A Rehoboth Beach commissioner is found to have engaged in consistent abusive and harassing behavior towards city employees and her colleagues on the commission.
An independent investigation commissioned by the city and released on Friday finds that Commissioner Suzanne Goode repeatedly targeted city employees, especially its city manager and solicitor with emails and text and voice messages that were intended to “intimidate, demean, and harass.”
Commissioner Patrick Gossett chairs the city’s personnel committee which reviewed the report. He said the investigation reviewed dozens of emails sent in June and July from Goode to two city employees. The investigation also interviewed the employees and looked at several unsuccessful efforts by city officials to rein in Goode’s alleged behavior. But he said, the harassment, especially by email, goes much further back.
“It is the understanding of the investigator that Commissioner Goode sent nearly 2,000 emails to the targeted employees since 2024 and continues to send more on a daily - near daily - basis,” he said.
The report recommends the city take several actions against Goode, including prohibiting Goode from communicating with city employees, removing her access to city offices, requesting that she formally apologize to the employees in question, and requesting that she undergo training on workplace civility.
Rehoboth Beach has no mechanism for the commission to remove one of its members from office, a point alluded to by Commissioner and incoming Mayor Susan Stewart.
“Does the city want to move on? Absolutely. Does it have the power to? It does not,” she said. “The power lies squarely with the commissioner. This behavior must stop now.”
Goode interrupted the proceedings several times before her allotted time to respond, resulting in her microphone being turned off temporarily. When it came time for her to respond to the findings, she questioned the investigation itself.
“When an investigation is an attorney up in Wilmington looking at emails who never deigns to contact me, who never contacts me, obviously it's a one-sided investigation,” she said.
Without being interviewed for the investigation, Goode claimed, the investigation itself should be suspect.
“Words have been attributed to me which aren't mine,” she said. “Emails are taken out of context completely.”
Goode also said that she only learned of the investigation two days before Friday’s meeting, and raised questions about why the expense of the probe wasn’t approved by the Mayor and Commission.
While Goode was the sole vote against releasing the report to the public, she left the room before a vote on accepting the report and implementing its recommendations. The other five commissioners and Mayor Stan Mills all voted in favor of that measure.
Mills, who has frequently tangled with Goode publicly, made a statement after the vote. He acknowledged that the commission has no way to remove one of its own members and called for Goode to step down.
“Through her lies and ill treatment of city staff and well, most everyone who contradicts her, Commissioner Goode has violated her oath of office and has disgraced the position of commissioner and she should resign,” MIlls said.
Commissioners also voted 6-0 after Goode’s departure to release a redacted version of the exhibits supporting the investigation report. The report and exhibits are available on the city’s website.
