Memos at Random


	A potpourri of miscellaneous news SCRIBBLED IN A REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK

BRANDYWINE ELECTION: Olivia Johnson-Harris was elected to the Brandywine Board of Education, taking 57% of the vote in a three-candidate race. Debra Heffernan won the other soon-to-be-vacated board seat by 122 votes. The election drew about 1,800 voters, which is about 2% of the estimated number of district residents eligible to vote. The Department of Elections tallies: Johnson-Harris, 1,037; James Garrity, 515; Michael Procak, 257 of one seat and Heffernan, 972; Jeanne Best, 850 for the other. The new members will be sworn into office, succeeding Thomas Lapinski and David Adkins, in July. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

Federal judges will be able to preside at weddings if the General Assembly enacts a package ofchanges to the state marriage law. Delaware is the only state where they cannot do so now.

New Castle County clerk of the peace Kenneth Boulden said that, among the changes he is seeking, one would establish a registry of those officials, including clergy, who can perform the ceremony along with conditions they apply, such as pre-marriage counseling. Registrants will have to pay an initial $10 registration fee and $25 for annual renewals. That and the addition of a second room to accommodate larger weddings, along with a general increase in fees which County Council has just approved, are intended to "generate more revenue," he said.

Testifying at a Council budget hearing on May 9, Boulden said another proposal would strike an old law permitting marriage at any age. That, he said, conflicts with a more recent one setting 18 as the minimum age except in situations involving pregnancy, when it is 16 with parental consent. He is seeking elimination of a provision in the law denying 'paupers', alcoholics, 'mental incompetents' and others the right to marry. "We don't ask those questions any more," he said. After the hearing, he told Delaforum that he has no intention of seeking to modify Delaware's ban on so-called same-sex marriage.

Boulden said he neither favors nor opposes a bill pending in the Assembly which would empower state representative John Viola to preside at one specified wedding.

SCHOLARSHIPS: County government has donated $25,000 to the New Castle Volunteer Firemen's Association be used to provide the required 50% match for $1,000 federal college scholarships for qualified high school graduates who volunteer as firefighters or emergency medical personnel. According to a press statement, that will allow for granting 40 scholarships. Every high school in the county will be able to nominate two students with at least 100 hours of verifiable participation with the fire service. The statement attributes the donation to County Executive Christopher Coons and members of County Council.

County government allegedly is charging too much for street lights in communities which have them and inappropriately distributing proceeds from the tax which finances them.

In a memorandum filed in Court of Chancery, Richard Korn and Andrew Dal Nogare, the two taxpayers challenging budget reserves policies, cite state law and ask the court to order that more than half of the $675,898 in excess of the actual cost of the street-lights program expected to be accumulated by the end of this fiscal year on June 30 be used to reduce light-tax rates. The rates, which vary up to 12½¢ per $100 of assessed value depending on the style of the lights and the type of pole holding them, have been 'frozen' since 1998 and have netted annual surpluses in the street-light account.

The law, they argue, specifically states that a maximum of 10% of the amount collected may be used to administer the program. The proposed fiscal 2006 budget projects revenue of $3,352,793. That would require that anything above $335,279 be used to reduce the tax rate. Moreover, the memorandum argues, more than half of the money supposedly collected to meet administrative costs would be allocated to several county units, including County Council, which have no role in administrating the program. There is no explanation for any of that in the official budget document pending before Council, they say.

Council authorizes street lights in unincorporated communities when at least half of the property owners petition for them.

KEEP CONTROL: Bellefonte is preparing a comprehensive town plan "as a foundation for zoning and building laws to make sure that Bellefonte becomes what its citizens want," David Wishowsky, president of the town commission, told a recent meeting. The first phase of the process of drafting and adopting a plan was completed with the presentation of the results of a survey of residents. The key finding was that 89% of responders want stricter enforcement of the building and zoning codes in order to maintain the character of the community. The survey had a 20% response rate, about four times higher than expected.

While three out of four responders agreed that the town needs design guidelines for building and renovation, there is little desire to opt into New Castle County's 'hometown' zoning law. Both the town commission and its planning commission are agreed that it is preferable to "maintain control over zoning" and such, commissioner Terry Thompson, who chairs the planning and development committee, said. Residents expressed preference for a restaurant, book store, delicatessen, grocery store and video store to be located in or near the town. Next step, he said, is to hold public workshops to discuss survey results.

PUT ON HOLD: The Historic Review Board postponed deciding whether to recommend historic zoning for the Paladin Club condominium complex pending further study. The issue apparently comes down to determining if the entire site deserves protection or if only specific features should be covered. "If we fail to do something to protect the entire property, what further degradation will occur?" member John Brook said at a business meeting on Apr. 27. Chairwoman Barbara Benson said a staff report recommending partial coverage failed to provide enough information on which to base a decision. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

DON'T LIKE IT: County Council weighed in in opposition to President Bush's proposal to include private investment accounts in the Social Security program. A resolution approved on Apr. 26 Council noted that 17% of Delawareans share $1.7 billion of benefits. "Congress should not rush through drastic and damaging changes in Social Security that undermine its family income protections," it declares. Sponsored by George Smiley, it received support from 10 of Council's 11 Democrats. Republican Robert Weiner voted 'present' and William Tansey was absent. Democrat Smiley also was excused from attending the session.

BACK-TO-BACK: There may not be two sides to every matter that comes before County Council, but from now on there will be two sides to most of the ordinances and resolutions. They're no longer being printed in a single-sided format. Clerk of Council Betsy Jo Gardner said that nets out to $1.25 cheaper for each 100 two-page texts verses the 200 sheets it would take to print their one-page equivalents. Volume varies session to session, but 125 copies are printed of each of the 15 to 20 documents, which average about six pages each, for distribution to members and the public each bi-weekly session.

It will take about six years after its reported sale has been completed to turn the Brookview Apartments complex into an owner-occupied residential community.

County Councilman Robert Weiner denied at a meeting of the Claymont Design Review Advisory Committee on Apr. 21 that a sale has been "finalized." Delaforum, however, has learned from multiple community sources that Commonwealth Group has contracted with the Clark family to purchase the property within 45 days for $32.5 million. Weiner told the committee that any sale would require the purchaser to enter into a "development agreement" with New Castle County government. Commonwealth did not respond to Delaforum's request for comment.

According to Weiner, designing the project and other preliminaries will take about two years with construction phased over four more. The agreement with the county, he said, would require that a portion of the 950 to 1,200 units be 'affordable' housing and that provision be made for helping present residents relocate. He said about two-thirds of the complex's 637 units are currently occupied by tenants with short-term leases. In return, the developer would be assured necessary county permitting, adequate sewer capacity and could possibly receive state tax incentives. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

The area defining Claymont's 'hometown' zoning would be extended to include Brookview. That would make the redevelopment subject to its design standards.

Fifteen months after Council, at the urging of the previous county administration, defeated a proposed rental code, it has been resurrected and appears almost certain to be enacted.

For County Executive Christopher Coon, that will be not only the first on a short list of initiatives to make it through but also political vindication for nearly two years of tenacity hammering out a consensus by a broad array of organizations with competing economic and social agendas. Appropriately enough, Michael Morton, lawyer for the Delaware Apartment Association, and Christopher White, of Community Legal Aid -- introduced as "two guys who are usually suing each other" -- antiphonally presented the pending ordinance on Apr. 18 to the reassembled taskforce which produced the initial one.

Council president Paul Clark, one of seven co-sponsors joining Robert Weiner on the new measure, asked only that Council receive a similar briefing before it comes to a vote, mainly so its new-members majority won't "be put in a position they're not comfortable with." Charles Baker, general manager, told Delaforum after the meeting that he has been assured that the Department of Land Use will be given the additional resources necessary to enforce the code. Coons told the group that he is adverse to re-opening debate on specific points. "The best way is to just take this piece of legislation and pass it," he said. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)

The pending measure is the same as the one defeated in 2004 except for one clause in its preamble and insertion of a paragraph inadvertently dropped from the previous one.

DOWN TO THE WIRE: The money could run out before its pledge not to seek a higher tax rate ceiling expires, the Brandywine school board was told. If the board does not want to renege on the promise not to hold an operating-funds referendum until spring, 2007, "it is extremely important to monitor the final budgets for fiscal years 2005, 2006 and 2007 since there is very little margin for error," consultant William Bentz said in a report presented to the board on April 18. The report said the projected end-of-year carryover of local money is well below what Red Clay, a comparable district, will have on hand.

State education officials and the General Assembly "are always [more] eager to add new [programs] than to help us pay the costs of what we're already paying for," board president Nancy Doorey said. Chief financial officer David Blowman, who presented Bentz's report, said the district has had to bear most of the increase in energy costs and will be heavily impacted by higher state pension and unemployment insurance rates. The state subsidy for energy, he said, is based on the number of students a district has, not the number of buildings it must heat and light. (CLICK HERE to read previous Delaforum article.)