Questions arise over progress of $635 million Wilmington port project after Gov. Meyer’s office provides few details

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The battle between Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer and state lawmakers over the imperiled $635 million Edgemoor container terminal project again spilled into public view this week as the governor’s cabinet secretaries largely avoided attending a second legislative committee meeting on the expansion effort.

Convenient meeting times and places

State lawmakers held the second meeting of the recently revived Port of Wilmington Expansion Task Force on Monday shortly before the Diamond State Port Corporation Board held its meeting.

Both meetings were held at Buena Vista, a conference center in New Castle County. The task force meeting started at 4 p.m. just after the Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council wrapped up. The port board meeting started at 5 p.m.

Task force co-chair state Sen. Darius Brown, D-Wilmington, said he scheduled it at Buena Vista after DEFAC to make it more convenient for Meyer cabinet secretaries who are task force members to attend.

“Myself and co-chair [state] Rep. Frank Cooke were very, very intentional about that and we hope that as we continue these meetings of our task force, that we can make every effort to coordinate with the port board to have our task force meetings before those meetings, so that there is no scheduling conflict with some of the cabinet secretaries,” he said. “All that being said, after we did all of those things, the cabinet secretaries still were not present. That’s something that the administration would have to answer and respond to.”

A source who attended all three meetings told WHYY News that cabinet members who went to the DEFAC meeting did not attend the task force meeting and then attended the port board meeting. One cabinet secretary, Secretary of Labor LaKresha Moultrie, joined the task force while it was in session at some point.

Meyer’s Director of Communications Mila Myles did not provide a response as to why cabinet secretaries physically in the building would not attend the task force meeting. She referred a WHYY News reporter to stories in other media outlets where administration officials discussed the task force, but did not say which comments in what outlets were responsive to the specific question posed.

‘Transparency’ complaints over lack of details on permit process

Included on Monday’s task force agenda was an update on the federal and state permitting process. A U.S. judge invalidated key Army Corps of Engineers permits last year. Then in April, a state judge reversed a decision by the Delaware Environmental Appeals Board, which upheld a permit allowing underwater construction work. The judge said the basis for the decision lacked “rational consideration.”

John Kane, Meyer’s director of policy, attended the task force to advise members he would not present an update on the permitting processes. He said the governor encouraged them to attend the port board meeting where an update would be provided. He said any questions for the governor’s office would have to be submitted in writing.

No member of Meyer’s administration attended the April task force meeting.

House Minority Leader Tim Dukes said he’s frustrated by the Meyer administration’s lack of transparency. The Republican whose district is in the most southernmost corner of the state said he wants to see the port flourish.

“I think it would just be responsible to give a little more information here to help us understand that our investment is moving forward,” Dukes said. “I don’t know what the issue is here, why the governor’s cabinet are not being a little more transparent here, but there’s some type of issue, and I’m not sure exactly what it is.”

Secretary of State Charuni Patibanda-Sanchez, the port board chairperson, updated members and the public on the federal and state permitting process during that meeting by saying the administration was working with its legal team to get the permits reissued. She said she couldn’t comment more because it is technically pending litigation.

The federal judge in Pennsylvania who nullified the Army Corps permits last year also rejected Delaware’s attempt to intervene in the lawsuit, saying the state waited too long to try to join.

During the port board meeting, officials from Enstructure laid out a timeline showing they could complete the Edgemoor project by December 2028. Construction has already been delayed due to the legal battles from the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority and ports affiliated with Holt Logistics Corp., whose affiliates operate terminals in Philadelphia and South Jersey. It was through these legal challenges that judges struck down key permits.

Sen. Brown said there needs to be transparency into what the state is doing to get the permits reissued because it’s important the public be engaged in this process.

“The work of the task force is absolutely committed to that,” he said. “We’ll continue to do that work in our task force meetings with those that we have on our agenda from the administration and those outside of the administration.”

Bill Ashe, president of International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1694, is a member of the task force. He said he would also like to hear more details on what the state is doing to get the permits reissued.

“We don’t know who in the state is even working on the permits,” he said. “This governor ran, and I guess the Secretary of State had made comments that they were going to be more transparent. To me, it was less transparent.”

Myles said the Meyer administration believes the update given at the port board meeting was transparent.

Dukes said this should not be a partisan or political issue, but about creating jobs for Delawareans.

Meyer, Senate Democrats fight for control of direction of port

However, the administration’s lack of participation in the bipartisan port expansion task force appears to be the continuation of a dispute between Meyer and state lawmakers, particularly with those in his own party. The governor and Senate Democrats have butted heads over the direction of the port since he was inaugurated.

Senate Democrats initially moved ahead with nominations submitted by former Gov. Bethany Hall-Long, including Bill Ashe, during a contentious January confirmation hearing where the administration, and Senate leaders and nominees, took aim at each other. Meyer was successful in pulling the nominations after the Delaware Supreme Court sided with him in an advisory opinion. The Senate has since confirmed four of his nominees and rejected two.

Meyer denied earlier this month in an interview that there was any gridlock between him and Senators in his own party. He said the two discarded nominees, Jen Cohan, president of Associated Builders and Contractors of Delaware and former state transportation secretary, and former port executive director Eugene Bailey, were rejected because they are “Republicans.” But Majority Whip Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman, D-Wilmington, told WHYY News last month there was a question about Cohan’s support of labor.

“There’s some concern that she is currently the leader of an organization that’s not typically aligned as a pro-union organization, and really that’s where our caucus concern stood,” she said.