Delaware Attorney General Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of attorney general opinions issued in Delaware, with full citations and the original source on every page.
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When a Delaware city manager and parks staff meet privately with a charter school to talk about converting a public park into baseball fields, does that count as a 'public body' meeting that has to be open under FOIA?
No. The Newark City Manager, Parks Director, and Deputy Parks Director can meet with Newark Charter School representatives to explore a parkland proposal without triggering FOIA's open meetings rules.…
Are informal 'office hours' held by elected village officers a public meeting under Delaware FOIA?
No. The AG ruled the four officers of the Village of Arden's Town Assembly (Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, and Advisory Chair) are not a separate 'public body' under FOIA. Their monthly office hours are…
Can a Delaware village hold a 'briefing' or 'informational session' the night before a public vote without giving FOIA notice, or does that count as an open meeting?
The Village of Arden violated FOIA by failing to prove that its June 23, 2024 informational session about the Schroeder Trust was not subject to open-meeting rules. Delaware courts have long held that…
If a Delaware charter school's Board committee gets renamed as a 'team' that includes some former committee members, does the rebranded group escape FOIA's open-meeting requirements?
No. The Charter School of Wilmington restructured its Advancement Committee and called the new group an 'Advancement Team' that met December 3, 2021 without notice or minutes. The school admitted its …
Can a Delaware charter school board's subcommittee hold an executive session, or is that authority reserved for the full board?
Yes. The Delaware AG agreed that the Odyssey Charter School Nominating Committee, as a public-body subcommittee of the Board, could notice an executive session under FOIA for an authorized purpose. Th…
Is the Delaware Prosperity Partnership, the state's economic-development nonprofit, subject to FOIA?
No. The Delaware AG ruled the Delaware Prosperity Partnership (DPP), the State's economic-development public/private partnership, is not a 'public body' under FOIA. Its enabling statute expressly stat…
Is a Delaware county 'working group' picked by the County Administrator subject to FOIA's open meeting rules?
Yes. The Delaware AG ruled Sussex County's Buffers and Wetlands Working Group is a 'public body' under FOIA. The County Administrator picked the members, and the group was charged with making recommen…
When a Delaware city's staff meets with a developer applicant outside of any public meeting, must the city create and produce agendas and minutes for those staff meetings?
No. The AG concluded the gatherings did not constitute meetings of a public body under FOIA's two-part test, so the City of Rehoboth Beach was not required to create agendas or minutes. Two Commission…
Are a city personnel committee's meetings public under Delaware FOIA, and can a city council go into executive session to discuss a wastewater transfer?
The Delaware AG concluded Rehoboth Beach violated FOIA twice: holding an executive session to discuss an attorney-client privileged memorandum without meeting the litigation-strategy requirements, and…
Is a mayor's hand-picked advisory committee on water rates subject to Delaware's open meetings law?
The Delaware AG concluded that the City of Rehoboth Beach's wastewater working group was a public body under FOIA. Because the committee was appointed by the Mayor (a public official) and was charged …
When a town manager and police chief sign administrative agreements (like an LESO surplus-property program policy) without a Council vote, does Delaware FOIA require an open meeting before they sign?
No. The AG found the Town Manager and Police Chief did not constitute a 'public body,' so FOIA's open-meeting rules did not attach. Whether their signatures exceeded municipal authority is a question …
Does the Delaware open meeting law cover an informal gathering of a town manager, an audit committee chair, contract accountants, and an outside auditor to talk about audit issues?
No. The AG concluded the gathering was not a 'public body' because no government entity established or appointed it, and FOIA does not give the AG's office authority to enforce a town's compliance wit…
Is a Delaware volunteer fire company that gets state grant funding and Fire Commission oversight a public body under FOIA?
No, according to this opinion. The AG ruled the Camden-Wyoming Fire Company, a private nonprofit corporation, is not a 'public body' subject to Delaware FOIA, even though it receives state grant-in-ai…
Is a private land trust that collects rent and pays local taxes for a Delaware village subject to the state's open records law?
No, according to this opinion. The AG ruled the Arden Trust, a private trust created by an early-1900s land grant that owns and leases land within the Village of Arden, is not a 'public body' under De…
Does a city staff committee count as a public body under Delaware's open meetings law if no elected official sits on it?
Yes, according to this opinion. The AG ruled that Seaford's Employee Benefit Committee was a public body under Delaware FOIA because the City Manager, a public official, appointed its members and the …
Is a cabinet council created by the Delaware governor's executive order a 'public body' subject to FOIA's open-meetings law?
Not automatically. The AG found the Governor's Family Services Cabinet Council fell under FOIA's 'body of one' exemption because its only members were the Governor and his own Cabinet secretaries, mak…
Is a private-sounding historic land trust like the Trustees of the New Castle Common subject to Delaware's open records law?
Yes. The AG determined that the Trustees of the New Castle Common, a corporation the Delaware General Assembly created in 1792 to manage land for the benefit of New Castle residents, is a 'public body…
Does a state agency have to get records back from the private shelter it contracts with to house seized animals?
No violation. The AG found the Division of Public Health didn't have to produce records about seized dogs' whereabouts because ownership of the dogs had already passed to a private shelter, which is n…
Does a city council's formally appointed "leadership team," created to meet regularly with the mayor's office, have to follow Delaware's open-meetings law?
Yes, according to this opinion. The Wilmington City Council President formally appointed five Council members to a "Council Leadership Team" to meet regularly with the Mayor's administration and repor…
Does a private consulting firm's stakeholder focus groups have to be publicly noticed under Delaware's open meetings law?
No, according to this opinion. A private planning firm hired by Sussex County to help draft a new comprehensive land use plan ran stakeholder focus groups without input from the County Council or Plan…
Can volunteer committee members violate Delaware's open-meetings law by discussing and deciding a request over email instead of at a public meeting?
Yes, according to this opinion. Three of five members of a Village of Arden community-center committee exchanged emails and reached a consensus decision to deny a resident's parking-lot request, and t…
Do a city council's committees have to give public notice of their meetings under Delaware's FOIA?
Yes, according to this opinion. Delaware's AG ruled that a city council's Electric Committee and Economic Development Committee were both "public bodies" under FOIA because they were created to make r…
If a new government committee forgets to post notice of its first meeting, does the meeting have to be redone?
No, according to this opinion. A newly formed state committee admitted it violated FOIA by failing to give public notice of its first meeting. The AG found no remediation was warranted because the mee…
Is a shared data-processing agency owned by two school districts subject to Delaware's public records law?
Yes, according to this opinion. The New Castle Data Service Center (DSC), a shared administrative agency owned and operated by the Colonial and Red Clay Consolidated School Districts to handle finance…
Does a nonprofit that gets most of its funding from the state count as a public body under Delaware's open meetings law?
No, according to this opinion. The Cape Henlopen Senior Center, a private nonprofit that gets more than two-thirds of its budget from state and county grants and had the Rehoboth Beach mayor and polic…
Is an informal advisory group the governor convenes by invitation subject to Delaware's open meetings law?
Yes. The AG concluded that a 24-member charter school reform group the Governor convened by invitation, without any formal charter or bylaws, still counted as a "public body" under FOIA because it was…
Is a nonprofit society empowered to enforce animal cruelty laws a "public body" under Delaware's FOIA?
Yes, still, the AG confirmed. In this supplemental opinion, the AG clarified that the Kent County SPCA qualifies as a "public body" under Delaware's FOIA specifically because the General Assembly empo…
Does a nonprofit animal cruelty society have to hold open board meetings if it gets a small state grant?
Yes, the AG found. The Kent County SPCA is a "public body" under Delaware's FOIA because it is empowered by the state to enforce animal cruelty laws and receives a state grant-in-aid, so its board mee…
Can Delaware make a water and sewer authority follow open-records law even though it's funded only by user fees?
Yes, the AG found. After a new law (Senate Bill 36) added water and sewer authorities to FOIA's definition of "public body," the Camden Wyoming Sewer & Water Authority had to disclose employee and con…
Is a Delaware sewer and water authority automatically a 'public body' subject to the open records law?
No, under the law as it stood in 2011. The AG found the Camden-Wyoming Sewer and Water Authority was not a 'public body' under FOIA because, even though it was created through the state's authority-cr…
Are a mayor's and city council members' personal emails about city business public records under Delaware's FOIA?
No, the AG found, on a question of first impression in Delaware: emails between Newark's mayor and council members sent and received on personal computers through private accounts were not public reco…
Can a Delaware town committee hold private meetings to pick a new police chief and keep the applications secret?
Mixed result, the AG found. Smyrna's police-chief hiring subcommittee had violated FOIA's open-meetings rules (no notice, no minutes, no proper executive session), but the applications themselves stay…
Does a school board's informal 'agenda prep' meeting before its regular meeting count as a meeting under Delaware's open-meetings law?
Yes, the AG found. A school board's admission that it skipped posting an agenda for one meeting and never kept minutes of its informal pre-meeting agenda sessions were both FOIA violations, even thoug…
Are firefighter training records at Delaware's State Fire School public records under FOIA?
Yes, the AG found. Even though a firefighter's training record is kept in his company personnel file, nothing in a simple list of courses and hours completed could count as an invasion of personal pri…
Can a city fix a vague meeting agenda by fully re-debating the issue in public at the next meeting?
Under the law as it stood in 2008, yes, according to the AG. Rehoboth Beach's 'committee structure' and term-limits agenda items were both technical FOIA violations, but a later full public debate and…
Does a Delaware town's advisory commission have to hold open meetings before its bylaws are formally adopted?
Yes, under the law as it stood in 2008. The AG found the Middletown Action Network became a FOIA public body the day the ordinance creating it took effect, not months later when it formally adopted by…
If two members of a five-person Delaware town council decide something together without a public meeting, does that violate the open meetings law?
Not automatically, the AG found. Because only four of the town's five council seats were filled and a quorum required three, a decision made by just two council members (the president and the treasure…
Does a Delaware university's board of trustees violate open meetings law just by attending a national conference together?
No, under the law as it stood in 2007. The AG found that thirteen of Delaware State University's seventeen trustees attending a national trusteeship conference in Phoenix did not create a FOIA 'meetin…
Does Delaware's public records law (FOIA) apply to the state courts?
No, according to this opinion. Delaware's FOIA defines a 'public body' as an executive or legislative entity, and the AG found the judiciary, exercising its independent constitutional function of reso…
Does Delaware's open meetings law apply to the University of Delaware Board of Trustees' Executive Committee?
No, under the law as it stood in 2006. The AG found that FOIA's open meeting law only covers the full University of Delaware Board of Trustees, not its Executive Committee, so the Committee's private …
If representatives from several Delaware school boards meet regularly outside of any official board meeting, does that group have to follow the open meeting law?
Yes, according to this opinion. The AG applied a 'functional equivalent' test and found that a joint group of school board members and administrators who met monthly to discuss shared concerns counted…
Does a county attorney violate Delaware's open meeting law by privately consulting outside individuals while drafting a redistricting ordinance?
No, under the law as it stood in 2002. The AG found the Sussex County Attorney's private consultations with an elections official and an independent consultant while drafting a redistricting ordinance…
Does a public body have to let people speak at its meetings, and does a vague agenda item like committee meeting notices need to list every topic?
No to public comment, under the law as it stood in 2000, and yes to a real agenda requirement. The AG found FOIA doesn't require a public body to accept public comment at an open meeting, and that a m…
Does the University of Delaware have to follow the same FOIA open-meeting and records rules as a city council?
No, under the law as it stood in 2000. The AG found the University of Delaware's FOIA obligations are narrower than a typical public body's: it only has to disclose records tied to the expenditure of …
Does a school board's advisory committee have to give the public seven days' notice before it meets?
Yes, according to this opinion. The Delaware AG found that a school board's Raider Committee, made up partly of board members, counted as a public body once it discussed a matter it could recommend on…
Does a closed-door kickoff meeting between city staff, state officials, and a hired consultant violate Delaware's open-meetings law?
No, under the law as it stood in 1999. The AG found that a meeting between City of Newark employees, state transit officials, and a private engineering consultant to review a parking study contract aw…
Can a town's vote to adopt a land-use plan be voided because of notice problems earlier in the planning process?
Yes, under the law as it stood in 1998. The AG found Middletown committed a series of FOIA notice violations, unadvertised planning workshops, public input sessions not properly noticed by the town, a…
Does a city's advisory board have to give public notice of its meetings even if it hasn't taken any formal action yet?
Yes, under the law as it stood in 1997. The AG found that Wilmington's Residency Review Board violated FOIA's open-meeting notice rules by holding five meetings with no public notice or agenda, even t…
Is a school's National Honor Society chapter subject to Delaware's public records law just because the school partly funds it?
No, under the law as it stood in 1997. The AG found the local National Honor Society chapter at Caesar Rodney High School was not itself a "public body" under FOIA, even though the school district pai…
Does a group of council members meeting informally with an outside organization need to be formally named a 'committee' to count as a public body under Delaware's open-meetings law?
No, under the law as it stood in 1996. The AG reaffirmed its earlier Newark ruling (96-IB02), holding that FOIA doesn't require an ad hoc committee to be formally designated or appointed for the Act t…
If only two of five county council members go on an industry-sponsored tour, does that count as an illegal secret meeting under Delaware's open-meetings law?
No, under the law as it stood in 1996. The AG found that a manufactured-housing industry tour attended by only two of five Sussex County Council members was not a 'meeting' under FOIA because it lacke…
If a county planning director allegedly tells someone by phone that a zoning condition can be waived, does that count as an illegal secret 'meeting' under Delaware's FOIA?
No, under the law as it stood in 1996. The AG found no FOIA violation because there was no evidence any Sussex County public body actually held a meeting or made a decision to waive a zoning condition…
Does discussing employee salary and personnel policy count as 'public business' that Delaware's open-meetings law covers?
Yes, under the law as it stood in 1996. The AG denied Georgetown's request for reconsideration, holding that a memo setting employee salary, pay-docking, and leave policy was clearly 'public business'…
Can a citizen use Delaware's FOIA to get records from the state courts about a judicial vacancy?
No, under the law as it stood in 1996. The AG concluded that the Delaware Supreme Court and the Municipal Court of Wilmington are not "public bodies" under FOIA because they are created by the state c…
Can a city council avoid Delaware's open-meetings law by splitting one discussion into several small groups, each below a quorum?
No, under the law as it stood in 1996. The AG found that when Newark's city council split into three separate sub-quorum groups to meet with the same university officials about the same building-plan …
Can a Delaware governor's advisory council hold private meetings with invited guests under the state's open-meetings law?
No, under the law as it stood in 1995. The AG concluded that the Governor's Council on Equal Employment Opportunity qualified as a public body under FOIA because it was partly funded with public money…
If only two of five school board members attend an informal staff meeting, does that violate Delaware's open meeting law?
Not on this record. The opinion found that two of the Woodbridge School District's five board members attending an informal 'administrative-staff meeting' did not violate the open meeting law, since t…
If Delaware school board members meet with fewer than a quorum present, can that still violate the state's open meeting law?
The opinion found that the Woodbridge School District's January 1995 breakfast meeting again violated Delaware's open meeting law for the same reasons as a prior decision, and warned that even a small…
Does Delaware's open records law give the public access to Court on the Judiciary disciplinary proceedings?
No, under the law as it stood in 1995. The AG found that proceedings before Delaware's Court on the Judiciary are not subject to FOIA's open meeting requirements, because the Court's deliberations fal…
Is the Delaware Board of Bar Examiners subject to the state's Freedom of Information Act?
No. The opinion found the Board of Bar Examiners was a de facto arm of the Delaware Supreme Court, created under the Court's exclusive constitutional authority over bar admissions, so it fell outside …
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Attorney general opinions in Delaware are written by the Delaware Attorney General's office in response to questions from state agencies, legislators, and prosecutors. They are not binding like court decisions, but courts and agencies treat them as persuasive guidance on how state law applies. Every opinion above has a plain-English question and short answer, plus a link to the full original text.