The past month sort of got ahead of me, so here we are with about a six week update!
The week of December 6-12 I had meetings on planning a homelessness summit in February, on pharmacist legislative concerns, reentry (from release from prison) concerns, on plans for the Newark Country Club, with Friends of the White Clay Creek State Park, and then I attended a three day conference on state government in Nashville.
The week of December 13-19 I had meetings on reducing gun violence, of Newark City Council, at the Delaware Biotech park in Newark, and I helped assembly holiday food baskets organized by the Newark Area Welfare Committee.
The week of December 20-26 began with participating in the graduation ceremony at Delaware State University, meeting on drainage issues at the Estates at Corner Ketch, and a meeting on helping those reentering society with a criminal record obtain services including subsidized housing.
I had no meetings the week of December 27-January 2.
The week of January 3-9 I hosted my monthly coffee at Caffe’ Gelato, and met with students concerned with pending legislation afterwards, had another meeting on the Newark Country Club with the newly elected board members, attended the retirement celebration for Charlie Emerson (who served the Newark Parks Department for over 30 years and who left an incredible legacy that all Newarkers are benefiting from and will always benefit from), attended a meeting on changing Delaware’s education funding system, and attended a meeting of the End of Life workgroup in Dover.
The week of January 10-15 I had meetings on reducing gun violence, had three days of session in Dover, had calls on the homelessness summit and on removing housing and other barriers for ex-offenders, met with management of Main Towers to explore resident concerns, and attended the ribbon cutting for the new Girl Scouts facility in Bear.
I don’t think that it is possible/worthwhile to provide a rundown of six weeks’ worth of legislator mail. The issues have been large and small, issues both small (ensuring that a bed is available in a treatment center for someone who has been held in prison for two extra months awaiting such a transfer) and broad (a change to corporate tax law costing tens of millions of dollars annually once fully in place).
As the meeting list shows, I am working on a wide range of issues, including justice for ex-offenders, homelessness, economic justice and fiscal responsibility, and education reform. I have approximately 30-40 folders labeling a slew of separate legislative and district concerns, to help me keep it all straight.
In the past few weeks I was very pleased to have had a role in the Newark City Council’s overwhelming adoption of a new common-sense law which prohibits the open carry of firearms within municipal buildings (the picture below is from Monday’s city council meeting). Next week I expect to release legislation to reform the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit program, with broad bipartisan support.