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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Can a citizen file a FOIA complaint against a state agency like the Department of Transportation?
No, under the law as it stood in 1999. The AG dismissed a citizen's complaint against the Delaware Department of Transportation because FOIA bars complaints against any state department the Attorney G…
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 Delaware resident use FOIA to see a code enforcement complaint file about their own property, even after the case is closed with no charges filed?
No, under the law as it stood in 1999. The AG found that a Town of Elsmere Code Enforcement complaint file, opened over an unregistered vehicle, was protected from disclosure under FOIA's investigator…
Does a Delaware school district violate FOIA by not producing an advisory committee's report if the committee was never actually formed?
No, under the law as it stood in 1999. The AG found the Brandywine School District did not violate FOIA by failing to provide the names of a District Advisory Committee or its report and recommendatio…
Can a city council add a $675,000 budget vote to its meeting agenda on the day of the meeting?
No, under the law as it stood in 1999, when the issue wasn't actually new. The AG found the City of Newark violated FOIA by amending its March 22, 1999 meeting agenda at the last minute to add a $675,…
Can a school district charge fees under a brand-new records-request policy for requests it received before the policy existed?
No, under the law as it stood in 1999. The AG found the Christina School District violated FOIA by withholding financial records a parent requested in March and April 1999 while it developed a new fee…
Does a town have to disclose in its meeting agenda that it plans to discuss hiring a specific police officer applicant?
No, under the law as it stood in 1999. The AG found Bethany Beach's notice describing an executive session as covering "personnel matters relating to names, competency and abilities of individual empl…
Does a town's meeting agenda have to name the specific job candidate it plans to discuss in a closed personnel session?
No, under the law as it stood in 1999. The AG found Bethany Beach's three executive sessions were all held for the authorized purpose of discussing personnel matters, and that FOIA doesn't require nam…
Can a city withhold a police department efficiency report because officers spoke candidly during confidential interviews?
Yes, under the law as it stood in 1999. The AG found a consultant's report on the New Castle Police Department wasn't technically a "personnel file," but was still protected by the common law right of…
If a city releases executive-session minutes to one citizen, does it have to give the same minutes to anyone else who asks?
Yes, under the law as it stood in 1998. The AG found the City of Newark violated FOIA when it released personnel-related executive-session minutes to one citizen who requested them but withheld the id…
Can a town withhold housing code violation notices from public records requests by calling them investigation files?
Yes, under the law as it stood in 1998. The AG found that a town's Code Enforcement Officer is an investigative agency, so notices of Housing Code violations qualify as exempt investigatory files unde…
Does a public body violate FOIA if more people show up to a meeting than it expected and the room can't hold everyone?
No, under the law as it stood in 1998, as long as the room was reasonable for the crowd the public body actually expected. The AG found Woodbridge's school district didn't violate FOIA when a larger-t…
Is it a FOIA violation if a public body briefly strays into an improper topic during executive session but stops as soon as someone objects?
No, according to this opinion. The AG cleared Woodbridge's school district of any FOIA violation across five executive-session topics, finding that personnel and labor-negotiation items fit within FOI…
Can a town agenda say a council will consider 'nominations' for a vacant seat and then hold an actual election at the same meeting?
No, under the law as it stood in 1998. The AG found the Town of Townsend violated FOIA by posting notice of its meeting only six days ahead of the required seven, and by listing the agenda item as "no…
Could a union get the names, addresses, and Social Security numbers of workers listed on Delaware prevailing-wage payroll reports?
No, under the law as it stood in 1998, reversing an earlier 1995 opinion. The AG concluded the Department of Labor should stop releasing the names and addresses of employees listed in sworn payroll re…
Can a school board discuss a new teachers' contract in a closed personnel session instead of in public?
No, under the law as it stood in 1998. The AG found the Appoquinimink School District's rushed special meeting to approve a new teachers' contract was justified on short notice given a looming state d…
Can a school board hold a planning retreat if it labels the meeting as a closed executive session?
No, under the law as it stood in 1998, not when the topics discussed don't fall under an authorized reason for going into executive session. The AG found the Appoquinimink School District violated FOI…
If an AG finds a public body improperly deliberated in closed session, can the body fix it by redoing just the deliberation instead of the whole hearing?
Yes, under the circumstances of this opinion. After Newark asked the AG to reconsider its ruling that the Board of Ethics improperly deliberated ethics charges in executive session, the AG declined to…
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…
Can a city ethics board go into closed session to deliberate and reach a consensus on ethics charges, calling it a legal-advice session?
No, under the law as it stood in 1998. The AG found Newark's Board of Ethics went well beyond the narrow legal-advice exception when it deliberated the merits of ethics charges and reached a consensus…
Does a school district have to tape-record its executive sessions or identify students and employees by name when it meets to discuss personnel matters?
No, under the law as it stood in 1997. The AG found the Woodbridge School District didn't violate FOIA by keeping written (rather than tape-recorded) minutes of an executive session, or by discussing …
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…
Can a school board vote to spend money on a new item that wasn't on the posted meeting agenda?
Yes, under the law as it stood in 1997, when the new item grows naturally out of a topic that was already on the agenda. The AG found Cape Henlopen's vote to fund new teaching positions didn't violate…
What does a city council have to do before it can legally close a meeting to the public?
The council violated FOIA, under the law as it stood in 1997, by going into executive session at two meetings without announcing its intent in the agenda, without a public vote to close the session, a…
What happens if a town calls a special meeting on short notice without explaining why it couldn't wait seven days?
The town violated FOIA, under the law as it stood in 1997, by posting a special-meeting notice three days ahead without explaining why the usual seven-day notice couldn't be given. No remedy was order…
Is it enough for a city to just announce that a committee will meet, without saying what it will discuss?
No, under the law as it stood in 1997. The AG found the City of New Castle violated FOIA by giving less than seven days' notice for two Public Safety Review Committee meetings and by failing to includ…
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…
Can a school board require a newspaper's records request to be made in writing to its attorney, and can it discuss a controversial charter school application in closed session?
Mostly no violation, under the law as it stood in 1997. The AG found Red Clay's requirement that a newspaper's public records request be in writing and addressed to its counsel didn't violate FOIA, th…
If a city's personnel committee posts meeting notices for two years without ever listing an agenda or keeping minutes, does that void whatever the committee recommended?
Yes, a serious violation, under the law as it stood in 1997. The AG found the City of Lewes violated FOIA by posting notices without an agenda and without keeping minutes for seventeen meetings of its…
Can a Delaware county be forced under FOIA to produce a subcontractor's billing records that the county itself never received?
No, under the law as it stood in 1997. The AG found Sussex County did not violate FOIA by failing to produce billing records from a paving subcontractor, because the subcontractor's bills were folded …
Does a Delaware public records request require a school district to answer questions or compile lists that don't already exist as a document?
No, under the law as it stood in 1997. The AG found that most of a resident's eleven information requests to the Colonial School District, phrased as questions rather than requests to inspect specific…
Can a school district refuse a large public records request about grant spending just because gathering all the documents would take too long?
No, under the law as it stood in 1997. The AG found that once a records request specifically identifies the documents sought, like purchase orders and expense records behind a grant's computer-generat…
Can a Delaware resident use FOIA to get copies of parking tickets the town issued to other people?
Partly. Under the law as it stood in 1997, the AG found the Town of Laurel had not violated FOIA because it made available nearly everything the resident requested over several years, including his ow…
Can a school board approve new hires by having an administrator call each board member individually for their views, instead of voting at an open meeting?
Yes, a violation, under the law as it stood in 1997, though the AG ordered no remedy. Calling individual Woodbridge board members by phone to gauge their views on a new-hires list amounted to an impro…
Can a city council meet with a state transportation agency on less than seven days' notice if the delay was caused by waiting on legal advice?
Yes, under the law as it stood in 1997. The AG advised that Newark's city council could meet with DelDOT officials on 24-hour notice, rather than the usual seven days, because stating that the delay w…
If a town gives five days' notice of a meeting instead of the required seven, but sixty residents still show up, is that a FOIA violation that undoes the meeting?
Yes, a technical violation, under the law as it stood in 1997. The AG found the Town of Laurel's newspaper notice giving only five days' advance warning of a Planning Commission meeting, instead of th…
Can the public get a list of every Delaware business license holder's name and home address through a FOIA request?
No, under the law as it stood in 1996. The AG concluded that the names and addresses of Delaware business license holders are, as a general rule, protected from FOIA disclosure by a common-law right o…
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…
Could a Delaware school board discuss teacher terminations and layoffs for three hours in closed session, and could it informally poll members on teacher transfers there too?
Yes to both, under the law as it stood in 1996. The AG found that a school board's three-hour executive session was properly devoted to personnel matters tied to terminations and reductions in force, …
Can a school board review scholarship applications behind closed doors if they include student transcripts and parents' tax returns?
Yes, under the law as it stood in 1996. The AG found the Woodbridge Board of Education properly discussed scholarship applications in executive session because the applications included student transc…
Can a Delaware resident force a county zoning office to produce a list under FOIA if the office never created or kept that list?
No, under the law as it stood in 1996. The AG found that the Sussex County Planning and Zoning Office did not violate FOIA by failing to produce a list of nonconforming structures and uses, because th…
Can a school board discuss a dispute between a board member and a district employee in closed executive session under Delaware's open-meetings law?
Yes, under the law as it stood in 1996. The AG found the Woodbridge Board of Education properly discussed a board member's conduct toward a guidance counselor and principal in executive session, becau…
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…
After Delaware's AG finds a town council violated the open-meetings law during a rezoning vote, who decides whether the vote has to be redone?
Under the law as it stood in 1996, the AG has authority to recommend, though not itself order, a remedy for a FOIA violation. On reconsidering its own earlier ruling against the Camden Town Council, t…
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 a Delaware zoning board violate open-meetings law by saying it will take a matter 'under advisement,' or by holding a hearing in a room too small for everyone who shows up?
No violation, under the law as it stood in 1996, though the AG found the practice risked confusing the public. Taking a matter 'under advisement' after a public hearing, or holding a hearing in a room…
Does a town committee's special meeting still need public notice if the town also mails personal invitations to an affected group, like Main Street business owners?
No violation, under the law as it stood in 1996. The AG found Millsboro's Economic Development Committee meetings and its Main Street Enhancement special meeting were each properly and timely noticed …
If a Delaware public records complaint gets the documents released after the complaint is filed, does the Attorney General still rule on whether FOIA was violated?
No, under the law as it stood in 1996. Once the Wilmington Housing Authority voluntarily produced the elderly-housing records a resident had requested, the AG treated her complaint as moot and did not…
Can a town council go into a closed executive session during a rezoning hearing without a public vote or a stated reason?
No, under the law as it stood in 1996. The AG found the Camden Town Council violated FOIA by not disclosing in its agenda that it intended to hold an executive session or vote on a rezoning request, b…
Can a town council reopen a meeting after adjourning it to take a vote, or informally poll members by phone on a property deal?
It depends, under the law as it stood in 1996. The AG found the town council violated FOIA by reconvening after its meeting had adjourned and the public had left in order to vote on a property purchas…
If a zoning board chairman's comments mislead the public into thinking a vote is deferred, but the board decides that same night, is that a FOIA violation?
Yes, under the law as it stood in 1996. The AG found the board violated the Act when its chairman's ambiguous comment that a decision would have to 'wait' led attendees to reasonably believe the matte…
Does Delaware's open-meetings law require a town council to let citizens set the agenda, list every visitor in the minutes, or tape every meeting?
No, under the law as it stood in 1996. The AG found the Act gives a public body discretion over its own agenda and minutes content (it doesn't have to list attendees or let citizens add agenda items),…
Can the Delaware Attorney General rule on whether a town violated its own charter when firing an employee?
No, under the law as it stood in 1996. The AG explained that its authority under the Freedom of Information Act complaint process only reaches violations of that Act, 29 Del. C. ch. 100, not separate …
Can a town council retroactively legalize meetings that violated Delaware's open-meetings law just by taking a follow-up vote?
Not the way Georgetown tried it, under the law as it stood in 1996. After finding numerous separate violations, mostly missing 7-day meeting notices without an explanation and an improper executive-se…
Can Delaware towns refuse to release a list of employee names and salaries by claiming privacy or administrative burden?
No, under the law as it stood in 1996. The AG ordered eleven Delaware municipalities to produce, within ten days of a proper request, a list pairing each employee's name with their salary, rejecting b…
Do school board members violate Delaware's open-meetings law by chatting informally in the hallway before or after a meeting?
It depends on what was discussed, under the law as it stood in 1996. The AG cleared two hallway gatherings where the evidence showed separate, unrelated conversations, but found a violation where boar…
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 town council avoid Delaware's open-meetings law by having members review and sign a policy memo one at a time instead of meeting together?
Yes, under the law as it stood in 1996. The AG found that when Georgetown's mayor and council members discussed, drafted, and individually signed a memo setting employee policy without ever noticing a…
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 …
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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.