Wilmington Mayor-elect John Carney releases his Mayoral Transition Report to outline priorities for his incoming administration.
Carney’s action plan highlights four main categories, including managing resources and fostering communication, job growth and economic development, improving community safety and resiliency and bolstering community well-being.
Carney's Transition Team Co-Chair Kevin Kelley explains the mayor-elect plans to establish a citywide Council on Homelessness, driven by community organizations to help address long-term and short-term needs.
“All these individuals reside in the city of Wilmington, and I think the mayor wants to get a group together to collectively look at what's the best plan to address homelessness in the city, knowing this is one where he was out campaigning and heard from a lot of people — it is a high priority of people in the city," Kelley said.
Carney also plans to redesign Neighborhood Planning Councils as necessary and work to streamline the permits, inspections and zoning processes for residents and businesses to eliminate unnecessary barriers to development.
Kelley says creating a more responsive government is also top of mind for the mayor-elect, which includes improving Wilmington’s 311 service.
“Overall, we've got to look at the 311 system, which is a central point of contact for people to connect with the city – does it need some improvement and some efficiencies, so at the end of the day, the customer is very satisfied with utilizing 311?”
Bolstering effective communication also includes better collaboration between the mayor and other city and statewide leaders, Kelley explains.
"It is incumbent upon the mayor to work with City Council and other elected officials in the state to really — as they always say, 'as Wilmington goes, so does Delaware' — but how do we work more collectively together with other legislators within the state, externally and internally, to make things better for everybody?"
Carney intends to implement a new Enterprise Resource Management System to improve city operations and evaluate the impacts of the new county tax reassessment to set an appropriate property tax rate for the city.
"The value of my house went way way up, like everyone else's — I think the key for the city of Wilmington is, based on the reassessment that comes back, 'what is a fair tax rate to apply to those new assessed values?'" Kelley said. "The goal with many cases is revenue neutrality, but sometimes that occurs and sometimes it does not. But I think [the first question is] 'what is a fair taxable rate for the citizens of Wilmington' to start with, and whether or not, as we move forward, there needs to be any additional increases to support programs that the city wants to offer."
You can find a full copy of the transition plan here.
Carney, along with the Wilmington City Council, is set to be sworn in on Jan. 7. Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long is expected to step in as acting governor before Matt Meyer’s inauguration on Jan. 21.
