End Conflict with Sponsorship of HB 355

Senate Rules & Ethics Committee

Please sign on to our Petition by entering the information verifying Delaware residency. We are asking the Senate Ethics Committee to review Senator Poore’s role and remove her as a prime sponsor of HB 355.

Beyond blocking Senator Poore’s conflict of interest, we are hoping that removing her as sponsor will doom HB 355. FDRPC has been rife with problems since Jeff Randol was hired as Executive Director in 2015. As the only Senate sponsor of multiple Fort DuPont bills, Senator Poore has not provided effective oversite. It is highly unlikely that any other Delaware Senator will sponsor this bill.

HB 355 reduces the FDRPC Board to 13 members, providing the Governor with eight Board appointments and the General Assembly with five. This bill is a big step backward for local community input with the Delaware City Mayor and Council losing four Board appointments. In lieu of appointment by Delaware City officials, “local” representatives will be appointed by the Governor and General Assembly leaders.

Please sign the petition which will hopefully remove senator Poore as a sponsor and kill HB 355.

To: Senate Rules & Ethics Committee
From: [Your Name]

We are petitioning to respectfully and urgently request that the Senate Rules & Ethics Committee review the appropriateness of Senator Nicole Poore’s sponsorship of HB 355.

We also respectfully request that this bill be reassigned from the Senate Elections & Government Affairs Committee to the Senate Executive Committee, whose membership is the same as that of the Senate Rules & Ethics Committee, to determine whether Senator Poole’s sponsorship of this bill has violated Senate Rules.

We further request that consideration of HB 355 on the Senate floor be delayed unless/until it can be determined whether Senator Poore violated Senate Rules in her sponsorship of this legislation.

Nicole Poore is the lone Senate sponsor on legislation that would place her, based on her role as Chair of the Capital Improvement Committee, on the Board of the Ft. DuPont Redevelopment and Preservation Corporation. The House Capital Improvement Chair, who does not represent the area, would also be placed on the Corporation Board.

As legislators, they would be appropriating funds for the Fort Corporation. As FDRPC Board members, they would develop and lobby for funding requests, determine budgets, and monitor expenditures. The functions of appropriating and spending state funds should remain separate. HB 355 presents a conflict of interest for Senator Poore.

Senate Rule 17 states: “…a member who has a personal or private interest in a measure or bill pending before the Senate shall disclose the fact and may not participate in the debate or vote on the measure or bill.”

When a legislator sponsors a bill which places the sponsor on the body that is the subject of the legislation, that appears to constitute a direct conflict of interest.