Rehoboth Beach will elect two new commissioners on Aug. 10. 

The Rehoboth Beach Board of Commissioners will have two new members to replace Toni Sharp and Tim Bennett. Four candidates are running to replace Sharp and Bennett, as neither filed for reelection. 

Suzanne Goode, Rachel Macha, Craig Thier, and Mark Saunders are running for the two open seats. 

Mark Saunders is the only candidate who identifies as a member of the LGBTQ community. Saunders was formerly a Realtor, has owned property in Rehoboth with his husband since 2005, and has been a full-time resident since 2013 according to his open letter to The Cape Gazette. 

Saunders has some experience in local leadership, acting as president-elect during COVID-19 for the Rehoboth Beach Homeowners’ Association, and later becoming president for the next two years. He also has experience serving on the Rehoboth Board of Adjustment.

Saunders’s goals include establishing a “reasonable and sustainable balanced budget” for Rehoboth’s business owners and residents and advocating for more full- and part-time residents in the city.

The other candidates for the seats have a range of experience in the Rehoboth area. Susanne Goode has made a career in economic analysis for private firms and government agencies, including for the Executive Office of the U.S. President. Goode also has done local volunteer work with the Parent Teacher Association.  

Goode said her goals for Rehoboth Beach include preserving the beaches, controlling government spending, and raising revenue.

Rachel Macha is also running for the board of commissioners. Macha brings extensive experience working with the Rehoboth local government. She has served on numerous boards, including on the Rehoboth Beach Planning Commission from 2019 to 2022, Rehoboth Beach Plant, Shade and Tree Commission from 2018 to 2020, as well as the Rehoboth Beach Main Street board of directors. In addition to her local government experience, Macha has 30 years of senior management experience for both public and private companies.

Macha highlighted in her open letter that she wishes to “leverage her business background” to make the commission and its decisions “run efficiently and effectively.” She explained she would do this by using “Common Sense Decision-Making,” to improve Rehoboth’s policies and processes as well as minimize unnecessary city spending.

Craig Thier is the last of the four running for the two open seats. Thier is a full-time resident of Rehoboth and has owned property in the area for the past 22 years. His local experience includes being a founding partner of Blue Line Planning, an institution that focuses on financial growth and planning, experience on a New Jersey school board, and serving on the Rehoboth Boardwalk and Beach Committee since 2021. 

Thier has said his goals for Rehoboth include overhauling the annual budget by using two-year projected financial forecasts for devising future city plans, as well as more consistent checks on the city’s comprehensive development plan as actions go into motion. 

Election day is Saturday, Aug. 10 from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. at the Rehoboth Convention Center located at 229 Rehoboth Avenue, Rehoboth Beach, Del. A city spokesperson announced there are 1,664 registered voters in town. The two winners will join the commission in September and serve three-year terms.