legislation attached and a single signature page as certification from the circulator. It was more in line with what Costello had considered reasonable, but he was not ready for council to vote, asking that a sample petition be offered so that people could see what the result would really look like.
“I would like to see what it looks like, how it is,” he said. “I would ask that you postpone discussion of this thing. Why not do it right?” he asked, saying there was no urgency to making changes to the referendum process.
Council Member Steve Wode also had concerns about the limitation on non-resident property owners voting, which Town Solicitor Terence Jaywork said he believed was again being raised out of concern that someone might try to “steal an election” by registering many part-owners on a property and using that bloc to back a single candidate or slate of candidates. The proposed limit on part-owners voting would be a maximum of eight per property.
Jaywork also noted along the way that he had revised his legal opinion about the ability of trustee owners of property to vote in town elections, having considered them ineligible when asked two months ago but now agreeing that the trustee — not the person for whom the trust is held — was eligible to vote.
That issue clarified, council members agreed the voting and referendum changes were not quite ready for a council vote and agreed to pass them back to CORC for further review.
Election code, plant materials and more tackled
Also on May 18, the council held a first reading on the adoption of state motor-vehicle-related fines as the town’s own, which was considered without comment.
Comment was raised over a proposal to add bamboo to the town’s list of disallowed plants, including phragmites and cattails. Property owner Pauline Silvermane said she had purchased her Bethany Beach property specifically because a stand of bamboo screened the back of her property from an adjacent house, even to the second story. She questioned why the town would eliminate such a useful plant from use.
As raised in CORC, McClenny noted concerns from fire officials over the risk of rampant fire if bamboo was to catch fire in the town, as well as the plant’s presence on the state’s list of nuisance plants and invasive species. Indeed, only one variety of bamboo is considered native to the region and not on that state list. Much of what exists in the area now is both invasive and non-native.
With the issue raised of the single native species and no exception for that in the proposed legislation, McClenny agreed to take the issue back to CORC for further review.
Council members took the first step on May 18 toward making town election code consistent with new state mandates under Title 15. A first reading on the bulk of related code changes went by with little comment.
The remaining segment of the revisions, relating to absentee balloting, is yet to be discussed by CORC as the town awaits possible action by the state legislature to correct an oversight that removed the towns’ ability to grant voting rights via absentee ballot to non-resident property owners.
When and if that is passed, the town aims to quickly move to complete its election changes, they hope in time for adoption at least 60 days prior to the scheduled Sept. 8 elections, as mandated by state law.
Council members on Friday also named a new roster of election officers and a new Board of Elections, in the wake of the related revisions to Title 15. The Board of Elections, which is charged with election oversight, will comprise Rosemary Hardiman, Jane Fowler and Phillip Rossi. Election officers, who run the polls, will include Faith Denault (election inspector), Fulton Lapatta, Charles McMullen, Joan Thomas and Chuck Peterson.
The council voted unanimously on May 18 to restore the previous “red zone” parking area on the 200 block of Central Avenue, which had previously been designated as for business employees only.
The red zone designation had been removed a handful of years ago, though no one appears to know exactly when or why. The 26 spaces there have generally been used by employees, but some residents with parking permits have also come to park there. The latter will have to find other permit locations from this point forward.
Yoga and boardwalk repairs discussed
With House Bill 146 before the state legislature and set to possibly institute statewide curbside recycling, the council also voted unanimously to create a four-person committee to investigate the town’s recycling options, including and even beyond the current Delaware Solid Waste Authority proposal for town-wide curbside recycling at $1 per week per property.
On a 6-0 vote with an abstention from Council Member Tracy Mulligan, the council also granted the usual boardwalk yoga concession to Silver Lotus Yoga Center. It is the fifth summer for the concession.
Mulligan abstained on the grounds that the town had received only one application — presumed ahead of time to be granted, he said — and had received that in January, well in time to have voted before mid-May. They had already placed the concession on the town calendar, even before the vote, he noted, suggesting an earlier vote on concessions was in order.
Council members voted unanimously to approve a $127,879 contract with Sea Rock Contracting for repairs to the town’s boardwalk. The single bidder hit close to the $120,000 engineering estimate for the project, which will involve the repair of boardwalk underpinnings, ramps and stairs.
Town Manager Cliff Graviet said the work was important to complete soon because anticipated replenishment would make it much more difficult, if not impossible to access the area under the boardwalk. All the work on ramps and stairs was due to be completed within a month, while the undercarriage of the boardwalk will be addressed over the summer.
The council also unanimously granted a $34,848 contract for beach cleaning to Beach Cleaners, the only local provider of the service. Cleaning is done three times per week during the summer.
Finally, Graviet reported that the town plans to look at other vendors for the planned overhaul of its Web site. He said recent advances in municipal Web sites had led him and the town’s Communications Committee to believe that a Web site developer specializing in municipal sites should be selected, versus the town technology contractor that had originally been tagged for a possible upgrade contract.
Graviet also noted that the town has been reaching out to local business owners, asking them to encourage employees who bicycle to work to stop by the town police station for bicycle safety equipment. The effort aims to avoid the serious accidents that have occurred — particularly involving international workers — between bicyclists and cars on the area’s roadways during recent summers.