Senate executive committee questions Vanessa Phillips about past workplace complaints during confirmation hearing

Vanessa Phillips, the governor’s nominee to chair the Merit Employee Relations Board, defended her record at a public Senate Executive Committee hearing where members pressed her about past workplace discrimination complaints and grievance rulings from her time in state and county government.

Phillips, who identified herself as director of business operations for the Delaware River and Bay Authority and a D.C.- and Pennsylvania‑barred attorney, told the committee she led investigations into allegations of racism at the Delaware Department of Labor and served as a hearing officer in merit grievance cases. “I led those investigations,” she said, adding that she consulted with the governor’s office and human resources management before imposing disciplinary actions.

Senator Pettyjohn focused questioning on a 2016 complaint in which a Department of Labor human-resources employee alleged mistreatment. Pettyjohn asked whether Phillips had issued a disciplinary memo that characterized the employee’s racial identification and whether the employee had been suspended without a hearing. Phillips said she “placed facts in my memo” about how the employee self-identified and denied that the employee was suspended without a hearing. When pressed about whether she had recommended termination in one matter, Phillips said she had recommended termination in at least one case and acknowledged that some decisions were later appealed and reversed by grievance processes.

Phillips also answered questions about other personnel matters raised in public records, including matters referred to in federal filings. She told the committee she was not aware of some later district‑court filings and that certain matters occurred during transition periods when her formal authority was limited. “For the record, I have never engaged in discriminatory behavior,” Phillips said.

Senator Hocker asked whether prior MERB rulings that disagreed with actions taken when Phillips was a hearing officer made her unsuitable to serve as chair. Phillips said a single case in which an arbiter disagreed with her did not make her unqualified and described a long record of grievance hearings she handled at DelDOT and New Castle County. Several senators—including Senator Lachman—praised Phillips’s years of public service and said they looked forward to supporting her nomination; the chair noted her name had already been reported out of committee previously.

The committee did not take a confirmation vote at the hearing. Committee members circulated nomination paperwork for further consideration and the session moved on to other gubernatorial appointees.

What happens next: Phillips’s nomination remains under the committee’s consideration; the committee circulated her nomination and did not record a confirmation vote at the hearing.