DOVER, Del. (WBOC/AP)- The Delaware Senate on Monday afternoon will reconvene a special session to consider a resolution that would give State Auditor Kathy McGuiness formal notice of an upcoming hearing on her removal.
The special session will be held at 3 p.m. in the Senate Chambers of Legislative Hall in Dover. If passed by both the Senate and House, Senate Concurrent Resolution 128 would give McGuiness notice that a legislative hearing will be held on her removal from office under the Delaware Constitution.
A Kent County Superior Court jury on July 1 found McGuiness, a Democrat elected in 2018, guilty of three misdemeanor counts of conflict of interest, official misconduct and structuring a contract with a consulting firm to avoid compliance with state procurement rules. McGuiness was acquitted of felony charges of theft and witness intimidation.
Leaders of both chambers of the Delaware General Assembly, as well as Gov. John Carney, have called on McGuiness to step down but she has refused.
The conflict of interest charge involved the May 2020 hiring of McGuiness’s daughter, Elizabeth “Saylar” McGuiness, who still works for the auditor’s office. Prosecutors alleged that Saylar McGuiness, 20, was hired even as other part-time workers in the auditor’s office left because of a lack of work during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. Authorities said McGuiness then allowed her daughter special privileges, including access to a state vehicle and permission to work remotely while away at college in South Carolina, that were not available to other “casual-seasonal” workers.
The jury rejected the prosecution’s claim that, by exercising control over state funds used to pay Saylar McGuiness, and having access to their joint bank account, Kathy McGuiness committed felony theft. Jurors also acquitted her on a felony charge of intimidating and harassing employees who she suspected might be cooperating in an investigation of her office.
McGuiness was convicted, however, of structuring payments under a no-bid communications services contract with My Campaign Group, a consulting firm she had used in a 2016 campaign for lieutenant governor, to avoid having to get them approved by the state Division of Accounting.
The structuring and conflict of interest convictions laid the foundation for jurors to also find McGuiness guilty of official misconduct.
Each of the three misdemeanor charges carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison, but a presumptive sentence of probation. No sentencing date has been set.
