A Newark resident told the New Castle County Board and Commission Subcommittee on Oct. 21 that many county advisory boards and commissions are inactive or failing to publish required records, and urged the subcommittee to take corrective action.

"Analyzing this county's boards and commissions, I'm concerned by what I found or precisely what I have not found," Tracy Slack said during the public comment period. Slack told the subcommittee she reviewed about 27 boards and commissions listed on the county website and found that several had not met recently and that only five published annual reports every year. "Open Space Advisory has yet to meet even once this year," Slack said. She added that some advisory bodies had multiple canceled meetings and that minutes and annual summaries were often missing.

Slack also summarized her review of variance-related decisions across three boards (historic review, planning field and flood variance requests), saying that across 275 applications and 137 meetings in 2023 and 2024 the boards approved between 88% and 92% of requests. "If you have code provisions that are ignored due to variance repeals enough times, those provisions become effectively unenforceable," she told the committee.

Councilwoman Durham thanked Slack for the comments and said county counsel and the chair have been looking into at least some of the issues Slack raised. "I very much appreciate your comments and hopefully we can delve a little deeper and start to address some of the points you made," Durham said.

The subcommittee did not take formal action in response to the public comment during the meeting. Durham said earlier in the session that nominees would be voted on at next week’s full council meeting and that administration staff would follow up with nominees after that vote.

Slack asked the subcommittee to treat the condition of boards and commissions as an accountability issue; the transcript shows no formal reply beyond the chair's acknowledgement that legal staff is reviewing the matter.