NCC Budget Address 5:30PM, Council Meeting 6:30PM Online Tonight; County Operations Update Under COVID-19 Emergency Orders

County Executive Meyer delivers budget address via Facebook Live, proposes over $2m in emergency COVID-19 response funding, policies

Tonight at 5:30 p.m., County Executive Matt Meyer will deliver his Fiscal Year 2020 budget to New Castle County Council via a council-hosted Zoom meeting, as well as through New Castle County’s @Facebook page at www.facebook.com/nccde. 

Please join us this evening on Facebook.com/nccde to watch live.

County Executive will unveil an additional $2 million COVID-19 emergency investment package including: 

• A $1 million emergency COVID-19 recovery supply purchase to buy personal protection equipment, test kits, technology and additional medical supplies to keep first responders, all county employees and county residents safe, healthy and, where possible, able to work.  

• A $500,000 investment in Delaware State Housing Authority’s Emergency COVID-19 Recovery Rental Assistance program.  

• A $500,000 investment for emergency COVID-19 recovery rapid response for those in the greatest need. This investment will supplement the existing efforts of United Way, Delaware Community Foundation, Longwood Foundation and Delaware Alliance for Nonprofit Advancement. Rapid response moneys are distributed weekly to organizations to provide goods and services to those with the greatest needs across Delaware. Our funding will provide additional support for New Castle County goods and services.  

• Emergency COVID-19 Recovery County Financial Relief. Relief on certain tax collections, penalties, fees as announced earlier this week.   

LOCATION: www.facebook.com/nccde or https://zoom.us/j/377322142

And NCC Council meets online with two meetings today. View their meetings' agenda HERE. Regular meeting agenda tonight HERE.

Updated: CANCELLED CLNCC Monthly Meeting - With State Rep. Mike Smith - Set For 7PM Tuesday, March 17th In Christiana

Update:

CLNCC has decided to cancel the March meeting with all due caution as the Governor has declared a State of Emergency starting March 13th. Hopefully, we'll be in a better place by April 21st and we'll see you all then!

AGENDA March 2020

MONTHLY MEETING

The Civic League for New Castle County welcomes State Rep. Mike Smith as our featured speaker for March. Mike will be discussing the initiatives he is promoting for the 150th General Assembly including HCR 62 for live broadcast and archiving of all legislative committee hearings and his ideas for improving the state's redistricting process.

We are also pleased to have NCC Councilman David Carter present his proposal for improving the NCC Land Use Process.

The CLNCC engages in discussion and voting on a variety of state legislative initiatives for the purpose of lobbying during this coming last leg of the 150th General Assembly. 

Members are encouraged to bring bills to our attention by attending League meetings or writing to Nancy Willing at president@civicleagueforncc.org.

Will NCCC Approving Over $100K For This Service Tonight When Newark's Costs Almost Nothing?

Reposted from the Delaware Way blog - Newark Pays Almost Nothing For Live Broadcasting And Archiving Meetings. Why Is NCCC Approving Over $100K For This Service Tonight?

                

As New Castle County Council is definitely going forward tonight with a veto override to reinstate their aide's pay raises (see chart below), I have asked that they at least try to keep Council expenditures under control by rejecting the three contracts on agenda today for  live-broadcasting and archiving their meetings and revisiting how to implement their goal.

Check it out HERE for yourself: R20-056; R20-057; and R20-058.

The City of Newark tells me they paid NOTHING for their live-broadcast and archive set up as they had sought and received a $30K plus grant of which over $20K remains (details in my email to council posted below.)

There is simply no justification for our county council to move forward with contracts for over $100K for this service. At that price, I have dubbed this their vanity project.

Here is the email I sent to Council today, delivered under my Civic League for New Castle County President hat.

From Nancy Willing

To:Dave Carter,Nancy Willing,The Civic League for New Castle County
Cc:George Smiley,Dee Durham,Jea Street,David Tackett,Kenneth Woods,Penrose Hollins,Karen Hartley-Nagle,Timothy Sheldon,Janet Kilpatrick,John Cartier,James Bell,Elisa Diller,Nellie Hill,jgravell@newark.de.gov,B. Shotwell

Hi Dave,  

I have been very concerned about the cost to New Castle County residents RE: your plans for implementing Live Broadcast and Archive of council meetings. I had asked you several times if you had looked at how other municipalities and counties were conducting their broadcast and archiving of meetings. I specifically referenced Newark which I knew to be an installed camera which staff turned on and off and a contracted video service platform to live broadcast which was then archived. 

At the February CLNCC meeting you insisted that you had checked and that your numbers were in line with what was being done elsewhere for this service. That conversation is on our audio recording if you wished to refresh your memory, CLNCC Secretary Barry Shotwell can make a CD available to you. 

I obtained some information yesterday from the City of Newark's Communication Dept. via Jamie Gravell. She said Newark wrote a grant and in 2018 or so, was awarded around $31,500 thousand for live-broadcasting set up, training and related expenses. A camera was purchased and installed in the back of the room but later was determined to be too far from members and relocated. The background murals were also relocated to the back of the chamber to provide improved visibility. City residents are very happy with this arrangement.
From these grant funds, Newark had paid for the equipment, training, and installation. Gravell didn't think their platform was expensive (I guessed it to be a few hundred dollars a year) as they conduct the broadcasting through Vimeo. Newark still has well over $20 in reserve from their original grant and will apply it down the road for replacement cameras, etc.. 

Still using the grant, the city recently re-installed the camera in a side angle and added a complimentary camera on the other side of the chamber and out-fitted a second floor room with editing equipment for future use of the material in PDAs etc.. 

I sincerely wish that you would have discovered exactly how much of county tax dollars you could have saved if you had investigated the City of Newark expenditures as recommended. 

I remain shocked at the dollar figures I am seeing in the contracts before council this evening as it amounts to well over $100 thousand dollars in the first year. I would hope council would reject the three contracts on the agenda for today's Finance Committee and Council meeting as this massive outlay cannot be justified. 

Council is poised to override a veto of council pay tonight at what appears to be an extraordinary expense. 

Does Council really want to pile on with an extraordinarily expensive outlay for broadcasting and archiving? 

I hope some tax payer consideration is kept in mind tonight and a different avenue for implementing this service is pursued. 

Nancy
Nancy Willing, President, CLNCC  302-294-1939 

I have copied Ms. Gravell here and Mr. Shotwell in case someone would like to speak directly with them regarding the subjects at hand.

Additional news items:

• Updated: NCC Council Posts March 3rd For March 10, 2020 Meeting Agenda Without Providing Links To Their Costly Live Broadcasting Contracts
• Veto showdown | Kilpatrick believes pay raises for New Castle County Council employees could withstand legal challenge 
• Classified vs Unclassified Employees: Definition 
• Despite Meyer's veto, New Castle County legislative aides expected to see big raises 
• Expert does not see separation of power issue in New Castle County Council staff pay conflict 
• 'A bad use of the public trust': Meyer vetoes proposed pay hike for New Castle County Council staffers; council poised to override him 
• County Executive Matt Meyer Vetos NCCo Council Staff Pay Raises