Mayor & Council

MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC WILL BE PERMITTED TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS MEETING by teleconference by calling 646-931-3860 and entering Meeting ID number: 848 3385 5666 Passcode: 318021 or by visiting Join Zoom Meeting at: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84833855666?pwd=EL7MIXMa5Z5aOp8aG3t7bEMaechbRE.1 Council Meeting Council Chamber, Smyrna Town Hall 27 S. Market Street Plaza, Smyrna, Delaware June 2, 2025 – 7:00 PM Agenda 1. 7:00 PM – Call to order The room on zoom was muted when the meeting was called to order at 6:58 PM. 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Roll Call Handled by Council Secretary, Councilman Pope, as the room was still muted at this time and staff liaison, Danielle, was unable to hear. 4. Additions/deletions to the published agenda Vice Mayor Dr. Upshur motioned to remove item 8c from the agenda. Councilman Drew seconded the motion. All were in favor. Motion passed. [Unfortunately, the presenters for 8c were not able to make it and requested earlier in the day to be added to a future agenda] 5. Consent agenda a. Council meeting minutes of 5/19/2025 Vice Mayor Dr. Upshur motioned to approve the Consent Agenda. Councilman Johnson seconded. All were in favor. Motion passed. 6. Non-agenda items a. Mayor and Council Members Vice Mayor Dr. Upshur – talked about June dates to be recognized. • Caribbean American Heritage Month is celebrated by proclamation of the President and Congress in the United State, to honor the achievements and contributions of Caribbean  immigrants and their descendants who are living in the United States. She is the daughter of a proud Caribbean mother • Father’s Day is June 15th, the next meeting is on the 16th, so she wanted to recognize all the fathers and father figures; as they are the backbone of the community and society. • Juneteenth is June 19th. She is inviting everyone to a special Juneteenth experience, which honors the rich history and cultural significance of this important day. It commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans and serves as a powerful reminder of resilience, progress, and unity. The event will be held at George C. Wright Jr. Municipal Park from 11 AM to 4 PM; the park is located at 520 N. Main St. She talked about the program, that there will be performances and reflections on the journey toward equality and justice. There will be an opportunity for fellowship, education, and recognition of the contributions of African Americans throughout history, as well as an opportunity to unite the Smyrna community. • Loving Day is an annual celebration held on June 12th. It is the anniversary of the 1967 US Supreme Court decision, Loving vs Virginia, that struck down all anti-miscegenation laws remaining in 16 states. This law was banned and the Warren Court ruled unanimously in 1967 that these states were unconstitutional. Chief Justice Warren wrote that court majority opinion was that the freedom to marry or not marry a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the US. • PRIDE Month, which started on the 1st, and sometimes specified as LGBTQ PRIDE Month, is a month long observance dedicated to the celebration of LGBTQ pride; commemorating the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer culture and community. This observation coincides with the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots; a series of gay liberation protests. Councilman Drew – he talked about being with the veterans on Memorial Day. He was at Lake Como for their 8 AM gun salute and he spoke with them. He went over to GCW Municipal Park, [at the Memorial portion], and saw the names on the bricks. He talked about watching the young people in the parade and being engaged throughout that day. He visited the museum and said it was an awesome experience. He talked with them about Harriet Tubman, and they gave him a tour of the building. Councilman Pope – he apologized to Councilman Drew for calling him by his first name during roll call. He talked about Memorial Day and how it was a great turnout at the park. He mentioned that it is always a very worthwhile event to attend. Councilman Miles – he mentioned that this is his first official meeting, and he was excited to be a younger perspective to Council. He said that the Memorial Day event was fantastic, and it brought back memories of his great grandfather and understanding the life that he lived when he joined the military. Councilman Johnson – thanked Town staff for all the great work they’ve done last month. He reminded people that June 14th is Flag Day and to fly the American flag high. Councilman Olson – he said that they had a profitable time at DE League of Local Governments in Cheswold last week with [Vice Mayor] Corrine Upshur and [Councilman] Nelson Drew. Mayor Gott – she mentioned a few items. • she thanked everyone who went out and participated in the Memorial Day ceremony. She said that there were 6 council members there, which was monumental. She said that one of them did not get introduced because they were the band director. She addressed Councilman Pope and apologized that he didn’t get introduced as a Councilmember and a veteran. She thanked him and apologized again. • She talked about going to the Hickory Hollow community yard sale and that she bought a lot. She moved back to the Memorial Day event and mentioned that Howell Wallace sells the bricks that are inlaid at the Monument Park; they are $100 apiece. Orders are taken up until December and they are laid in the spring. • She mentioned that the 4th of July Committee put out 14,000 flags. Joanne Masten put out 1,000 herself and Mayor Gott’s family put out 1,000. She said that if anyone is interested in helping the 4th of July Committee, they could use it. She said that you pick them up, put them out, pick them back up, wrap them in packs of 12, and take them back. It is a great fundraiser. • Thursday [6/5] is the prayer breakfast. • Saturday [6/7] is graduation at the High School. If it rains, it’ll be rescheduled. • Sunday [6/8] is the Garden Club Gala at the Opera House. Vice Mayor Dr. Upshur – mentioned she had one more thing. On Father’s Day at 2 PM at the VFW, they will be acknowledging Flag Day. If anyone has any tattered flags, they will properly dispose of them. She then corrected and said that it’ll be at the American Legion, not the VFW. Rep. Bill Carson will be there. There is a gathering for children. They’ll have hotdogs. Councilman Drew – spoke up and said that the library will be having a ribbon cutting on June 9th. There was some discussion on whether it was at 1:30 PM or 11:30 AM, before it was agreed that it was at 11:30 AM. b. Police Chief Captain Donner – he talked about the May report. The department is still hiring. Their first dispatch candidate withdrew after they started the background check for personal reasons. They have one candidate left that’s in the process. They are hoping to have the background check come back positive and be able to off them the job. The officer hiring just closed. There were 52 total applicants, including 6 certified officers; 3 through Delaware and 3 through other states. He said that great because the reputation is still wonderful and people want to leave their police departments to come work for us. They do plan on putting people in the next police Academy; there is testing scheduled for June 21st. He gave kudos to Torrie James because the Smyrna Police Department will be hosting the first ever Five Star Chiefs Institute, which is a new class FBI Leader of the Law Enforcement Executive Development Association; Torrie James is a Board Member. They are an international training group and conduct tens of thousands of classes around the world; Caribbean, Israel, Canada, you name it. It is a very prestigious training organization and leadership development program funded and the first ever class will be taught and will graduate in Smyrna, DE. This starts next week and both Torrie and he will be students. c. Town Manager  Torrie James – he talked about the Manager’s Report. A lot of people have been questioning the power outages that have been happening, and he joked that the town has four less squirrels. They are attracted to the area, causing some of the outages. To put it in perspective, a majority of the outages have been caused by squirrels, limb breaks, and we’ve had two or three failures with parts. He said that we are working on getting better on the notification process; which is a big point of contention. He’s hoping things will get better on the customer service side. They are seeing a much better response when it comes to shut offs and things. They are not seeing the amount of late payments that have been seen in the past. He announced that there is about five accounts. He gave kudos to the staff; they work really hard. He mentioned that today was the start of the new Community Services [staff]. He acknowledged Amanda, [who was sitting in the back of the room], and said that she would be Council’s point of contact. Anything they need, she will be their aid moving forward. There were words of congratulations and talk about exchanging contact information. He mentioned that DEMEC’s event is tomorrow night. June 14th is Smyrna at Night. 7. Old business, including discussion and possible action on the following items: 8. New business, including discussion and possible action on the following items: a. Commerce Street TAP Streetscape Project Final Report Jeremy Rothwell, [Town Planner], presented. He said that in 2022 the Town applied for and obtained, essentially, a grant, 100% paid by DelDOT, through Federal funding to complete what’s called a transportation alternatives program for a streetscaping project down Commerce St. He said that this is a presentation done by the consultant. They wanted to be on tonight’s agenda, but they are not present. He said that the presentation is what they sent him, and they all have it in their packet. b. Request for Exemption for 55+ Communities from School Construction Impact Fees Jeremy spoke briefly about this. He received a request from a developer in Town. Mr. Ramunno, who owns a number of housing developments in town and a lot of commercial properties in town. In April, Council adopted a study by Tischler-Base and adopted a revised impact fee for school construction. Mr. Ramunno, who owns the Bon Ayre project, has about just under 150 lots left. It’s a deed restricted 55 and over community and he has requested an exemption for 55 and older communities for school construction impact fees. He said that Mr. Ramunno was present and would speak with them more about this. Mr. Ramunno – he introduced himself and said that his partners and he have owned Bon Ayre for about 20 some years. It’s been a slow fill and has been kind of a niche project. To purchase a manufactured home, even back then, the financing was more difficult and were all leased land, so people came to purchase with cash. It was a nice fit to have a 55 and older community that has manufactured homes. It was something that was being done a lot back then. One of the best years they had, they filled about 40-50 homes right before the 2008 crash. The rule is pretty simple: someone in the house has to be over the age of 55 to buy into the community. If there’s a 75 year old parent and a 50 year old child and the parent dies, they allow the child to remain. They do not allow any permanent resident under the age of 18. People are there for the lifestyle, so they don’t allow kids. They had someone about a year or two ago wanting to adopt their grandchild, but unfortunately they couldn’t and would need another family member do so or leave the community. His point is that they do not allow anyone under 18 be a permanent resident and so there’s no burden on the school system. If anything, the residents volunteer and help the school system, if anything. But there’s no impact, no burden, and that’s why they’re asking for the exemption. He asked Council if they had any questions. Councilman Pope – he thanked Mr. Ramunno for coming to address Council and for his letter. He has some concerns. While the community may not have anyone under the age of 18, if one of the residents called 9-1-1, 9 out of 10 times, the person answering the phone is a product of the Smyrna School District. He said that there are members on Council who are products of the SSD. He said that there are schools, though he wasn’t sure if they were still doing this, that have been providing free meals, and a lot of seniors were coming through and the schools were helping with that. There are some families, where even in their retirement years, have to step in, even though the kids may not live with them, and provide some type of support to help out with raising the grandkids. He understands Mr. Ramunno’s request in the sense that they don’t have any school age children at Bon Ayre, per say, for a 55 and older community, but that doesn’t mean that Bon Ayre doesn’t benefit in some way, shape, or form from the work that’s done by the Smyrna School District. He mentioned that whenever a business considers coming to Town, they look at a number of data points and one of them is the quality of the School District. They need to know that whether they have some of their executives who have school aged kids come, that they’re going to be able to draw from the employees. In some cases, some older folks, who want to come, and may want to settle in Bon Ayre, may have kids who have school aged children, and that’s also a good fit. He has talked to some community members where that move has taken place. He’s thinking this is a bigger picture than just having school aged kids at Bon Ayre. He thought the impact fee was a one time fee, and he was given confirmation that it is. He then said that he wanted to highlight that schools do a lot when it comes to the community and it's not just whether or not people have school aged children on the property. Mayor Gott – asked how many lots are left to be developed. Mr. Ramunno said approximately 150. Vice Mayor Dr. Upshur – asked how many homes there will be in total. Jeremy said 388 and there 148 is the number in the office, [lots left]. Mayor Gott – asked what the impact fee is for each of the homes. Jeremy said it is $9,348 for a manufactured home. $10,284 for a single family home. $5,875 for a multifamily home. Vice Mayor Dr. Upshur – asked for the number of lots left again. Jeremy said 148. He continued by saying that the impact on the Smyrna School District would be $1,383,504 based upon the 148 lots. The number of vacant and projected single family and multifamily yields just around 3,300 dwellings in the Town either vacant or already vested; the total build out in approximately $32 million. That’s how much the rest of the development would be paid. There is only one 55 and older community with vacant lots. Mayor Gott – asked if the 3,300 open lots all belong to Mr. Ramunno. Jeremy said no. He owns well over 1,000. But the lots are between Centerville, Graceville, Cambria Village, and Worthington. Mayor Gott asked if this is specifically for Bon Ayre? Jeremy said the request is for 55 and over. Councilman Pope – said that when he [Jeremy] says 55 and older, if it’s just Bon Ayre or for any future project that may come up? Jeremy said that he reached out to Carson Bise, who directed the study, is a national consultant, and does this all over the country. He emphasized that if this was done, it would have to be for a deed restricted 55 and over community. There are communities, especially down at the beach, that market to 55 and over, but it’s not deed restricted. Communities like Mr. Ramunno’s are deed restricted. He [Carson Bise] recommended that if this is done, it’s specifically for deed restricted 55 and over communities. Mayor Gott – mentioned that the only other 55 and older community is Ashland and they are full. Jeremy told her that was correct. Councilman Pope – asked Mr. Ramunno if he would consider a reduction. Mr. Ramunno said no. The way he sees it, there’s about 14,000 to 15,000 homes in the Smyrna School District and about 6,000 students. Based on the study they had a $9 million cost of a 600 student school, so he did the math and came up with a reasonable fee of around $6,000 per student, but that’s a separate issue. He doesn’t really understand the impact fee to begin with, but putting that aside, he doesn’t see the connection. The study talks about a Nexus and proportionality, but he sees no Nexus to the community Bon Ayre that warrants any impact fee for the schools. He continued by saying that they are happy to pay their fair share: parks and rec and other impact fees, but this one, aside from it being too much, he doesn’t see the connection. Mayor Gott – she addressed Town Manager, Torrie James, and asked if there was a recommendation from Finance. Torrie said that he spoke with Jeremy and Kathleen and it’s a couple of thousand; it’s not a lot or a huge impact on the Town. They don’t think it’s going to make or break the school and if it does help the community coming in, he thinks that it’s something the Town can sustain. He, however, will leave it up to Council to decide. Jeremy – said that when Mr. Ramunno provided the request, he reached out to Carson Bise, of Tischler-Bise, to find out if any of his clients do this. Carson told him that it’s very standard, not all and not uniform. In Maryland, most counties have a school impact fee. About 2/3, 70%, of them have an exemption for 55 and older communities, but not all of them. It’s not a requirement, but it’s pretty common. Mayor Gott – asked Barrett [Town Solicitor] if making a motion today would mean that anything moving forward would be exempt as well or this is solely for Bon Ayre? Barrett said that right now, Bon Ayre is the only one on the table. They’re the only ones who have come forward. If they were to amend the code to permanently exempt 55 plus communities, that would be different. But right now it’s just a sole request from one community. Councilman Johnson – spoke up and said that he hasn’t a problem with this. They cut the fire company and American Legion to get the industrial park going with their impact fees. Taxes were doubled for residents. Now they want to give a break on a 55 and older community. He continued by saying who’s the next developer to come in and tell them that they have a family that’s 55 and want the same thing. Jeremy said that the request was given to him, he isn’t  personally asking for this. Councilman Johnson said that he doesn’t agree with it. Jeremy said that this is at the purview of Council on how to act on it. Mayor Gott – asked if they can have a motion. Barrett said yes they can entertain a motion to approve the waiver as requested. Mayor Gott asked if they needed a reason why. Barrett said no. Councilman Pope – spoke up to make a motion, then withdrew his motion. Vice Mayor Dr. Upshur – said she had a question. If the fee was waived, and she’s understanding from the Town Manager that the Town would be financially okay, she wants to make sure that Bon Ayre would not be hit with a fee in replacement of the impact fee. Barrett said that they would be all the other impact fees, which Mr. Ramunno has indicated that they understand. This would just pertain to the school impact fees and there wouldn’t be some other hidden impact fee that would backfill this one. Mayor Gott – spoke up and said that she did some research on other communities: Middletown, old New Castle, and another town, and it was common practice to bring senior citizens into their communities. This is being requested at half capacity of what is left. There are no ramifications to the others that have already been placed that have paid their impact fees. In everything that she has read, this is a practice to help senior citizens when they move into a community. She doesn’t think that’s all bad, but she doesn’t know what the balance would be. She called for a vote. Vice Mayor Dr. Upshur made a motion to approve the request for the exemption for Bon Ayre. Mayor Gott asked for a second motion. The floor was quiet for a few seconds and Mayor Gott said either way they would need to vote as the request is on the floor. Councilman Drew seconded the motion. Mayor Gott asked if anyone else was in favor. There were no responses. She asked if anyone was opposed. There were responses from Councilmen Johnson, Olson, Miles, and Pope. Mayor Gott said that the motion was denied. c. Potential annexation of 5214 DuPont Pkwy Removed during item 4, due to the presenters not being available. Will be discussed at a later date. 9. Presentation and public comments (3 minutes) Vicky Blair – she thanked Council for voting that down because her question would be if anyone contacted the school to speak with them as it affect them. She thanked them again for doing the right thing. Pamela Anderson – thanked everybody who came out to the Memorial Day ceremony; starting at 8 and running all the way until afternoon. She said that it was special for the veterans to see the community come out and speak with them. She also let them know that the American Legion  is having a mural dedication on the 15th at 2 and they’d love to see everyone come out. She said if people drive by they can see it now; it’s beautiful, breathtaking, and the community is very proud. Irene Strozeski – she talked about the Memorial Day parade. It was the first one she’s been to, and it was Hallmark Smyrna. Unfortunately, they didn’t make it to the park because of other commitments. She asked where the kids were at in the parade. Mayor Gott said they are not included. The miliary, veterans, VFW, American Legion, Fire, and Ambulance are the only groups included. She asked if the kids participate in any of the parades. Councilman Johnson said the 4th of July before Mayor Gott spoke and told her that they are out for every other parade: St. Patrick’ Day, 4th of July, Christmas, etc. Vice Mayor Dr. Upshur mentioned that school kids were out with flags. Mayor Gott said that they were from First State Military. Councilman Pope – asked if anyone else wanted to speak. No one came up to the podium, so he moved on to item 10. He asked Barrett if both 10 and 11 had to be read. Barrett said they could be read at the same time, and proceeded to read them. After, Councilman Pope also read them. Vice Mayor Dr. Upshur motioned to go into Executive Session. Councilman Miles seconded the motion. All were in favor. Council went into Executive Session at 7:35 PM. 10. Executive session to discuss personnel matters in which the names, competency, and abilities of individual employees will be discussed. 29 Del. C. Sec. 10004(b)(9)* 11. Executive session to hold strategy sessions, including those involving legal advice or opinion from an attorney-at-law, with respect to collective bargaining. 29 Del. C. Sec. § 10004(b)(4)* 12. Possible action on matters discussed in Executive Session regarding personnel matters* 13. Possible action on item discussed in executive session regarding strategy sessions, including those involving legal advice or opinion from an attorney-at-law, with respect to collective bargaining* Councilman Pope motioned to come out of Executive Session. Councilman Johnson seconded. All were in favor. Council came out of Executive Session at 8:16 PM. Councilman Pope motioned to go with the recommendation as he discussed in Executive Session pertaining to personnel matters. Councilman Johnson seconded. Mayor Gott asked if there was any discussion. There was none. She motioned for all in favor or any opposed. All were in favor. 14. Adjournment Councilman Johnson motioned to adjourn. Councilman Pope seconded. All were in favor. Motion passed. Meeting ended at 8:17 PM. Posted 5/23/2025 at 4:30 PM (#1) Posted 5/23/2025 at 5:30 PM (#2) *item added when topic came up 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.