Last Thursday evening, there was another debate among the Mayoral candidates for Wilmington (except the current Mayor — who apparently does not think he needs to explain or be accountable for his dismal record in this area). This one was focused on public safety and was sponsored by the News Journal and WHYY and held at the Grand. There have been quite a few debates/ public forums for Mayoral candidates in the last month or so, reflecting the very high interest in this race around town. It is a perfect situation for the kind of retail politics that Delaware is famous for and is a perfect setup for all of the organizations around town who feel that they need to work at supporting the public conversation. What you know from talking to people at these events is that there is a great deal of sensitivity about the crossroads Wilmington seems to be on and a great deal of motivation to try to choose someone who will move the City in a much better direction. Public safety is a very large issue — but it is almost always entwined with discussions on education, re-entry, jobs. This is important, I think, because it indicates that many of the most interested voters in Wilmington understand that public safety is a complex issue and that city government has not been a good leader in addressing these issues. While reducing shootings and other criminal behavior is a priority, Wilmingtonians seem ready to hear about long-term prevention strategies as well.
Mayor Williams extends his track record of working to get Wilmingtonians to fall for his usual okie doke — this time running away from a venue where he might have to defend his poor record. Remember that it was his promises on improving public safety that was the whole foundation of his run for Mayor. It seems that the Mayor has no intention of participating in debates this round — he claims that he doesn’t get enough time to respond to criticism. Right? Mayor Williams can’t participate by the rules, so he takes his okie doke ball, goes home and files for the office as a way of getting some attention. Any questions on why the hard stuff isn’t getting done in Wilmington?
Anyway, this debate focused entirely on the public safety question in Wilmington. Again, all of the candidates support some version of community policing (with only Young, Kelley and Cabrera offering any visions of what that might look like). The night’s questioning started out with a very interesting question asked of Eugene Young and Norm Griffiths — and that was whether or not you were scared when you saw police lights in the rear view mirror (the questioner said he was). Young noted that he has lots of relationships with WPD officers, so he isn’t especially fearful, but understood those who do. Mainly because they don’t have the kinds of relationships that enhance respect and understanding and that is what he wants from community policing. Griffiths said he wasn’t fearful (he’s an ex-cop), unless he is violating some traffic law, but he would likely be fearful in another jurisdiction. The next interesting question was posed to Mike Purzycki on how to scale up the work of the Hope Commission. While he’s very proud of how this group has evolved, he was uncertain if it could scale up because of the personal nature of the programs. He did want to see the program extended to the rest of the state and noted that re-entry programs were very cost effective in relation to the cost of imprisonment. Bobby Marshall was asked this same question and got lost in his answer. He wandered through a discussion of a Wilmington Trade School, his Work a Day, Earn a Pay program and public money to do public works projects. He was refocused on the question and pretty much said that the state has to provide more funds and support. Young got in this conversation by noting that there are already alot of organizations doing good work in this area. People don’t know about these organizations and there needs to be re-entry coordination to help people to connect to the resources that exist.
Gregory was asked what the city could do to impact the circumstances that led to the Howard High incidents. He had a litany of programs that he rattled off, accompanied by better law enforcement and then he went into a better WPD management team. It was pretty clear that he was throwing a bunch of answers at this. Maria Cabrera set her tone for the evening by forcefully reiterating what people are feeling (parents, especially) and then her solution was to hold people accountable with no plan to do so.
A question to Norm Griffiths on a Metro PD, had him responding that having the NCCoPD in the city on a periodic and focused basis was a good idea, bit as an ongoing operation. He thought that the collaboration between the NCCoPD and WPD was often difficult because the NCCoPD didn’t know the city — but that Wilmington had the resources to police the city, they just needed to be used better. Kevin Kelley thinks that there can be shared resources on shared problems — gangs, homicides. He wants to change the WPD leadership to one more focused on delivering solutions that may work. Cabrera did a long story about how her son witnessed a crime and didn’t want to report it and how a neighbor to the young man who was recently shot has camera footage that he won’t turn over, nor will he speak to the WPD. She talked about strengthening relationships and when asked how that gets done, she responded with what I like to call the “police cuteness” — basketball coaching, running man challenges as well as sitting at the table together. Theo Gregory forgot the question (partially because Cabrera went on and on and didn’t seem to answer the question until late, but still). His answer was to be an Ambassador for the city (?), changing the culture of the WPD and creating an office at the French St building where people could come to report problems.
Kevin Kelley was asked what 3 items from the WPSSC report that he would implement — Community Police, the Crime Center (open it up to everyone), greater accountability for everyone (leading by example, changing the culture). Cabrera pointed to Philly as a good predictive policing model and again talked about an old deployment plan developed by Bud Freel and Kevin Kelley (and a consultant) that would put officers routinely in the same area so there is some continuity of problem solving. First, it would be good to make sure that the people who came up with this got credit and even better to talk about how this gets implemented — the last time this was on the agenda, the WPD got more officers and more equipment, but the neighborhoods did not get the level of policing they thought they were signing up for. She does have a plan — she didn’t really answer how much of the WPSSC report she’d implement — and noted that her selected Police Chief was already reviewing this plan. The media present didn’t follow up on this interesting bit of info to ask who that person was. Gregory took a page out of some old Management 101 book to say that he would have a plan, he would stick to the plan, put in a good management team, and followup. But not much on the WPSSC document. Young wants to make sure that as many sworn officers are doing real police work as possible — getting IT and HR and other functions that could be at least partially in the hands of civilians. He also notes that much like the Philly effort, it is important to have better training in de-escalation, crisis intervention. Kevin Kelley notes that the mayor has to have a real plan and that has to be executed. He also notes the there needs to be things for young people to do. Purzycki notes that the WPSSC doesn’t criticize the Mayor’s various plans, but does criticize their execution. Griffiths wants to hire a good Chief and also hire good leadership for the rest of the departments. Marshall wants to put cameras in the front and back of cars and implement body cameras. He would engage Lou Schilliro to hire a new Chief.
The next question was also very good — asking Young about how to change the culture where the idea that “snitches get stitches” is more important than getting the bad guys off of the streets. Young noted that the people critiquing the folks who won’t talk don’t live in these communities where the danger is quite real. He says that you change this by getting officers more engaged with residents and residents with officers and building more trusting relationships. He also notes that WPD officers will still come to the door of someone who called an incident in even tough the caller told the dispatcher that he didn’t want anyone at the door. That’s a training issue, but it is tough to create trusting relationships where this still happens. Purzycki answered this question by pivoting to root causes — educational attainment, employment, etc. Kelley interestingly called on ministers and preachers to step up — he noted that they frequently disappear after Sunday and can be a more stabilizing force in their communities. Gregory went off on a tangent on how the Feds (he kept reminding everyone that he was a Federal prosecutor) know how to protect snitches. Here I think he missed the point. Cabrera wants to put substations in neighborhoods again, put more cops on corners and house cops in vacant houses. Marshall wants to change the culture of the WPD and hire a Chief outside of the WPD.
Fireworks erupted when candidates were asked how they would create a productive relationship with City Council around Public Safety issues. Gregory started off by talking about how he operates the current council (weekly, bi-weekly meetings, working together) but this is difficult with a Mayor who isn’t committed to this level of communication and who is afraid to face what people may say. Griffiths notes that there are potentially seven City council vacancies upcoming so a new council will need to work together and probably needs some training. Purzycki was asked what kind of relationship he has with Council and he said he had none. People don’t get along because there is no unifying vision. Kelley has 20 years in Council and noted that no one fro the RDC ever went to a Council meeting. Purzycki shot back with the question — Why should I? Young noted that we all live so close to each other, but we are so far apart. It was important to pick your priority issues and get Council, NCCo, city delegation on the same page in order to make the achievements wanted. Gregory jumped in to say that he always talked with everyone (including some percentages of time he spends with folks — but he did not explain how all of his communication failed to include his Finance Chair in the discussions of the budget “compromise”). Marshall complained that after he got $750K for the new WPD Data Center that he was not invited to the grand opening.
Fireworks were generally avoided in the question about the AGs conclusions on the McDole shooting. There seemed to be consensus that this situation should have been handled better, with more references to more community policing, better training of officers and agreement that the Feds should certainly review the case. Purzycki largely avoided the question by pivoting back to economic change. Eugene Young was the only one who discussed a review and revision of the WPD Use of Force policy, referencing the rewrite and update of the Philly PD policy after a DoJ review.
There were fireworks around the question of how can you assure voters that you have the experience to tackle crime? Young focused on bringing a new perspective to the table — one not part of the city’s musical chairs and one that is in a position to challenge the current culture to change and who can attract some of the best and brightest to work on ideas to improve the city’s safety. He reminded people that tackling crime is about better policing AND about rethinking criminal justice issues. Theo Gregory was asked if this was enough and he said No. He responded by saying that there were nuances to government in the city that were vital and you also need to know the history and you need time to get these things. Young made the point that the only mayor who has a statue erected to him in town is one for Tom Maloney who was 29 when elected. Age doesn’t dictate the impact you can have and he pointed out that Wait Your Turn politics is how we got to this place of crisis. You also can’t make a big effort to attract millennials to town and then tell them that they can’t be mayor. Good ideas are good ideas no matter where they come from. Purzycki said in the private sector for a job like this, Young’s resume wouldn’t get past the door. And then he noted that the 131 years of “experience” on the dais had their hands on the wheel as the city declined. Cabrera criticized Purzycki and the RDC — that they spent lots of money, never reached out to the rest of the community (and she said that there are few black and brown people working in the restaurants at the Riverfront) and that we have to elect someone with common sense. Gregory chimed in to say he was not part of the problem, the current Mayor is. Kelley reiterated the need for change and that people already call him the Mini-Mayor because he has a reputation of fighting for the people. Young ended this exchange by noting that this is still all about our neighborhoods and our kids. He runs a non-profit and comes to the table with a larger vision and some experience in pulling people together to get a larger problem solved. Age is not a prequalifier for affecting change.
The Cattle Call:
Who’s Competitive:
Eugene Young — He continues to prove that he is serious and belongs at the table. The fact that he has a 360 degree view of improving public safety is a definite plus and a strong signal on changing the public safety status quo. He’s embraced the management recommendations of the WPSSC and released his own Public Safety Plan for Wilmington that reflects this 360 degree view.
Kevin Kelley — to his credit, he has been pretty much on the same message since 2012. I wasn’t sure whether to include him here or in the Rethink category — Kevin speaks specifically about deployment numbers and locations which hints to me that he would also micromanage the WPD. We definitely want Community Policing and improved service, but his specificity doesn’t leave much room for a Chief to do a job, right? He does get the issues and does have a broader solution. Kevin connected better with this audience than Ezion Fair, but he still isn’t quite on his usual game in these venues (that I have seen).
Who Needs to Rethink Their Strategy:
Mike Purzycki — Economic development and root causes are fine, but people need to feel safe on the streets. The Riverfront and Market St have had focused policing for a few years now, so maybe he doesn’t know this isn’t the same across the rest of the city. The dismissal of anyone having to go to City Council from RDC was very telling — even though RDC has asked for city support of some of its projects, they could presume everyone would line up for them. They didn’t need to explain themselves or ask for support in person, because why wouldn’t the council support them? You can see here how the Riverfront is a symbol of how the rest of the city got ignored to make the Riverfront go. The Hope Commission has been controversial, but I think has been more focused of late — it is a mistake not to be able to talk about scaling up this kind of work.
Who Needs to Drop Out:
Bobby Marshall — seriously, I am not sure why he is in now. He sounds as though he is running for his current job rather than Mayor of Wilmington. Personally, it is appalling to me that he wants to criticize this Mayor on Public Safety when he (and McDowell) would not stand with the rest of the Wilmington delegation to twist the Mayor’s arm into implementing the WPSSC recommendations. Would not do it. Instead, he went off to find $750K to throw at the WPD for a Data Center. A needed Data Center, but I doubt that anyone knows if this was well done and certainly the Mayor dissed Marshall at the opening. So Marshall’s plan to be the hero of this Data Center is thwarted AND the WPSSC isn’t well implemented. Marshall should be disqualified just based on that.
Norm Griffiths — I think he held his own better here, but still had no ideas to put on the table. He didn’t automatically agree with everyone as previous, but he still didn’t have anything to add to the conversation.
Maria Cabrera — She won’t file. And she is becoming the Donald Trump (as a friend observed) of this race. Lots of passionate button pushing in the house, but little in terms of policy or new ideas in evidence.
Theo Gregory — Not much here except it is his turn. Gregory went out of his way to own the mess of a budget that passed and just based on that he should disqualify himself. Why he wanted to help own it is anyone’s guess — especially since what passed as “compromise” is an elaborate kicking of the can down the road. There was no leadership in evidence here, just rearranging of the deck chairs. I’m also going to observe that while he is rattling off the programs and the offices he wants to implement, he hasn’t done much to queue up a budget that might have some room for that. And he displays every bit of the Wilmington Leadership Deficit — instead of figuring out how to make the current resources work better for Wilmingtonians, he wants to recreate that capacity. More turf building that Wilmingtonians will pay for and won’t be accountable to you, either. *This* is the kind of thing that won’t get your resume through the front door.
Dennis Williams — if you can’t be bothered to debate your opponents and deal with your own promises and track record, you don’t deserve re-election. Period.