Rehoboth residents petition AG’s Office to get answers on how new City Manager was hired
REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. – The Delaware Attorney General’s Office is requesting a formal response from the City of Rehoboth Beach after a group of 40 residents filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for information surrounding the hiring of the new City Manager, Taylour Tedder.
The group of 40 residents wants answers as to how the City of Rehoboth Beach’s Mayor and commissioners were able to reach a consensus to hire Tedder. That includes requesting information as to how those city officials agreed on his exorbitant salary, and what the consensus was as far as the charter is concerned and how Tedder’s experience appeared to lack the qualifications that were outlined in city code.
This latest effort among residents comes on the heels of months of controversy surrounding Tedder’s hiring after news broke of his enormous salary. His position comes with a whopping $250,000 base salary with another $750,000 in the form of a forgivable home loan.
By hiring Tedder, it appears the city violated their own charter as his resume lists less experience than what is outlined in city code. The City of Rehoboth Beach charter states no person shall be appointed to the Office unless they previously served as City Manager in another municipality for at least four years or have four years of practical engineering experience.
Tedder lists less than three years of city manager experience and no engineering degree on his resume. It’s that, coupled with his high salary, that led Rehoboth homeowner Tom Gaynor to lead a coalition of residents to petition the Attorney General’s Office for answers.
“I want to know when they decided to violate the charter intentionally,” Gaynor said. “I want to know when they decided to give an interest free loan to a private individual with public money, that wasn’t included in the budget, particularly when we faced a $4 million budget deficit before they passed the budget two months ago.”
Gaynor says the whole process to consider and hire Tedder happened behind closed doors, and that this FOIA request and petition to the AG’s office comes as a result of that in the interest of transparency on behalf of the people of Rehoboth Beach.
“The Mayor and Commission describe these vague issues before the public in the plentitude of meetings that they conduct throughout the month,” Gaynor explained. “Then they retreat to these closed door executive sessions where the details are outlined among themselves.”
It’s what happened in those meetings that the coalition of residents want to know about and are hoping will shed a light as to how the city’s leadership was able to move forward with hiring Tedder, a decision that has been mired in controversy since it was announced back in April.
“I’d also like to know when they decided to broaden the scope of the solicitation for candidates,” Gaynor emphasized. “Did they indicate that they were willing to compromise on the specific requirements outlined in the charter, which potentially could have broadened the pool of candidates.”
WMDT News Anchor Rob Petree spoke with Mayor Stan Mills last month where he would not acknowledge that the violated their charter, and refused to get into specifics concerning Tedder’s qualifications.
“How do you justify directly violating your own charter to hire this guy?,” Petree asked Mayor Mills. Mayor Mills responded, saying: “We don’t believe we’ve violated the charter and our City Solicitor is working on a proper response to that.” When pressed, Mayor Mills would not comment further on any questions regarding Tedder’s qualifications, saying “I’ve already answered that.”
The Attorney General’s Office has given the City of Rehoboth Beach until today, June 11 to respond to the allegations.
WMDT News reached out to the City of Rehoboth Beach who issued the following statement saying they did not violate the FOIA and request the Department of Justice dismiss the petition in full:
“The City of Rehoboth Beach has respectfully requested that the Delaware Department of Justice issue a determination advising that the city has not violated the Freedom of Information Act and dismissing the petition in full. We are awaiting a decision from the Department of Justice and don’t have any further comment while this issue is being resolved.”
