Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki will allow a residency requirement for city employees to become law without his signature.
Council Member Shané Darby’s ordinance establishing a 5 year employee residency requirement for city employees passed at the last City Council meeting on November 16.
The ordinance gives new hires a year to move into the city, up from the 6 months that were allowed in the previous measure.
It also creates a fund to provide moving assistance to help in that year-long window, and creates a task force to address city hiring issues.
Purzycki released a statement Monday indicating he fiercely opposes the ordinance, but will allow it to become law. He says he’s doing so in order to “avoid further intimidation of Council members who supported expanding residency boundaries.”
Purzycki claims recent City Council meetings on residency reform saw some members allow and encourage “angry crowds” to speak for hours to “suppress discussion” about why a residency requirement reduces effectiveness. He argues there was “never a sober debate about the merits of retaining residency” calling it an embarrassment to City government full of “grandstanding, catcalling, badgering, and political bullying.”
Purzycki announced in early October his administration believed the residency requirement no longer existed and was not enforcing it. State lawmakers had previously amended the City of Wilmington’s Charter to allow the City to determine to what extent, if at all, it would maintain that requirement. Since City Council did not passed a new residency requirement since that charter amendment, Purzycki’s administration argued it no longer existed.
Purzycki shed more light on his decision in his latest statement. He says his administration stepped into the debate when Council President Trippi Congo expressed a desire to eliminate the residency requirement. But Purzycki says Congo “curiously withdrew his support” despite other council members supporting removing the requirement.
Congo explained his change of heart during a November 6th Joint Intergovernmental and Finance & Economic Development Committee Meeting.
“Yes, I was the original sponsor of the ordinance to relax residency," he said at the time. "But after having conversations with the community, and with my council members, I changed my mind and I held it because I just don’t think this is a good piece of legislation.”
Congo’s original ordinance was filed in August 2022. That legislation was tabled at the2022 Finance & Economic Development Committee meeting on September6, 2022 when Council Member Zanthia Oliver requested an opinion from the City law department.
Purzycki’s decision to stop enforcing the residency requirement came a little over a year later.
The legislation originally introduced by Congo was picked up by Council Member Al Mills this fall following the mayor’s announcement, but it was held by Mills at the October 19th meeting and never reintroduced. It was instead replaced by two new options - Darby's prpposal and one from Council Member Latisha Bracy. Bracy's ordinance sought to extend the radius of the residency requirement to encompass all of New Castle County, while giving a hiring preference to city residents. It failed to clear committee.
The Purzycki administration's main argument against the residency requirement surrounds city hiring.
In a statement released on October 16th following his decision to stop upholding the requirement, Purzycki said:
“There are critical government positions open such as engineers, planners, attorneys, sanitation drivers and collectors, a water lab supervisor, 911 emergency dispatchers, and police officers among others. We are hopeful that there will now be applicants for these positions where there were none before now that residency is not a factor. These vacant positions are undermining the efficiency of our government."
On October 16th there were 92 vacant positions, with the city recruiting applicants for 15.
On Monday, 22 jobs are posted on the City of Wilmington’s website.
But Purzycki stood by his argument in his Monday statement.
“Nowhere during the mob-controlled meetings was there recognition of the increased marketing and outreach efforts by the City’s Human Resources Department to recruit City residents for local government jobs,” said Purzycki.
He added that some unemployed residents in the city don’t want the jobs that are open, and other jobs require a specialized set of skills and years of experience the city has yet to find within its borders.
"We do not seem to have any water quality lab chemists in our City, or any that want to move to Wilmington. Same for GIS technicians (we need two), or traffic engineers. We have been unsuccessful in recruiting City residents who are qualified to be planners, tree climbers and arborists. We recently had three unfilled Law Department vacancies for the better part of a year. We have five 911 emergency call taker vacancies," he said in the statement.
The city’s hiring efforts were discussed in detail over the past month during the debate over the residency ordinances, and the one approved by City Council specifically creates a task force to address hiring issues.
Purzycki also said race was “sadly” brought into the debate – some arguing that Black employees would be disadvantaged by removing the residency requirement.
The majority of Wilmington residents are Black. Many arguments surrounding race in the Council meetings over the past month suggested that abolishing the residence recruitment, or opening it up to all of New Castle County, would run the risk of losing Black representation in a city government that serves a majority Black community.
Read the full statement here.
