Rehoboth to issue request for proposals for new city solicitor

It took the unusual step of a commissioner making an unexpected motion during the city manager’s report of a meeting Oct. 18, but Rehoboth Beach commissioners will issue a request for proposals for a new city solicitor.

The city never went through a request-for-proposal process when it hired City Solicitor Alex Burns a little less than a year ago. 

Former City Solicitor Glenn Mandalas, who had been representing the city since 2006, announced during a commissioner workshop in November 2023 that he had been named managing partner at his law firm Baird Mandalas Brockstedt & Federico a few months earlier and was now too busy. Mandalas strongly recommended Burns, who was a junior attorney at his law firm and had been shadowing him at city meetings for months.

Following the workshop, after an executive session, commissioners followed Mandalas’ recommendation, announcing Burns would take on the role of city solicitor. They also said he would be paid the same rate, $260 per hour, as Mandalas. 

In response to being asked why the city didn’t go through a formal hiring process, Mayor Stan Mills said commissioners felt that continuity was important.

In the name of fiduciary responsibility, Commissioner Craig Thier broached the subject during the city manager’s report portion of the meeting Oct. 18. He said the city was running a deficit and there’s no time like now to begin reducing expenses. Then he made a motion for the city to issue a request for proposals for city solicitor services.

The motion was seconded for purposes of discussion, but in the end, the motion was withdrawn.

None of the other commissioners said they were against the city going through the RFP process, but concerns were raised about voting on a motion that wasn’t noticed on the meeting agenda. Burns said he also wasn’t against the RFP process, but his recommendation to commissioners was to wait to vote on the issue until it could be properly noticed.

Thier pushed back a bit on his ability to make the motion, but ultimately withdrew it after a timeline for implementing the RFP was agreed upon.

Moving forward, commissioners tasked City Manager Taylour Tedder with presenting a draft RFP at a commissioner workshop Nov. 4. The RFP should include a breakdown of all the city’s attorney fees. From there, the city is expected to issue the RFP, with a deadline for proposal submission in time for commissioners to evaluate them for next year’s budget.

This is the second board or commission in Rehoboth Beach that’s had its legal representation change or possibly change recently. Earlier this month, after a little less than two years, the planning commission’s attorney Luke Mette stepped down because he was now working at Baird Mandalas Brockstedt & Federico too.

The city cited a professional conflict with two attorneys serving the city from the same firm as the reason for Mette stepping down. When he was hired, Mette was a partner at the Wilmington-based law firm Armstrong Teasdale.

Mette also replaced Mandalas, but it was in early 2022. Mandalas had also represented the planning commission at the same time as city commissioners.