Part I: The Illusion of Efficiency — How Rule R25-149 Erodes Transparency and Tilts Power Away from the People

Power Behind Closed Doors

A Series on Council Rule Changes That Quietly Strip Away Accountability

By Karen Hartley-Nagle, Former President of New Castle County Council (2016–2024)

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The Setup: What Changed

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On August 26, 2025, the New Castle County Council is scheduled to vote on Resolution No. 25-149, Sponsored by Councilmember George Smiley, Amending Rule of Procedure No. 4.

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“Tomorrow’s vote isn’t about efficiency — it’s about control. R25-149 takes power from you and gives it to insiders.”

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The change looks innocuous on paper. Where ordinances were once introduced with their titles read into the record in full — under the watch of the Council President — the new rule now allows a shortcut.

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Here’s how it works:

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• A sponsor only needs to have the Clerk begin reading the ordinance title.

• Immediately, the sponsor (or any member) can make a motion to treat that partial reading as “full and complete.”

• With just a majority vote, the ordinance is deemed introduced, scheduled for the next Council meeting, and the matter moves forward.

 

No full reading. No built-in delay. No discretion from the President.

 

It’s a quiet shift in parliamentary mechanics that looks like “efficiency.” But it’s more than that — it’s a procedural power grab.

 

The Hidden Mischief: Why It Matters

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Let’s call this what it is: an insider’s tool to move legislation with less sunlight and less resistance.

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1. Fast-Tracking Without Transparency

Before this change, residents could hear ordinances introduced in their entirety — often the very first time the public learned what was really in a bill. That moment mattered. It gave citizens an early warning, a chance to organize, and the assurance that government business was unfolding in the open.

Now, a sponsor can bury a controversial ordinance in a stack of items, cut the reading short, and secure its introduction with the flick of a procedural motion.

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1. Diminished Role of the President
   The President of Council is elected by the people of New Castle County to serve as a guardian of fair process and transparent debate. This rule change strips away one of the President’s most basic functions — ensuring that every ordinance is fully and properly placed into the public record. Instead, a majority bloc can override the President’s oversight, turning a check-and-balance into a rubber stamp.​

2. Residents Shut Out
   For residents — taxpayers, homeowners, parents who juggle jobs and family to make time for civic life — this change is not technical. It’s tangible. It means they may never hear the full text of ordinances when introduced, may not realize what’s coming until it’s too late, and may find themselves reacting after the fact rather than participating at the start.

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Who Benefits? Who Loses?

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• The Winners: Sponsors and insiders who want to move quickly, quietly, and with minimal friction. This rule rewards those who already know what’s in the ordinance, often those aligned with developer interests, administrative agendas, or political blocs.

• The Losers: The Council President, whose ability to safeguard the process is curtailed, and residents of New Castle County, who lose one of the earliest opportunities to know what their government is doing.

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Why It’s Dangerous

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Good government thrives on friction. Debate, delay, and discussion are not inefficiencies — they are democracy. When procedural shortcuts eliminate those frictions, legislation can slip through without the oxygen of public scrutiny.

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A rule like R25-149 is not about efficiency. It’s about control. It concentrates power in the hands of a majority bloc and diminishes the institutions — the Council President and the public — that were designed to check that power.

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The Larger Pattern

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This rule change is not isolated. When viewed alongside other procedural tweaks — such as the rezoning rule change under R25-127 — a clear pattern emerges: council insiders are methodically rewriting the rules to make government faster for themselves and harder for residents to follow.​

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What begins as “streamlining” can end as silence. And silence is where mischief is made.

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The Stakes​​

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In a county facing property tax upheavals, development pressures, and a reassessment crisis, the last thing we can afford is less transparency and fewer public safeguards. If councilmembers can move controversial ordinances without full readings, the residents of New Castle County will be the ones left holding the bill — literally and figuratively.

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Final Word

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I served eight years as President of New Castle County Council. I know firsthand that rules are not just procedural — they are the guardrails that protect democracy at the local level. When those rules are rewritten to serve insiders at the expense of residents, it’s not efficiency. It’s erosion.

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Sources

• Resolution No. 25-149: To Amend New Castle County Council Procedural Rule 4 Regarding Introduction of Ordinances (sponsored by Mr. Smiley, adopted August 26, 2025). [PDF link]

• Delaware Code, Title 9, Sections 1150 & 1152 (authorizing Council to adopt procedural rules).

• Resolution No. 25-127: To Amend Procedural Rule 4 Regarding Rezoning/Hometown Overlay Hearings (sponsored by Mr. Tackett and Ms. Kilpatrick, adopted August 26, 2025). [PDF link]

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👉 Next in the series: “Rezoning on Demand — How R25-127 Quietly Gave Developers the Upper Hand.”

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