Why Should Delaware Care?
Nominees to the Diamond State Port Corp. board would have broad authority to negotiate the future of the Port of Wilmington and the planned Port of Edgemoor. A debate over whether a governor can withdraw nominees to appointed positions by a predecessor must first be decided by the state’s high court though.
A simmering tension between Delaware’s new governor and lawmakers burst into public view Thursday when state senators held a confirmation hearing to consider four nominees to oversee the Port of Wilmington – despite Gov. Matt Meyer’s past assertion that he had withdrawn those names from consideration.
Meyer’s predecessor, former-Gov. Bethany Hall-Long, had made those political appointments during the waning hours of her two-week tenure earlier this month.
Thursday’s hearing featured Senate leaders within Meyer’s own Democratic Party calling him “manipulative,” “anti-collaborative,” and silent on what they said is “one of the most critical infrastructure investments in recent Delaware history” – a reference to the state’s ambitious plans to build a new container port terminal in Edgemoor.
His office issued a statement in response later in the day asserting that Senate leaders “spent their morning name-calling Governor Meyer and attempting to change the subject instead of addressing the lack of transparency and self-dealing that is currently going on.”
The drama Thursday ended with lawmakers and the governor’s office asking the Delaware Supreme Court to rule on the question of whether a governor can withdraw a political nominee submitted to the Senate by his or her predecessor.
The court’s answer to that question would not only impact the oversight of regular operations at the port, but also could determine who gets to make decisions about how and if the long-delayed Edgemoor project will occur.
Taxpayers have already committed $265 million to help fund the first phase of construction for the new terminal, according to a development agreement signed in December by state officials and the port’s private operator, Enstructure.
The Supreme Court’s decision on the matter also could set the stage for the power dynamic between Meyer and the state legislature for the next four years of lawmaking in Delaware.
Thursday’s events indicate that that dynamic may diverge from longstanding past practices among Delaware politicians of keeping conflicts out of the public eye.
Fallout from the campaign?
Hall-Long’s loss to Meyer last year followed a bitter primary campaign that was fueled, in part, by hundreds of thousands of dollars spent by political groups affiliated with trade unions.
Despite the loss, she was able to become governor for two weeks in January after former-Gov. John Carney resigned early to become the mayor of Wilmington. Hall-Long, as the lieutenant governor at the time, was the legal successor to the departing governor.
During her final day in office, she nominated five people to serve on the board of the state-owned Diamond State Port Corporation – which oversees Enstructure’s operations at the Port of Wilmington and leads state efforts to build the facility at Edgemoor.
The nominees included three labor leaders – two of whom had publicly backed her unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign. She also nominated Jeffrey Bullock, Delaware’s former Secretary of State who previously chaired the port board, as well as a Delaware River captain who pilots ships through the waterway.
After learning about the nominations on the first day of his governorship, Meyer asked the State Senate to withdraw the names. The request sparked the debate over whether they were viable candidates.
A war of letters and public comments then ensued.
What became clear is that senators and former Carney administration leaders were worried that Meyer may not complete the long-planned Port of Edgemoor.
Those fears add to challenges already facing the $635 million Edgemoor plans. Last fall, a federal court ruled that a permit obtained to dredge a channel to the new port was invalid. Port officials say they have reapplied for the permit.
To date, Meyer has not offered a definitive answer as to his views on Edgemoor. At Spotlight Delaware’s Legislative Summit earlier this month, he said the port “is a good idea in theory,” but that he hadn’t fully assessed the project.
Noting that the Port of Philadelphia is interested in collaborating, while Delaware holds competitive advantages, Meyer said his administration is “going to look at it as to what’s in the best interest of creating, preserving and growing those jobs for the long term.”
Currently, upwards of 800 employees work at the Port of Wilmington – some six days a week, where they could earn more than $100,000 a year. About three-quarters of them are people of color.
Meyer pushes back
In the nine days between Meyer learning of the nominees and Thursday’s hearing, representatives from Meyer’s office met with at least two of the nominees seeking to get them to withdraw their own candidacies.
On Thursday, Senate President Pro Tem David Sokola said he believes the governor’s office successfully convinced Robert Medd, a former chair of the Board of Pilot Commissioners, to pull his nomination
But the four others – James Ascione, business representative for International Union of Operating Engineers Local 542; William “Bill” Ashe Jr., vice president of the International Longshoremen’s Association; Curtis Linton, business manager of Laborers Local 199; and former Secretary of State Jeff Bullock – pressed forward.
Both Ashe and Linton said they had conversations with the governor’s office, but brushed aside any calls to step down, even if Meyer promised to consider them under his own set of nominees.
Just minutes before the Senate Executive Committee was to meet Thursday to consider the candidates, Meyer sent a letter to senators expressing concern about the “hurried nature of the nominations and the Senate’s proceedings.”
Noting that he expressed his desire to withdraw the nominees nine days earlier and provided case law supporting his belief that they could be withdrawn on Wednesday, the new governor also threatened to take the issue to court.
“If the former nominees’ hearings continue, I will have no choice but to secure clarity through the courts. Too many lives depend on the stability of the Port and its leadership,” he wrote.
Senate asserts power
In opening remarks at the confirmation hearing Thursday, Sokola criticized the efforts by Meyer to withdraw the nominees, calling the governor’s delayed actions “regrettable and manipulative.”
He further jabbed at Meyer by stating that Senate leadership was “not here today to play politics, to relitigate old political feuds, or to take sides in a gubernatorial primary that ended months ago.”
“We are here today because the port project is one of the most critical infrastructure projects in the history of our state. It is a project that has spanned the terms of multiple governors, and certainly multiple members of this chamber. It is a project that – if executed well – has the potential to transform Delaware’s economy and lift up Delaware’s working class,” he said.
After the hearing, Sokola told Spotlight Delaware that Meyer’s attempt to get the nominees to step down “was a little bit troubling.”
“We weren’t looking for a fight, but we are an independent, coequal branch of government,” he said, noting that many of his caucus members support the Port of Edgemoor project. “It’s clearly something that certainly we hope we can get going.”
When asked why the Senate didn’t wait to consider both Hall-Long’s and Meyer’s future nominees, giving the new governor more time to assemble a slate, Sokola said only that the Senate liked to consider nominees “promptly.”
Recognizing that dueling legal analyses have been produced by attorneys for the Senate and governor’s office, the Senate unanimously approved a measure Thursday afternoon to ask the Delaware Supreme Court to weigh in on whether a governor can withdraw a nominee from his or her predecessor.
A decision is asked to be rendered by the five-member high court by March 10.
Nominees tout experience
In the nearly two hours of confirmation hearings Tuesday, state senators praised the qualifications of the nominees.
Bullock, who was replaced by Meyer as secretary of state this month after 16 years in that appointed office, pleaded ignorance as to any objections the new governor has to his continued role on the port board.
“What’s important to me is making sure we maintain the current facility of Wilmington and build facilities and continue to make the future for the ports for Delaware,” he said. “Nothing replaces strong leadership just as nothing replaces institutional knowledge.”
Senate Majority Leader Bryan Townsend (D-Newark) expressed concern that Meyer was not sufficiently invested in the Edgemoor project, which has spanned multiple gubernatorial administrations and is now at its closest point to fruition than ever before.
When he asked Bullock whether the Meyer administration could waylay nearly a decade of planning in the Port of Edgemoor, Bullock said it was possible but should be avoided.
“This project is a no-brainer,” Bullock said of the Port of Edgemoor. “Everybody should be in support of it.”
When asked after the hearing why he was concerned about Meyer or his slate of nominees potentially scuttling progress at Edgemoor, Bullock declined to comment and referred the question to the governor’s office.
Conflicts with Meyer
There may be little love lost between some of the nominees and Meyer – who was the target of negative campaign mailers sent by organized labor in his gubernatorial campaign against Hall-Long.
That antipathy reportedly comes from steps that New Castle County took under Meyer’s leadership, including altering the government’s “responsible contracting” standards, weakening union apprenticeship mandates, and carrying out fewer inspections of development sites that union leaders say hurt their workforces.
In response, those union leaders chose to support Hall-Long, and became her most important campaign funders.
Ascione is a leader with the Delaware Building and Construction Trades Council, which donated heavily toward Hall-Long’s unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign. That included funding mailers that highlighted sexual harassment cases that were filed against New Castle County during Meyer’s tenure as county executive.
Linton co-hosted a primary election eve rally for Hall-Long in Wilmington, where he called Meyer a “lying piece of shit” who was “trying to take away [unionized] livelihoods.” He added that Meyer was a “ Republican dressed as a Democrat” who was “definitely backed by corporate America.”
His Local 199 also paraded an inflatable rat with Meyer’s face on it through the streets of Wilmington’s in the annual Labor Day parade.
Linton told Spotlight Delaware on Friday that those comments were not personal, but made during the height of a heated political campaign. He noted that politicians regularly go after each other during such campaigns, then shake hands afterward.
“I have to work with whoever’s in charge to put my people to work,” he said. “I don’t hold a grudge.”
Linton also stressed his belief that Hall-Long’s nominees all are qualified to serve on the port board, given they all have represented sectors that work at or around the facility.
Ashe, whose ILA avoided weighing into the primary election, told the governor’s office that he would not withdraw his nomination unless Meyer promised in writing to nominate the slate of all five nominees.
He told the committee that he felt it was necessary to move forward with the confirmation hearing, because “if we don’t do things to move forward, we’re going to get left behind again,” referring to efforts by the Port of Philadelphia to scuttle the Edgemoor project.
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