LEWES, Del. — Lewes City Council voted to release an investigative report into the temporary removal of a May 7 Historic Preservation Architectural Review Commission meeting recording, though the version made public will have city staff names and titles redacted if the staffers want that.
The vote came after months of questions surrounding the removal of the recording, which included public comments criticizing city leadership and Councilman Joe Elder.
Elder was the only council member who voted to release the report in its entirety.Â
"I believe the report needs to be released completely unredacted and everyone responsible for being a part of the investigation needs to be held accountable," Elder said. "They made a personal decision to be involved and they need to be accountable."
Mayor Amy Marasco said the decision to redact the names and titles of staff members who requested anonymity is a courtesy and does not change the substance of the report.
"I think it's very transparent," Marasco said. "From the very beginning, what I said and why council voted unanimously to do this investigation, is that we need to find out all the facts, and then based on that, are there processes that need to change in the future?"
Marasco also defended the cost of hiring an outside investigator.
"Sometimes you do have to spend taxpayer dollars. None of us want to, but you have to spend them to make sure you get a third party investigation," Marasco said. "And I think once you see the report, you will see the quality of the investigator in terms of spending the time to get all of the facts out and also recommendations for counsel to look at to improve."
During the public comment period, several speakers questioned both the redactions and the cost of the investigation.
Kerry Tripp of Lewes asked whether the city would disclose the expense of the investigation.
"Are you going to release the expense into doing the investigation?" Tripp asked.
Former Lewes Councilman Dennis Reardon also criticized the decision to redact names from interviews conducted during the investigation.
"I'm really disappointed that this is this decision in council," Reardon said. "I suspect that there will certainly be some FOIA complaints filed with the Attorney General's office. And I might be one of them."
Video removalÂ
The investigation stems from the temporary removal of the May 7 HPARC meeting recording from the city's website shortly before the May Lewes City Council election.
Former HPARC Chair Kevin Mallinson used the public comment portion of that meeting to criticize city leadership and Councilman Joe Elder. Two days later, Elder won re-election by 35 votes over challenger Kevin Keane, who previously told CoastTV the timing of the video's removal raised questions.
After initially refusing to answer CoastTV's questions, City Manager Ellen Lorraine McCabe acknowledged that she directed staff to temporarily remove the recording after consulting with legal counsel and human resources. McCabe said the decision was intended to support a city staffer, who later identified himself as Lewes Building Official Jon Ward. Ward was involved in a pending personnel complaint.
Ward previously said he requested the recording be removed because he believed comments made about him could interfere with the pending complaint, though he said he did not know who actually removed the recording.
Marasco said the redacted report is expected to be released soon.
