This story has been updated with comments from Senate leadership.
Gov. Matt Meyer announces his five picks to join the Diamond State Port Corporation (DSPC) Board after the Delaware Supreme Court agreed he was within his right to withdraw nominations made by former Gov. Bethany Hall-Long.
Meyer has tapped former Port of Wilmington and DSPC Executive Director Gene Bailey, former New Castle County Board of Adjustment Chair and corporate counsel to the DuPont Company David Burt, Associated Builders and Contractors of Delaware President and former Delaware Department of Transportation Secretary Jen Cohan, Business Agent for the International Longshoreman’s Association Local 1883 Ronald "Kimoko" Harris and former Delaware Board of Pilot Commissioners Chair Robert "Jerry" Medd.
"We want a well-rounded group of individuals that represent not just a diverse group of Delawareans geographically, not just a diverse group politically, but a diverse group in terms of their expertise," Meyer told Delaware Public Meida.
Hall-Long — who served as the state's chief executive for two weeks — submitted her nominations to the State Senate just days prior to Gov. Meyer taking office in January.
Meyer promptly requested Hall-Long's slate of candidates, which included Local International Longshoreman’s Association President William Ashe, former Secretary of State Jeff Bullock, Local Laborers' International Union of North America Business Manager Curtis Linton, International Union of Operating Engineers Business Representative James Ascione and Jerry Medd, be withdrawn from consideration.
Senate leadership decided to go through with the confirmation hearings despite Gov. Meyer's request, sending four of the five picks to the full Senate for final approval.
Medd, who is the only candidate from Hall-Long's list of nominations to be re-nominated by Gov. Meyer, withdrew his name from consideration prior to the initial Senate Executive Committee hearings.
The State Senate put a pause on taking a final vote on Hall-Long's nominations following requests from both the governor and the General Assembly to receive an advisory opinion from the Delaware Supreme Court on whether or not Gov. Meyer was within his right to withdraw the nominations.
The high court ultimately sided with Gov. Meyer, paving the way for him to submit his own nominations for the DSPC Board.
The DSPC Board oversees the Port of Wilmington, as well as the development of a new container port terminal at a site in Edgmoor.
The terminal is estimated to create nearly 6,000 new jobs, including more than 3,100 direct jobs. Total state and local taxes generated from the Edgemoor Port are estimated at $39.4 million annually and building the new facility is expected to create more than 3,900 construction jobs and generate $42.3 million in tax revenues.
Once completed and fully operational, “Port Delaware,” including both the existing and new terminals, is expected to generate a total of around 11,480 jobs and $76.2 million in tax revenues for the state, making it one of Delaware’s largest employment centers.
The project hit a major snag when a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled in favor of the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority and others who sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers after necessary permits were approved.
PhilaPort raised legal and regulatory concerns over the permitting process, and U.S. District Judge Mark Kearney ruled in November the Army Corps acted “arbitrarily and capriciously departed from its own procedures” when giving the project the go ahead.
Several state leaders have attested that those permits should be reissued "shortly."
During the Senate confirmation hearings for Hall-Long's nominations, Ashe, Linton and Ascione testified that they met with Gov. Meyer's Deputy Chief of Staff Nick Merlino following their nominations.
The three candidates all described similar sit-downs with Merlino and said they were asked to withdraw their names from the list of nominations with the promise of being renominated by Meyer himself.
Bullock said he was not asked to sit down for a similar meeting.
Ashe told Senate leadership that without a guarantee of Bullock being renominated — who served as secretary of state for sixteen years and was the DSPC Board's chair for almost a decade — he would not withdraw his name.
“Why wouldn't you want the Secretary of State on that? He knows all about the port. We've been working together for the last eight to 12 years. Now you want people to come off this — for what reason? [Merlino] said, ‘Well, the governor will put you back up there.’ I said, ‘No sir, not unless all five is up there, it ain't gonna happen,'" Ashe said at the hearing.
Gov. Meyer says his reason behind choosing not to renominate Bullock is to bring a fresh perspective to the highly anticipated Edgemoor project.
"I’m not really interested in people serving in the same role for decades and decades. I believe, even with respect to my own service, that you get in, you serve for a period of time, and then you move on," Meyer explained. "I think it’s important that we cycle people in and out, especially something like the Port, where you’re talking about probably close to a billion dollars — certainly hundreds of millions of dollars of public funding at stake — you want a lot of different perspectives on this. And that means that people who care a lot about it rotate on and then rotate off, and that’s the way it should be."
"I hope Mr. Bullock and other Delawareans continue to be active citizens and involved. And as an active citizen, your taxpayer resources are being spent on this, and I hope they’ll be engaged as well, simply by not being on the Port Board. There are a lot of people across Delaware who are very well qualified to be on the Port Board — we chose the five best to lead us forward, and we encourage everyone to stay involved," he adds.
Gov. Meyer says the implication that a deal was made with Medd to re-nominate him on the condition that he withdrew his name from consideration as a Hall-Long candidate is "a lie."
"There’s no reason for us to make a deal. We have an obligation to Delawareans to pick the best five people we could pick representing diverse points of view and diverse areas of expertise to lead our Port forward," Meyer said. "They engaged in this infighting — we just have no time for it."
Additionally during the hearings, Sen. Majority Leader Bryan Townsend (D-Newark) cited frustration with the Meyer administration for portraying the Edgemoor Port project as being in its infancy when Bullock and other nominees said once the legal permitting issues are resolved, contracts have already been established and the project is "shovel ready."
"I don't think this committee feels — and I can only speak for myself — that this is suddenly something new that is on a whiteboard that just came out of nowhere and is being rushed," Townsend said during the hearings. "And I'm just grappling with sort of the dynamic that's being pushed by the Meyer administration frankly, as if this is sort of a new idea that hasn't been vetted by a whole lot of people across multiple administrations subject to public scrutiny."
Meyer refutes this claim and says his administration is committed to bringing the Edgemoor Port to fruition once the permitting challenges are resolved.
"[There is] constant misinformation and disinformation about our vision and view on this and that. We’re interested in moving the Port forward, making sure that the current port, which provides a lot of really good quality jobs for Delaware families and has for generations, continues to do that and expanding it however we can to meet the needs of a global and technological economy," Gov. Meyer said.
Although the differing opinions between legislative leadership and Gov. Meyer unfolded rather publicly, he says he’s ready to put the matter behind him and prioritize collaboration moving forward.
“It's unprecedented for someone that lost an election to appoint someone to any board. The Senate leadership made the decisions they made, and we're now over that, and we're looking forward to how we can make sure to expand the Port."
In addition to Gov. Meyer's new candidates, the board is already seeing some significant turnover with four new cabinet heads, including Secretary of State Charuni Patibanda-Sanchez, Secretary of Transportation Shanté Hastings, Secretary of Finance Michael R. Smith and Secretary of the Department of Safety and Homeland Security Joshua Bushweller.
Gov. Meyer has named Secretary of State Charuni Patibanda-Sanchez as the new chair of the board.
Her position as head of the DSPC, along with Meyer’s five nominees, all await Senate confirmation.
“My colleagues and I believe that Delaware must prioritize the planned expansion of the Port of Wilmington and do everything possible to ensure it fulfills its promise to bring high-wage union jobs and economic growth to our State. The Senate looks forward to learning more about Governor Meyer's appointments and ensuring they share our commitment to working families and community engagement as prospective members of the Diamond State Port Corporation," Sen. President Pro Tempore Dave Sokola (D-Newark) said in a statement.
