Tag: Wilmington City Council

Grading Wilmington’s City Council

Filed in Delaware by on October 26, 2013 6 Comments
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.

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Comment Rescue — What Should Be Done To Make Wilmington a Healthy and Thriving City?

Filed in Delaware by on October 5, 2013 30 Comments
Comment Rescue — What Should Be Done To Make Wilmington a Healthy and Thriving City?

That is the core of this comment that Paul Calistro posted in the Daily Delaware thread. It is a good set of questions by someone who thinks about what is going on the city alot and by someone who cares a great deal about what happens here. Add your comments below and I hope Paul will check in and engage in a conversation here:

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A Wilmingtonian’s Appeal to City Council President Theo Gregory

Filed in Delaware by on September 26, 2013 21 Comments
A Wilmingtonian’s Appeal to City Council President Theo Gregory

We’ve all read the NJ articles and listened to the WDEL reporting, and some of us actually sat through the Channel 28 debacle of former Mayoral Policy Advisor Velda Jones-Potter’s “explanation” as to how City taxpayers ended up paying for 20 WPD officers and other city resources at the Foxtail concert on 14 September. Many of us (publicly and otherwise) have been calling for a full, impartial investigation by City Council — an investigation where the parties involved provide sworn testimony and where any found wrongdoing is referred to the Attorney General. Mr. Gregory did promise a Special City Council meeting dedicated to looking into why taxpayer dollars were so badly mishandled and who would have authorized this. Monday, September October 30 is the date, but I want to ask — again — that Mr. Gregory make sure that this is a robust questioning and investigation. Wilmington already has a bad reputation for governing itself, and making sure that the tough questions get asked and making sure that unethical behavior has consequences would be a great beginning in changing that reputation.

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Conflict of Interest by 3 Wilmington City Council Members

Filed in Delaware by on June 18, 2013 5 Comments

Or at least the appearance of a conflict of interest by 3 Councilmembers who work for or have recently worked for Connections CSP in Wilmington. Sunday’s NJ has a great article by Andrew Staub and Beth Miller detailing the concerns that quite a few people have had over what appeared to be conflicts of interests between the roles of City Council members and Connections employees or consultants for Hanifa Shabazz, Mike Brown and Darius Brown.

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Wilmington Budget Follies

Filed in Delaware by on May 29, 2013 13 Comments
Wilmington Budget Follies

For the past few weeks, the back and forth over coming to some agreement over the Wilmington budget for the next fiscal year has been a source of a great deal of cynicism, exasperation and a fair amount of entertainment. While there is not alot to be proud of here — at bottom we have a new administration who seems to think that they can get things done by fiat. For all of the yelling and screaming about what the Wilmington City Charter says — it still gives the Administration the power to spend the money that City Council allocates to it. That is pretty basic everywhere. Even though the Council spent much of its time rubber-stamping much of the Baker Administration’s work, I wish I could be more hopeful in a more energized Council who will actually do what the Charter expects of them.

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New Wilmington City Administration Starts Today

Filed in National by on January 8, 2013 16 Comments

Dennis Williams is being sworn in this morning as the new Mayor of Wilmington. As the NJ notes this morning, Williams’ is behind the curve in filling out leadership positions (he started in August) and a handful of folks I know working for the city don’t know what jobs they are expected to do.

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Wilmington City Council vs. Newark Charter School

Filed in Delaware by on March 2, 2012 80 Comments

Anyone else get the feeling that education in Delaware is about to explode?

Personally, I’d like to slow the entire Charter (and Choice) train down. I can’t keep up, and can’t shake the feeling that these Charters and our legislators are privy to information that the rest of read only after the deal is done. Basically, I’m not supposed to keep up or catch up. Meanwhile, things are moving forward in City government.

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