Incoming Rehoboth Beach City Manager Taylour Tedder's tenure is tarnished before it even starts.
The mayor and commissioners negotiated a backroom, sweetheart employment contract that is so embarrassing in its lavishness that it's difficult to keep a straight face when describing it.
As outrageous as the million-dollar-plus deal is, it's nevertheless a done deal, and I wish Tedder the best. With an $800,000 relocation and housing grant from the city, along with a quarter-million-dollar base salary, I am confident he will find comfortable accommodations, but likely not inside the city limits of the jurisdiction he will administer, as his contract permits him to use the $750,000 interest-free, forgivable mortgage loan from the city to purchase a home as far as 15 miles outside of town.
What makes this episode all the more appalling is that Rehoboth Beach commissioners spent February and March in numerous, exhaustive public meetings wringing their hands and shedding crocodile tears over a looming $4 million budget deficit, which finally was dodged by raising taxes and fees, spending rainy-day funds, and employing blue smoke and mirrors in budget assumptions.
Yet, at the same time commissioners were crying poor to constituents in public, we now know there was a behind-the-scenes bidding frenzy underway to set a nationwide record compensation package for city managers – not just for small towns, but for cities everywhere. Hopefully, commissioners will not further humiliate city hall by seeking to ram legislation through the state legislature at the last minute to cover the tracks after failing to adhere to city manager qualifications requirements plainly stated in the city's charter.
I do welcome Tedder to the Delaware beach community, and I expect great things from him as our city manager. He's already proved he's smarter and a better negotiator than any of the seven commissioners who unanimously approved his hire. I suspect one of his first items of business will be to address wounded morale among longtime loyal city employees who haven't been so fortunate in their own compensation talks with commissioners.
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