Disagreements over Wilmington’s employee residency requirement continue after Mayor Mike Purzycki criticized the legislative process that led to a new ordinance.
While the Mayor allowed the new 5-year employee residency ordinance to become law without his signature, he shared what City Council President Trippi Congo calls a “misleading and disrespectful” statement on the matter.
“Honestly I just didn’t know where it came from. It came from left field. I thought that the way he labeled the public that showed up as a mob was extremely unfair and disrespectful,” said Congo. “There were just so many people there who were passionate, and for him to label them like that was uncalled for.”
He adds the way the Mayor spoke about Council and the legislative process that took place was almost as if he didn’t watch the Council meetings where they discussed the residency requirement.
The Purzycki administration has made it clear they are against an employee residency requirement- an opinion made public in early October when Purzycki announced it would no longer be enforced.
This prompted action from Wilmington City Council to put out a new ordinance that would take away, modify, or keep the city’s residency requirement.
After several Council meetings, which drew hundreds of constituents voicing their opinion in favor of a residency requirement, Council voted to keep it in place, with some modifications to address issues in relocation and city hiring.
Purzycki referred to those constituents as an “intimidating and uncontrolled mob” that “scared members of Council into changing their votes.”
Congo disagrees, and says that by voting in favor of a residency ordinance, with some modifications to address concerns over relocation and hiring, Council fulfilled their duty as elected officials.
In his statement, Purzycki claimed some Council members were silenced.
Again, Congo disagrees, saying he did openly allow the entire Council to speak.
In the last full-council meeting, Congo pleaded with the Council members who did not support a residency requirement to share their reasons why.
Purzycki again noted in his statement that a residency requirement hurts city hiring, which in turn hurts constituents who rely on city services such as trash collection.
Congo calls that a scare tactic, and says there are other more obvious solutions to address that issue, including posting the open job positions to allow Wilmingtonians the opportunity to apply for them.
While Congo believes the mayor’s statement was “uncalled for and extremely divisive,” he’s ready to move forward.
“I hope it’s not a forecast for things to come for the next 10 or 11 months that we’re going to have to work together while we’re both in office,” said Congo. “Hopefully once the dust settles, once the emotions are not as high, we can figure out a way to continue to work together and do what we were elected to do.”
Read Council President Congo's full statement here:
