Temporary attorneys appointed to fill Rehoboth vacancies

Rehoboth Beach commissioners temporarily filled the city solicitor position and tasked City Manager Taylour Tedder with moving forward on a request for qualifications to find a permanent replacement during a special meeting Nov. 4.

The city had been without a city solicitor for about two weeks. Baird Mandalas Brockstedt & Federico, the law firm of previous solicitor Alex Burns, told officials Oct. 23 it was no longer going to represent the city. Prior to Burns, firm partner and former city solicitor Glenn Mandalas had represented the city since 2006.

The law firm’s decision came less than a week after city commissioners agreed to begin the process to find a new city solicitor. The city never went through the formal request-for-proposals process when it hired Burns.

Commissioner Craig Thier forced the issue during the city manager report portion of a meeting Oct. 18. He unexpectedly motioned for the city to issue a request for proposals for city solicitor services. After a lengthy discussion, the group decided it was best to give Tedder some time to prepare information and formally notice the topic on an agenda.

Commissioners began the special meeting by unanimously voting in favor of having attorney Lauren DeLuca, a partner at Wilmington-based firm Connolly Gallagher, temporarily fill the role of city solicitor.

Following that, Tedder gave a presentation on current legal expenses and a plan moving forward.

A support document provided as part of Tedder’s presentation shows that in addition to a city solicitor, Rehoboth Beach has a half-dozen additional attorneys that are used on an as-needed basis. There’s one each for the planning commission and board of adjustment, two for government law and employment matters, and one acting as a bond counsel. The per-hour rate for attorney services range from $300 per hour up to $525 per hour.

Tedder said in Fiscal Year 2024, which ran April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024, the city budgeted $550,000 and spent about $542,000. As for the current fiscal year, the city has paid more than $420,000, he said.

Given that there are still five months left in the current fiscal year, Thier asked Tedder if the city needed to revise its budget. The city is looking at $724,000 in legal expenses this year, he said.

Tedder said there were a lot of one-time legal expenses earlier in the year.

During the previous meeting, there was discussion on if it was time for Rehoboth to have in-house counsel.

City staff contacted their Wilmington counterparts in advance of the meeting to see how they operate its legal department. Tedder said Wilmington’s city solicitor oversees a department with 13 attorneys. Salaries range $100,000 to $216,000, plus benefits, he said.

Tedder said if the city goes about hiring a contractor, which is the status quo, the discussion on who it hires will need to be done in public. If the city decides it wants to hire in-house counsel, those discussions can be held in executive session, because that person would be a city employee, he said.

Mayor Stan Mills said he was hesitant to bring on an in-house counsel because the city would likely still need outside counsel.

In the end, commissioners tasked Tedder with issuing a request for qualifications for in-house and contract work to see which comes back with the best opportunity for the city.

Commissioner Patrick Gossett said he would like the RFQ to list the expected role of the city solicitor. It has a list of qualifications that are needed, but it’s missing what’s expected, he said.

Tedder said he would do that.

Looking forward, Tedder said the RFQ will be made immediately, with submissions due the Monday after Thanksgiving, which is Dec. 2. The expectation is that a new city solicitor will be named in January or February 2025.

It wasn’t specifically addressed, but through the discussion, it was pointed out that the planning commission has also had its attorney vacancy temporarily filled.

The planning commission’s previous attorney, Luke Mette, also works for Baird Mandalas Brockstedt & Federico. Weeks before announcing they were ending their legal services with the city, the law firm decided to remove Mette from the planning commission because of a conflict of interest – two attorneys from the same firm were occasionally on the opposite ends of an argument.

The interim planning commission attorney is William Larson, a partner for the Wilmington-based law firm MG+M The Law Firm.

After the meeting, Tedder said Larson had been appointed as planning commission attorney Oct. 24.

330 Rehoboth Ave. rezoning

The city is going to test the acumen of DeLuca in the near future, because a public hearing has been scheduled for 9 a.m., Monday, Nov. 18, on the proposed rezoning of a section of 330 Rehoboth Ave.

This will be the second time the rezoning request has gone before city commissioners.

During an appeal hearing in March 2022, after the planning commission voted against the rezoning earlier, commissioners voted against the requested zoning, citing a negative impact on the surrounding residential neighborhood and also being in conflict with Rehoboth Beach’s comprehensive development plan.

The owner, 330 Hospitality Group, appealed the city commissioners’ decision to the courts. In July, a Superior Court judge remanded the denial of a rezoning request back to commissioners for a new hearing because the judge said city commissioners failed to create a proper record.

More recently, Oct. 1, a Delaware Supreme Court judge dismissed an appeal on the issue, saying 330 Hospitality had filed the appeal too soon.  

It’s unclear if the results will be the same, because the makeup of the commission is different. Mayor Stan Mills, Commissioner Patrick Gossett and Commissioner Edward Chrzanowski are still around, but gone are former commissioners Jay Lagree, Susan Gay, Toni Sharp and Tim Bennett. Now, the board includes commissioners Francis “Bunky” Markert, Don Preston, Craig Thier and Suzanne Goode. Mills, Gossett, Gay, Lagree and Sharp voted against the rezoning, while Chrzanowski and Bennett voted for it.