Dewey votes for to give commissioners more power

Dewey Beach City Council voted three-to-one to pass a resolution that would give town commissioners more oversight over town departments Friday night.

Town commissioners Courtney Riordan, Gary Mauler and Anna Legates voiced concerns that having all the town departments answer to the town manager caused too many problems with accountability.

Because of that belief a special meeting was called to vote on a resolution that would give some of the town managers authority over town departments to commissioners appointed by the mayor.

The resolution in part requires the mayor to appoint a “commissioner-in-charge” for the police department, the administrative department and the Beach Patrol.

All three departments would then answer to their respective commissioner, rather than the town manager as they did under the prior structure.

Riordan, who drafted the resolution, said he and other members of the council had grown too frustrated to wait any longer to address the matter.

He added that the current structure of the town was dysfunctional and lacked accountability.

“The commissioners have not been involved enough in the decision making of the town and one of the reasons is I think it’s a structural problem where everybody reports to the town manager,” Riordan said.

The special meeting was announced eight days prior, raising questions from Mayor Diane Hanson who voted against the resolution, as well as some of the public in attendance if this was done in haste.

“We have an election in three weeks that makes it even more irresponsible, you know because you’re actually passing something that the next group of commissioners may not approve,” Hanson said.

Commissioner David Jasinski was unable to make the special meeting,but voiced his concerns with the resolution in a letter read Hanson at the start of the meeting.

Hanson also alleged that the three council members who voted in favor of the resolution acted behind closed doors.

Riordan and commissioner Gary Mauler denied those allegations and said the matters had been on table for quite some time.