Delaware 151st General Assembly (2021-2022) Status: Enacted 4 D cosponsors

HB 456 — AN ACT TO AMEND THE CHARTER OF THE CITY OF DOVER.

Last action — Signed by Governor

  1. ✓
    Introduced
  2. ✓
    In Committee
  3. ✓
    Passed House
  4. ✓
    Passed Senate
  5. ✓
    To Executive
  6. 6
    Enacted

This bill has been enacted into law. Introduced June 02, 2022. Enacted.

Odds of enactment

High chance

Based on the sponsor, cosponsors, and committee posture, this bill has a high chance of becoming law.

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A statistical estimate from our own model of past outcomes — an insight, not a guarantee. Policymaking is volatile.

Prognosis

Likely to advance 80% · moderate confidence

  • Enacted

    Current position in the legislative process.

  • 5 sponsors

    2 primary, 3 co-sponsors signed on.

  • Single-party support

    Sponsorship is currently within one party (4 D).

  • Cleared a recorded vote

    Passed 2 recorded votes so far.

Based on stage, sponsorship breadth, committee status, recorded votes, and cross-state momentum — a description of the observable signals, not a prediction.

Summary

This Act amends the Charter of the City of Dover, including by doing the following: (1) Making technical corrections to ensure consistent capitalization of City officers and agencies, ensure consistent usage of terms throughout the Charter, (2) Moving the City’s authority to impose a realty transfer tax from Section 3 (relating to employee pension, benefit, and retirement systems) to a new Section 49B within Article IV of the City’s Charter (relating to financial affairs). (3) Removing provisions from Section 5 of the City’s Charter that are out-of-date. (4) Requiring that to be eligible to be elected mayor or a member of council a person must be a registered voter of the City as of the date of the election. (5) Requiring that nominating petitions for mayor and members of council be submitted between the first working day of January and the last working day of January in the year of an election. (6) Requiring election board members to voluntarily remove themselves from the election board before participating in a campaign to elect a candidate. (7) Authorizing a majority of council to remove an election board member if a conflict of interest or potential conflict of interest exists between the member and a candidate. (8) Removing the specific time for the meeting of council on the second Monday in May. (9) Providing that council shall hold an election for a council president pro tempore if there the council president is unavailable for 30 days. The council president pro tempore serves until the council president returns. (10) Providing that the salary for mayor, councilmembers, and other elected or appointed officials is to be adopted annually with the adoption of the fiscal year budget ordinance and that pay raises for mayor and council are to be tied to increases for non-bargaining employees of the City. (11) Providing that if a vacancy in the office of mayor or a member of council is for 6 months or less before the next regular or special election, the vacancy will be filled at the next regular or special election if there is sufficient time to meet the requirements of City and State law. (13) Clarifying that the city clerk is to be appointed by a majority vote of the council, hold office until the clerk’s successor is chosen, and be subject to removal by council at any time. (14) Clarifying that the controller/treasurer is to be appointed by a majority vote of the council. (15) Requiring the city manager to be a resident of Kent County within 180 days of hire. (16) Changing dates for when a draft budget is due to be presented to council and when council must adopt a budget. (17) Changing the amount of taxable assessed value of real property of aggregate principal amount of general obligation bonds issued to finance capital projects that may be authorized by council at any one time to 1% from .25%. (18) Authorizing the mayor and council to authorize and issue, without a referendum vote, tax exempt or taxable municipal conduit bonds. (19) Requiring a two-thirds vote of the members of council to confirm the mayor’s appointee to be chief of police or to confirm the mayor’s removal of the chief of police. This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because § 1 of Article IX of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly to amend a municipal charter.

Bill Text

Action History

  1. Signed by Governor

  2. Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES

  3. Assigned to Elections & Government Affairs Committee in Senate

  4. Passed By House. Votes: 40 YES 1 ABSENT

  5. Amendment HA 1 to HB 456 - Stricken in House

  6. Reported Out of Committee (Administration) in House with 5 On Its Merits

  7. Amendment HA 1 to HB 456 - Introduced and Placed With Bill

  8. Introduced and Assigned to Administration Committee in House

Sponsors

Sponsorship breakdown

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2 sponsors · 3 co-sponsors · 57 not signed on

Sponsors (2)

Co-sponsors (3)

Not signed on (57)

57 members have not signed on to this bill.

Show all 57 →

"Not signed on" means a member has not sponsored or co-sponsored this bill — it does not imply opposition. Members flagged Voted No have a recorded No vote on this bill.

Whip count is in markup. Polling the chamber and every recorded vote this session. Only the first open is slow. It’s instant for you after this. Calling the roll · Tallying · Engrossing

Votes

2/3

Passed 21 Yea · 0 Nay
Party YeaNayPresentNot Voting
Unaffiliated 5000
Democratic 11000
Republican 5000
Total 21000
% of votes cast 100%0%0%0%
How each member voted (21)
Member Party Vote
Bruce C. Ennis — Yea
Colin Bonini — Yea
Ernesto B Lopez — Yea
Kyle Evans Gay — Yea
Sarah McBride — Yea
Bryan Townsend Democratic Yea
Darius J. Brown Democratic Yea
David P. Sokola Democratic Yea
John "Jack" Walsh Democratic Yea
Laura V. Sturgeon Democratic Yea
Marie Pinkney Democratic Yea
Nicole Poore Democratic Yea
S. Elizabeth Lockman Democratic Yea
Spiros Mantzavinos Democratic Yea
Stephanie L. Hansen Democratic Yea
Trey Paradee Democratic Yea
Brian Pettyjohn Republican Yea
Bryant L. Richardson Republican Yea
Dave G. Lawson Republican Yea
David L. Wilson Republican Yea
Gerald W. Hocker Republican Yea

Official roll call →

2/3

Passed 40 Yea · 0 Nay · 1 Other
Party YeaNayPresentNot Voting
Unaffiliated 13000
Democratic 15001
Republican 12000
Total 40001
% of votes cast 98%0%0%2%
How each member voted (41)
Member Party Vote
Andria L. Bennett — Yea
Charles "Bud" M. Freel — Yea
David Bentz — Yea
John A. Kowalko — Yea
John L. Mitchell — Yea
Michael Ramone — Yea
Paul S. Baumbach — Yea
Peter C. Schwartzkopf — Yea
Ruth Briggs King — Yea
Sean Matthews — Yea
Sherry Dorsey Walker — Yea
Stephen Smyk — Yea
Valerie Longhurst — Yea
Debra Heffernan Democratic Yea
Edward S. Osienski Democratic Yea
Eric Morrison Democratic Yea
Franklin D. Cooke Democratic Yea
Kendra Johnson Democratic Yea
Kimberly Williams Democratic Yea
Krista Griffith Democratic Yea
Larry Lambert Democratic Yea
Madinah Wilson-Anton Democratic Not Voting
Melissa Minor-Brown Democratic Yea
Nnamdi O. Chukwuocha Democratic Yea
Sean M. Lynn Democratic Yea
Sherae'a Moore Democratic Yea
Stephanie T. Bolden Democratic Yea
William Bush Democratic Yea
William J. Carson Democratic Yea
Bryan W. Shupe Republican Yea
Charles S Postles Jr. Republican Yea
Daniel B. Short Republican Yea
Jeffrey N. Spiegelman Republican Yea
Jesse R. Vanderwende Republican Yea
Kevin S Hensley Republican Yea
Lyndon D. Yearick Republican Yea
Michael F. Smith Republican Yea
Richard G. Collins Republican Yea
Ronald E. Gray Republican Yea
Shannon Morris Republican Yea
Timothy D. Dukes Republican Yea

Official roll call →

Subjects

public-safety taxation elections
Cross-referencing the record. Reading this bill against every other bill in the corpus by meaning, not keywords. Only the first open is slow. It’s instant for you after this. Matching · Ranking · Engrossing

Frequently asked questions

What does HB 456 do?
This Act amends the Charter of the City of Dover, including by doing the following: (1) Making technical corrections to ensure consistent capitalization of City officers and agencies, ensure consistent usage of terms throughout the Charter, (2) Moving the City’s authority to impose a realty transfer tax from Section 3 (relating to employee pension, benefit, and retirement systems) to a new Section 49B within Article IV of the City’s Charter (relating to financial affairs). (3) Removing provisions from Section 5 of the City’s Charter that are out-of-date. (4) Requiring that to be eligible to be elected mayor or a member of council a person must be a registered voter of the City as of the date of the election. (5) Requiring that nominating petitions for mayor and members of council be submitted between the first working day of January and the last working day of January in the year of an election. (6) Requiring election board members to voluntarily remove themselves from the election board before participating in a campaign to elect a candidate. (7) Authorizing a majority of council to remove an election board member if a conflict of interest or potential conflict of interest exists between the member and a candidate. (8) Removing the specific time for the meeting of council on the second Monday in May. (9) Providing that council shall hold an election for a council president pro tempore if there the council president is unavailable for 30 days. The council president pro tempore serves until the council president returns. (10) Providing that the salary for mayor, councilmembers, and other elected or appointed officials is to be adopted annually with the adoption of the fiscal year budget ordinance and that pay raises for mayor and council are to be tied to increases for non-bargaining employees of the City. (11) Providing that if a vacancy in the office of mayor or a member of council is for 6 months or less before the next regular or special election, the vacancy will be filled at the next regular or special election if there is sufficient time to meet the requirements of City and State law. (13) Clarifying that the city clerk is to be appointed by a majority vote of the council, hold office until the clerk’s successor is chosen, and be subject to removal by council at any time. (14) Clarifying that the controller/treasurer is to be appointed by a majority vote of the council. (15) Requiring the city manager to be a resident of Kent County within 180 days of hire. (16) Changing dates for when a draft budget is due to be presented to council and when council must adopt a budget. (17) Changing the amount of taxable assessed value of real property of aggregate principal amount of general obligation bonds issued to finance capital projects that may be authorized by council at any one time to 1% from .25%. (18) Authorizing the mayor and council to authorize and issue, without a referendum vote, tax exempt or taxable municipal conduit bonds. (19) Requiring a two-thirds vote of the members of council to confirm the mayor’s appointee to be chief of police or to confirm the mayor’s removal of the chief of police. This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because § 1 of Article IX of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly to amend a municipal charter.
Who sponsors HB 456?
HB 456 is sponsored by Valerie Longhurst, Sean M. Lynn (Democratic), Trey Paradee (Democratic), William J. Carson (Democratic), and Stephanie T. Bolden (Democratic).
What is the current status of HB 456?
This bill has been enacted into law. Introduced June 02, 2022. Enacted.
Where can I track HB 456?
Track HB 456 free on One Click Politics — get push/email alerts when it moves.

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