What’s Going on With the Sussex County Council? Come on In for the Scoop-The 5/5/15 Edition

The Sussex county council takes on the unions, trash and irresponsible citizens. It was a meeting to behold.

“Right to Work” Zones and Joan Deaver’s Enemy

Representative Tim Dukes presented the bill sponsored by himself and Rep. Gerald Hoecker in the state senate. Rob Arlett pontificates on employee choice but makes not much sense. Speaking of making no sense, Joan Deaver loves unions so forget my own self having any Sussex county council representation.

Dukes explained that the SB54 was stalled in committee. This was the bill that would allow the Czar of New Business, currently Alan Levin, to willy-nilly designate so-called “right-to-work ” zones that would encourage non-union businesses to locate within these zones and get a five year grace period for the Delaware retail sales tax.

Which didn’t seem to upset the Delaware Republicans all that much in that they have this new proposal, HB86, which would allow individual municipalities and counties to set up their own right-to-work zones wherever they want.

Or something.

sussex2

This whole issue gets a little confusing at times. I know yon reader expects that I should ascertain what’s going on and what’s behind it all.

I’m trying.

 

After Dukes’ presentation, as always Hal Godwin gave his Delaware legislative update. Godwin sought to have a yay or nay on HB 86 approval by the county council upon his return to Dover.

This led to a discussion of this right to work concept which was very interesting. Arlett said it should be up to the employee where he or she wants to work….whether union or not. Which is a fine concept but all employees make choices where they work; it’s not like this right-to-work thing will offer some new privilege of job choice. I understand what Rob means, though. If the only way someone can get a job is to join a union then they have no choice, do they?

Again….or something.

Joan Deaver, the council’s only Democrat and I send whisper to my colleague Frank Knotts….okay so Don Ayotte it is NOT but consider the Sussex county GOP a complete failure if they can’t get somebody elected to that position. Set up debates, right there you win because Joan….well she really needs to retire. Nothing she says involves any thought or wisdom. She follows the party line and with half a candidate that position should fall Republican.

In other legislative news, Godwin reported that Rep. Dan Short pushed the concept of collecting property taxes by tax-intercept. After all if one does not pay one’s property tax why should they get a refund from the state of Delaware.

There was some discussion of the Delaware homeownership act and how those communities without any kind of HOA could utilize that common ownership thing which I fretted about recently. Turns out that common ownership is a condominium kind of thing. Heh. I cannot imagine Deerwood using a condominium law before chopping off necks and pooping down the bloody stumps. As always I say that with love and affection.

Eventually a motion was made for the Sussex county council to support HB86 AND to be agaiinst SB54.

Only Joan Deaver voted against any godawful notion that unions shouldn’t be running the show in Delaware and guess who she mentioned as the prime bad example?

Heh.

SCOTT WALKER!

Scott Walker beat those Wisconsin unions handily, including a call back and legal shenanigans that should embarrass anyone except, perhaps, Joan Deaver.

Let’s Talk Trash and Who is this Mike Costello great speaker?

mike_costelloTrash being left on the road side is a big problem in Sussex county, indeed across the country. But Sussex county has many rural roads and those who don’t want to properly dispose of their rubbish often leave it by the roadside. Not to mention folks with no pride whose homestead is filled with trash, junk cars, old tires…..stuff that looks bad and tends to bring down the value of the neighborhood.

Yes, it’s an important discussion and Sussex county has been discussing this concern for many weeks now in this year of our Lord, 2015. Mike Costello, a speaking genius, shows up out of nowhere and gives a great synopsis of the trash issues, how they are policed and several suggestions of actions to take.

Mike Costello did a great job. I was impressed.

Any law enforcement office can be notified in the event one sees another thoughtless citizen tossing trash alongside the road. Of course this is in theory only. I can’t imagine calling the police for spotting a litterer and getting any kind of response much less catch the people.

DELDOT is responsible for keeping the roadways clear of litter….but only the state roadways, of course. DELDOT uses inmates from jail to pick up trash, it sends out trucks to do the deed and then there’s that Adopt-a-Highway program.

There is something called the ECU….get this….the “Environmental Crimes Unit” and DNREC is in charge of that.

Heh.

When DNREC grows up it wants to be the federal EPA.

Costello then offered several suggestions to the council for choices to make as concerns this trash problem so much a bigger problem in Sussex the farming area than in a more heavily traveled county road.

Costello’s suggestions were original and thought-filled. Sussex county could keep reporting the dumping of trash, file one of those ECU things, keep at it and see what the result is. He also suggested contracting out trash work, perhaps offer a reward for citizens who spot it and report it.

In the end Costello suggested the county start a plan of reporting these ECU’s, the simplest solution for now. Good rule of thumb, start with the easiest solution and work up to the hardest. I am not sure that dealing with DNREC will be all that easy but it’s a start.

Councilman Rob Arlett wants a Sussex county wide clean up day and such was his enthusiasm that the guy ended up getting money and being Chairman of such an effort. I remember Rob Arlett when he was an RD with the Sussex GOP. I had to smile. Arlett showed the same enthusiasm that he did when promoting local fundraisers.

I’ll keep an eye on him and see how this goes.

Attack of the Bureaucracy

The Sussex county council is currently wrestling with what to do when someone involved in a zoning hearing does not show up at a scheduled hearing date.

There are such things as emergencies, and to make a Sussex countian involved in a zoning hearing to have to start back over again is cruel.

Yet again you just can’t have citizens scheduled to present their case not show up on date allotted, boom, get another date when the hair doesn’t need to be permed.

After this there was discussion of what excuses to accept, what documentation will be needed (ie “I was in a car accident” does not cut it without backup), and what excuses are not good enough.

The discussion ended up being a boring recapture of how to prove this, when to prove that….in other words yon ladies and gems, they were trying to legislate common sense.

Because Common sense is when we know what ain’t quite right. Unfortunately the county council can’t just tell somebody that there excuse just doesn’t hold water.

I got bored, yon readers. Sorry. I stayed this long and then I was done.

All in all it was good Sussex county council session. Such as trash and flimsy excuses might not be high drama but it is the stuff of daily life and Sussex county council does it well.

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NEXT : A post in pics followed up soon by some Delaware tidbits.

2 Comments on "What’s Going on With the Sussex County Council? Come on In for the Scoop-The 5/5/15 Edition"

  1. Well Now says:

    Now I know why you don’t answer comments. It’s because you write at a third grade level. It’s either that or you have Alzheimer’s.

  2. mouse says:

    You could move to western Sussex where you have an assorttment of self hating rubes and representatives who work against the financial interests of their own kids to support their beloved robber baron and sodid paranoid irrational nasty religious political ideology. Unions built the middle class and assure it’s survival if your beloved political party doesn’t off shore every middle class job for child labor in China. How can you people not see this self evident reality?

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