REHOBOTH BEACH — A lawsuit was filed Aug. 15 in Delaware Chancery Court on behalf of Rehoboth Beach property owners Steven Linehan and Thomas Gaynor, alleging city manager Taylour Tedder’s contract violates the city charter and therefore must be canceled.
The hiring process was troubled from the start, as officials have said finding a suitable candidate was difficult.
In December 2023, the city apparently offered Mr. Tedder a negotiated contract, in a meeting determined by the Delaware attorney general to have violated Freedom of Information Act public notification requirements.
“We determine that the city’s board of commissioners violated FOIA by holding an executive session for an improper purpose, by failing to properly notice two executive sessions, and by failing to notice a public comment period on the agendas…,” the June 26 decision, signed by Dorey Cole, deputy attorney general, reads.
The contents of the contract also became cause for concern after it was made public.
In the lawsuit, attorney Theodore Kittila alleges “the compensation package makes Tedder likely the most highly compensated public servant in the State of Delaware but also one of the most highly compensated public servants in the United States.”
The contract begins with a salary of $250,000, a bump from the previous Rehoboth Beach city manager by about $90,000 and for Mr. Tedder, who had been earning a salary of about $187,000 annually in his previous position in Boulder City, Nevada. The contract also provides for an interest-free, forgivable loan of $750,000 to purchase a house within 15 miles of City Hall.
After four years, if Mr. Tedder remains on the job, 15% of the mortgage will be forgiven, or about $112,000. The next year, another 15% is forgiven. On the sixth year, 30% of the loan is forgiven, and on the seventh anniversary, the loan is completely forgiven, according to the contract.
Additionally, several portions of the contract appear to be in conflict with the city charter, the lawsuit alleges.
According to Section 17b of the charter, a qualified candidate for city manager must have received a degree in engineering from an approved college or university, or shall have served as city manager of some other incorporated municipality for a period not less than four years or shall have had practical engineering experience for a period of not less than four years.
According to Mr. Tedder’s LinkedIn profile, the position in Boulder City was his first as a fulltime city manager, and dates back to August 2021 though May 2024, or almost three years. Mr. Tedder’s undergraduate degree specialization is not listed on his profile. It just reads “Bachelor’s degree,” and so no engineering degree is specifically cited.
Mr. Tedder was an assistant city manager in Kansas for almost six years before moving to Boulder City, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Additionally, the lawsuit alleges the contract attempts to supersede charter provisions for termination. According to the charter, the city manager may be removed by a simple majority of commissioners. But in Mr. Tedder’s contract, it stipulates a supermajority of six commissioners is required to remove him from office, if deemed necessary.
In the complaint, Mr. Kittila argues the commissioners of Rehoboth Beach have the ability to add requirements in seeking employees, but are not empowered to strip provisions from the charter, as the board’s authority derives from the charter.
For those reasons, the lawsuit seeks to cancel and invalidate the contract.
Named defendants include Rehoboth Beach Mayor Stan Mills and commissioners Patrick Gossett, Ed Chrzanowski, Francis Markert, Tim Bennett, Toni Sharp, Donald Preston and Mr. Tedder in their individual and public capacities as well as the board of commissioners as a body and the city of Rehoboth Beach.
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