City of Rehoboth swears in new mayor

Rehoboth, Del. – The City of Rehoboth Beach has sworn in its new mayor and two commissioners.

At Friday’s Mayor and Commissioners Meeting, the city held its annual reorganization. This included swearing in the new Mayor, Susan Stewart. Stewart is the first woman to be elected mayor in more than 40 years. WMDT spoke with Stewart about her appointment, and she says she’s hitting the ground running.

“I think the election was and actually campaigning was a really fruitful and valuable experience because I use the time to talk to our voters personally at their homes​,” she said.

In addition to swearing in Stewart as mayor, J. Patrick Gossett and Mark W. Saunders also took the oath of office as city commissioners. Gossett has served as a Rehoboth Beach Commissioner for five previous terms and Saunders is a sitting Commissioner after being appointed in December 2024 to fill the seat of former Commissioner Don Preston.

According to Stewert, they’ll be working on new projects.

“We’re going to talk about a commercial district master plan. And that’s really important because I will, tourism revenues generate 63% of our general fund revenues and property taxes only 10.9,” she told WMDT. “But the lived experience of the residents here and the tourism tends to clash. And we need to sort of bring that in harmony because we’ve grown so large in terms of our operations.”