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It took a while but I got back my notes so here is the second part of last week’s Kent County Town Hall.

Part two began with Senator Bushweller and Representatives Bennett and Scott introduced themselves and talked about what they had done over the past seven months.  Then they moved into a question and answer session.

Senator Bushweller- It is no longer clear in my mind, but in my notes the first line looks like this: Change, change, change, change, change, change, change, change, change.  I think his point was that as a freshman Senator he came in and changed things.  The desk drawer veto is gone, and we have greater transparency in government thanks to H.B. 1.   H.B. 294 also eliminated two row offices, the receiver of taxes and controller.

Representative Bennett- His first seven months focused largely on protecting the public.  He sponsored a bill to end state jobs being held for prisoners, helped to strengthened state sex offender laws, and helped bring the state into compliance with the federal Adam Walsh laws.  He also mentioned some of the committees that he serves on including judiciary, sunset, and economic development.

Representative Scott- He started by mentioning where we started, including the $250 million deficit.  Then mentioned how they ended the legislative session with a budget 7% smaller than last years.  He talked about being aware of all the entities such as colleges, businesses, and cities that are within his district.  He specifically mentioned working with DSU, and an effort to improve marketing of the good things they are doing. 

The first question was from Bernie.  He asked Rep. Scott to talk about his project where he taught a grade school class how laws are passed in the state.  Rep. Scott acknowledged that he caught some flack over the project, which resulted in our new State Dessert, the peach pie.  The over all project sounded good aside from the bad timing.  I would have loved to have a state Rep. come into my class, teach us about how to write a bill, and then actually let us help write one.

The next question was from a business owner about the construction on South Governor’s Avenue in Dover and all the businesses that may not survive its completion.  It was also about the limited communication between the government, construction crews, and the shop owners such as herself that work there.   Rep Bennett mentioned the regular working group meetings that were being held to keep the public in the loop.  She responded that those meetings were held during regular business hours and there were no minutes or other publications being shared with those business owners unable to attend.  Senator Bushweller mentioned that in the long run the project is expected to help businesses, because the bridge will be an attractive gateway into the city.  It also adds turn lanes which will allow traffic to enter the businesses more easily.  He also said that since there is no bridge in the second phase of the project it should move a little faster.  In the end they promised to provide the business owner with information after every meeting.

Another citizen asked about teachers and administrators being required to pass the same tests as their students.  The response was that teachers are required to keep up with continuing education requirements.  This evolved into a discussion of potential school district consolidation options, such as the four district plan. 

Then a citizen asked about how we would bring in businesses when the city and state have limited commercial resources.  The assemblymen mentioned that there were several plans to expand our commercial resources that have been stalled by the poor economy.  Then another citizen in the audience mentioned that the city does not have sufficient population to sustain the level of resources mentioned in the initial question.

The next question was about the results of Rep. Bennett’s legislation to protect citizens, if it was being tracked, and how.  Representative Bennett mentioned that there was a sex offender’s registry that helped track sex offenders, and I believe it was Representative Scott that mentioned the State Department of Justice would track the statistical effectiveness of the programs.

Then some of two young men in the back asked questions.  The first was about putting more funding into alternative transportation rather than road construction.  The response was that the state had done some studies about adding a high speed passenger rail line between Dover and Wilmington, and found it infeasible at this time.  Again a citizen added that we don’t have a large enough population to support the expense.  Apparently 8 units per acre are required to make an Amtrak line to Dover effective and we are a long ways from that. The state is also working to improve the DART bus system.  The second young man suggested including students in the process of improving testing and education.  None of the Assemblymen had considered that idea and they said they would look into ways to involve student initiative in the process of education reform.

Next I took the opportunity to ask all three if they would commit to ending the practice of stopping the clock on the last day of the legislative session.  Senator Bushweller mentioned that there had been a lot of improvement, but they still had a long ways to go.  He gave the Bond Bill as an example.  He was on the committee that worked on the bill and felt comfortable with what was in the bill until the day before when some last minute changes were made.  As a result he said it ended up being passed without him realizing that certain parts, such as municipal street aid, being eliminated.  The two representatives gave somewhat stronger commitments to trying to stop the practice of cramming through last minute legislation.  However, they did mention that some of the current structure makes it difficult.  For example the final review of the budget from the current year doesn’t come out until the week before the session closes in order to ensure the most accurate numbers.  This means the budget has to wait until the last week.  They also stated that they can’t legally stop a senator or representative from introducing legislation at the end of a session.

(My position is that if the budget and bond bill have to wait until the last week, that is fine, however the rest of the legislation does not.  If I see bills with Senator Bushweller’s, Representative Bennett’s, or Representative Scott’s names on them being hashed out after midnight next June 30^th I will take it that they are not committed to a rational and timely legislative process, one that will allow them to be fully aware of what is in a bill before voting for it.)

The next public comment acted as a good follow-up to my own.  The citizen explained that there is a difference between transparent government and responsible government.  They can trumpet their changes to make government transparent and allow the public to read bills online, however when a flood of bills is rushed through at the last minute transparency is just pretence.

Then a citizen asked what the legislature’s targets for economic development were.  The response was that they chose targets at the request of the Governor.  As a follow up they were asked if the General Assembly was just a rubber stamp for the Governor’s projects, and there was a little hemming and hawing and backtracking.

The final question returned to education.  A woman asked about efforts to increase parental involvement in education.  One step that has been taken is H.B. 231 which protects a parent’s job in order to allow them to participate in school.  The woman ended her remarks by also recommending the use of retired teachers as an asset and warning of the dangers of gang type activities on our schools and students.

Then there was a brief wrap up and the Assemblymen mentioned their intentions to hold future town halls, and their efforts to stay in communication with the public through email, at no cost to the tax payers.