Mayor & Council

MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC WILL BE PERMITTED TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS MEETING by teleconference by calling 305-224-1968 and entering Meeting ID number: 819 4697 3063 Passcode: 722202 or by visiting Join Zoom Meeting at: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81946973063?pwd=Jm4N7NhgX76DTeoBMT0YqCQCvWo2JD.1 Council Meeting Council Chamber, Smyrna Town Hall 27 S. Market Street Plaza, Smyrna, Delaware April 7, 2025 – 6:30 PM Agenda 1. 6:30 PM – Fact finding hearings for property tax appeals, including additions thereto The video for the meeting was started at 6:33 P.M. A gentleman from the Ashland Community. He mentioned that nothing particularly on his property has been modified. A lot of the residents in the community moved away from a lot of taxes from other states and now they are getting hit here. They went from $800 in taxes and mortgage to $1,400. Most of them in the community are on a fixed income and he would like Council to take that into consideration. He said when he looked at the 2024 tax rates in comparison to the 2025 tax rates, he wasn’t sure what was included and how they were calculated. He concluded that the homes don’t have improvements, and they are all the same as they were when built new three to five years ago. Vice Mayor Rasmussen asked if the gentleman had his assessment letter for this year and if it shows that the assessed value increased or not. The gentleman said he had 2024’s letter, but not this year’s. He said that the 2024 assessment was $194,600. He wasn’t sure but though the new net assessment was maybe a $1,000 difference. Vice Mayor Rasmussen asked for the 2025 letter. The gentleman handed them some documents. Vice Mayor Rasmussen said that 2024 matched 2025. The gross assessment is $224.60 and with the senior exemption qualification, it drops to $194.60, which matches last year’s, [could be $224600 and $194600]. Teresa Preppin (sp?) – the reason for her reassessment request is because she is on a fixed income and her expenses are based on what taxes would be to Smyrna and it’s been a hardship since the increase. She’s a single person, on a fixed income, and is responsible for all the expenses in the house; and everything has been raised significantly. She said it’s hard for her to pay the taxes based on the new assessment. She would like them to consider lowering the taxes. She spoke about having to borrow money, cash bonds, and different things because the additional $1,000 or more makes a difference on a fixed income. She mentioned again that everything has gone up; paying the bills, groceries, necessary expenses, utilities. She said she loves Smyrna and the primary reason for her leaving Pennsylvania to move to Delaware was because of the  lower taxes. Councilwoman Dr. Upshur asked her what part of Pennsylvania she was from. She said she was from Lansdale, but originally Philadelphia, and that was the reason for her leaving. She sees that Smyrna and Delaware is booming but the drastic increase was just a lot to deal with. Instead of a couple of $100 a year, it went up nearly $1,000. Vice Mayor Rasmussen asked if there was a change to her assessed value of her home for 2025. She said that she sure there was; everybody’s been reassessed. Vice Mayor Rasmussen said that this would be specific to the Town’s assessment. She said that she didn’t bring her statement. She mentioned again that she would like some consideration to lowering the taxes. Adeoye – 260 Doylestown Rd. She is appealing the additions. When she bought the home last year, the builder told her to water the lawn, 20-30 minutes a day. When she received a huge water bill, she called the office and explained that they were not living in the home, just making sure the lawn was watered. She was told that because she was watering the lawn, the bill was for water and sewer. She said one was over $1,000 and one was close to $1,000. She was told that someone would be sent out to check and they would get back to her. At the time, she said she was pregnant and then gave birth. She tried calling to know what the findings were, but no one got back to her, even after 3-4 times. She then said that she was told that a yard meter needed to be installed so that they would be able to know if it was actually water for the lawn. She said that she offered to send them everything from the builders when the builders turned the house over, that for two months no one was living in the house. No one had gotten back to her until she received the bill. She’s just trying to see if there is a way to remove the sewer part because no one was using the sewage, so there isn’t a need for them to be billed for that. Vice Mayor Rasmussen said that there are two amounts; one for $899.58 and one for $536 and asked if those were correct. She confirmed that they were correct. Vice Mayor Rasmussen asked if anyone had questions. Councilwoman Gott asked her, when settlement was made, she didn’t move in. Adeoye confirmed that was correct. She said that there was no other increase in the bills, like electricity, because nobody was in house. Vice Mayor Rasmussen asked when she settled on the house. She said about April of last year. He asked when she moved in. She said July/August. She said that they immediately turned off the water as soon as they got the bills. Vice Mayor said that those were the three presentations and closed the fact finding hearing for the property tax assessment and additions for the bills. The hearing was closed at 6:45 P.M. 2. 7:00 PM – Call to order The meeting was called to order by Mayor Johnson. 3. Pledge of Allegiance 4. Roll Call Roll call was taken by staff liaison, Danielle. All were present. 5. Additions/deletions to the published agenda Councilman Pope motioned to approve the agenda as it. Councilwoman Gott seconded the motion. All were in favor. 6. Consent agenda a. Council minutes of 3/17/2025 Vice Mayor Rasmussen motioned to approve the consent agenda. Councilman Johnson seconded the motion. All were in favor. 7. Non-agenda items a. Mayor and Council Members Mayor Johnson – to the two mayoral candidates, whoever wins, work on the committees and review the existing commissions; there are some vacancies in the commissions. They will need to get a list of the commissions and committees so they can get an idea of what needs to be filled. Finance needs to be filled. They may want to bring back the utility committee. They may want to see some others returned or remove some. He said that he’s available to whomever wins and talked about an exit conference, though that isn’t usually done. He has things in his head that they might want to know, and he has some documents that Councilwoman Gott may have, but Mr. Coates doesn’t. Whoever wins should review some of the processes that are already in place. He said that Vice Mayor Rasmussen is writing up something for the budge reserve and they should review the capital reserve. He let them know that they will need to decide about the Opioid Commission. He officially resigned on the 3rd, since he will not be Mayor, and a Mayor has to be on that Commission. However, if they want, he can stay. The Mayor is assigned to the Opioid Commission or their designate. He said that there is over $72m in the bank. $13m has been divvied out at the last meeting with the local government. When looking at places like Tennessee and Viriginia, when they created their Opioid Commission, they automatically put money in for the states, the counties, and local governments. Delaware chose to put everything into the state. There’s $900,000 that belongs to the local governments that have not been dispersed and that has to be done. There’s another $27m coming down the pike and that should put Delaware over $100m. In speaking directly to the mayoral candidates, he encouraged them to read Section E of the Opioid Commission and to read the code that was written into law for the local governments that explains how they can put someone into their place if they choose a designee. The audit is coming up. The list should be ’24 and the last year. Council will need to decide whether they want to continue with the current auditors for ’24. To him it makes sense to and then have somebody new for the ’25 audit. It’s a three-year process with automatic renewal. There is an Audit Committee already that was passed by Council. All the Audit Committee is supposed to do is review the proposals and make a recommendation. It is up to Council to decide, based off that recommendation, who the auditor will be for 2025. He said that there is no reason to have any committee meetings for this month because no one knows what it’s going to be like after April. He will not ask anyone to talk about committees. Councilman Johnson – thanked staff for their great job. He had a gentleman stop him today and told him that he had to go to Town Hall to get some stuff changed over after his wife passed away and he had a great experience. He told Councilman Johnson that he hated the idea of coming to Town Hall, but when he walked out, he said it was a great experience dealing with everybody. Another gentleman let him know about the sinkhole behind Popeyes. He will get pictures to Torrie. The gentleman said it looked like it could be dangerous if somebody stepped off the curb. Councilman Pressley – did not have anything to discuss. Councilwoman Gott – April 12th Harmony Lodge is having an Easter egg hunt at Belmont Hall, 10 A.M. On the 19th Asbury Church is having an Easter egg hunt, at the church, at 10 A.M. May 2nd is Carry the Load at the VFW in honor of Memorial Day. Councilwoman Dr. Upshur – thanked staff for all they do. She talked about the incredible job for the VFW Memorial on the 29th. The weather was amazing and said well done to Councilwoman Gott. Thanked staff for having everything set and the monuments were out. It will be a day that she will remember and to see all the people come together to recognize the lives lost and the people that served in all those wars. She mentioned about the Opioid Commission and said that she was in a meeting with the Attorney General last week and the money is on hold right now. Mayor Johnson spoke about the changing of the office. Councilwoman Dr. Upshur also pointed out it was because some of the money was misspent and there’s an investigation. She said that the AG wanted to make sure that on a local level they are aware that the funds will be represent. They [Opioid Commission] have a lot of support and will walk the local governments through the grant process. They have a new team. The AG gave a presentation to the DLG Executive Board last week. Mayor Johnson mentioned that an audit was done and that a couple of agencies had some issues. He said that he would send her a copy of the audit report he received. Vice Mayor Rasmussen – did not have anything to discuss.  Councilman Pope – he thanked the entire staff for the work and dedication that they show every day. On Saturday he attended the ribbon cutting for Primrose and Lace on Main Street. He said that from time to time people may notice a number of Verizon trucks working in certain areas of town. On his previous time on Council, they had started to explore the option of having another broadband provider so there’s more than one choice. He is happy to report, and thanks again to the dedication of the staff and meeting with Verizon, that they are expanding their FiOS network into the town. It will be done by piece meal and so Verizon trucks will be in different parts of the Town from time to time as they expand that service. Once it’s ready, they [Verizon] will reach out to residents to let them know about the process of how to get information for that and how to sign up. He said that this is completely separate from the Town, so please do not call the Town Manager; this is their operation. It is something that the Town has met with them about, and they have graciously taken the task to go ahead and expand. He said that we’re hoping this will give more choices and some pricing features that may be better as well. He wanted to commend Verizon and Town staff also for coordinating with Verizon so they can get started. Mayor Johnson – one thing he forgot was to talk about the State audit. He’s been trying to get ahold of them to find out what’s going on. A few weeks ago, he received a phone call with a message that they should be done in a couple of week. They had a few documents to review. Now, with another call, there’s more information they are looking into to and will be another two weeks. Someone else mentioned two weeks for something else and another two weeks for something else. He said for something that should have only taken two weeks, has taken almost a year. He said that he’s doesn’t think a lot of people understand the difference between what the State’s doing and what our auditors are doing on our financial report. We [the Town] pays over $70,000/yr for the external audit but nothing for the State audit. It’s a review of our policies and procedures on how we’re doing things. Our external audit gets into the details. They can power the financial reports. They review in depth documentation as to how our numbers are there. They go backwards from the report to the checkbook to see that everything is in compliance. They do a lot of testing. The major difference between us and the State audit is by code. The State audit can only audit documentation or income funds related to what we receive from the State. Sometimes they may go outside that review, but not often. Basically, by law, they can only review the money given to us like ARPA, some projects, grants, and things like that. So, of $48m they may only review maybe $20m. He just wanted to give a brief understanding of the difference between the two. b. Police Chief c. Town Manager Chief James – let Council know that they can look through their report, one of the things that we have are a few capital improvement projects that are at the beginning stages. One of them is the electric infrastructure; Smyrna Substation. Staff has some training to make sure that they stay up on compliances.  Speaking on outages, there were two in March. One of them was a failure on a copper plug that was on the pole. The other was a private line strike where a vendor that was in town doing work struck a line that temporarily disconnected the power. Staff was quick and got it restored. There is the Customer service summaries and where they are sitting with the last disconnection days. The numbers have changed significantly the past year. We are still working with IT to make sure we are up to date on our technology. We are implementing some other new management tools to make sure that they help with our workflow process and other things. He’s met with Jeremy and Jason on some businesses that will potentially come to town. They been working diligently with the State to make sure that we get the Linden’s property. We keep hitting roadblocks, but we’re kind of at the end. Hopefully we’ll see that project closed and we can get the property purchased. Mayor Johnson asked if anyone had questions for Chief James. Vice Mayor Rasmussen – spoke up to say he forgot to say something. On Sunday, Jeremy Rothwell, the Town Planning and Zoning Director, arranged a site visit. Downtown, yesterday, between 10 and 12:30, there was a bus tour that came through of Main Street managers. These are people who are involved with Main Street programs from around the country. They are having the National Main Streets meeting in Philadelphia this week. There was a bus tour of about 32 people. He hosted them for lunch at the distillery at the end of the tour. They visited the Opera House, the new library, the museum, and a few other locations throughout town. It’s a nice opportunity to showcase some of the work that’s going on here in tow, some of the changes, and to ultimately have a conversation with people who are doing similar work around the country. Jeremy isn’t here but thank him for arranging it. 8. Old business, including discussion and possible action on the following items: a. Third reading of Ordinance No. 005-25 to amend Chapter 32, (Impact Fees), to update school construction impact fees based on dwelling type, which shall be adjusted annually for inflation, and to clarify the classification of dwelling types for calculating impact fees Vice Mayor Rasmussen motioned to approve the third and final reading. Councilman Johnson seconded the motion. There was no discussion. All were in favor. The motion passed for the third and final reading of Ord. 005-25. b. Third reading of Ordinance No. 007-25 to amend Chapter 18, (Buildings and Building Regulations), Article XI, (Rental Properties), to establish new regulations for rental properties in the Town of Smyrna  Councilman Pope motioned to approve the third and final reading. Councilwoman Gott seconded the motion. There was no discussion. All were in favor. The motion passed for the third and final read of Ord. 007-25. 9. New business, including discussion and possible action on the following items: a. Resolution 003-25 proposing the annexation of 1510 Paddock Road and adjacent roadways into the municipal limits of the Town of Smyrna; designating the proposed zoning classification; scheduling a public hearing; and referring the proposal to the Town Planning Commission Vice Mayor Rasmussen motion to approve Resolution 003-25. Councilman Pressley and Councilman Johnson seconded the motion at almost the same time. Councilwoman Gott asked if this was the back of the industrial park on Paddock Rd. Vice Mayor Rasmussen said that this was the property that they had requested the rezoning for last time. Councilman Johnson said that this was being the Wawa. Vice Mayor Rasmussen confirmed that. Town Solicitor, Barrett Edwards, said that this is the first step. This will schedule a public hearing and will come back before them. This kicks the process off. There was no further discussion. All were in favor. The motion passed to approve Resolution 003-25. b. First reading of Ordinance 008-25, amending the Town Code of the Town of Smyrna to make miscellaneous updates to the solid waste, recycling, and yard waste disposal and collection requirements in the Town of Smyrna Vice Mayor Rasmussen motion to approve the first reading of Ord. 008-25. Councilman Johnson seconded the motion. Jason McNatt explained what this was about. This clarifies the Freon containing appliances that we do not pick up. It mentions the ending of the Waste Management contract and the start of a new one in August. The tote size is changing from 64 gallon to 96 gallon. Recycling services and trash services may be, if economically feasible to, the Town will be collecting of dwelling units with 10 or more units. Mayor Johnson reiterated about the changes in the contract. Jason confirmed. Mayor Johnson asked for those changes to be submitted to Council. Chief James said that the contract hasn’t been put out yet; that this was for us to change what we’re able to talk about with the contract. We are waiting for bids to come back. He said that pre-bids should be in next week but asked Jason for that time. Jason said that the pre-bid meeting is tomorrow. Chief James said that we’re not at that point yet, but it will be brought to Council before any contracts. Vice Mayor Rasmussen said that the idea is we want to update the code, so it reflects what we want to see in those new contracts. Chief James said that was correct. Councilwoman Dr. Upshur asked about the end of the current contract. Jason said it ends the 25th of August. Mayor Johnson asked Barrett about his stance on this. Barrett said a motion to approve the first reading. There was no further discussion. All were in favor. The motion passed for the first reading of Ord. 008-25. c. Council hearings on property tax assessment appeals, including additions to tax bills Vice Mayor Rasmussen said that they heard three appeals. The Appeals Board would like to make a motion to amend the additions to tax bill for 260 Doylestown Rd, to exclude the sewer portion of the water bill that was added to the tax. Mayor Johnson said that there is a motion on the floor to amend the sewer/water bill. Councilman Pope motioned for the recommendation to be approved to exclude the sewer portion. Councilwoman Gott seconded the motion. There was no further discussion. All were in favor. The motion passed to amend the tax bill for 260 Doylestown Rd to exclude the sewer portion. d. Resolution 004-25 approving and adopting the final property tax assessment list, including additions to property tax assessment list Vice Mayor Rasmussen motioned to approve Resolution 004-25 with the amendment that was just passed by Council, [9c]. Councilwoman Gott seconded the motion. There was no further discussion. All were in favor. Motion passed e. Budget reserve Mayor Johnson said that he asked for this to be on the agenda. He said that a couple of Council people talked about getting money back into the Budget Reserve. Everyone has some ideas on how to refund and there’s a couple of ways to do it. Annually we they do the budget process they put X amount of dollars in the budget at the beginning that should go to the reserve. This is only for the general fund budget. He reminded them that 19 out of 19 years, this has had a deficit. Decide by code. They’re supposed to put 10% of the budget in the reserve. So if the budget is $13m, $1.3m goes into the reserve. It is something to think about, because that will make the budget $12.9m They could cut costs and spend only 90-95% of the budget to make up for what’s being taken for the reserve.  He said that Council doesn’t have to make the decisions on how this should work or what they’d like to see. Staff can come to them with an idea. As Councilmembers, they are authorized to help staff out make recommendations. He would like to hear what everyone one else has to say. Councilwoman Gott said that this is a lot to think about in a quick time period with an educated conversation. Mayor Johnson said that this has been talked about for three year, but they haven’t done anything. Councilwoman Gott said that this conversation needs to take place with staff because they have the budget and know what we have that we can or can’t, at any given time, move where we can or can’t move it. Councilwoman Dr. Upshur said they also discussed having workshops as well. Mayor Johnson pointed out that we don’t have the staff, that’s why he’s saying that Council should have some thought as to what they want to say. If they [staff] give them an idea, how will they know if that works unless they have some concept or skin in the game. He’s not going to just accept something that they [staff] say. He’s going to have his own thought. He said that in Washington and Dover, that when the budget is brought to the senators and legislators they don’t look at anything or they accept it or make changes. Councilwoman Dr. Upshur agreed. She said when it’s presented they can look at the previous time, see what failed before, what we do definitely need. Mayor Johnson said that we’ve looked at what we’ve had in the past. He said it’s just for them to think about. f. Zoom practice moving forward Chief James asked for this to be on the agenda because of what happened last time. He wanted to make sure that everyone on Council had the opportunity to talk and discuss about what could be done. Walt looked into the options for the government Zoom. Walt said that they looked at a couple of options and the public, the residents, need a voice. But as long as we offer that voice on Zoom, we won’t be able to weed out the bad players. He could go on Zoom as a resident and say he has a tax question but then hijack it and say whatever he wants. So, we can keep Zoom, as is, and trust the residents with their issues and publicly voicing their issues. We can keep doing what we’re doing now where everybody’s auto muted, they can’t unmute themselves, and if they have a question, come in and speak personally in front of Council. Or another idea is that he can create a mailbox, put it on the back of the utility bills, throw it up on the website, and residents can email their questions to that mailbox, and someone could present the questions, and they answer it. Councilman Pressley asked about the way it is now, would he [Walt] unmute them. Walt said that Danielle would. He said that if Zoom is kept as is, there still may or may not have issues in the future, but maybe they can send their questions to Danielle, whether it be an email or chat feature, and she could read it, or we could have the resident read it out, that would help us from having somebody come in the back door.  Mayor Johnson asked Council for their thoughts. Councilman Pope and Councilwoman Dr. Upshur agreed on the chat feature. Councilman Pressley spoke up and told Danielle that they were giving her another job. Danielle said okay. Town Solicitor, Barrett Edwards, said that post COVID, there’s some requirements in the State code regarding open meetings and Zoom. He will look into that and get back to them to see what limitations they may have. Chief James said that he thinks we’d be okay because it only governs State and County, not municipalities. Vice Mayor Rasmussen said that it’s really important that they have as many ways, it’s 2025, and using the technology to best of our ability to allow people to be engaged, even if it is listening and having to go through asking questions and through a process like that. It should be expected, and they should be making an effort and making an investment to make it work, regardless of the potential issues that could come up. Walt said that in IT, he says he likes to make miracles. He can make anything happen, just gotta weed out the bad actors. There’s a bunch of avenues they can do. They just need to figure out when one to focus on. Councilman Pressley said to try this one and see what it does. Councilman Pope addressed Barrett and said that in his research of this topic, would a registration process be applicable and an option for the Town. Barrett said yeah. Mayor Johnson thanked Walt and said whatever idea combination he thinks is best. Walt jokingly said that he was glad they picked Danielle’s voice. There was overlapping talk and chuckling. 10. Presentation and public comments (3 minutes) Vicky Blair – asked about the Paddock property and if it will be a commercial zone or residential. She was told that it will be commercial. She said okay and moved to the Zoom topic. She’s done Zoom and she thinks the option to ask the question is the chat is a good way to go because they are not going to be able to control everybody. She relies on Zoom when she can’t make it. She thinks it’s important to keep that available. Pamela Anderson - said that she wanted to thank everyone who assisted and made it happen for the monuments they have on the 29th. It was a fantastic ceremony. She also spoke about Zoom and said that she’s like them to keep it. She uses it when she’s not feeling well. It is unfortunate to have that [inappropriate visitors], but agreed with a registration or address or something. A gentleman asked about the lighting and sidewalks on Rt. 13 between Smyrna-Leipsic Rd, Sunnyside Rd, and Burger King and who would he talk about getting that done. Chief James let him know that it would be through the State. He asked if it was DelDOT specifically. He was told yes.  A lady talked about a exemption that was taken out of the Town Code ordinance that has been in place for 20 plus years, that she knows of, and it’s the exemption that excludes people that are blind and disabled and unable to clean up after their service dog. She said that she’s had problems over where she lives, at Fraser Place Apartments, saying that she has to clean up after her service animal and she is physically unable to, and it has caused her to be evicted now. She was told by Mr. Pressley that this would be discussed, and they would see about putting that back into the Town ordinance to protect the disabled and the blind who have service dogs. In her opinion the Town of Smyrna is very unfriendly to the disabled. She’s said that they can meet her after the meeting to have a discussion and she’ll run them through the history that she’s had with DHSS, Smyrna PD had to pay her a $500 fine because they didn’t know the service dog law. She would like to have this exemption put back in. Someone in the audience asked if she had a pooper-scooper. She said that she is unable to move where the dog goes. It’s up over a curb and she cannot get her chair there. She doesn’t have anyone who can clean it and she can’t afford anyone to do it. She went over this with Senator Hoffner and contacted Mr. Carson, but he’s not gotten back with her. She talked about how she travels the Town and how unfriendly it is. She cannot get up on the curb across the street because there’s no curb thing. Over by the Library, at the four-way, there are bricks missing and her chair gets stuck. There are sidewalks all around that are crumbled up, destroyed, and everything. She can’t get across them and has to ride in the streets. She talked about how she’ll deal with that on her own because she’s been dealing with it since she was 11 and was hit by a car. But she cannot deal with losing her service animal and her place of residence and without the exemption, they have cause her quite a deal of stress. So, she would like to have it placed back in. It’s been there for 25 plus years. 11. Adjournment Councilman Pope motioned to adjourn. Councilwoman Gott seconded. All were in favor. The meeting ended at 7:44 P.M. Posted 3/31/2025 at 4:30 PM (#1) NOTE: This agenda, as listed, may not be considered in sequence. This agenda is subject to change to include additional items, including Executive Sessions, and/or deletion of items, including Executive Sessions that arise at time of meeting.