Xerxes Wilson

The News Journal

Several members of New Castle County Council say they have been misled about county's role in a proposed expansion of the Port of Wilmington and don't want to spend any more on the project.

In October 2015, council unanimously approved $150,000 to a New Jersey consulting firm for what was billed as an "environmental site assessment" of a piece of property on the Delaware River discussed as a potential home for a new container port. That money was to be paired with $150,000 from Wilmington.

More than a year later, the study has not been produced and council members say they feel misled because they ended up paying the firm to make a premature business pitch to potential investors — not perform an environmental assessment.

Last month, Ed Zimny, a principal of Paul F. Richardson Associates Inc., the company paid to do the study, sent an email to former County Executive Tom Gordon's administration. Gordon was the main driver of the project. The letter laid out the firm's work seeking to get Riveredge recognized as a potential port site by state officials as well as crafting and pitching development scenarios for potential investors.

Councilman George Smiley, co-chair of County Council's Finance Committee, and Councilwoman Janet Kilpatrick later met with Paul F. Richardson Associates and labor officials.

"I feel obligated for myself to apologize to this council and the people of New Castle County," Smiley told County Council on Tuesday. "We looked at an environmental study as being: What is in the ground? Is it toxic? Does it have to be remediated? Can you go right in and build?"

Smiley said the so-called study ended up being "basically everything other than what we anticipated it would be."

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In their successful pitch to put taxpayer money toward the assessment, local labor officials and former Gordon's office told County Council the money would be paired with Wilmington's and pay for an assessment of the environment on the Riveredge site, a 176-acre private property just south of the Delaware Memorial Bridge.

They said the environmental assessment was necessary to make the project "bankable" to investors.

"Quite honestly, it was money for them to say 'would you be willing to invest?'" Smiley said. "'Would you be willing to invest? Would you be willing to invest?' Basically, it was business inquiries."

The study took place in a highly politicized year for port issues.

Gordon made his advocacy of Riveredge the centerpiece of his failed bid for a fourth term in office. Throughout the primary, he said investment in the port proposal was either there or imminent and could yield jobs in less than two years. His challenger, now-County Executive Matt Meyer, criticized him for over-promising.

State officials, who oversee the port, are only now beginning to seriously court investors.

Zimny has been a constant presence in public meetings about the port that were organized by Gordon, local labor officials and members of the Port of Wilmington's governing board. In the months leading up to the primary campaign and during the campaign itself, Gordon often pointed to Zimny to lend credibility to his port push. In a show of political strength, County Council's chamber was packed with union workers when council members debated the allocation in 2015.

At various times over the past year, Gordon's administration declined The News Journal's request that he provide documentation detailing the work of Zimny's firm. Documents provided by the county show that Zimny was to be paid an hourly rate of $235 for his work. He could not be reached for comment.

On Wednesday, Gordon, who left office last week, said there was no intent to mislead and that the confusion stems from the title of the legislation allocating the money. The title calls the study an "environmental study."

"To some degree, that did happen," Gordon said. "I think it was just mistaken terms on the action versus the title — not to trick anybody."

Gordon deferred further questions to Zimny and said the consultant's work pushed the project forward and into the minds of Port of Wilmington officials.

"What he did was allow the project to move along," Gordon said.

Ronald "Kimokoh" Harris, business agent with International Longshoremen's Association Clerks and Checkers Local 1883, who pushed along with Gordon for Riveredge and the study, did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Kilpatrick said the pitch to investors was premature because there has been no environmental assessment of the land and the Diamond State Port Corporation, a quasi-governmental entity that runs the current Port of Wilmington, was in the middle of a study plotting its own path forward.

"We don't know if they can use this land for spoils and dredging. We don't know what is under there. We don't know if it can sustain a container port being on the physical land, even if you had every investor in the world that was ready to fund it," Kilpatrick said. "Basically, we took $150,000 and threw it away for that site."

The consultant has been paid about $114,000 through contract, county officials said. Wilmington never appropriated money for the study, said John Rago, deputy chief of staff for policy and communications for Mayor Mike Purzycki in an email Wednesday. The contract remains active, said Jason Miller, spokesman for Meyer.

On Wednesday, Meyer declined to say if work would continue under the contract or how his administration's handling of the port debate will differ from Gordon's.



"We are going to do everything possible to create job opportunities," Meyer said.

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Smiley and other council members said the work should end.

"We left them with the impression that there is nothing for them to do in January," Smiley said. "We need a close-out balance."

Despite the work being something other than what many on County Council said they were sold, the firm did follow the professional services agreement reached with the county. Smiley said the episode is an "expensive lesson" that County Council should see details about the scope of work before allocating money.

The Diamond State Board and labor officials now appear to be pushing the site of the former Edge Moor titanium dioxide production facility on the Delaware River as the land most viable for future port expansion.

The state bought the shuttered Edge Moor facility late last year for $10 million and is expected this month to requests preliminary proposals for investment from private companies to build and operate a container port. The $10 million price could rise as officials expect some cost associated with environmental contamination on the land that was a chemical manufacturing site for more than 80 years.

County Council members said it's time from them move on from the issue and let the state take the lead on port discussions.

"I thought it was time to open the windows and let the fresh air in and the stale air out," Smiley said.

Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@delawareonline.com. Follow @Ber_Xerxes on Twitter.