---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND THE CHARTER OF THE TOWN OF SOUTH BETHANY."
description: "Section 1 eliminates the need to use an ordinance to appoint a Town Manager and specifies that all departments, including the Police Department, report directly to the Town Manager."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "149"
identifier: "SB 154"
citation: "Delaware SB 154 (149)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Gerald W. Hocker", "Ronald E. Gray"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 10
vote_count: 3
first_action: "2018-03-09"
last_action: "2018-06-07"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/be5ce10b-b483-463c-bdc7-c26f8cc23348"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=26312"
source_hash: "ec670b583c312b6d9cb203a90595e81fc85056334100807e75a4f2fdca55089a"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-de"]
---

# Delaware SB 154 (149) — AN ACT TO AMEND THE CHARTER OF THE TOWN OF SOUTH BETHANY.

Section 1 eliminates the need to use an ordinance to appoint a Town Manager and specifies that all departments, including the Police Department, report directly to the Town Manager.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=26312&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=SB154)

## Votes

- 2/3 — **21–0** (pass) · upper
- 2/3 — **20–0** (pass) · upper
- 2/3 — **40–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Gerald W. Hocker — primary (person)
- Ronald E. Gray — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2018-03-09** Introduced and Assigned to Judicial & Community Affairs Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2018-03-14** Reported Out of Committee (Judicial & Community Affairs) in Senate with 4 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
- **2018-03-20** Passed By Senate. Votes: 20 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2018-03-22** Assigned to House Administration Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2018-04-18** Reported Out of Committee (Administration) in House with 2 Favorable, 3 On Its Merits `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2018-04-26** Amendment HA 1 to SB 154 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2018-04-26** Amendment HA 1 to SB 154 - Passed In House by Voice Vote `amendment-passage`
- **2018-04-26** Passed By House. Votes: 40 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2018-05-02** Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES `passage`
- **2018-06-07** Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/be5ce10b-b483-463c-bdc7-c26f8cc23348`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).