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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If I asked my Delaware town council to discuss my employment in open session, can they still go into executive session over my objection?
Yes, if litigation is on the table. AG opinion 26-IB03 found that the Town of Greenwood did NOT violate FOIA when the Town Council went into executive session twice in 2025 to discuss Janet Todd's emp…
Does a school board committee violate Delaware FOIA when it discusses an unrelated proposed policy that wasn't on the meeting agenda?
Yes. The Delaware AG ruled that the Christina School District's Policy Review Committee violated FOIA at its July 1, 2025 meeting by discussing a proposed new policy on board-presidency qualifications…
Does a public body violate Delaware FOIA when its meeting agenda lists 'open forum' instead of 'public comment,' or when it lacks a FOIA coordinator and online request portal?
Yes on most counts. The Delaware AG ruled that the Center for the Inland Bays violated FOIA by failing to put 'public comment' on its meeting agendas, by skipping comment at a virtual meeting, by not …
If a Delaware town holds a private meeting with a developer, refuses to let residents observe, and then doesn't even respond to the FOIA petition, what happens?
It loses by default. The Town of Blades violated FOIA by failing to demonstrate that a private meeting between Town officials and a developer (which residents were barred from observing) was held in c…
If a Delaware licensing board posts its meeting agenda only thirty minutes before the meeting starts, has it violated FOIA?
Yes. The Delaware Board of Electrical Examiners violated FOIA when it failed to post the February 5, 2025 meeting agenda until thirty minutes before the meeting. FOIA requires the agenda to be posted …
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.…
If a Delaware committee's agenda lists 'public education campaign' as a topic, can it vote at the meeting to appoint a liaison without separately listing that vote on the agenda?
Yes. The Dewey Beach Climate Change Committee's agenda discussion of the public education campaign was specific enough that appointing a coordination liaison was a foreseeable consequence. The Committ…
What are the notice rules for a Delaware public body holding a virtual meeting, and what counts as proper agenda notice for the meeting where they vote to dissolve?
The agenda must include a public comment period (verbally adding it at the meeting does not work), and the meeting notice must include both an anchor physical location AND virtual participation inform…
Can a Delaware public body cure a missing public-comment item on the agenda by orally adding it before the meeting starts?
No. The public-comment period must be on the printed agenda. The Mayor's verbal addition at the start of the December 13, 2024 meeting did not save it. ACT violated FOIA. But because ACT voted at that…
Can a Delaware town council discuss a public employee's performance plan in a string of emails, instead of holding a public meeting?
No. When the town's lawyer emailed the whole council asking for their comments on the plan and members replied with substantive opinions, that exchange became a 'meeting' under FOIA. Doing it by email…
Can a Delaware school board hold an unannounced executive session about Robert's Rules and vote no confidence in the superintendent?
Yes for two of four claims. The AG ruled the Christina School Board violated FOIA by holding an unannounced executive session on parliamentary procedure (not a permitted purpose) and by failing to age…
Is a voluntary association of Delaware coastal towns subject to open-meetings law?
Yes. The AG ruled that the Association of Coastal Towns, formed by seven Delaware mayors and funded by member dues, is a public body. It violated FOIA by holding meetings without notice or minutes, by…
Does a small Delaware town's museum review committee have to follow open-meetings rules?
Yes. The AG ruled the Town of Leipsic's Museum Review Committee, comprising the Mayor, Acting Council Secretary, and a Town resident, was a public body that violated FOIA when it met on November 6, 20…
Does a city committee picking a buyer for surplus property have to keep minutes under Delaware's open meetings law?
Yes. The AG ruled the City of Dover's Old Post Office review committee violated FOIA by failing to post an agenda and keep minutes for its August 29, 2023 meeting, and ordered the committee to reconst…
Can a Delaware town council vote on raises and a water-line project that aren't on the meeting agenda?
No. The AG ruled the Town of Blades violated FOIA by voting on employee bonuses, cost-of-living raises, and a water-line extension that never appeared on the meeting agenda, and by discussing general …
Does Delaware's FOIA open-meeting law cover the House of Representatives Ethics Committee, and can the AG decide a prior-restraint free-speech challenge inside a FOIA complaint?
No to both. 29 Del. C. § 10004(h)(7) expressly excludes legislative ethics committees from FOIA's open-meeting requirements, so the Committee's closed September 10, 2021 meeting did not violate FOIA. …
Does an executive-branch advisory council have to follow Delaware open-meetings rules?
Yes. The AG ruled the Governor's Council on Agriculture (created by 29 Del. C. § 8108) and the Delaware Council on Food and Farm Policy (created by the Department Secretary) are both public bodies tha…
Does a Delaware school board need to specifically notice its agenda before voting to appoint a superintendent?
Yes. The AG ruled Sussex Technical School District violated FOIA when it voted to appoint a superintendent under a generic 'Personnel Action Items' agenda label. The Board was directed to revisit the …
Can two school board members negotiate with a new superintendent privately, then bring the contract back to the full board for a vote?
Generally no, when the two-member group has been formally tasked with selecting and negotiating. The AG ruled that the Christina School Board's two-member committee that negotiated a superintendent's …
Does Delaware FOIA cover a city council president's decision to declare a colleague's seat forfeited and to lock him out of public meetings?
No. The AG ruled the City of Wilmington did not violate FOIA when its Council President sent a letter declaring a councilmember's seat forfeited for residency reasons and barred him from a virtual pub…
Does Delaware's open meetings law require a state agency to take live public comment at a virtual permit hearing if it lets the applicant give a live presentation?
No. The AG ruled DNREC did not violate FOIA when it ran two 2020 virtual permit hearings (Delaware City Refining and Croda) without live public comment, accepting only written comments. Permit hearing…
Does Delaware FOIA require a town council to take up a particular issue at a public meeting before the town manager or solicitor can act on it?
No. The AG ruled FOIA does not dictate when a public body must take up a matter of public business. Councilmember Vicki Carmean's complaint that Fenwick Island Town officials approved an open pool bar…
Can a Delaware school board add a controversial agenda item like a censure vote a few hours before its meeting?
Yes, in narrow circumstances. The AG ruled that adding a board member censure resolution to the agenda seven hours before a meeting did not violate FOIA, because the news story prompting the censure h…
Can a Delaware school board fill a vacant seat by secret-ballot vote in open session?
No. The Delaware AG ruled that the Christina School District Board violated FOIA on October 8, 2019 by voting on its board vacancy by secret ballot in open session. FOIA requires minutes to record eac…
Can a Delaware city council preemptively bar a citizen from speaking at public comment because of profanity used at a prior meeting?
No. The Delaware AG ruled that the City of Wilmington violated FOIA by preemptively barring Dion Wilson from speaking at the September 19, 2019 public comment period because of profanity he used at th…
If a Delaware county council posts its meeting notice at 5:35 PM after the building closes, does that violate FOIA's seven-day rule?
No. The Delaware AG ruled Sussex County Council did not violate FOIA when it posted its September 24, 2019 meeting notice at 5:35 PM on September 17, 2019, after the Administration Building closed. FO…
If a Delaware public body's agenda labels an item by complainant type rather than the actual school or activity, is that a FOIA notice violation?
Yes. The Delaware AG ruled DIAA's Sportsmanship Committee violated FOIA by listing the agenda item as 'Sportsmanship Complaint – Parent,' which gave no clue the discussion concerned Concord High Schoo…
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…
If a Delaware town commissioner blurts out a personnel comment in open session, does FOIA make that a violation?
No. The Delaware AG ruled the Town of Dewey Beach did not violate FOIA when a Town Commissioner briefly mentioned concerns about the Police Chief's effectiveness during an open meeting. The Town Manag…
If a Delaware school board votes to add an item to its agenda at the start of a meeting, can a later open-session ratification cure the FOIA violation?
Yes. The Delaware AG ruled that Sussex Tech violated FOIA at its March 11, 2019 meeting by voting at the outset to add a feasibility-study consultant award not on the noticed agenda. But the Board's s…
Can a Delaware school board add a brand-new vote to its agenda by motion at the start of the meeting?
No. The Delaware AG ruled that Sussex Tech School District violated FOIA's open meeting requirements when its Board of Education voted at the May 13, 2019 meeting outset to amend the agenda and decide…
Can a Delaware county discuss agricultural-easement purchases in executive session under the 'site acquisition' exemption?
Yes. The Delaware AG ruled Sussex County Council did not violate FOIA by holding executive sessions for the Agricultural Lands Preservation Program. Buying preservation easements is buying real proper…
Can a Delaware town go into executive session about selling city property and immediately vote on the sale in open session?
Yes. The Delaware AG ruled that a Rehoboth Beach Special Meeting agenda combining a § 10004(b)(2) executive session on a possible property sale with an open-session vote on the same matter satisfied F…
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…
When a Delaware mayor asks two commissioners and the town manager during a public meeting to look into a FOIA complaint, does that trigger a new round of open-meeting requirements?
No. The AG found no FOIA violation: there was no evidence the individuals had met or were about to meet, a preliminary research request need not be on the meeting agenda, and the Town confirmed the ma…
When a Delaware city goes into executive session to discuss its draft response to a citizen's pending FOIA petition, which executive session exemption actually applies?
The pending-or-potential-litigation exemption in 29 Del. C. § 10004(b)(4) applied, because the FOIA petition process is a quasi-judicial proceeding that qualifies as litigation. The City's separate ci…
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…
If a county zoning agenda lists a special-use exception by its zoning-code category (nursing home / convalescent home / home for the aged) but the actual hearing is about an assisted living facility with 35 houses, did the agenda give legally sufficient notice under Delaware FOIA?
Yes. The AG concluded that citing the zoning-code subsections for the requested exception was objectively comprehensible notice, even though the agenda did not use the specific phrase 'assisted living…
When a Delaware town council goes into executive session about a complaint against an appointed official, what makes that closed-door discussion legal under FOIA?
The AG concluded that Frankford Town Council properly used the personnel exception under 29 Del. C. § 10004(b)(9) because the executive session in-camera record showed an individual employee's compete…
If a quorum of a town council shows up at a properly noticed committee meeting but does not discuss public business among themselves, is that a separate open-meeting violation under Delaware FOIA?
No. The Delaware AG concluded that mere attendance by a quorum at another body's public meeting was not a separate Council meeting, because there was no discussion or deliberation among the attending …
Does a city council violate Delaware's open meetings law if a consultant interviews each council member separately about the same topic?
No, according to this opinion. The Delaware AG found that a Human Resources consultant's one-on-one interviews with each Newark City Council member and the Mayor, gathering their individual views for …
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 …
Does a city council violate Delaware's open-meetings law by holding a press conference without notice?
Not automatically. The AG found a quorum of Seaford's city council attending a press conference about a new ordinance wasn't a FOIA 'meeting,' because the council members didn't discuss the matter amo…
Can a Delaware city call a special council meeting with less than seven days' notice to meet a grant deadline?
Yes, if the need for the meeting genuinely arose within the last seven days. The AG found Newark's city council properly called a special meeting on four days' notice to reconsider a bridge-funding de…
Is a city council's ad hoc reorganization committee a public body that must keep meeting minutes?
Yes. The AG found Wilmington's Council Organization Commission, created by council resolution with staff support, was a public body that violated FOIA by not keeping minutes of its six meetings, and o…
Is a college advisory committee a 'public body' that must hold open meetings under Delaware FOIA?
It depends on who is on it and what it does. The AG found DelTech Community College's Criminal Justice Advisory Board was a public body subject to FOIA because it could act as a group and included out…
Does a Delaware town have to prove its electronic meeting notice posted on time, or just the physical posting?
Just the physical posting, for a municipality like Dewey Beach. The AG found the town's September 22 meeting notice was timely because it was posted at the town's office at least seven days ahead; FOI…
Is it a FOIA violation if a Delaware town posts meeting notice six days instead of seven before the meeting?
Yes, technically, but the AG found no remedy was needed because the only agenda item was a properly-noticed executive session and no substantive votes were taken at the meeting.
Does a Delaware city have to announce the Attorney General's FOIA rulings at a public council meeting?
No. The AG found nothing in FOIA that requires a public body to present or discuss the AG's prior FOIA determinations during a council meeting; publishing them online is enough.
How long do you have to file a Delaware FOIA open-meetings complaint after the meeting happened?
Six months at the outside. The AG dismissed a complaint about zoning approvals from 2002 and 2016 as untimely, because Delaware FOIA claims must be brought within 60 days of learning of the action and…
How far in advance must a Delaware city council post its meeting agenda under FOIA?
At least seven days before the meeting. The AG found Wilmington's City Council violated FOIA by only posting its full agenda one day before an April 2017 meeting, even though the city argued its annua…
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 pre-meeting 'meet and greet' for new board members subject to Delaware's open meetings law?
No violation found. The AG determined that the Wilmington Housing Authority did not violate FOIA at its February 27, 2017 board meeting: notice was posted ten days in advance at the authority's princi…
Does a city council violate Delaware's open meetings law by holding an all-day planning retreat without a real agenda?
Yes. The opinion found that the City of Seaford's Council violated Delaware's open meetings law by holding an all-day planning retreat without including an agenda in the meeting notice, and then provi…
Does a public body violate open-meetings law if the meeting room turns out to be too small for the crowd that shows up?
It can, according to this opinion. The State Board of Education held a heavily attended meeting on a controversial school redistricting plan in a room that turned out to be too small, and the AG found…
Do public meeting minutes have to include everything a resident said during public comment?
No, according to this opinion. A resident complained that a city council's meeting minutes omitted parts of his critical public comment about a social media policy, distorting the public record. The A…
How long do I have to file a FOIA open-meetings complaint after the meeting I'm complaining about?
About six months, according to this opinion. The AG declined to investigate several open-meeting allegations because they were raised more than six months after they occurred, and found two other alle…
Does a county administrator have to hold a public meeting before deciding to give employees a bonus or an extra day off?
No, according to this opinion. A Sussex County resident alleged the County Council secretly agreed to give employees an extra day off and a bonus at annual employee luncheons. The AG found the County …
Does a public board violate open-meetings law if its president has a quiet side conversation with counsel or staff during a meeting?
No, according to this opinion. A legislator complained that the State Board of Education's president had a private sidebar with the board's attorney and asked a staff member to confirm advice during a…
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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.