A member of Wilmington City Council is publicly reprimanded by the Wilmington Ethics Commission for violating city code.
Zanthia Oliver was reprimanded earlier this week by the Wilmington Ethics Commission for her vote on May 28, 2020 when City Council approved a 2021 Action Plan that awarded Our Youth, Inc. $200,000.
That organization was founded by Oliver’s brother, Norman Oliver who is also President and CEO.
Councilwoman Oliver explains what happened with the vote.
"It was a big package, and I was voting to move the city forward for all the organizations and for the city's operation to move forward. And unfortunately I should have - maybe I wasn't thinking - touched base with the I guess the Law Department. They're supposed to support council as well as administration and no one touched base with me to say his name (Norman Oliver) was in there. Did I see it? Maybe I did, maybe I didn't because it was such a large package," said Oliver.
Oliver notes in future cases she will contact the city’s Law Department, and if a vote like this arises again, call for an amendment to remove any group from the package to vote on it separately and recuse herself from that vote.
Oliver calls the vote an “honest mistake.”
"It was just unfortunate, definitely won't happen again, and I apologize to the Ethics Committee and to the constituents, it was just one of those situations. I wasn't the deciding vote either,” said Oliver. “I was just voting for the package for the city of Wilmington during the time of COVID when everybody was hurting."
This matter was brought to the city when a resident filed a complaint alleging a violation in city ethics in April of 2022.
