Grading Wilmington’s City Council
So readers — we have a gauntlet:
[P]erhaps someone in Delaware Liberal should grade out City Council people once a year.
Yes, I was nominated to do this grading, but will recruit some help to get this done. First off, if you are a city voter, tell me what you want to know about your City Council and their legislative track record. Second, what would you like to see graded or evaluated — and I think I’m interested in issues here more than anything.
Comments are open — let me know what might interest you before I get started.
Ok I will throw in my 2 cents. I know there must be a difference between evaluating and grading- to me graing is a form of evaluating. I think evaluating their performance based on being liberal is a no brainier. There are no conservatives in this crowd. Here is my matrix with no particular weight or order.
Legislative
Do they do their homework ? Is legislation based on best practices and data driven? Or do they shoot from the hip.
Budget and finance
How engaged are they in the creation, evaluation and monitoring of the City finances?
Style
Are they consensus builders or rock throwers?
Constituent Services
How well do they understand how the City operates and do they help business and resident navigate the system. Do they own the problem or pass it along.
Do they respond to residents questions and concerns in a timely manner?
Civic engament
Are they active and visible in the community or just
show up for the bi-weekly TV show?
Representation
Do they seem to be focused on the broader population or are they narrowly focused?
Independent Thinkers
Are they seen as always going along with the crowd , coalition or leadership or do they respectfully offer an alternative perspective?
Thoughtfulness
Are they talking to hear themselves talk or do they carefully weigh their comments?
Ethical
Do they hold themselves and others to the highest standards? Do they follow the rules or only expect other to do so?
I think Paul laid out the criteria pretty well.
This is a great list, Paul. I would add a category about Ideas or Creativity. Showing up with real solutions and a commitment to getting them done counts a great deal, I think, at least in re-weighting the Council’s role as a co-equal part of government.
i think this is more of an evaluation, rather than grading since I suspect we’ll have a challenge backing up some of these items with data.
I would like to know if they think of, or to try to implement, any new ideas for addressing violence and quality of life issues in the city?
Do they report back to their community civic groups- on the status of complaints, incidents- which directly affects the livability of the community- eg monthly scorecard-
do they some grasp of the City Charter- – and how that interacts with the governance of the City, the relationship with New Castle County, and the State and how well they can partner with those assets for the community
do they show some use of social media
do they identify assets within their district – businesses, schools and houses of worship – and potential alliances to strengthen the community
some of these expand on Paul’s two cents- nice job Paul
@AQC, I have been told Council has, in the past, brought ideas for public safety and they have been ignored.
I do not have details, but that is what has been shared with me.