Why Should Delaware Care?
Wilmington residents have a lot at stake with new leadership in the city. With a new mayor and three new council members, the city could see a shift in perspective to address the city’s unresolved issues like affordable housing, public safety, and clean streets, which could bring tangible change to daily life.
With the election of a new mayor for the first time in eight years along with three new city council members, Wilmington’s legislative body is entering a new chapter and signaling a potential shift in direction and focus.
Both returning and newly elected council members, along with the mayor, have expressed a shared commitment to tackling long-standing concerns raised by residents, including affordable housing, public safety and clean streets.
Some members also plan to hold the city accountable for unresolved issues previously claimed to have been addressed.
Wave of change
As an overwhelmingly Democratic city, the September primary election largely shaped the composition of the city council moving forward.
Gov. John Carney beat his opponent Velda Potter-Jones by over 700 votes in the two-way primary race for mayor. He will step down as state leader and into the leadership role for his hometown on Jan. 14, 2025, succeeding Mayor Mike Purzycki who decided against seeking a third term.
In that election, District 1 Councilman Vincent White lost his seat to Coby Owens in the three-way contest with Owens and Thea Lopez. White had only served on council for a little less than two years after filling in for the late Linda Grey.
Coby Owens, advocacy manager for the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League, is a local advocate serving on boards such as the Delaware NAACP Executive Committee, the Wilmington’s Police Athletic League and the First State Abortion Fund.
For the District 5 seat, Christian Willauer defeated incumbent Bregetta Fields by a 27-vote margin. Willauer had run previously in 2020 against Fields but lost then by a similarly slim margin.
Willauer previously served as the director of the Wilmington Land Back and has been a longtime advocate for affordable housing and environmental justice, volunteering with the HOMES Campaign and serving as the director for Cornerstone West CDC, among other organizations.
Alexander Hackett, the council’s third new member, will serve as an at-large councilman, representing residents citywide rather than a specific district. He succeeds Albert Mills, the renowned Twin Poet and community leader who did not seek re-election.
Hackett previously worked in U.S. Sen. Tom Carper’s office and now runs the nonprofit Community Cares, which provides resources for youth in the community. He has also worked at the U.S. Economic Development Administration as a confidential assistant.
Hackett will serve alongside incumbents Latisha “Tish” Bracy, who received the most votes in the at-large race; Maria Cabrera and minority seat-holder James Spadola, who defeated first-time Republican challenger Shawn Dottery.
Incumbents Shané Darby (District 2), Zanthia Oliver (District 3), and Chris Johnson (District 7) secured their seats with decisive victories over their opponents.
Unopposed candidates, including District 4 Councilwoman Michelle Harlee, District 6 Councilwoman Yolanda McCoy, District 8 Councilman Nathan Field, and Council President Trippi Congo will retain their seats.
Fresh faces, new agendas
In a statement to Spotlight Delaware, Carney said he will spend his first 90 days hiring key staff and department directors, implementing recommendations from the transition report and engaging with residents by holding town hall meetings in each district and talking to community organizations to understand their priorities.
He said his transition team will work on an action plan to address the issues of good schools, safe neighborhoods, clean streets, and affordable housing, topics that residents spoke about during his campaign.
His fiscal goals include working with council to develop a sustainable budget by growing city revenues through business and residential development and maximizing on state and federal funding. In addition, Carney said he plans to improve housing stock and housing affordability options in the city.
Carney also sees public safety as a key priority, with plans to support the Wilmington Police Department and hopes that the gang violence reduction initiative Group Violence Intervention Program, which he helped kickstart in the city in 2019, will continue to help with the issue of gun violence.
Meanwhile, all three of the council’s newest members bring progressive backgrounds, which could create a shift in perspective, particularly on issues that some residents felt were unresolved.
Willauer, who represents parts of the Quaker Hill, Hilltop and Little Italy communities, said she will aim to address homelessness, violence reduction, potholes and sidewalks, and speeding on city streets.
With citywide concerns like affordable housing, she said she will support legislation to require housing developers that receive tax breaks from the city to make a portion of their units affordable for lower-income residents.
Willauer also wants to implement some of the recommendations from the city’s Fines and Fees Report, which examined the city’s parking, towing and water billing system. She sat on the task force that developed the report, and since its approval in March, few of the recommendations that aimed to alter the city’s collection practice have been implemented.
She plans to start with ending water shut-offs for households that include a senior, a person with a disability or a child under 5, and ending the use of foreclosure to collect overdue water bills from homeowners.
Darby, who Willauer has collaborated with on legislation in the past, made the same proposal regarding water shut-offs in September, but it was voted down in committee. With a new council, she’s hopeful that more support exists now.
“I’m looking forward to working with other council members and the administration to reduce the city’s reliance on fees and fines to fund city services and to create a more sustainable budget,” she said.
Owens, who represents Northeast Wilmington, plans to work with community leaders to strengthen his district’s civic associations and ultimately build an action plan for the First District.
He also wants to focus on topics like public safety and housing affordability for both renters and owners.
Owens said he’s excited to work with the freshman class in addition to second third District council members, as he feels those areas connect very closely. And he is also looking forward to working with Yolanda McCoy, who he feels has pushed to advocate for public safety initiatives.
McCoy, who sits as chair of the Public Safety Committee, has supported different legislative pieces regarding training for law enforcement, funding for police programs and crime reduction initiatives.
On the topic of allowing marijuana sales in the city, which has been a current debate in the city, Owens agreed that businesses should be allowed in the city, but should be a considerable distance from residential areas and schools.
“I see it as an opportunity for the city,” he said.
Owens feels that Wilmington should benefit from the taxes of those businesses, which as of right now would only go to the state. He believes Wilmington could benefit from the funds, putting them toward community needs like home repairs.
Both Owens and Willauer will also aim to make the city’s Homeowner Repair Program, a city-funded initiative that provides low-to-moderate-income homeowners up to $10,000 for house repairs, a permanent program.
Hackett, on the other hand, will spend his first 90 days as an at-large council member going on a listening tour to hear the concerns of city residents to learn how to create change for them.
“The biggest thing for me is really to just be a people advocate, be able to speak up for those who don’t have a voice,” he said.
However, he’s shared that education and affordable housing are among his top priorities, as he hopes to support different school programs and develop advocacy around creating first-time homebuyers.
Affordable housing a priority
Most of the city council’s members recognize affordable housing as a top priority going into the new term, with many members already having ways to address the issue.
Oliver said that addressing the affordable housing crisis will have a financial impact on the city, and plans to sit with the administration to possibly amend the bond bill so that the city can have the resources to deal with the issue.
Oliver and Johnson feel that the city could also look at other housing types, like micro-apartments or container houses, while also looking at what other cities are doing to address the issue.
Cabrera also said she will continue to work on the issue and part of her solution will include assisting the City’s Land Bank, which she sits on the board of, to repurpose vacant properties in the city.
According to its website, the Land Bank has assisted in developing 34 affordable rental units and 47 units of affordable housing.
Other potential solutions that could come up in the new term are rent control measures, which Willauer and Hackett both favor. Darby had proposed a similar measure this past summer but didn’t have the votes to pass it.
Stemming violence
While Wilmington has been able to make progress in reducing gun violence over the past decade, it still continues to be a lingering problem in some neighborhoods and council members will aim to address it.
Johnson said he plans to assist the Community Public Safety Initiative program, which started two years ago, to identify and address issues that often contribute to crime and develop strategies to prevent criminal behavior.
The program will soon run out of funding, so he will work to find ways to maintain it.
Oliver also said she plans to conduct roundtable discussions with different stakeholders from the Northside, Eastside and the Riverside area to gather community feedback and discuss different ways to address the issues of gun violence and public safety.
Spadola also wants to explore proper rehabilitation solutions to prevent gun violence offenders from committing the same type of crimes once they re-enter society.
Incumbents to tackle other issues
City residents can also expect to see efforts to address water billing, the city’s opioid epidemic, education and city parking.
Oliver said she plans to discuss the possibility of opening a clinic in the city that assists those struggling with substance abuse. She said she would want one that allows long-term stays for people to get well.
“I mean even if it houses 20 people. But let’s just get it started, because you can look around and just see it’s a problem,” she said.
Darby has proposed different legislation throughout this term to change the city’s water billing practices and stop water shut-offs for residents who can’t afford it.
Although most of her legislation regarding the issue has been voted down, Darby feels ready to take on the issues of water affordability again next year.
“I feel like this time around, I have a little bit more support and people who align with me. So I have a little bit more leverage,” she said.
Council recently passed Spadola’s proposal to conduct a study on the city’s parking practices, which he said Carney seemed “receptive” to after discussing it with him.
Spadola will begin to have more discussions with the new administration about moving forward with it, as the city is still in search of a consultant.
Council President Congo, who is entering his second term, plans to work with the council and the mayor’s office to discuss having more say in the realm of the city’s education system, which is split between three different suburban school districts.
He also said he looks forward to working with Mayor Carney and his team.
“I hope that we can have a better relationship with the [new] administration, more communication, more respect on both sides, just being fair to each other,” said Congo, who at times clashed with Purzycki.
Many council members express a shared sentiment of wanting to continue to improve communication and collaboration amongst themselves and with the mayor’s office, in hopes to better address the needs of their constituents.
“We’re not two separate entities,” Cabrera said. “So we got to find our common ground, what’s good for all of the city, and we got to work on those issues together.”
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