‘Should have been more transparency’: Top Delaware lawmakers to sign off on state job Gov. Matt Meyer created without their input

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Delaware’s top Democratic legislative leaders said Thursday they will approve Gov. Matt Meyer’s new surgeon general position, despite their concerns the role was created and filled with little transparency.

The position’s salary and benefits is expected to total $270,000 a year.

Meyer established the state-level surgeon general within the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services through an executive order last month. For the position, he tapped Neil Hockstein, an ear, nose and throat doctor who is also a close advisor and friend.

DHSS submitted the request to reclassify a nursing supervisor role into the surgeon general position to the Department of Human Resources on July 1, hours after sleep-deprived lawmakers left Legislative Hall following an all-night final day of session. It has been sitting in the Controller General’s Office, pending lawmakers’ approval.

Senate President Pro Tempore David Sokola and House Speaker Melissa “Mimi” Minor-Brown said Thursday they agreed to support the new position, despite being blindsided by Meyer’s move and not getting a commitment from his office for more cooperation with lawmakers.

Sokola and Minor-Brown met Wednesday with Controller General Ruth Ann Miller and DHSS Secretary Christen Linke Young. No representative from Meyer’s office was present.

“The speaker and I conveyed concerns that the position was not discussed during the legislative budget process in May and June, only to be decreed by executive order, despite the responsibility of the legislature to reclassify the position before it could be created,” Sokola said in a statement.

Minor-Brown told WHYY News she had a great conversation with Young, but said she would like to see more transparency and collaboration from the administration.

“We have not had much communication with the governor’s office on these initiatives, but I’m hoping that that improves because, as you can see, we have to work together to get things done,” she said.

When WHYY News asked the governor at a bill signing ceremony Thursday if his office could have worked with state lawmakers on creating this position, Meyer instead read from a statement on his phone that railed against President Donald Trump and U.S. Health and Human Service Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for “abandoning a commitment to science and medicine.”

Several of the lawmakers who spoke to WHYY News said the issue is not that Hockstein lacks the credentials for the job.

“We all believe that Dr. Hockstein is a tremendous choice for this role,” Sokola said in his statement. “The speaker and I simply believe there should have been more transparency with both the legislature and the public about the need for the position and the ongoing cost to create it.”

The speaker said she has not had any discussions with Meyer on Hockstein’s hiring.

“I’m very supportive of creating this role, but I just want to make sure that we’re having conversations from the beginning, so that we can get those questions answered prior to executive orders and things being announced to the public and getting the surprise the same day,” she said.

Sokola said in his statement that while not a formal confirmation hearing, Hockstein has agreed to testify in public before the Senate Executive Committee during a special session this fall.

“With that assurance, the speaker and I intend to work with the controller general and the administration to finalize the reclassification in the coming days,” he said. “We look forward to working with Gov. Meyer, Secretary Young, and Dr. Hockstein and improving health care outcomes for all Delawareans.”

Concerns about the cost and hiring process remain

Under the reclassification, the surgeon general’s salary is expected to cost Delawareans $269,000, according to the Senate Democratic Majority Caucus. DHSS asked for a base salary of $200,803, but health and retirement benefits increase the cost.

Since the salary and benefits allocated for the original nursing position totaled $119,668, health officials said they are using preexisting personnel funding for the remaining $149,127. It’s unclear what the fiscal impact of the position will be in future budget cycles.

Joint Finance Committee Chairman Trey Paradee has voiced concerns about Meyer’s use of an executive order to create this position, saying it was “wildly unprecedented” and could violate state hiring rules.

“The governor just can’t go out and award a six-figure or a $200,000-plus salary to any individual. It just doesn’t work that way,” Paradee said. “You either follow the rules of hiring a new state employee, involving advertising a position and going through that whole process at DHR, or you go the other route and through legislation, create this agency.”

Meyer and his office have argued that the measles outbreak in the state, with the first case reported on July 20, gives him the existing authority to create the position without public input.

“At a time when a measles outbreak right now is growing in our community, petty politics will not stand in the way of your family’s health,” Meyer read from his phone.

However, the reclassification request was made nearly two weeks before the role was made public and almost three weeks before the first measles case in the state.

Meyer’s Deputy Press Secretary Jonah Anderson shut down follow-up questions after the governor finished reading his statement, saying reporters could only ask questions about the bill signing event.

Hockstein said he started having conversations about joining DHSS starting around April. He also said he was not required to participate in a competitive process for the position, such as applying to a job listing or submitting a bid for the position.

He said discussions about becoming the state’s surgeon general happened “organically” through conversations with Meyer and Young.

“It was an evolution, and then the role, in some ways, created itself over the month of, I would imagine, May,” Hockstein told WHYY News. “Although, I honestly couldn’t tell you for sure.”

He is designated in the executive order as a deputy cabinet secretary. While he reports to Young, he said he also will partly function as “chief medical officer, reporting to the governor, sitting in on his cabinet meetings, representing the physicians both inside state government and outside state government.”

That could put him in a position to exert significant influence over public health policy with the state’s top leader and a personal friend.

Hockstein and Meyer have been lifelong friends, starting as kids and then drifting apart for many years. He said they reconnected in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and he has remained a close advisor to Meyer since then. The governor appointed him to head the Delaware Health Care Commission last year.