At this time we will recite the Pledge of Allegiance States of Republic for Witch.

One nation under God.

For anyone who would like to make public comment, uh please make sure that you sign up before 645.

If you're in council chambers, if you are on Zoom, there is a Google form sign up link in the chat.

Again, please make sure that you signed up if you're virtual before 645.

Clerk, please call the roll.

Councilman Owens.

Present.

Councilwoman Darby.

Councilwoman Oliver.

Present.

Councilwoman Harley.

Present.

Councilwoman Willower.

Present.

Councilwoman McCoy.

Here.

Councilman Johnson.

Here.

Councilman Field.

Present.

Councilwoman Bracey.

Present.

Councilwoman Cabrera.

Here.

Councilman Hackett.

Here.

Councilman Spadola.

Congo.

Here.

Here.

11 present and two absent.

All right.

Thank you.

Now we will have the reading of the minutes from our previous meeting.

May 7th, 2026.

City Council met in regular session with remote participation on the above date at 6 48 p.m.

President Ernest M.

Congo, the second presiding.

The opening prayer was done by I'm sorry.

Um may the minutes be accepted as written.

Second.

Second.

I wasn't going to be able to do that.

It's been properly moved and seconded that the minutes be accepted as written on the question.

All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed.

Motion carried.

And now we will have our committee reports.

May 4th, 2026.

President and members of council, ladies and gentlemen, will your finance and economic development committee met by anchor location and remote participation.

So who is referred ordinance number 26-021 entitled an ordinance to amend chapter 40 of the city code to allow employees to donate an unequal amount of accrued sick and vacation leave to designated employees or to the donated leave bank have given this ordinance careful review and recommend council vote on it at an upcoming council meeting.

Respectfully submitted those members of the Finance and Economic Development Committee.

Those members present, Councilman Harley, Councilwoman Bracie, Councilman Hackett, and Councilman Spadola.

Absent with leave, Councilwoman Darby, Councilman Oliver, and President Congo.

I move the committee report be received recorded and filed.

Second.

It's been properly moved and seconded the report to be received, recorded and filed on the question.

All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carried.

May 14th, 2026.

Ladies and gentlemen, we your community development and urban planning committee met by anchor location and remote participation to who was referred.

Have given this ordinance careful review and recommend council vote on it at an upcoming council meeting.

Respectfully submitted those members of the community development and urban planning committee.

Those members present, Councilwoman Darby, Councilman Hackett, Councilwoman McCoy, Councilman Owens, absent with leave, Councilwoman Cabrera, Councilman Field, Councilwoman Willower, and President Congo.

I move the committee report be received, recorded, and filed.

Second.

It's been properly moved and second.

The report be received recorded and filed on the question.

All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carried.

May 21st, 2026, ladies and gentlemen, we are finance and economic development committee met by anchor location and remote participation to who is referred ordinance number 26-022 entitled an ordinance establishing a rate of taxation on real property and the taxable property of public utilities for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2026 and ending on June 30th, 2027.

Have given this ordinance careful review and recommend council vote on it at an upcoming council meeting.

Respectfully submitted those members of the Finance and Economic Development Committee.

Those members present, Councilwoman Harley, Councilwoman Bracey, Councilwoman Darby, Councilman Hackett, Councilwoman Oliver, President Congo, absent with leave, Councilman Spadola.

I move the committee report be received, recorded, and filed.

Second.

It's been properly moved and seconded the report be received, recorded and filed on the question.

All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carried.

Um May 21st, 2026.

Ladies and gentlemen, we your finance and economic development committee met by anchor location and remote participation to who was referred ordinance number 26-023 entitled an ordinance to adopt a capital program for the six fiscal years 2027 to 2032 inclusive.

Have given this ordinance careful review and recommend council vote on it at an upcoming council meeting.

Respectfully submitted those members of the finance and economic development committee.

Those members present, Councilwoman Harley, Councilwoman Bracey, Councilwoman Darby, Councilman Hackett, Councilwoman Oliver, and President Congo absent with leave, Councilman Spadola.

I move the committee report, B received, recorded and filed.

Second.

It's been properly moved and second the report be received, recorded, and filed on the question.

All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carried.

May 21st.

We your finance and economic development committee met by anchor location and remote participation to who was referred ordinance number 26-024.

Entitled an ordinance to adopt a capital budget for fiscal year 2027.

Have given this ordinance careful review and recommend council vote on it at an upcoming council meeting.

Respectfully submitted those members of the finance and economic development committee.

Those members present, Councilwoman Harley, Councilwoman Bracey, Councilwoman Darby, Councilman Hackett, Councilwoman Oliver, and President Congo absent with leave, Councilman Spadola.

I move the committee report be received, recorded, and filed.

Second.

It's been properly moved and second the report be received, recorded, and filed on the question.

All in favor, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carried.

May 21st, 2026.

We your finance and economic development committee met by anchor location and remote participation to who was referred.

Substitute number one to ordinance number 26-025, entitled an ordinance adopting the annual operating budget for the fiscal year beginning on July 1st, 2026, and ending on June 30, 2027.

Have given this ordinance careful review and recommend council vote on it at an upcoming council meeting.

Those members present, Councilwoman Harley, Councilwoman Bracey, Councilwoman Darby, Councilman Hackett, Councilwoman Oliver, President Congo, absent with leave, Councilman Spadola.

I move the committee report be received, recorded, and filed.

Second.

It's been properly moved and seconded the report be received, recorded, and filed on the question.

All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carried.

May 21st, 2026.

We your finance and economic development committee met by anchor location and remote participation to who was referred.

Ordinance substitute number one to ordinance number 26-026, entitled an ordinance to amend chapter 45 of the city code regarding sewer system rates and charges, water rates and charges, and stormwater rates and charges for fiscal year 2027.

Have given this ordinance careful review and recommend council vote on it at an upcoming council meeting.

Respectfully submitted those members of the Finance and Economic Development Committee.

Those members present, Councilwoman Harley, Councilwoman Bracey, Councilwoman Darby, Councilman Hackett, Councilwoman Oliver, President Congo, and absent with leave, Councilman Spadola.

I move the committee report be received, recorded, and filed.

Second.

Second.

It's been properly moved and seconded the report be received, recorded, and filed.

On the question.

All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carried.

May 21st, 2026.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are finance and economic development committee met by anchor location and remote participation to who is referred.

Ordinance number 26-034 entitled an ordinance to implement the City of Wilmington Pension Commission's recommendation regarding a one-time stipend for city retirees for fiscal year 2027, pursuant to chapter 39 of the city code.

Have given this ordinance careful review and recommend council vote on it at an upcoming council meeting.

Respectfully submitted those members of the Finance and Economic Development Committee.

Those members present, Councilwoman Harley, Councilwoman Bracie, Councilwoman Darby, Councilman Hackett, Councilwoman Oliver, President Congo, and absent with leave, Councilman Spadola.

I move the committee report be received, recorded and filed.

Second.

Second.

It's been properly moved and second the report be received, recorded, and filed.

On the question.

All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

All right.

Any opposed?

Motion carried.

At this time, we will have our city treasurer report.

May 21st, 2026, total investments 561, 100,223 and 31 cents.

Total cash on hand, 21,78,678.28 cents.

Grant total 582 million one hundred and seventy-eight thousand nine hundred and one dollars and fifty-nine cents.

Submitted City Treasurer Dwayne Sims.

Make a motion that the treasury report be received, recorded, and filed.

Second.

It's been properly moved and seconded the report be received, recorded, and filed on the question.

All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carried.

I will accept the motion to move to accept all non-legislative business.

So motion removed.

Second.

It's been properly moved and second to accept all non-legislative business on the question.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carried.

At this time, we will move to our resolution.

Recognitions.

Councilmember Oliver.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um so glad to have Amina up here with Barry.

Um she is uh the first black um individual uh in the state of Delaware um that has implemented an um evidence-based yogurt uh program in the juvenile detention center.

She does a lot of yoga programs in the east side and throughout the city of Wilmington, but the work she has done um over Long Shoreman.

She's over there working, she does a lot of outdoor activities and helps people with recovery and individuals who need to just wind down.

Um this is the young lady you need to be talking to if you want to do some stretching.

Most council members should be really talking to her.

Okay, whereas the census city council to honor individuals and organizations who have demonstrated outstanding achievement and deserving of recognition.

Councilman Xanthal recognizes Amina Naru for her contribution to the Wilmington community.

And where are Charlene Sam Hudson, professionally known as Amir Aru, has founded Hash Yogurt, a certified clinical uh what is that, hypothetic, trauma conscious yogurt, care um educator, respected wellness practitioner who has dedicated more than two decades to advancing spiritual health healing and underserved communities.

High honored graduate of HMI College, earning an associate occupational studies degree and mind body psychology psychologists, further and strengthen her commitment to healing and community wellness.

And whereas Ms.

Nahru has demonstrated exceptional leadership in her field of trauma and forming wellness by providing self-care, training, retreats, workshops, evidence-based healing practices of individuals, groups that are most vulnerable population throughout the state of Delaware.

She became the first black woman in the state of Delaware to implement an evidence-based yogurt mindful um mindfulness programming with the juvenile detention center, equipping young people with twos for behavior modification, uh, emotional regulation, nerve system, stable abilities, personal um drama over the course of more than 15 years of dedicated services.

And now there be a result by the city council of Wilmington that we are pleased to recognize Ms.

Charlene Sam's Hudson, professionally known as Amir Naru for her efforts to bring a trauma-informed wellness and restore and hell and restore uh healing practices to underserved communities in the city of Wilmington.

Well done.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I started Pash Yoga in 2012, unemployed.

I was receiving uh unemployment check every week, right?

And I had this desire, I had this passion, and I knew how deeply yoga had changed my life and affected me on a um on a spiritual and mental basis.

So I provided it for free.

I wanted to bring these practices to our community as a uh modalities for healing and mental health, mental wellness.

And um, I started volunteering at Fair School for Boys.

About six months later, they offered me a contract position, and I've been doing this work ever since.

So you can find me at Wilmington Library, um, you know, volunteering doing classes.

I'm also at um Wilmington Alliance on Saturdays doing um self-care for his sisters circle and other places in Delaware, America Health on Route 40.

So if you're um interested in health and wellness, some tools to help uh with your mental regulation, emotional regulation, please look for me Pash Yoga LLC.

Thank you for this.

Councilmember Harley.

Yes, uh, first of all, I want to say to Councilmember Oliver, thank you for recognizing Amina.

I remember when I first met her, um, maybe around 2016, 2017, she was just getting started, and to hear how you have developed and how you have grown and how you have expanded.

Just congratulations to you, and um, I'm looking forward to you doing some things on the east side.

So I'll be reaching out to you.

And again, congratulations.

Councilmember McCoy.

Uh, thank you, uh Ms.

President.

Uh, congratulations, Ms.

Amina.

Um, I just was made aware that you've actually entered my side of town.

So I would like to see some things on the West side as well.

I do believe that council definitely would benefit from some of your uh practices and give us some a way to meditate and be able to relieve ourselves of stress.

So that's what we will be giving you a call at some point.

Absolutely.

All right, thank you.

Councilmember Owens.

Can I have uh Dr.

Hicks in the individuals here with him?

Please join me.

Good evening, everyone.

It's gonna be a busy night tonight, but it's good to take a pause to honor someone who is doing such amazing work in the Wilmington community.

Um, whereas it's the sense of the city council to honor individuals and organizations who have demonstrated outstanding achievement and deserving of recognition and acknowledgement, Dr.

Leroy S.

Hicks, MPH, M A C P, right?

I got a right story.

All right, there we go.

Um distinction.

Um, whereas Dr.

Hicks is nationally recognized and respected as a physician executive, academic and internalist, educator and health equity scholar through distinguished careers as an advanced clinical excellence medical education, health care leadership, and equitable care delivery across the United States of America on July uh 6th, 2020.

Dr.

Hicks will become the first African American physician to serve as the executive vice president and chief executive officer of the American College of Physicians, and whereas Dr.

Hicks earned his doctorate degree of medicine um from Indiana University School of Medicine, a master's of public health degree from Harvard School of Public Health, before completing residency and fellowship training and for uh facilitating appointments at Horville Medical Medical School and its affiliate teaching hospitals.

He has served in distinction in distinguished academic and professional roles at the University of Massachusetts, Sydney Kimball College of Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University, helping to educate and mentor future generations of physicians and health care leaders.

And whereas Dr.

Hicks currently serves as the president of the Womanton campus at Christianity Health System, where he has held numerous senior leadership positions, including campus executive director, chief medical officer of Wilmington Hospital, Chair of the Department of Medicine, Vice Chair, Vice Chair of Medicine, constantly demonstrating visionary leadership and steadfast commitment to patient-centered care and operational excellence.

His scholarly scholarly research has focused on racial and ethnic disparities in health care, chronic disease management, and system-based interventions designed to improve health outcomes and reduce inequalities in medical care.

Whereas City Council wishes to commend Dr.

Hicks as he prepares to take the helm of the ACP, which is the largest medical specialty organization in the second largest physician group in the United States.

His amazing work has as a physician, scholar, mentor, and healthcare leader, has elevated the standards of medical care, strengthened healthcare institutes, and inspired meaningful progress towards health, equity, and community wellness.

Therefore, be it resolved by the city, the council of the city of Wilmington, that this council is pleased to recognize Dr.

Leroy Hicks, MPH, MA CP.

See, I got it again, uh, for his excellent contributions to medicine, healthcare leadership, academic scholarship, public service for the city of Womanton, and beyond.

We congratulate you on your appointment as the executive vice president and chief executive officer of the American College of Physicians.

Job well done.

I like the speech.

Just want to say thank you for everything you've done for Womanton.

Um, I know when we first met, I believe you were the chief medical officer, um, um Mouse and the team and I met with you, and you have just been a great partner to the community, um, and always looking to uplift all of Womington and make sure that um access was something that was a reality for so many.

So I just want to say thank you for everything you have done.

But if you would like to give a few words, thank you so much, sir.

And it's being presented on behalf of President Congo.

President Congo.

So um it looks like you have a busy agenda.

Yeah, I'll be six seconds.

Uh I'm standing here, not um out of pride, but humility.

I'm actually very, very grateful.

This was not anticipated, and I consider it a great honor, and I'm humbled.

So thank you, Councilman Owens, uh, Council uh President Congo, thank you so much.

Um, I also want to thank you for the very uh wonderful reading.

I frequently tell my wife how incredible I am.

And it's nice that she's here to hear it in person.

Um and my last thing I'll say is I live in Wilmington.

I live right in 1980.

Uh, although I have to travel frequently in this role, and my office is Philadelphia, DC, there's no better location to remain.

So I will remain a resident here in the city and uh continue to be thankful that we have such wonderful representation.

Thank you very much.

Councilmember Bracey.

Dr.

Hicks, I just wanted to say thank you for um what you've done in our community and the transformation that's taken place at uh not just Wilmington Hospital, but the Christiana Care system under your leadership.

Um there were I know that there were a lot of challenges, um, but you have been an exemplary leader and someone that we all can be proud that lives here in our city.

So just wanted to say thank you and um best of luck on your new role.

Um it's amazing what you're doing and how you'll continue to represent us.

Thank you.

Councilmember Oliver.

I said um that to also thank you.

Um I do remember you also from Mousey.

Um just keep up the go bird.

Congratulations.

And also uh, I just want to thank you for everything that you have done, everything that you are going to do.

You know, so often we hear about all of the inequalities in the medical field and in the hospital arena.

And it's just uh it's very uh relieving to know that you're gonna be there to address them, that you have been there addressing them head on.

So just thank you from all of us from City Council from the entire city.

Thank you.

Councilman Owens, do you have another one?

You have another.

Yes, can I have my sleeping bird family come up?

Seems like they have some fans of the audience tonight.

So now that we got done talking about the healthy stuff, um, just want to say they have the best cinnamon buns in the whole city.

My second office, um, I'm I'm there every Friday.

My constructions know that.

Um, but whereas it's the sense of city council to honor individual organizations and significant milestones that demonstrate outstanding achievement and deserving of recognition and acknowledgement.

Sleeping bird coffee merits such distinction.

Uh Wilmington City, um, whereas Sleeping Bird Coffee was founded by local entrepreneurs, Zach and Leah, and they now have a young one.

Um, whose vision and dedication transformed a vacant building on Miller Road into a thriving small business that reflects the creativity and the entrepreneurial spirit that we love here in the city of Wilmington.

Whereas their partnership, whereas these two are partners in business, but they're also partners in life with deep roots to local culinary community.

And whereas since uh Sleeping Bird Coffee opened this doors in Wilmington in May of 2021, it has become a beloved neighborhood gathering place, known for its welcoming atmosphere, unique coffee blends, homemade food offerings.

Again, y'all gotta try the donuts, y'all gotta try the bread pudding, y'all gotta try the coffee, the lemonades, I could keep going, cinnamon buns, again, my favorite.

Um the Miller Row location has distinguished itself in the business community and contributed to Wilmington's growing reputation for locally owned culinary and coffee establishments, supporting neighborhood revitalization and community connection.

Whereas for throughout the past five years, Sleeping Bird Coffee has earned the appreciation and loyalty of customers across Wilmington and beyond as a place for friends, family, workers, students, and community members.

The business has continued to grow and innovate, including expanding its offering through the opening of Sleeping Bird Donuts right up in North Wilmington.

Now, therefore, be it resolved by the council of the city of Wilmington that this council was pleased to recognize the milestone anniversary and commend Sleeping Bird Coffee for its positive impact on the city of Wilmington.

Job well done.

And again, I just want to say it's truly an honor to stand up here with y'all.

Um seeing what y'all have done with this place.

Um, it is a place that is so welcoming, a place um where you're you never know who you're gonna run into.

Um, but trust me, it's a thousand times better than Starbucks and all those other um brands out there.

It is locally, um, and it's where the community really comes together in the first district.

We're gonna have a coffee shop until these two had the idea to bring that to the neighborhood.

So thank you for investing in the first district and investing in Miller Road.

Um, and again, May is small business month, so please go out and support your small businesses.

I will give them an opportunity for some words.

Thank you.

Um, we're very proud to be part of the city of Wilmington.

We live in Wilmington.

Um, we never would have guessed um how much Sleeping Bird has grown in the past five years.

Um, it feels like yesterday that we were kind of breaking down the numbers and figuring out like you know how much we needed to make each day for it to work, and it seemed like such an impossible task.

And I feel like five years later, we've not only achieved our goals, but made a lot of friends um and become really close with a lot of customers um along the way.

Um, and so thank you so much.

Um, and we are honored councilmember Kibera.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Well, I really regret not being able to be there to meet you personally, but um, in this past two weeks, I have been visiting Sleeping Bird often.

Um sometimes I just don't have time to make myself something to eat.

I am a fan.

Not only did they get my coffee perfect both times, because I'm very particular about my coffee.

I am hooked on your overnight oats and your chia seed pudding, which I just buy and keep it here for you know to get my day started and the lemon miso chick pea crunch.

I mean, to die for.

I was trying to stay focused today because I almost ran up there to get it.

So I will definitely introduce myself when I get up there again.

You're five blocks away, and being so close, I just don't know why I wasn't spending more time there before.

But I am a fan, I will be there.

I recommend everyone to come out.

It is really a great ambiance, great people, great staff, and the food is amazing.

So thank you, congratulations.

And uh, you can count me as a fan and a supporter, and my colleagues know I'm a foodie, so if it's coming from me, the food critic, you know it's good.

Councilmember Brazy.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Um President.

Councilwoman Cabrera mentioned all of the great food except for the best, which is the maple business.

Yes, yes.

So I just had to put that on the record, the maple biscuits.

So she's gonna get food crazy, huh?

Councilmember Oliver.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Today was my uh first day.

Um stopping in there, went to a hairdresser on Miller Road, and we went up there and got some tea and bagels today.

So it seemed like it was a nice turnout in here.

So good luck.

Councilmember Johnson.

Uh, just wanted to say congratulations.

Um, my my wife has actually been a fan since your food truck days.

Um, and it's really uh it is amazing to see exactly um what we were able to cultivate on Miller Road, because it's not only yours location, but then you have Metro Pizza right next door, you know, and this used to be just a kind of a vacant building or uh Brownfield, essentially.

So um I'm uh let us know how we can help you and counsel, and I agree with my colleague, the maple biscuits are a little bit too addictive, but uh great work, and uh please let us know uh how we can help.

Thanks.

All right, thank you.

In the way of other recognition, um, I would like to recognize the anniversary of Brown versus Board of Education's Supreme Court decision in the way of sympathy resolutions from all of counsel, a sympathy resolution for Beverly Iona, Winward Nesbeth, from Councilmember Oliver, Sympathy Resolutions for Mildred, Lenore, Beck Butler, and for Virgil Dixon.

At this time, we are going to begin public comment and WITN are there.

Has anyone signed up virtually?

Are you okay?

All right, so just to be fair, I will alternate between those of you who are in council chambers and those of you who are virtual.

And we do have a lot of people who signed up.

So I'm gonna go ahead and take a um a vote now to extend public comment past 7:30.

All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed motion carried.

Also, please keep in mind that there will be a three-minute time limit.

So please, when I give you a 30-second or 45-second reminder to wrap up your comments, please begin to wrap up your comments just to be fair to everyone, because we probably have around 40, maybe a little more people who have signed up.

So again, please when when I give you your the uh 45 or 30 second reminder to please wrap up your comments again.

Everyone will have three minutes.

Please remember to introduce yourself.

If you are representing a district, you may say with district you are representing or live in, but you don't have to.

And we are going to begin with Deacon Earl Tate.

Mr.

President, Mr.

President.

There's Sandy now instead of waiting.

Can I be excused now instead of waiting?

Yes, you may be excused.

Thank you.

I'll take, but I'll be online.

Thank you.

Thank you for joining us.

And please remember to introduce yourself.

My name is Digging Earl E.

Tate, who's never late because he don't want to lose this pair of roller skates.

And I'm and I'm here representing representing the people.

And take action.

It is the election year for us to get out and make our votes count.

You you say you want to avoid and avoid in in the America.

The only way you can have that boys is by you getting out and taking action and voting.

You can't get you can't get no action but by just sitting down doing nothing.

You got to get out here and do something because now is the time.

So it's time, it's time for them to take action also and get out here and vote because now is the time for the for the action because we we the people, we the people can let our voices not be heard.

We got we gotta make our voices known.

And and the way that the way that we do that is by getting out here voting and taking action and taking action now.

Also, it's about it's about it's it's about time for us for us to be helping each other out because all of these houses and and so forth going up and everything.

What why have what have that why have they made the prices up so high instead of instead of bringing the prices down?

If they want to get the people to move in them, they got to bring the prices down.

Well nobody won't nobody be able to move in them.

So 40 seconds.

And also, I'm gonna say, I wanna say this.

This from one of the poems that I wrote, it's titled Think, and it goes like this.

He who thinketh negatively has defeated himself even before he began.

But he who think it positively with wisdom, knowledge, and understanding can claim the victory by faith, and it's all setting forth new goals and claiming higher heights that life has no limit to it.

So you think and you do, and have a night and have a nice memorial holiday.

Thank you.

Good evening, everyone.

Good evening.

Is Mc Booker in Council Chamber?

Is he virtual?

He's here.

Okay.

Uh, what about Dexter Bland?

Okay.

So McKee, we're gonna ask you to come up just so you can be ready for the next after the next speaker, please.

We're gonna ask McKee and Joseph Connor.

Well, we'll ask McKee and Sarah Lester to come forward just to have a seat over on the left-hand side, please.

Thank you for joining us.

Good evening, uh President uh Council Chibico, Congo, and all that are here.

Edwina Bell representing Community Communications Corporation, known as CCC, on behalf of the late Dr.

Benjamin Twinby Brown.

I was past the torch to continue to make the positive outshine the negative.

So I wanted to get an update from uh one of the council committees on the status of the peg and where we're going with that.

Uh people in the community are wondering what happened to Channel 28, where is it going, and particularly for the spiritual revival hour.

So I'll look to get some information about that.

The other uh update I have is we were able to uh retrieve our van.

Uh Twimbee Brown had a van, and we were able to get it repaired, insured, and registered, and we're hoping to continue to make that positive outshine and negative by making it a mobile van to go into the community with equipment and going into their brownfields, the upfields where our youth are.

And so we will be soliciting help to repair the cosmetic part of the van.

And what I'm finding out through our voices of our youth program.

I started uh about 18 months ago, and some of the challenges that we've been finding is our youth are reluctant to share honestly what they want to say, how they want to say it, and getting the permission from our parents that we set up a silhouette kind of a format and an interview where they could actually speak their voice, not say their last name, but talk about the issues that have been going and that have been very successful in getting them to open up and the voices of our youth is to create help them to create a short documentary of their feelings, their thoughts, their actions, their views, and what their hopes and dreams are as well.

Uh the other that the CCC is involved in is the Delaware Opiate Settlement Commission.

I sit on the equity committee where we make sure that the brown and black communities are getting their portions of the uh settlement fund.

Um I am a grant writer uh as uh equity committee member, and I want to say that um city council have helped us, county exec, county council, city of Wilmington, and another organization.

Yeah, 40 seconds.

Okay.

And so the question that's um is missing when when we hear information from the city politicians and whatnot, there's a lot of fragmented information going out, and people get confused, they really don't know what's going on.

And I would ask that any time that any information is presented, that we get all the information and provide the holistic approach so that we don't have to figure out what the real story is.

So, on behalf of myself who just got out the hospital with a uh small blood clock, I'm still on the battlefield.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh virtually, we have Dexter Bland.

WITN is Dexter Bland.

Still with us.

Yes, yes, sir.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Thank you for joining us, and please introduce yourself.

Good evening.

Um, and thank you, uh President uh trippy candle Congo.

My name is Justin Dizzy Bland.

I am a representative of District 7.

Chris Johnson is my council member.

And I'm here today in support of the unhoused the working families and the residents who feel unheard and decisions made about their communities.

I personally work alongside and employed individuals experiencing homelessness, addiction recovery, and bearish re-entry.

These are human beings, fathers, mothers, veterans, people who lost jobs, faced medical emergencies, domestic violence, rising rents, and simply fell through the cracks that continue to get wider.

Most people are far closer to homelessness than they realize.

We cannot continue to create plans for communities without deeply listening to the people who actually live in them.

Development without community input becomes displacement, and progress that pushes people out is not progress at all.

If residents are asking for affordable, affordable housing, long-term support, and investment into the people instead of only projects and developers, the leadership should listen.

The people closest to the problem are often the closest to the solution.

I asked the council to hear your people who have stood outside in the ring, yelled in microphones, wrote signs, and to take all of their words into consideration to your vote to make sure that we have budget available for our most disenfranchised.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you for joining us.

Please introduce yourself.

My name is McKee Booker.

I'm the husband of Booker Strong together.

We're stronger.

My wife is running for uh second district uh state rep.

And really, I don't have too much to say.

I believe the people in here are gonna say it all.

And I just want to be want my wife to have create a platform for the voiceless.

And to be honest, I'm sick and tired of city council.

I'm sick and tired of y'all.

I'm sick and tired of the African American, I say the African and American city councilmen.

I spoke with a few of y'all privately.

I'm not even gonna say the names, and y'all shot me down on a lot of things.

I'm not even gonna expose it.

But when it comes to affordable housing, 52% is dwindling, African American and City of Wilmington is dwindling who lives below poverty.

I believe it's 52,000 that the average 52, 50,000 a year that the 52% on the whole makes.

It might be a few more because they're exceptions to the rules.

But for the majority of the people, they're living in poverty.

And the housing prices are above 52,000.

So when they did Imani Village down there, when they displaced them people down there and they promised them that they can move back in those houses, most of those people down there was the jobs they were working wasn't meeting the criteria to even go back in Imani Village.

So they was lying to those people down there, right?

But the city council, y'all sit up here, and I'm speaking really, man, to a lot of African Americans.

And no, no, no disrespect to my European city councilman, right?

But I'm talking about people who come from the bricks where I come from, who came up over in South Bridge, who came up over East Side, who came up over in North Side.

Some of us came up on food stamps and welfare.

And y'all can sit here and displace people like that because in the city of Wilmington is moving downward.

It's not gonna get no better.

But yet, y'all keep making housing, talking about it's affordable, but people can't afford it.

You're talking about somebody working at Amazon making 20 something dollars an hour, can't even afford to lay live down in the Mani village.

Yeah, 45 seconds.

And most of them people don't even make Amazon money.

And then I got another problem with y'all, African American city councilman.

When that officer needs that brother in the neck, y'all ain't do nothing.

Y'all ain't say nothing.

Y'all just sit by and y'all just watch.

I don't even want to cuss, but y'all just watch stuff.

Man, I mean, like for real, man, y'all pathetic.

And I'm talking to all y'all, and some of y'all is like my nephew, right?

I'm not even gonna name no names, but I'm pissed off with y'all, man.

We're suffering, and y'all, y'all just sitting there like that.

And to be honest, man, this sister right here, I apologize to you because the African Americans up here, y'all should be moving like her.

I ain't gonna say Shanade Bob because y'all already know about her.

Next, virtually we have uh first name is Lip.

Bettley.

W I T N Okay.

Lip Bentley.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Thank you for joining us, and please introduce yourself.

Sure, thank you.

Um, my name's Lip Bettley.

I am from the 6th district.

Um, and I just wanted to say that um I would like city council to do all in their power to help the residents of our city that need it, whether it's with uh help with rent or house repairs, um, especially uh those who are experiencing homelessness.

I think the way that the Carney administration has treated our our fellow community members um down at the park just awful.

Um these people are gonna be evicted on June 15th, and that is not enough time to uh get folks into housing to get them the resources that they need to live a fulfilling life.

Um it's just it's disgraceful.

I am ashamed of my city.

I am uh certainly ashamed of this administration.

Um, and yeah, I would just like to see y'all, you know, do all that you're you know, what's in your power to stop the eviction that's coming up on June 15th, and to get folks into housing and and it also just to help our residents in general throughout the city, because as someone mentioned before, so many of our residents are very close to homelessness themselves because the cost of living is too much.

Um, and just circling back to the Carrier administration, you know, Carn's acting like an authoritarian um with his demands of these homeless people.

Um, and just the whole situation is is a uh it's a bad way to you know spend our resources.

Um, but just to treat human beings, uh, this awful.

Um, it's just it's disgraceful and shameful, and you know, John Carney's made decisions in the past as a governor, um, going against the will of the people in certain decisions, um falling back on his Catholic faith.

Well, I was raised Catholic, and what John Carney's doing it it's like he's never heard the words of Jesus Christ.

Um, anyway, that's it.

Um, thank you so much uh for your time.

All right, thank you.

Next, we have Joseph Connor.

And after Mr.

Connor, our next virtual public commenter will be Lee will be Abigail, uh Bourget.

Thank you for joining us.

Good evening.

I'm Joe Connor.

I'm lucky enough to live in the 8th district.

The most well off zip code in this in this city.

And when I wake up in the morning, I can't think about anything other than the folks that are waking up right now in the park, or waking up under a bridge, waking up on the street, or maybe they didn't get to sleep at all.

You all have a decision to make this evening.

You have an opportunity to make a good decision regarding the budget.

There'll be plenty of folks that'll talk about the specifics of the budget, but there's a there's a proposal in front of you that'll make some progress.

Late fall, the folks that run this city said anybody that needs to sleep somewhere that doesn't have a place to sleep, has to go to Christina Park.

And that's where people went.

Well, I was out there in December.

I was out there in January.

I was out there in February, and I saw no help.

No help at all, other than folks in the community bringing out help in the snow, in the ice, in the rain, in the weather.

My friends, some of my friends out there that we we we saw each other out at the park.

April 1st, April Fool's Day.

The city shows up with tents that they bought for about 39 cents.

And they said, you know, these tents, you know, this this is for you.

This is what you get.

And oh, by the way, you gotta get rid of the rest of your stuff.

Fortunately, that was stopped.

Week later, they show up with these pallets that were made by blind carpenters with broken nails.

And fortunately, that was slowed down.

Then a couple of weeks ago, the tents, 100,000 gets spent on the tents and all this other stuff, the money spent.

Oh, well, you don't need the tents anymore, and you gotta be out of here on June 15th.

So 100,000 was wasted for 75 days.

You could have taken the tents, you could have put them in a pile, and you could have lit them on fire, and the money would have went further.

That's not what you did.

All of us are gonna be somewhere on June 15th.

30 seconds.

For any members of this council, you might want to come on out to the park because I'm gonna tell you something, even if it's just me, not a single person is gonna be taken out of that park by force.

It's not gonna happen.

Thank you very much.

Next, virtually we have Abigail Bourget.

Okay, so we'll have Sarah Lester come up next.

She can go or no?

No, you you were you were first.

Okay.

Thank you for joining us.

Thank you.

Hi, um, my name is Sarah Lester.

I run Cornerstone West Community Development Corporation, and I live on West 7th Street.

I am here today to share a few comments about the mayor's proposed housing budget for FY 2027.

Um, I'm speaking as an affordable housing developer, and over the past 10 years that I've been in the job, I continue to learn how hard it is to build a high-quality property and make it affordable for many families who live in our city, families and individuals who live in our city.

It is nearly impossible.

Costs keep going up along with the subsidy needed to keep the prices down that keeps increasing.

And um sorry, to keep the prices down in order to reach most Wilmingtonians, and we need more funding to build affordable housing in the city to make it make sense.

I commend the mayor for putting funding towards housing.

This is a huge opportunity.

I commend city council members for elevating and pushing the conversation about the best solutions and process.

I will even give a personal shout out to my fifth district council member Christian Willower for advocating for increased transparency and accountability.

And I'm looking forward to how Cornerstone, West CDC, as an affordable housing developer, can be part of the conversation.

Working with our fellow housing advocates, and maybe we don't always agree on everything, but working with our fellow advocates to address this extremely complex housing crisis in our city.

Collaboration is key.

A few specific points that I wanted to speak to.

At Cornerstone, we build temporary housing, permanent supportive housing, housing for first-time homebuyers, housing for unaccompanied youth.

We renovate and build affordable rental properties, and we facilitate home repair programs.

All are needed.

I also support a transparent and equitable request for proposal process for the proposed housing funding.

This is consistent with almost all funding we've ever received as to build affordable housing units.

We need more money towards all of these housing issues facing our city, and we have to utilize a variety of sources to meet the cost of our projects.

And I support a weightless process for home repair.

And we do home repair service services, and we know there's great need, especially in the West Side.

And finally, I would just ask, along with my fellow nonprofit affordable housing developers, um, that the city administration and city council meet regularly with us, entities that produce a majority of affordable housing in this city to create a long-term and continuous housing strategy irrelevant of funding.

Um I'm honored to do the affordable housing and community development work that I do.

This work is relentless.

The need is immense, and everyone deserves safe and stable housing.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Abigail.

Last name begins with a P.

Try to come up.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you for joining us.

Thanks.

Good evening.

My name is Abigail Bourget, and I reside in District 4 under Councilman Penrose Hollins.

I'm speaking today on the matter of disbursement of the city budget towards housing.

I work in an industry closely involved in housing.

I work in insurance.

I speak to countless people in my day-to-day life, many of whom are my neighbors, people I share this city with.

I hear their struggles, their highs and their lows, and I'm there to listen.

Through listening, I've learned many things, but one which is of relevance to today's matter is that we're all much, much closer to being unhoused than we'd like to think.

Even as a homeowner, I am closer to living in the street than I am to being wealthy.

You are closer to living on the streets than you would like to think.

Our siblings, our aunties, our grandparents are all much closer to being displaced.

The residents of Christina Park deserve a place to live.

I am pleading with council today to dedicate a portion of our city's budget towards finding housing for our brothers, our daughters, and our neighbors to not only help those among us who are unhoused, but to make it more feasible for the rest of our neighbors to procure affordable housing.

Not by giving handouts to wealthy corporate landlord developers, but by offering a develop a helping hand to our community members and not pulling up the ladder behind us once we make it out of the street.

Please fund housing for our unhoused population and pass rent stabilization.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, virtually we have Lisa Rice, Lisa Rice, and then Rich will be after Lisa.

One second.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Uh thank you.

My name is Lisa Rice.

I'm from Never Proud.

I am here to support the Woman's employees, the comments uh budget for fiscal years uh 2027.

Um appears to me that um the five positions were approved in 2026.

A cost of living increase only makes sense considering um lower um lower paid individuals were given the same within the last five years.

And I believe that employee hospitalization and benefits should be of the highest quality for people that are willing to protect law and order.

Um, in addition to that.

I'm here to um against agenda number zero two three eight.

I believe that this independent audit of the police force is to it appearance seemingly is to learn about community concern.

Um that there's a better way to spend 100,000 because existing audits already dissect finances, administration, and compliance.

I feel like this notion is unnecessary at best.

Um a good indicator to me of how the public fields is our cry for more protection.

As noted in tonight's opening.

Uh thank you for listening.

Thank you.

Rich.

The next virtually it will be Connor B.

I'm in chambers.

Okay.

If you can come over this way for me, please.

Thank you very much.

Um greetings, council members.

Um Rich Priswar, and I'm the CEO of Woodlawn Trustees and the Todd Morton Foundation, and we do affordable housing um construction and rental.

And um, today, council received a letter um endorsing the mayor's proposal to build more affordable housing from eight nonprofit affordable housing providers.

And um we commend the mayor and council for the their ideas to tackle this problem.

We support the 20 million dollars because that's going to have an immediate and strong impact.

But at the same time, we further encourage council members and the mayor to work on some of the ideas that came up.

This is this is not an either-or from our viewpoint.

It's not one or the other is the way forward.

It's really this is the way forward, and there's a couple other things we can add to this.

Um, I want to say also uh to Councilman Hackett and Willower and and um Owens, the idea that we should go out and try to find more money is spot on.

And I think working with the affordable housing developers, we've already demonstrated that we can do that.

So money that works once can serve as a leverage and multiply that.

And I think one of the things that you're trying to do is getting others to participate in Wilmington's renaissance for affordable housing.

We can make that happen.

We can double or triple the actual dollar amount that can be used for affordable housing construction by working together.

We think it would be helpful if the city and the council members put together a work group with those of us who who, as Sarah said, this is hard work.

I mean, we do this every day.

We put the capital together, we hire the firms, we go through your zoning process and and um inspection process.

We know how to do this in an efficient fashion, and I think we can be helpful to you in that process.

Um other thing, just to give you a heads up uh on some things.

There's an idea that we want to use more minority contractors.

How can we get Wilmington folks to build these houses?

In our last uh 24 months at Todd Morden, eight of our nine contractors were minority-owned businesses in Wilmington, and they together uh we build 5.6 million dollars to them.

These aren't small set asides of five percent on contracts, these are meaningful numbers that put people to work.

Yeah, 45 seconds.

And I think that um what you also don't know is there are units coming.

For those of you who are nervous, desperate, afraid for housing.

In the next year, Todd Morton and Woodlawn are gonna bring 73 units online in the city of Wilmington.

Um Cornerstone is going to do the same thing.

Habitat's doing the same thing.

Brother Ronald's doing the same thing.

There's a lot of positive energy um going forward.

So we would just encourage more dialogue and move forward to pass the budget so we can get started.

And let's work on a couple of the components as we're moving forward.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Connor B.

Connor B followed by James Taylor.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Connor Brofe.

I live three minutes south of Southbridge.

Uh, as a lot of us saw from Steve Mud Matreau's article uh earlier this week.

Uh we found out that four, just four tickets were given out by Philadelphia to send uh residents there to Wilmington.

That's one of nearly 200 people that he had interviewed.

This mayor and his goons would have you believe that we are being overrun by Kensington in order to scare you into shelling out millions and millions of dollars to his developer buddies like BPG.

Killer Carney has been lying to your face since day one and letting our residents suffer for it.

I hope y'all are livid because he has been thoroughly embarrassing you for months.

Wilmington has been so scared of giving those in need too much to live, that we have wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars to make sure they didn't get enough to survive.

Let's break that cycle together tonight.

Listen to the city, listen to everyone who showed up today, both from the neighborhoods, housed and unhoused.

This city needs to listen to everyone who came out tonight rather than you know the comments made by clown Cade who wants to feed his vulture developer buddies.

But the next steps have to wait because we need to stop the bleeding right now.

The city council must motion to prevent the June 15th eviction at Christiana Parkman at Christiana Park encampment tonight.

And not a single tent should be removed until every resident has had a chance for housing placement.

City has created a concentration camp in our backyard where the bare minimum survival needs have yet to be met.

They've been dehumanized and threatened every step of the way.

And as those of faith and in our community dictate, every person deserves dignity.

Every day since Carney took office, we have suffered that cruelty and incompetence of Claire Matthias, Saren Cade, and Javier Horseman.

These buffoons have driven a wedge between our communities in order to trick you out of 20 million dollars.

45 seconds.

For his own piggy bank.

Tonight is the night you can decide what to use that 20 million dollars for.

As you've already heard, that's expanded overnight shelters that's more supportive of transitional housing.

That's actual affordable housing.

And then permanent and a housing trust along with a home repair program, not a lottery.

This is a test for everyone in the city council.

Are you here for the many, or are you just here for the money?

After James Taylor.

We have Jamila Davy.

Thank you for joining us.

Thank you, President Council President Congo.

Excuse me.

I'm James Taylor.

I live in the fourth district.

Um as y'all know, I've been beating the drum about gentrification for over a decade now.

And recently, as as many of these activists have said, you know, I was up against homelessness.

So I went back to an old gig I had, part-time gig I had when I was a super work, super uh excuse me, a social worker with the state of Delaware working downtown visions, and I saw the homelessness crisis up close and personal.

Um I've been down to the park, was back down there in November during the holidays through December.

And frankly, it's uh it's a complex issue.

But as I've also been saying for over a decade, no solution that this council comes to should be balanced on the backs of those that have already been suffering.

When the mayor decided that he was gonna let folks sleep in Christina Park, he did so a day after cutting a ribbon on a beautiful park on the other side of town.

And as I said, you know, the night he came and told the constituents in my district what he was going to do rather than actually consulting with them.

This issue's been going on since I was a little boy.

The homeless used to be on Front Street, and they used to be next to the Sunday breakfast mission, and they floated over to the park, and now they're down there.

And so I spoke to some folks after uh a meeting that I went to of the East Side Civic Association, and you know, they expressed to me they're tired of you know having to deal with this.

Like I said, it's a complex issue.

You know, uh for every individual that doesn't want help, and those individuals certainly do exist.

There are those that do.

For the first time ever, I saw children walking the streets at night in the dead of winter with their parents dragging sheets behind them on Market Street Maw in the business district.

So, like I said, it's a complicated issue.

That said, if you're not gonna take some of these folks over to Rockford Park or to that pretty park that the mayor cut a ribbon on with councilman Spadola and Councilman Field, I believe you were in the photo app as well.

Don't balance it on the back of my community.

I of course have more to say, but I'm not gonna belabor the point.

It's campaign season, and I'll see y'all on the trail.

Thank you.

After Jamela Davy, it would be Reverend Patrick Burke.

Thank you for joining us.

Thank you.

My name is Jamila Davy.

I'm a resident of the 5th district, and I'm here to speak on the budget.

Um, and I've been paying attention throughout the whole process from the original initial presentation to the town halls to the um administration, you know, the department presentations and the and the committee hearings, and along the way, I have shared the concerns of many around the 20 million dollars uh to be allocated for affordable housing.

And um, like most of us who have spoken here, I do support public investment and affordable housing very, very much.

But I was concerned about that proposal because of the lack of details, oversight, and guardrails on that funding.

Um, I don't think it's reasonable to turn over funds to real estate and housing to work out the details.

There's been questions about how durable that the affordability would be, um, what affordability would look like, and some folks have spoken to that tonight.

And then that I think, you know, this these questions become all the more important because it's coming out of the tax stabilization funds, which is the money out of the pockets of residents from wage taxes, from um, from property tax and from fines and fees.

So it's our money, and it needs to be spent, you know, according to the public will.

Um and then also there's been mismixed messages the whole way from the very beginning.

Mayor Carney told us that we are having a budget shortfall and that we would face tax hikes in the future.

And I see cities all over the country tapping their tax stabilization to stay to to stop those gaps.

And I have questions about drawing so deeply on our tax reserves at this time when we know we will need more in the future, and when residents need to be um protected from um tax spikes, like it should be there to serve the residents.

It was taken from, you know, we don't give into it, it should be there for us.

Um, you know, and then the second in the second matter about that is that you know our tax stabilization funds should go for our you know to support our residents.

So in homelessness is a crisis that's happening right now.

And I speak spoke to many residents in my district who feel very vulnerable, who are on the verge, who can't, you know, they're paying to Almarva rent, gas, you know, food, and they are on the verge, and they need help now.

I hear from people that we don't want to spend our money on band-aids.

We need band-aids.

You know, people need to stay afloat now.

It's resident dollars, and it should be supporting that.

Um what I've heard from more details from the administration is that they had a plan to spend a hundred thousand dollar subsidy to create one bedrooms for nineteen hundred dollars, which doesn't seem like the right thing to do.

So I see I know we have an alternative proposal from council, and I urge council members to support that amendment tonight to so that funds can go towards some of these emergency programs, and so that the funds are um there's transparency in our RFP process, and there's a collective working together to set the priorities for affordable housing funds.

Thank you.

Thank you.

After Reverend Burke, it would be Reverend Dr.

Lyle Dykstra.

Good evening.

Uh Reverend Patrick Burke, I uh live in District 2, and I serve the Episcopal Church of Saints Andrew and Matthew in District 4.

Um I urge uh the council tonight as we talk about the budget to seriously consider and pass Councillor Willower's amendment uh regarding the money to be pulled from the tax stabilization fund.

But I want to spend just a second to talk about we're here talking about the issue of of homelessness and housing, and there are other places in this country that have made significant progress in reducing homelessness from Minneapolis to Houston, uh most recently Denver.

There was uh an article just yesterday in Axios where they said that uh Denver's pit count is the lowest that it's been in nine years and it's dropped 64 percent since 2023.

So this is an issue that we can make progress on and quickly.

Um they've done this by reducing the number of individuals and families that become housing insecure and ultimately homeless through rental assistance and stabilization, they stem that flow of evictions that happen.

When you then add in rapid rehousing was by providing sufficient shelter and transitional housing beds so that when someone becomes unhoused, they can find shelter immediately.

They also reduce their unsheltered homeless population by creating long-term supportive housing, which uh Council Willower's uh amendment does, um, so that when someone becomes unhoused, they can find shelter immediately.

Um as they reduce their unhealth unsheltered homeless population, they um they find that they can get those folks into those units.

And unfortunately, if you call um uh uh to find a bed today, you'll find that we don't have enough shelter beds.

We don't have enough permanent supportive housing.

From where I sit at Ethan Shipley, I can tell you we don't have enough supportive housing units in the city.

All of us here in this room and in the city want to reduce the number of unsheltered individuals, but it takes those specific types of units and it takes specific ongoing services.

And I find that Council of Willower's amendment is a critical first step to making that progress.

I would also urge you to intervene in the upcoming eviction of residents from Christina Park.

I pray that you have all uh read Dr.

Mitro's opinion piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer, um, particularly the data that he and the housing alliance collected, which debunks the narrative that these individuals are interlopers instead of who they are.

There are our neighbors, there are friends.

There are families.

Um in the six months of the last six months, the mayor has created this humanitarian crisis, spending nearly half a million dollars.

And now he wants to give folks 30 days to find housing.

I urge you to step in here and stop this crisis.

These are our neighbors, they're your constituents.

And as a pastor, I urge you to hear the words from the prophet Isaiah, chapter 58, verses 6 and 7.

Is this not the fast that I choose to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house?

When you see the naked to cover them, we are called to love our neighbors.

I urge you to do just that.

And it's okay to change your mind and have courage and join us.

I worship at First and Central Presbyterian Church on 11th and Market.

And they have authorized me to speak on their behalf when it comes to justice issues that come before City Council.

And that's the reason I stand here this evening.

I'm also an active member of the Delaware Poor People's Campaign.

The Poor People's Campaign, as its national leader, the Reverend Dr.

William Barber, talks about policy violence.

What will you do?

Will you have policy violence or will you have policy that heals, renews, redeems, gives people opportunities?

What will you do?

Your policies regarding the homeless have been inconsistent to say the least, and to treat them like waste, to move them, shove them around as if they don't exist.

They are human beings like all of us in this room.

They are created, they are created by God in God's image and likeness, like all the rest of us human beings.

The issues before them are maybe slightly different than beef than that what's before all of us in this room.

But they, as Reverend Burke said, they are our neighbors, and we need to care for them like we do everyone else.

So what will your policy decisions be?

I urge you to remember the prophet Micah was one of those who Jesus followed.

Jesus followed the prophets, and he did the kinds of things that Mike asks for us to do, and it's in his third chapter, which is to do justice.

Are you going to do justice tonight?

Are you going to move in that direction?

What will you do, City Council?

Well, you do justice, love kindness, mercy, kindness are both translations for that piece of scripture.

And walk humbly with God.

Please do what is right.

You know what is right, do it.

Thank you.

Mr.

Beardsley.

My name is Christopher Beardsley.

We are here tonight because Mayor Kearney has made a joke out of all of us, gave tents to folks a month ago with a threat of arrest, only after a month to then be told they have to return these tents back to the city and vacate the premises.

He then put the housed and the homeless against one another to scapegoat his own failures and deny any culpability for the actions he took, and lastly, to propose a $16 million development investment with nebulous and lazy policy ideas.

Who does that?

What kind of moral failing do you have to have for that be your to be your position on homelessness in your city?

And amidst this failure, I'm at a loss right now.

Where is the Delaware Democratic Party?

Where are our federal legislators?

One of the worst homelessness crises happening in the state, and nothing from any of them.

I mean, y'all just had a beautiful dinner about a month ago, giving beautiful speeches, beautiful speeches about fighting fascism.

Well, fascism is here in the city, led by Mayor Carney, and what do you have to say about it?

Nothing, I guess.

And we should not be surprised.

They aided the destruction of homes and families to be destroyed and killed in Palestine.

And for those to be living in tents, and even less than that.

I mean, that's what they did when they gave 30 billion dollars to the committed genocide against the Palestinians.

What in what is going on in Christina Park does not phase them in the slightest.

This is just another tragedy, a humanitarian catastrophe.

There are no depths to what they're willing to see unfold in the state against any one of us.

I guess being a big tent party only matters when it comes to making sure the tent is big enough to commit a genocide, but small enough that the unhoused and homeless can't seek shelter.

This is what it means when we say our right to justice is intertwined.

Mayor Kearney likes to say that we should not care about those who are not from Delaware, that the homeless and the in-house are only brought here from Philadelphia or elsewhere.

The logic is completely devoid as Mayor Carney would like to make it illegal for the homeless across borders.

What does he think being homeless means?

Still, we know this is a complete lie, but so what if it was true?

More than half of Delaware's electors were not born in the state.

Joe Biden wasn't born in the state.

Matt Myers wasn't born in the city, Chris Coons wasn't born in the state.

Lisa Blunt Chester wasn't born in the state.

Almost all the corporations headquartered in Delaware are not from the state, but I guess the only thing that matters to Mayor Kearney is if you've got money or power, you can cross any borders.

Money in politics knows no boundaries.

Come to Delaware, you can buy a politician.

Honestly, I'd rather Delaware be known as a sanctuary for the unhoused than as a laughing stock of the country for the exploitation the corporations deal off the Delawareans on a daily basis.

40 seconds.

Your legacy is set, Mayor Kearney.

It is baked in.

I will make sure people will remember your callousness towards the homelessness and the unhouse, your mockery of those who try to help them and the heckling by your staff and the disrespect you showed city council and the city.

We will continue to emphasize the stories of those throughout the country that are left abandoned by the system designed to fail them.

One such story is in Orlando of Gerald Neal, who, after the death of his wife, son, mother, and brother over the course of a year amidst the grief was living outside in less than two weeks, his life was lost by killing by the killing of a reckless police officer who ran off the road during an unauthorized chase.

If you don't want to be a joke, reject this budget, provide direct rental assistance, enact rent stabilization, and give Wilmington a housing trust fund.

The people of Christina Park are going nowhere.

Is Elizabeth Smith still with us in the chambers?

If so, come over to the my left, please.

Thank you for joining us.

Good evening, President, members of the council.

I typically don't need notes, but I need it tonight.

Um my name is Dr.

Marsha Lee, and I'm a family medicine physician, public health advocate, Wilmington resident, and homeowner.

I want to begin by first saying I respect each of you and the responsibility you carry for the city.

But tonight I'm calling on your humanity.

I am blessed to be to have stable housing, but it hurts my heart to know that so many of my brothers and sisters in this city are unhoused and struggling to survive every day.

Last week I went out to the park with my family to feed and provide supplies to the unhouse brothers and sisters in the park.

I met a man named Mr.

Eugene.

He is confined to a wheelchair and living with diabetes.

What struck me the most was that even while facing homelessness, he was still trying to make informed food choices to protect his family.

Think about that for a moment.

A man without stable housing was still trying to do the right thing to take care of himself.

That encounter has stayed with me.

Because housing is not just an economic issue.

Housing is a public health issue.

As a physician, I have seen patients become sicker because they lack stable housing.

I have seen mental health crisis worsen, chronic disease spiral out of control, and people discharge from hospitals to return to the streets.

We cannot expect people to successfully manage their medical conditions while also worrying about where they will sleep at night.

We cannot continue to respond to homelessness simply by moving people from one location to another.

Displacement is not a solution.

Human suffering is a problem we should be addressing.

Every unhoused person is a child of God.

Their lives matter, their dignity matters.

I am asking this council to inspect more aggressively in affordable housing, supportive housing, mental health resources, outreach team, and long-term stabilization efforts.

And respectfully, if we cannot get this right in Wilmington, then I will commit my voice, my energy, my efforts who are supporting leaders who are willing to stand for what is right and pursue her main solution.

And if necessary, I will consider stepping into an elected leadership tradition myself.

Because this moment requires courage, compassion, and action.

The true meaning of Wilmington will be how we treat those most vulnerable people among us.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Ariana Miller, if you're with us, please come up to my left.

All right.

Hi, I'm Elizabeth Smith.

I live in New York.

I work in Wilmington as a lab technician.

I'm gonna start by asking a rhetorical question.

What's the point of government?

I'm not saying like a specific, I'm saying in the sense of the first thing you'd hear in your first grade social studies class.

Broadly speaking, the way it's pitched to us is that governments exist in order to help people and create a society that works together and to compensate for where individuals or certain sectors of communities may be lacking in certain resources.

It's resource allocation.

So what does it say about us as a society when I, as someone who works 40 hours a week and going out every weekend to help the homeless in the park with my money and my own gas and my own resources and everything, and the people I see out there actually helping the people in the encampment are not city workers who are paid to do this full-time or are not social workers who are trained for this, or any of you fine folks, but are instead people like me who are doing this in between their jobs, in between their own careers and everything else, just as private citizens.

I even before I got my lab technician position, I was doing that on every Saturday I had available when I was working two jobs, one at a coffee shop 32 hours a week, and one 10 hours a week at a pet store.

And I was doing that with my own gas money that I did not have a lot of at the time, and even then I was doing more than much of what the city council is.

If you want to prove why you should still stick around as a government and prove why government is worth it, fund the housing stipends and provide transitional housing and don't evict people.

That is your entire job as a council.

That's what we learned in first grade.

Come on, sis, come on, sis.

Come on, best one second, please.

One second, please.

If uh Soy or say I'm right here, I'm gonna come after her, but I'm sorry if that's okay with you.

Sure, that's fine.

Thank you.

Hi, my name's Ariana Miller, and I live in District 4.

I'm also a member at Tent City.

Um, what's crazy is before I moved down to 10 City, I was sleeping behind this very building throughout the winter the whole time.

Um, but I'm just here to speak on my family because the people down at Tennessee, they my family.

I was down there when it first started.

And to ask a bunch of people to just get up and leave, it's not right.

We don't have nowhere else to go.

Like, I don't know what I'm gonna do.

I'm only 21 years old.

So I don't, I still am looking for a guidance from anybody.

I don't know what to do.

I don't have a game plan, I don't know where I'm gonna go.

Come join 15th.

So I'm gonna just leave and say, come June 15th.

I'm not going nowhere.

I'm gonna stay right nice in my tent.

Like I've been doing for the past three years, and I'm gonna keep striving until I get out of my predicament.

So, yeah.

Don't go nowhere.

If your face is in your phone, did you look at her?

I want you to look at her face.

My name is Say, and some of you have seen me before, and some of you haven't.

But I'm a mother, I'm a Latina, I'm a veteran, and I'm a military wife.

And some of you have had the privilege of having your mistakes being pardoned, criminal workers expunged.

So you get to come up here and sit down and wear a tie.

Some of us do not have that luxury.

Look at her face.

This was a child.

Not too long ago.

This is your responsibility.

I don't care if you came into this into this governor two years ago, three years ago, this week, I went up to John Carney to his face.

That's right.

And I looked at him in the eye and I said, Do the right thing for those people at the park.

And do you know what he said to me?

I am.

I said, No, you're not.

Not yet.

And he said, You don't know the whole story.

Well, you tell him.

I said, I do know the whole story.

I know their names, I know what they need.

I know when they don't sleep.

We all do.

He doesn't know what he's talking about.

You want to give 20 million dollars to these developers to make 200 houses in five years.

They don't have five years.

In five years, this child who is barely a grown-up now might be dead.

You are killing them.

They don't have the luxury to wait five years.

This economy is getting worse.

And the disconnect between the people in charge and the people in the city is getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

Every day.

You might as well be building a damn ballroom.

And some of y'all can't say this, but since my name is Say, I'ma say it because everybody's thinking it.

Okay.

All of this complaining, ACL U and all of the struggles we've been through, and y'all are still up here listening to a white man, which rich white man telling you what to do.

Come on.

Do the right thing for your people.

You tell the mayor.

I am not giving up.

And I will do everything I can to make sure he doesn't sit in that seat again because I saw no compassion in his eyes.

Nothing.

It is ridiculous.

This is shameful.

And I hope y'all do the right thing.

I know some of you are working.

I have I've never seen some of y'all before.

I've just met you.

But I'm pretty sure that after today, some of y'all will still remember me.

And if you don't, I promise you, I'm not giving up.

I will still come back.

Natasha Pullium.

We're also gonna ask um Miss Sibulus.

Come forward.

Thank you for joining us, and please remember to introduce yourself.

Hello, my name is Natasha Polyon.

Um I got a state job, and I understand what y'all saying.

It ain't too much help out here for people that's trying to do right, and you know, oh I'm sorry.

Um it's not enough help out here for people that's trying to do right, and you know, um, I feel the type of way because I called the mayor probably two weeks ago or two months ago, maybe.

I called a couple offices, and he told me to go to affordable housing.

So today, when I go off for work, because I work at the board association too for the state, and um I was at the bus stop on King, Aphon King, and I heard her on the loudspeaker, and it was like five of us there, and we was like, Well, what are they doing?

What are they saying?

So I came down to see what was going on, and it's shocking to me because I called the mayor, and he told me to go to the affordable housing, an affordable house in section eight that took over there even after I went online and looked for houses on affordable app.

That's where they sent me at.

When I went there, she said, Oh, how are you?

I told her how I was and told her what I came down for at that time.

I think I probably had 8,000 in my pocket from saving.

So scared of, you know, not being able to find anything, even two bedrooms.

Like, okay, if y'all do make it affordable, what is affordable to y'all?

Because right now they want you to have uh um credit um number, what 560?

I've been looking for the last what two years.

I stay in my sister's basement paying 1100 and I work for the state.

So I don't think it's nothing, you know what I mean, big of getting them type of jobs because the only thing good is the benefits that I can't afford to use.

So I know the housing is gonna be very hard, and I just feel like you know, it's a lot of things that y'all need to get under control, you know, far as in the whole city, it's more problems than that, but that is a big problem because every time you turn around, it's more people coming, you know where they at.

But my whole thing is I don't, I just I just don't understand how majority of us come from here and we can't help each other.

Yeah, like my family have churches and stores.

I'm a pulling, but I'm a Richardson in the Hamilton, and as y'all know, it's a church that's over West Side.

That's one of my family churches, Vander Avenue.

That's one of my family how I mean stores.

30, 30 seconds.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Oh, and I just feel like y'all just need to do your job.

Everybody wanna make money, come to work, get up, and not play around.

Don't play around with people's lives, you know.

Everybody do deserve to have a house.

Like I said, I gotta stay where I'm at, and to walk in afford three, four, you know, payments of the rent that's affordable that y'all say.

But we really want to know what is affordable.

But thank y'all.

Is Miriam Dade.

Okay.

You can come to the front, please.

Hi, I'm Mimi.

I live in the first district.

I do a lot of volunteer stuff in the fourth district at Christina Park.

And I'm just really tired of all of this.

The mayor moved people into Christina Park, thought it would give him praise and accolades and there was a police officer during Code Purple who stood in the doorway of the WHA building where we were volunteering and had the absolute chewy gall to look us in the face and say that Carney was the only mayor who ever cared about the homeless.

After Carney just had his little photo op and didn't help a single volunteer.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

And uh since we saw through that, well, frankly, veil of slime.

He decided to have a temper tantrum and kick everybody out because of aesthetics.

He can't even handle it.

It's these people have nowhere to go.

It it just boggles my mind that we're supposed to put our trust in the mayor's office.

We're supposed to trust an administration who is called us names.

Who has told us because I said so.

We're supposed to trust people who can't even handle the self-checkout at a Home Depot.

But you know what?

You know what?

We're told to have grace.

We're told to have grace.

We're told to believe in second chances.

And that's wonderful.

But why does that grace only flow upward?

These people deserve grace.

They deserve dignity.

It doesn't get to grace doesn't orbit around your little high profile group.

These are not boxes in your garage.

This is not spring cleaning.

This is unacceptable.

And you all know it's wrong.

There is no way that you sleep soundly, like thinking, oh yeah, well, they'll be gone.

They're not my well, I don't know.

Maybe some of you do.

Maybe some of you don't want it to be your problem anymore.

Too bad.

Too bad.

Enough is enough.

You're better than this.

You are all better than this.

I can't say much for Carney.

But I'd like to think you all have hearts.

I'd like to think you all will do better.

We do not need money for developers.

Not that much money.

Got it.

Pass the housing trust.

That is wonderful.

That will help real people.

And do not evict the people from the park.

You made it illegal to be homeless everywhere else.

And then you see Carney's little, oh, I need more money to open my day center.

Who the hell is coming to your day center?

Because you're evicting everybody out of the park.

Make it make sense.

I'm done.

Brandon Fletcher.

Brandon Fletcher, please come to the front if you're still with us.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Hi, my name is Miriam Daday.

I'm a Delaware and I'm an executive director of Tide Shift Justice Project.

Tide Shift Justice Project's mission is to decrease the influence of the criminal legal system.

Um, which maybe makes it odd for us to be here, but it it's directly relevant to everything we're talking about today.

Um, we urge the city of Willington to do two things.

One, pass a budget that funds and prioritizes affordable housing as a long-term solution to our current housing prices, and two, change your minds and not displace our neighbors who have taken shelter in Christina Park when they currently have nowhere else to go.

This city has the money, and I believe, and I hope, and I urge all of you the compassion to do better than what has been proposed.

Mayor Carney's original budget proposal has no money earmarked for rental assistance.

It has pennies for code purple and nothing for everyday emergency housing.

It has no money for transitional housing, no money for permanent housing, but it increases the policing budget by four percent, putting Wilmington Police Department at now 73 million dollars for fiscal year 27.

President Biden is oft quoted as saying, don't tell me what you value, show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value.

The city of Wilmington in the original budget that was proposed is saying that we value handcuffs over housing, that we value the criminal legal system over people's lives.

I hope that's not true for all for all of you in this chamber.

I know it's not true for many of you in this chamber, and I I really really hope it's not true for most of you in this chamber.

So again, I urge you to pass the budget amendment that Council Willower is championing.

And I also urge you to change your mind.

What Mayor Carney has proposed is something you have the power to stop as well.

It is the entire city of Wilmington doing this.

It is not just the it is not just the administration.

You have the power as well.

Change your mind and do not force evictions in Christina Park for people who were forced to go there, told they could exist nowhere else, and now we're being told they simply cannot exist anywhere.

Thank you.

Adam uh Whitley.

Good evening, City Council, uh, Councilmember, Council President Congo, members of the Wilmington City Council.

I wanted to give public comment tonight because I'm extremely disappointed in Mayor Carney's decision to close Christina Park without a long-term plan for where the unhoused people at the park will go.

The city government has a responsibility to all of its people, including those who are unhoused.

The city has the responsibility to work with the state to solve this issue.

Um, and pushing people from one place to another won't solve homelessness.

Wilmington City Council has the opportunity to pass a budget that includes homeless shelter funding, rental assistance, homeowner repair funds.

Don't fumble this opportunity.

Pass the Affordable Housing Trust and put 10 million dollars in the budget to address homelessness and affordable housing.

Big developers have already shown that they will go back on their promise to build affordable housing.

And so I really encourage the council to leverage its power as a separate but equal branch of government.

You don't have to vote with the administration the way that they want you to.

If you think that the budget amendments that are being proposed will better serve the constituents, vote for them.

They're separate, separate branches of government.

So I want to just say, lastly, that housing is a human right, and this moment requires courage and action from members of the city council.

The proposed 20 million dollars that Kearney has put out for housing should be completely changed.

So uh so much for that money should be used to build shelters in support of housing, uh, units to help move people.

Um, so many Wilmington residents are one paycheck away, one one car breaking down away, one health care incident away from everything falling apart, and they just need assistance.

We need rental assistance for those who are struggling, not just the the people who we want to attract to the city.

We need them for people who are working class folks, gig workers, people who are who are struggling right now in the city of Wilmington.

40 seconds.

We need to make sure that the $500,000 that you're giving to the land bank is taken away.

They shouldn't be given another half a million dollars when they've been proven to only help people who have money and not those who are working class.

Shame on the Wilmington Land Bank, shame on this council for continuing to fund them, even though you know they're not helping people.

And so I just encourage you all to uh to vote yes on the amund uh amendments to the budget.

Do not support Kearney's budget.

It is a handout to developers.

Um and please listen to the constituents, listen to the people.

You're a separate branch of government.

You don't work for the administration.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Adam, for joining us.

Please remember to introduce yourself.

Right.

Yeah, I'm madam.

Um, I am wondering.

I I wish I could see each of your thought processes from when the budget was proposed uh to when this uh substitute to uh for the housing trust was taken off the agenda because it it's clear that you guys have questions about this budget too.

Nobody's satisfied with it.

And the housing trust was a very balanced approach.

Um, and everybody said many times as the situation has continually gotten worse.

I don't think there's a question uh of what to do now.

You know, we we were saying years ago, it's complicated situation, but I could go up to most Wilmington residents today, and they will give me a housing plan that's probably better than what Mayor Carney is doing.

And I um you know I think we understand that the need for you know developers to make a little money in the first place is gonna uh make a impossible situation as uh prices go up.

But we need to start addressing stuff in the here and now, as people are saying, instead of in five years.

We you guys need to show that you are you're here for something that people can come to you guys and you know work with you.

I uh personally have lost faith that there is any uh ability for the city council, even having a few members with good intentions to really challenge the uh bought-out nature of the city.

So I really hope you proved me wrong.

I hope you go against Carney's plan for gentrification uh that somebody laid out really well earlier, because the more uh people are getting pushed out with the skyrocketing rent, um, the more we're gonna have to wait years and years for somebody to give us statistic, like oh, you know, Denver's uh uh pit count is down.

Don't let the pick count go up in the first place.

Let's do something about it now instead of you know letting things get worse, right?

Um, so you know, I hope you guys can prove me wrong here.

You know, if you can't do it now, uh put something like uh substitute two into like a housing trust, uh, and let the city, the people who are uh stakeholders, as you say, in um what happens with housing in Delaware, uh, have a say in 20 seconds.

What we do uh with our budget, and the people who are paying taxes should get to decide what happens.

One last thing, June fifteenth.

I swear to God, Mayor Carney will be evicted before anybody in Christina Park.

Cheyenne Miller Good evening.

I'm Lynn Keelhorn with the Tide Chief Justice Project, and I will keep this relatively brief.

I am asking that the city of Wilmington pass a budget amendment to fund people, not developers, and secondly, to change your mind.

No Christina Park residents should be displaced without somewhere to go.

It just seems crazy to me that we are where we are now.

The city created this sanctioned encampment and encouraged folks in the city without homes to set up in the park.

Then the city pushed them to purge many belongings and often superior tents in order to fit into small city-issued tents and comply with new rules that forbid tents for storage.

And now the city has served them eviction notices with no plan or good suggestions of where they can go.

In what world does that make any sense?

I understand that the sanctioned encampment was always meant to be temporary.

That was to buy time for better solutions.

Where is the work on better solutions?

I think we should expect and demand better from our Wilmington government.

Thank you.

The elders spoke about their personal stories of rent struggles.

This room was packed.

Very full.

Seven-year-olds gave testimony for council support.

And although we know if rent stabilization was passed, or we assume if it was passed by city council, Mayor Carney would have vetoed.

However, City Council failed the people who voted for them in once again.

But this is a budget hearing.

So I'll stay on topic because FAFO season is here.

That's me.

Hi.

And I know you guys are so busy being food critics, eating donuts and cinnamon buns.

That you did not get a chance to read the email.

So I'll read the email to you.

I am oh hi, Council members.

I am Didre C.

Shepherd, and I am writing as a Wilmington resident to urge you to make housing a priority in the fiscal year 27 budget.

Too many residents are struggling with rising rents.

We're here again.

Homelessness, property tax burdens, and housing instability.

It says please, but I should have removed it because I don't beg support investments in shelters and supportive housing, eviction prevention, and rental assistance, homeowner repair programs, fair property tax reform, and permanently affordable housing.

These investments will make a real difference for working families, and you know this seniors and longtime residents trying to remain in this city they call home.

Remember, it does not matter your current status or position in life.

We are all housing vulnerable, every last one of us.

These investments impact you, your children, your other loved ones, your friends.

Thank you for your time and the service that you do provide.

Respectfully.

I'm done.

Cheyenne, are you are you coming up to speak?

Oh you got it.

After Cheyenne is gonna be McGowan next.

Hi, my name is Cheyenne Miller.

I live in the 7th district.

Oh my god.

Starting it off.

I'm asking for city council to step in to ensure that June 15th, as the eviction date that has been set for the park, does not happen.

I'm asking you for you to call Carney up and ask him what exactly is the long-term plan and to work to figure out what the long-term plan is for the people who are at Christina Park.

We need housing, we needed housing now.

Is it still a rule that I'm supposed to like only address the how many of y'all?

13?

13 of us, yes.

All right.

I have a question for everybody.

Um President Congo, will you support the amendment that will support funding for homelessness?

That's point of order.

That's point of order.

Don't worry, I'm working my way over.

It's about 13 of y'all.

I got time.

Yeah, we can't.

We can't do it back and forth.

This is just public comment.

President Congo, can you ask?

Can you ask Councilmember Kobe J.

Owens if he will support the amendment that will provide affordable housing?

You can blink twice, brother.

Number two.

Who number two?

Oh, Shine Darby.

Today.

Can Council Member Trippy Congo ask you if you could support the amendment that will support?

Number three.

Xanthia Oliver, are you online?

Please support the amendment.

You want to support the amendment?

I got a tent for you.

Michelle Harley.

Your district.

Tent City is in your district.

I know you care.

I hope you care.

Will you support the amendment that will ensure that we put funding up for homelessness?

Cheyenne, you know, this is a point of order.

I'm not sure why this is being allowed, but this really is a point of order, what you're doing.

It is really home.

He said, no, it's gonna be a vote.

Number five, you vote.

Christian Willower.

Will you support the amendment?

Uh will you support the amendment that you're gonna do?

Yes, yes.

Okay.

That will support homelessness.

I don't I hope I don't have to keep repeating this question.

Come on, show some courage.

I'm waiting for my president to actually address the point of order.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Can you please ask if uh council member?

Seven Chris Johnson will support there is there is no point of order unless you're not gonna be able to do it.

She can ask the question, but you don't have to respond.

So there is no point of order.

She's not breaking any laws.

Chris Johnson, would you please you please tell me if you're gonna support the ordinance that would surprise provide you know supportive housing and all that stuff?

Well make my comments known until we go forward.

Okay.

Okay, Nathan Fields.

Will you please let us know if you plan on supporting the ordinance that will provide housing, homelessness, all that stuff, affordable housing amendment, all that?

Okay.

Alex Hackett.

He's like so hard like that.

Participation.

Oh, right.

I know I'm missing a couple people.

Um Maria Cabrera.

Okay.

Okay.

James Padola.

Is he still on council?

I'm just checking.

All right, thank you for the extra minute and 17 seconds, y'all.

That's your whip count.

Anthony Harper.

Anthony Harper's gonna be next.

Yeah, yeah.

My name is Cheyenne McGowan.

I'm a resident of the 5th district.

Um we should not have to fight this hard for basic human rights.

We should not have to scream and shout for you to know that housing is a basic need.

All of the council members sitting here in these seats took an oath to prioritize public interest over personal gain.

Affordability is an immediate issue.

You had leaders of the community say this.

You heard people literally off the streets say this.

You heard people who work for the state get benefits and do everything right, say this.

You may have heard it, but are y'all listening?

I just want to get you some.

The luxury apartments serve no one.

I do not approve of my taxes going toward empty promises.

The promise of affordability is not good enough.

The promise of developers trusting in us cannot be trusted.

The unhoused population, the people couch surfing, the neighbors who are close to homelessness, and the residents of Christiana Park.

Do not want your promises of affordability.

They followed the order to live there, and now they're ordered out.

Deliver for them, do not leave them like this.

Stop the eviction.

They want and need permanent supportive housing now.

They need rental assistance, they need rent stabilization.

I highly encourage City Council to allocate funding for rent for rental assurance.

Ooh, rental assistance.

We need funding for shelters and not just for emergency code purple and code orange.

We need funds dedicated to keeping people in their homes.

Yes, we don't need to just only get people into housing, but we need we need a plan to keep them there too.

Pass council member willower's amendment.

Invest in people and not profits.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Go, Tony.

Let's go, Tony.

Jet.

Um I want y'all to hear this, right?

Because I'm saying don't none of y'all.

I ain't seen not near one of y'all down there, right?

Understand this Michelle Harlan.

That's why she took off running.

Okay.

Number one.

This certain district.

She has she hasn't been in no city, I mean subcommittee meetings or none of that.

But none of us.

Don't nobody come down there, all right, to see us.

Okay, we have a lot of issues that need to be taken care of.

And we ain't going nowhere June the 15th.

Everybody knows that.

All right.

That four task force that y'all about to send.

You better go off somebody else too.

Understand this though.

It was a far down there.

No police.

No flood department responded to it.

You understand?

Y'all talking about safety, support.

None of that.

The police drop people from out of prison down there, okay?

Without nobody's knowledge.

Okay.

Me and a couple of my boys.

Security.

You understand?

We don't know who they're dropping off down there.

All right.

They could be pedophiles, rapists.

We don't know.

But the police, Wilmington police drops them off at the park and leaving there.

These are things that y'all don't know about.

You understand?

That y'all need to know.

All right.

Michelle Harlan is a joke.

All right.

It's a complete joke.

It's her district.

It's her district.

She don't even support it.

You got other city council people that support it more than she do.

It's a paycheck for her.

Nothing else.

You understand?

And that ain't right.

You got 10, you got 16 million dollars going to developers.

You got a bandos right there.

You got carpenters, electricians, plumbers down there.

Yeah.

That can fix those places up.

The city owns it.

That's all we asking.

Give us some help.

We'll fix them up.

Yeah.

That park.

Y'all gave jobs to the park to Lewis.

Could have gave that to the homeless.

Alright.

We could have did that.

We could have cleaned that park up, kept the park clean.

You know?

These are the things I'm saying that y'all need to understand about us down there.

We're willing to work.

Okay, but you're not giving us the opportunity.

That's right.

Okay.

Just give us an opportunity.

Alright.

That affordable housing.

That's a joke, too.

What's affordable about it?

How low you're gonna make it?

How better you're gonna make it for us as coming out of homelessness?

Okay.

It's just a lot of things I'm saying that y'all would do.

We're asking y'all for y'all support.

Okay.

All you need is seven people.

You got four.

Three more won't hurt.

Even you.

Mr.

President.

You understand?

You can be one up.

They see you roll, they're gonna roll.

They're gonna back you.

You understand?

That's why you're the president.

Because they put you in a position.

That's all I'm saying.

Help us, help y'all.

You got these uh apartment buildings, band at home, city owned them, give it to us.

We'll fix it up.

Thank you very much.

Thanks.

Good evening, council.

Good evening, Council President.

We've heard a lot of discussion tonight about affordable.

Sorry.

Please introduce yourself.

Sorry.

I'm Gene Messick.

Uh, I work with the homeless in District 4.

Um, we've heard a lot of discussion about affordable housing tonight.

And it is absolutely the topic of the day.

We need support for increased housing supply and an affordable value.

We need that to be lasting.

We need rental assistance, we need eviction protection, we need expanded access to low barrier shelter, we need transitional housing.

All these things need to be put into place.

And they were in an amendment proposed by councilman council member Willower at the last budget hearing.

And I'm seeing now in revision one number 206, substitute number one for ordinance number 26-25 for the fiscal year 2027 annual budget.

I see some changes, couple changes.

Somehow survive, drink water, put some food on the table, even though they're struggling to make rent.

250,000 to rental assistance, not to you know, you know the other thing that's going on on this on this substitute that y'all put on the agenda for tonight.

You got eight eight point something million going directly to developers again.

We spent all of May, half of April coming in here talking about those the mayor's proposed budget when it was 16 million, and we still have the same questions.

What is affordable?

How much of this is going to be supporting people at the average income level?

Who is the money going to be going to?

These questions are still unanswered on the $8 million budget.

I don't care if it's $10.

I want to know who's getting the money and what it is being used for.

Vote no on this substitute and put the housing trust back in it.

We need oversight.

We need your oversight.

On how the money is spent.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That does conclude public comment.

We want to thank you for for sharing your your thoughts with us, those who are here and those who are with us virtually.

So this time we are going to go to legislation.

Yes.

Show us your mind.

It's okay to change your mind.

Join us any time.

It is okay to change your mind.

Show us your courage.

President Congo.

It is okay.

Yes.

Are we skipping?

Why we went over me.

Okay.

I gotta get my daughter prom dress.

It's okay to change your mind.

Join us.

Join us next time.

It's okay to change your mind.

So much.

It's okay to change your mind.

Join us every time.

We're gonna ask that you please please allow the the council members to continue with the legislative process.

You won't get to know how we vote until you allow us to vote.

Change your mind.

Show us your time.

Cheyenne, everyone who was singing, I'm gonna ask you to please stop singing so we can get on with the vote.

Okay to change your vote, but we can't vote if you're singing.

Can I go first?

Come on.

Oh, Cheyenne.

Show us your private.

Raise your hand if you're gonna vote yes on the amendment.

Well, shut up.

Let us vote.

Brandon, Brandon.

Brandon.

Escort me out.

What are you doing?

Brandon, what are you doing?

Come on, man.

What are you doing?

What are you doing?

Let us vote.

Can I can I just get my legislation out the way?

I gotta get my daughter prom dress at the door.

Michelle, go ahead and talk.

It's okay to change your mind.

Now we gotta bring them back out.

It's okay to change your mind.

Y'all, this crowd is gonna get bigger.

Um, Council President.

Yes, Councilmember Darby.

Yeah, I just have a I know we're we are changing the agenda tonight.

My two pieces of ordinance are really quick.

And can we close the doors in the in the back to the chambers, please?

Councilmember Darby.

Yeah, I know my piece are quick.

I don't have a it won't be a lot of conversation, probably.

I gotta get my daughter prom dresses tomorrow.

I'm just saying.

Councilmember Darby.

One second, one second.

I just hop online when she called me that the dress is ready.

But I do go.

All right.

Okay.

We're ready.

Oh Mr.

President, I have a resolution to present.

Resolution 26-043, agenda number 0237.

Whereas Wilmington City Council by resolution number 20-080 establish the city council task force to study and develop reparations.

I move this resolution be received, recorded, and filed and adopted by a Yay and A vote.

Second, it's been properly moved and seconded the resolution BBC recorded, filed, and adopted by Yary Nay vote on the question.

Yeah.

Um, so I'm um my intentions with this um resolution is to establish a Womanton City Council reparation implementation subcommittee to review the recommendations outlined in the Wilmington's reparations task force report and develop a clear timeline for action, accountability, and implementation.

We know that in 2022, Wilmington City Council established a reparations task force.

That was the legacy that left behind from our previous president, um, Hanifa Shabazz of one in that.

It studied the historic and ongoing harms caused by slavery, segregation, red line, and all of the impacts that had on black woman over the last two, over the course of those two years, the task force engaged with community members, they conduct the research, they did um a comprehensive report.

In 2024, we accepted the task force report, but it sat on a shelf.

Well, not literally, but you know, it sat on the shelf.

We did nothing with those recommendations.

This subcommittee will allow for us to be able to transition as a council to be able to look at that report and actually come up with a timeline to implement it.

And I just think it's time for us to do that, especially since we want to celebrate 250 years of America without acknowledging that we have something that we can do legislatively, um, that we can do administratively to be able to um implement um the reparation um recommendations that um was proposed in the report, and that's that's that's what I have.

Councilmember Johnson.

I wanted to be added to co-sponsor.

Um I appreciate Councilwoman Darby for putting this at the forefront.

This is something we've worked at for many years, even under the prior president.

I think we do have to look at things, such as housing issues, um, but also universal basic income, some kind of pilot program.

There's a lot of innovative program other cities are doing across the country, so I think we need a uh a definite timeline.

So I definitely support this.

Councilmember Hackett.

Councilmember McCoy.

Uh yes, um, I just want to say thank you for bringing this forward.

Actually, uh Councilman Owens and I have been trying our hardest to actually put a piece of the law enforcement portion through as well.

You know, we got close and then things kind of fell apart.

But I do think this is a great idea, and you can add me as a co-sponsor.

Councilmember Bracey.

Uh you can add me as a co-sponsor.

I too have been looking at the reparations report to try to figure out what legislative we could do.

So I think this will really help us moving along.

So thank you, Councilwoman.

Councilmember Owens.

Yes.

Uh, first I would like to be added as a co-sponsor.

Um, and before I served on council, I actually served as the chair of this committee for the reparations task force.

Uh, that council put forward, some of the recommendations that we put in there.

Like councilwoman McCoy just brought up.

Um was better policing practices and trainings, um, a fund to allow uh educators to be able to purchase homes here in the city of Woman, a piece of legislation, one of my first ordinances, and then also establishing a housing trust as well, too.

Um, rental assistance, housing is a huge part of um this report.

Um, we had a lot of experts who were on this committee who spent a lot of time doing research.

So definitely I hope um to see some of those uh recommendations become uh legislation and impasse on this council.

Thank you.

Councilmember Harley.

Yes, um, I would like to be added as a co-sponsor, Brad.

I hope that we can look at what was the hurdles um in terms of why um the report wasn't executed.

Um from the last task force, uh, council member Owens, you know, being a part of that task force.

I'm hoping that we could do it expeditiously in terms of not like having to reinvent the wheel.

I mean, you know, um a lot of time, right, was spent on it, and I know they gathered a lot of good information, so hopefully we can you know just pick up from where they left off.

That's all I have.

President Councilmember Oliver.

Thank you, Ms.

President.

Um, I too uh read the report and um attended several meetings over Will Hicks Anderson with Brother DeWight regarding the report.

I'd just like to be added as a co-sponsor.

All right, I would also like to be added as a co-sponsor.

Councilmember Darby.

Yes, no.

Yes, thank you.

Um, so yeah, we just call for the the vote.

All right, clerk, please call for the roll.

I'd like to recognize councilmember Spadola.

Will you join us virtually?

Councilman Owens.

Yes, Councilwoman Darby, yes, Councilwoman Oliver Yes.

Councilwoman Harley.

Yes.

Councilwoman Willower.

Yes.

Councilwoman McCoy.

Yes.

Councilman Johnson.

Yes.

Councilman Field.

Yes.

Councilwoman Bracie.

Yes.

Councilwoman Cabrera.

Yes.

Councilman Hackett.

Yes.

Councilman Spadola.

Yes.

President Congo.

Yes.

13 yes.

Declared adopted.

Mr.

President, I have a resolution to present.

Resolution 26-044, agenda number 0238, whereas Wilmington City Council prioritizes public safety.

I move this resolution be received, recorded, and filed and adopted by a Yay and A vote.

It's been probably moved and second the resolution BBC recorded, filed, and adopted by year and they vote on the question.

Yeah, so this piece of resolution is to urge the administration and city council that we need uh alternative um independent audit of the Womanton Police Department.

Um I even start.

I know that um one of our um public commenters came up and talked about recently Woman T on someone's neck.

Um and I think there is always been a sense of urgency, but if not now to be able to move forward with us having an audit on the Womanton Police Department.

Um if you look at um police scorecard.org, where it's a um national 501c3.

They look at police departments throughout the country and they analyze it.

They have researchers and students and scientific people who come together to look at this data.

And some of the things that um were some issues for me in that report as around um some of their key findings were that um the police killings between 2013 and 2023, um, is a higher rate than 71% of U.S.

police departments.

254 civilian misconduct complaints between 2016 and 2022, within 24 percent ruled in favor of civilians, so very low percentage.

38,000 arrests from 2013 to 2023, with 41 percent involving low-level nonviolent offenses.

police departments 254 civilian misconduct complaints between 2016 and 2022 within 24 percent ruled in favor of civilians so very low percentage thirty eight thousand arrests from 2013 to 2023 with 41 percent involving low level nonviolent offenses woman spends more on policing per capita than 99% of departments included in the data set black residents make up 57% of the city population yet account for 80% of arrests and 80% of people killed by police during the reporting period those are numbers that we can't ignore we have the research to back up that our police department has to be held accountable.

We know historically that police brutality and violence is an issue in our community and I just don't think it's a time for us to continue to um to not push this issue I know in the last um term we did pass a resolution to say we need it and then we know that we had an issue with the administration implementing it but I think each time every term when we have an opportunity to I think we as a city council have to take a stance and say there is an issue of course people want to talk about in public comment how great the police department is yes there are anomalies right there are great people in the police department there are great things that have happened but the data doesn't lie the research and historical interaction between black communities and the police department you can't you can't ignore that and this resolution is saying let's not ignore it let's figure out how to improve it for the city of Wilmington so they have a better relationship with the police department and the police department has a better relationship with the community council member Johnson.

I know Matt uh you know the the the Myers group and everyone associated with the group's uh mayor they're um excellent and they're here just to help us and we've expanding into police alternatives such as partners in care that we need to continue to move in that direction but we also support I think our men and women in blue and say look what ways can you be better so we're already doing it with the Citizen Oversight Board where we've implemented that they're doing great work.

So again we're just trying to push the ball forward so I think we should be added as co-sponsors should administration uh in the corner administration that look we actually need this to happen this time council member McCoy and council member harley yes thank you Mr.

President so um I had two questions I wanted to find out first whether or not this actually went to committee because I don't recall that was it actually in intergovernmental it was in committee yes.

Okay.

And then the other question was it asked for a periodic um external audit now we definitely did ask for uh an audit in that particular term the uh the administration felt to give us the audit that we requested so I do believe one is due but uh periodic how frequently did you expect it to be done um well I guess I didn't um specify a number in periodic um so I guess we can the administration can define what periodic means or we can clarify that at a later time in conversation with them um and then also um there's a consultant uh Mr.

Myers that we have been engaged with he has gave presentations to city council he has had one on ones group sessions um he presented at um different meetings he also can um give us advice on how um often the um that uh um audit should be so he should help be able to help us with that um once we have a consultant and it doesn't have to be him if you guys have a better consultant or someone else you think is could be recommended let's let's have them come in talk to us and let's compare the pricing but for right now that is who we found they have talked to all of counsel but he can give us guidance on how often it's periodic for an annual report once he does the first initial one council council member harley yes um so the last audit that we had um voted on it was internal because there were a number of complaints as we related to us wanting to understand some of the processes there were a lot of complaints coming from different officers we uh regarding the internal environment so I noticed this is external so we this is just external it says a periodic external audit so yeah it is external so in the from what I remember in our last term we asked for external audit of the police department from what I don't remember it being internal and the external never happened because I had the administration set up meet well I tried to have the administration meet with the consultant that we found they said oh we have our own we don't want to meet with yours so we were looking at external ones and then they just never did it but I could be wrong I don't know if um Marshell if can speak to it but they never did it correctly.

Term we asked for external audit of the police department from what I don't remember it being internal and the external never happened because I had the administration set up meet well I tried to have the administration meet with the consultant that we found they said oh we have our own we don't want to meet with yours so we were looking at external ones and then they just never did it but I could be wrong I don't know if um uh Marshall it can speak to it but they never did it correctly no they never did it and I think I think the um misconfusion might be external versus internal we always wanted someone out from outside of the police department to do an internal audit of the of the police department we didn't we didn't want them auditing themselves so it's always the request was always an external audit from what I remember oh someone from the outside to do an internal audit yes oh that's what this is doing yes yes okay all right okay thank you for the clarification because that's what uh what I thought was needed yes right external to come in and look at our police department okay and I just want to say that um you know looking at the data from six 2016 to 2022 so we know a lot of of that was under the previous um chief and I wanted to say on record that I do think that Chief Campos um has made some major uh progress and changes with our police department but not to say that this is not needed but I just wanted to say that Chief Campos has really reorganized um the the police department they have put out uh more officers on the street there were a number of things that the community was asking for for example um having the same officer instead of changing officers the community um really wanted that and so I could just see where some improvement has been made but I do think this is still um needed that's all I have Mr.

President thank you I would also like to be added as a co-sponsor and seeing no other questions clerk please call for the role councilman owens yes councilwoman Darby yes councilwoman Oliver yes councilwoman Harley yes councilwoman willower yes councilwoman mcoy yes councilman john yes councilman field yes councilwoman bracie yes councilwoman cabrera yes councilman hackett yes councilman spidola yes president congo yes 13 yes yes thank you councilmember council president for allowing me to go I'll be here you're welcome until prompt restopted okay council member oliver thank you mr president mr president I have an ordinance to present and call for the third and final reading I can't hear nobody second one second one second talk about secret okay um ordinance number 26 033 agenda number 0231 an ordinance to approve the removal of Mabel Street located between Vander Avenue and the northern boundary of 86 Ray Street from the official city map mr president um will this be known as enacting clause or the ordinance and call for yay and they vote second okay it's been properly moved and second that be known as the enacting clause of the ordinance and called for a yarn they vote on the question yeah Mr.

President this um ordinance authorizes to remove maple street located between Van Avenue and the north boundary of 86 uh race street from the official um city map and um this is where the city uh the city records will um remove will be removed from ownership um it's a piece of property that hasn't been used and Delmore power is establishing will be establishing as a legal ownership of the 029 acres at the dead end of the street um in the bed of the par shoulders property um assessed by Newcastle County as a taxable real estate um piece of property and Delmar Power already has um some equipment over there so it's only fitting that they get that little portion so you know hands raised clerk please call for the role councilman owens yes councilwoman Darby yes councilwoman oliver yes councilwoman harley yes councilwoman willer yes councilwoman mccoy yes councilman johnson yes councilman field yes councilwoman bracey yes councilwoman cabrera yes yes councilman spidola yes president congo yes 13 years declared adopted mr president i have uh uh another ordinance present and call for the third and final reading ordinance number 26-021 agenda number 0201 an ordinance to amend chapter 40 of the city code to allow employees to donate an unequal amount of accrued sick and vacation leave to designated employees or to the donated leave bank mr president i move this um i'm sorry i move this be known as the enacting clause of the ordinance and call for yay and they vote excuse it's been probably moved and second that be known as the enacting clause of the ordinance and called for a yay or nay vote on the question yes Mr.

An ordinance to amend chapter 40 of the city code to allow employees to donate an unequal amount of accrued sick and vacation leave to designated employees or to the donated leave bank.

Mr.

President, I move this.

Um I'm sorry, I move this be known as the enacting clause of the ordinance and call for yay and they vote.

It's been properly moved and second that be known as the enacting clause of the ordinance and called for a yay or nay vote on the question.

Yes, Mr.

President.

This is a piece of legislation that came out of the some employees.

Most employees, they want to give up some of their vacation time.

And this is only in rare cases.

If um just say um one of their employees is sick, they shouldn't have to give up their vacation time.

And this was a particular individual in the department who was terminally ill and didn't have any more vacation time, and their co-workers wanted to give it to them, but they didn't want to have to give up two or three days of their vacation time.

So this is only in rare cases normally when someone just turned the ill.

See no hands raised.

Clerk, please call for the role.

Councilman Owens.

Yes.

Councilwoman Darby?

Yes.

Councilwoman Oliver?

Yes.

Councilwoman Harley?

Yes.

Councilwoman Willower?

Yes.

Councilwoman McCoy?

Yes.

Councilman Johnson?

Yes.

Councilman Field?

Yes.

Councilwoman Bracey.

Yes.

Councilwoman Cabrera.

Yes.

Councilman Hackett?

Yes.

Councilman Spadola.

Yes.

President Congo.

Yes.

13 y's.

Declare adopted.

Council President.

I will be off.

Thank you.

Excuse.

I'm going online.

I'll be back.

Could y'all probably still be going?

Councilmember Harley.

Yes.

Mr.

President, I have an ordinance to present and call for the third and final reading.

One second.

Ordinance number 26-022.

Agenda number 0203.

An ordinance establishing a rate of taxation on real property and the taxable property of public utilities for the fiscal year beginning on July 1st, 2026 and ending on June 30, 2027.

Mr.

President, I move that it be better.

Mr.

President make the motion.

What's going on?

The enacting clause.

That be known as the enacting clause.

I move that it be known as the enacting clause of the ordinance and call for a yay and a vote.

Second.

It's been properly moved and seconded that be known as the enacting clause of the ordinance and called for a yay or nay vote on the question.

Yes, Mr.

President.

Uh this uh particular ordinance.

Uh let's see here.

Says the property tax rate for fiscal year 2027, July 1, 2026 through July 30th, uh, 27.

There are no changes in the fiscal year 2027 to the by for bifurcated residential and non-residential tax rates established in substitute number one to ordinance number 25-006 for for fiscal year 2026.

Clerk, please call for the roll.

Councilman Owens.

Yes.

Councilwoman Darby.

Councilwoman Darby.

Councilwoman Oliver.

Yes.

Councilwoman Harley?

Yes.

Councilwoman Willower?

Yes.

Councilwoman McCoy.

Yes.

Councilman Johnson?

Yes.

Councilman Field?

Yes.

Councilwoman Bracie?

Yes.

Councilman Woman Cabrera.

Yes.

Councilman Hackett.

Yes.

Councilman Spadola.

Yes.

President Congo.

Did you want to circle back there?

Councilwoman Darby.

Okay.

Yes.

12 years and one absent.

Declared adopted.

Mr.

President, I have another ordinance to present and call for the third and final reading.

Ordinance number 26-023.

Agenda number 0204.

An ordinance to adopt a capital program for the six fiscal years 2027 to 2032 inclusive.

Mr.

President, I move that it be known as the enacting clause of the ordinance and call for the yay and a vote.

Second.

Second.

It's been properly moved and seconded that be known as the enacting clause of the ordinance and called for a yay or nay vote on the question.

Yes, this uh ordinance enacts the capital two program for the six fiscal years of uh 2027 through 20 um 32 and the attachment is um attached to the ordinance attachment a that has the breakdown of all the uh details in this particular ordinance raised clerk please call for the roll.

Councilman Owens, yes, councilwoman Darby Councilwoman Oliver Yes Councilwoman Harley?

Yes, Councilwoman Willower, yes, Councilwoman McCoy, yes, councilman Johnson, yes, councilman Field, yes, Councilwoman Bracie, yes, councilwoman Cabrera, yes, Councilman Hackett, yes, councilman Spadola, yes, councilwoman Darby.

President Congo, yes, twelve yes and one absent.

Declare it adopted.

Mr.

President, I have an ordinance to present and call for the third and final reading.

Ordinance number 26-024, agenda number 0205.

An ordinance to adopt a capital budget for fiscal year 2027.

Mr.

President, I have a substitute to present in lieu of that ordinance.

That's which um number are you on?

Zero agenda number zero two zero five, ordinance number twenty-six zero two four two four.

Okay.

I think they got out of order.

Okay.

Hold on.

Two four shoot.

Hold thank you.

Sorry.

Two four okay.

I got it.

Mr.

President, I have an ordinance to present and call for the third and final reading.

Second, second.

It's been properly moved and seconded that be known as the enacting clause of the ordinance and called for our yay or nay vote on the question.

I think I have to move it.

You're good.

We got a second on the question.

Uh yeah.

I move that it be known.

We already did that.

Uh-huh.

As the enacting clause of the ordinance and call for the year and they vote.

Second.

We already did that.

We did that.

We're going to do that.

Okay.

Okay.

Excuse me.

Oh, yeah.

Nobody has a question.

Hold on.

Yeah.

Councilmember Oliver, please mute your phone.

Okay.

I thought we're picking up from the last one.

Okay.

This ordinance enacts the fiscal year 2027, July 1, 2026 through June 30th, 2027, which is the Capital II budget with which being an alter alternating year containing zero dollars.

See no questions, no hands raised.

Clerk, please call for the roll.

Councilman Owens.

Yes.

Councilwoman Darby.

Okay.

Present.

Councilwoman Oliver.

Yes.

Councilwoman Harley.

Yes.

Councilwoman Willower?

Yes.

Councilwoman McCoy?

Yes.

Councilman Johnson?

Yes.

Councilman Field.

Yes.

Councilwoman Bracey?

Yes.

Councilwoman Cabrera.

Yes.

Councilman Hackett?

Yes.

Councilman Spadola.

Yes.

President Congo.

Yes.

12 years and one present.

Declared adopted.

Okay.

I want to make sure we on 26025.

All right.

Mr.

President, I have an ordinance to present and call for the third and final reading.

Ordinance number 26-025.

Agenda number 0206.

An ordinance adopting the annual operating budget for the fiscal year beginning on July 1, 2026 and ending on June 30, 2027.

Mr.

President, I have a substitute to present in lieu of that ordinance.

Substitute number one to ordinance number 26-025.

Agenda number 0206 revision one.

An ordinance adopting the annual operating budget for the fiscal year beginning on July 1, 2026 and ending on June 30, 2027.

Mr.

President, I move that it be known as the enacting clause of the substitute ordinance and call for a yay and they vote.

Second.

It's been properly moved and second that be known as the enacting clause of the substitute ordinance and call it for a yay or nay vote on the question.

Oh yes, um, Mr.

President, I would just first of all like to say that the mayor presented the budget to council on uh March 19th.

Uh we fact certified our fiscal year 2027 revenue projections.

Council held budget meetings, as we all know, for all city departments during the month of April.

Council held a committee of the whole meeting to discuss the affordable housing subsidy to budget matters or priorities for the council.

So we had a committee of the whole meeting as we all know.

There were several budget wrap-up meetings with all the council members with council pertaining to budget priorities and the concerns for council.

So there were a number of meetings with the council members, pre-meetings, budget hearing meetings, post meetings, debrief meetings, and committee of the whole meetings.

So we had a number of meetings for council members to weigh in on this budget.

Council share their feedback regarding matters of concern from the budget wrap-ups by completing as a as I mentioned, a survey as well, and there were follow-up phone calls.

So as a result of the majority of this council, this propos proposed budget now reflects the changes that were as a result of the consensus of the majority of my council colleagues.

The you number one, the use of tax stabilization funds, uh the neighborhood stabilization funds, which was previously uh proposed for the 20 million, has now been changed to the uh 11,850,000.

Now I want to mention that before I talk about the breakdown tonight.

It was mentioned several times about this these dollars going to big developers, and we know that is not true.

This is for affordable housing for the um affordable housing developers, such as Sun Air, um habitat, etc.

Not the big developers, even though that was mentioned many times tonight, not the big developers.

This $8,400,000 is for affordable housing subsidies, which was changed from the $16,800 and additional funding will be done later once the council uh sees that the first uh eight million four hundred uh is being um drawn down, and we can see where different developers are applying, and we do plan to work with the administration to provide some oversight to make sure that those dollars are going to affordable housing projects.

We have the 250,000 dollars going towards the housing support block grant.

There was a number of council members that wanted to support the eviction prevention, rental assistance in terms of the community, and so the 250,000, that's where we're starting at.

As we all know, the state of Delaware gets the funding for housing, but many of the council members felt as though that we wanted to lean in a little to uh be supportive around the eviction prevention and rental assistance, even though again we know that the state of Delaware, just like you go to the state for section eight, you go to the state for housing vouchers.

We still wanted to weigh in, and we are going to uh uh support the 250,000.

The home repair program is another program that we all came together to make sure that there will be some assistance around emergencies.

We will be replacing the home repair program with the home.

We will be replacing the home lottery uh with the home repair program.

But we will continue with the 500,000 for those that have emergencies.

So instead of individuals picking a number now if someone has an emergency, they will be able to get some assistance.

The vacant site lots, which is the $2 million, which will help those smaller developers like Jump Start and some of our other smaller uh developers to be able to uh work with the land bank to be able to get some of those lots and get them some of the infrastructure in place that will help them to move their projects along.

The 500,000 for the land bank, um, 200,000 for the architecture and engineering support that goes along with all of those different moving pieces around preparing uh the the areas for development.

There's also going to be some changes to the budget as it relates to our water.

Um we are proposing 7% versus the original 11.6 that was uh recommended by UCAB.

The mayor proposed the 9.95%, and council worked together and discussed uh what was best for the community as it related to what we have been hearing um from the community around uh the water rates.

So we're bringing it down to seven percent, along with reduce reducing the cost by 1.3 million dollars.

Also, we will be including 450,000 for the community public safety initiative.

Um that will be boots on the ground uh for um intervention for our youth programs that are currently um uh pretty effective with some of our youth organizations that we have partnered with.

And initially there was zero dollars put in the budget for CPSI, but through the council uh working together and advocating for this, we are now putting um additional funds um in the budget for CPSI.

And then we're also gonna put 969,000 um for a one-time payment to our pensioners up through that retired up through uh December 31st, 2019.

So that was a decision uh based on the pensioners board that um they wanted to give the pensioners a one-time payment, even though there was uh recommendations for a colour.

Uh we also are going to uh put money in the budget for a legislative research aid.

Uh this is a position added to council's budget, which the cost was absorbed or offset by reductions in council's budget.

40,000 reduction for the director of the Office of Education Advocacy, salary and benefits, a $35,000 reduction for attempt for the Office of Education and Advocacy and the front desk, uh $10,000 reduction for the Thanksgiving Turkey giveaway, a $25,000 reduction remove uh funds for the lobbyists, and uh $10,000 added for a project manager to help to support these additional subcommittees like we heard on tonight.

For the fiscal year 2027 budget, the following is a result of working in unison with many of the council members of the majority to have these budgetary items included.

We will continue with the $350,000 utility uh assistance program, water utility assistance for those that um need assistance for their water bills.

Um I mentioned the 7% water sewer rate reduction from the 9.95, and again the 450 for the CPSI, the 969 for the one-time payment for pensioners funding for a small minority business program, and then we have the city as we know the city is facing um fiscal challenges as it relates to our expenditures or for outpacing our revenues for fiscal year 2027 to fiscal year 2030 per projections done by the Office of Management.

So uh that is what I pretty much wanted to share, Mr.

President, and it is prudent to this council that the city continues to have a healthy fund balance, and additionally, I look forward to working with my colleagues and the administration for legislation codifying the affordable housing subsidy program um in terms of process and and again what that oversight looks like for that 8.4 to make sure that it is going to affordable housing developers.

And lastly, per the charter, it shall be the duty of this council that at least 30 days before the end of the fiscal year to adopt the annual operating budget ordinance for the next fiscal year.

That's all I have, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

Councilmember Johnson.

First hats off to uh Chairwoman Harley.

Um being that position is a hard position.

Um those of you who have not sat in position, is it's the hardest.

I say uh one of the hardest positions besides council president, it's you have to balance a lot of things.

So I it hats off to um chairwoman Harley for listening to everybody.

Um this is a a budget um that I believe moves us forward.

Um but what I you know, um what I don't believe it does is solves every problem.

Um no matter what budget we look at, we're we're in this problem because of uh lack of commitment and lack of investment.

Um, and especially affordable housing.

This is not been five years, 10 years.

This is something that from the federal government on down has caused a housing crisis in this country.

You know, it's both Democratic White Houses, Republican White Houses, they failed our citizens.

And unfortunately, as city, we're the local officials, we're left holding the bag.

And it's unfair.

The state must step up, the federal government must step up.

We demand action.

So I hear the constituents um with the frustration because this has been way too long.

But um what I think this this budget, at least this smaller part of budget, it does give immediate assistance.

The um, you know, tenant protection is number one in my heart.

We need to protect residents right now who are in homes.

Let's keep them in the homes.

That's the paramount thing I think this budget does.

Now, in terms of what affordable housing developers um do, um, that those details need to be fleshed out.

But I do support Westside Grove's.

I support Rich and Woodlawn.

They're huge supporters, especially the West Side.

They make things happen.

They're doing a new affordable housing project in the in the flats.

And so I have to support getting funds to them.

They're not big developers, they are affordable housing developers.

You heard them speak.

So we um I was definitely support them, but I do support our tenants.

Yes, there are bigger issues.

Um, there's a lot of things discussed about how to solve this housing crisis from the local level.

I don't know the answers, honestly.

I just literally probably found out what a housing trust was probably about a month ago.

So I'm gonna admit, um, I'm just learning.

Um, and so I'm here to work with those who have answers and can help guide us.

But I believe this, again, hats off to Councilwoman Harley for at least keeping the lights on, um, working with the administration and say that the 20 million proposed was too much.

It was too much to solve such a huge issue.

And only two months of budget negotiations are impossible to come up with a 20 million dollar plan.

So I think uh 8.4 is at least it's not medium halfway, it's medium a little bit, but um it at least moves the ball forward.

Thank you.

My hand is up if you can't see it.

I'm sorry.

Councilmember Oliver.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um, I too would like to um thank um councilwoman Harley for you know making the calls um and doing the best she can do with um the budget that we're working on um that we're working with.

Um I would like to say um piggyback off of what councilman Johnson stated, you know, the state has over 65 billion dollars um and their um treasury, but the city of Wilmington with us, 7300 individuals.

Um we're talking about 212 million.

I mean, it sounds like a lot, but as he stated, um, a lot of us need to definitely call our federal delegation um to step up and especially the state uh um with their 65 billion dollars compared to our little 200 million.

But I do think we have done really good with this budget with addressing a lot of the issues that council members have been talking about, and I think this um um administration has really worked with us um a little better than the last administration.

So um I think all council members have done really good with you know negotiating and working back and forth with the budget.

So kudos to all council members and the president for making some changes and adjustments with the budget.

This is our this is what we do.

This is our main job is to make sure we um uh pass a budget that fits the services of the city of Womanton, such as the firefighters, the hospitals, trash, um, all the services that the and especially the employees in the city of Womanton to make sure they continue to get paid with these hard times.

So kudos to all council members for working together to try to get a balanced budget.

Thank you, Marshall, a lot for um calling and all hours of the night and listening to terabyte.

I appreciate you also.

Thank you.

Councilmember Hackett.

Thank you, President.

Um before I start, I just want to give a shout out to Chairman Harley.

I like I think uh Councilman Johnson said this is not an easy job, and uh I know I pretty much was on you the whole time, so I just want to give you your grace here, and uh, you know, I'm happy that we were able to be at this moment.

Um, but but once again, you know, I struggle with two different things.

I struggle with, you know, a balanced budget, and then we talk about what is affordability, you know, what is affordable housing.

I think we genuinely don't have the the answer today, you know.

And uh when when we look at our residents today, I think the most important thing is to say when we looked at the water, we said, well, we can't go up too high because you know the electric bill is going up, and we can't let the water bill go up too much, so we gotta look at how we can help our residents today, and then I look at you know the housing, and I think some of us were so passionate in how do we look at our residents today and help them, and the main thing you look at our residents is they're renting.

So you gotta look at what we can do today.

So, you know, I won't, you know, continue to go on, uh, but we we talk about so many different things of how we can help our residents today, and I just think that that negotiation needs to continue and go on because at the end of the day, no matter what, people are not surviving in our system in our city.

So when people are not happy, when people are not striving, they're gonna go elsewhere, they're gonna look at Newcastle County, they're gonna look at Middletown, and that's not the responsibility of us.

Yes, we have to be balanced, but we also have to make sure, just like when you have got a company, you try to make sure you keep the people in your company happy happy.

So we gotta keep the people in Wilmington happy.

I'm not saying we want to make everybody happy.

But right now we are growing.

We got some beautiful buildings going up in our city, but we also got to make sure we take care of the little people, no matter what.

That's why that's how we got here.

So, you know, we can you know continue to go through the budget.

I hope we right now at this moment in time we have more conversations, and uh, I'll leave it with that.

Thank you.

Councilmember Owens.

Yes, I I just have a quick question.

Um, since we've had our budget hearings, some things have changed.

Um, and one of those things changing is the closure of Christina Park, um, the encampment at Christina Park on June the 15th.

Um, I know when we had the parks and rec' budget hearing, um, they talked about funds that are that they've already spent on the park, but then also they were asking for funds in this budget um for improvements to the park, such as bareframs, um, funding for the showers from one and B, one and seven B.

Um, where are those funds going to be reallocated since the park is now being um deemed it has to be vacated?

I'm gonna be perfectly honest with you.

I tried calling you several times, and that would have been a great um question to ask me for me to get an answer to have for you, but we will have to reach out and ask that department.

Well, I mean, we've had multiple conversations.

This isn't just a phone call, it's just something I just thought of going through the budget.

Okay.

Um, and I I would just ask it, it's in your district.

I don't know if you know where that additional money is gonna be going.

I do not council member council member Willower.

Um, Mr.

President, I would like to make a motion for a floor amendment at this time as such on page 10.

Strike section 14 in its entirety and insert the following new section 14.

Section 14, transfer to neighborhood stabilization fund, a fund balance transfer of 7,500,000 from the tax stabilization reserve portion of the general fund balance to the neighborhood stabilization fund is hereby authorized for fiscal year 2027 to be allocated to fund the following programs and the following amounts.

Affordable housing trust, five million, eviction prevention, five hundred thousand, emergency rental assistance, five hundred thousand, security deposit, and first month rent assistance, five hundred thousand, homeowner repair program, five hundred thousand, an initiative to get property tax assessment errors corrected, five hundred thousand.

Second it's been uh motioned and second to for the amendment would take a uh roll call vote on the amendment.

Don't we get a house?

Is anyone I'm sorry?

Does anyone want any quite on the question?

I'm sorry.

On the question.

So let's I get so the goal of this budget amendment tonight is to ensure that taxpayer dollars meet community housing needs and make sure the city has fair and transparent processes.

And also council has been doing a lot of work on housing, like all like all spring on housing programs to serve our constituents, and we need our city budget to reflect that.

So what this budget amendment is proposing is to use 2.5 million from the tax stabilization fund to fund programs that council members have introduced through legislation.

So council member Owens introduced emergency rental assistance that would help people who had an emergency got behind who were facing getting behind on their rent, they could get some help so they didn't um get evicted.

Assistance with security deposit and first month rent.

This is legislation that council member hackett has um proposed that would provide assistance for people who want to get into a lease but don't can't come up with the or have a lot of trouble coming up with the whole security deposit and first month rent.

So it helps people get into leases that they can afford.

Eviction prevention, that's legislation that I proposed that would help settle cases when the lawyers that are part of the um eviction prevention program that's funded by the state of Delaware are representing um residents of the city.

Sometimes clients people are evicted for small amounts of money.

And what the eviction prevention would do would be to provide some city um funds to settle those cases so people could stay in their homes.

And the homeowner repair program um is something that um we all agree on, and this would make it so that there could be a wait list instead of a lottery.

And finally, fixing property tax assessments, this has just been an ongoing issue.

We need to keep um at the top of mind, and we need to pay for appraisals and other valuation efforts that can be used to get Newcastle County to fix assessment errors.

And then in addition, the budget amendment would include five million from the tax stabilization fund to fund an affordable housing trust.

And this has been uh advanced by councilwoman Darby, and that would be a fund that nonprofit and for-profit developers can apply for to get city funding to build affordable housing.

And the affordable housing trust would also have a community advisory board to guide us, guide its funding priorities that would create a structured way for the community to have a voice in how taxpayer dollars are spent.

And also all funding awards would be made through that would be made through that affordable housing trust would have to be approved by both council and the administration, just like funding awards through CDBG, the community development block grants, and that provides transparency and accountability.

So the total um the total would be 7.5 million councilmember Johnson.

Uh I appreciate um the effort, uh, Councilwoman Willower.

Um I I do have some procedural questions if you could answer, because certainly I'm supportive of many of these programs, but I believe if this did pass, it would actually, so there's already in the current budget, there's already 250,000 earmarked for eviction prevention.

So then I guess that will bump it up to 750.

Um, you know, which which would increase that, and then rental assistance as well.

Um that would also um there's existing um allocation in the current proposed budget.

Um first and um last month that is a new item, home over repair program, that's a duplicative item.

So that would I guess be in addition to the $500,000 approach uh approved in a um current budget.

Um an assessment, of course, error correction, certainly um uh that I believe has passed in the past fiscal year, but I'm certainly supportive of that funding going forward.

Um in the housing trust, I know we have talked about that.

That is a a large amount of money, um significant uh I think investment.

I I truthfully would need to learn more about it.

Um I understand I've done research on it, but I don't know how it works in concept because my understanding that it's a public private partnership because we need private dollars, um, and we also need the administrative uh uh the mayor's off to be supportive because if we actually pass this, there's no support similar to we talked about with WPD audit, they actually would could just let the funds sit there.

So there's a lot of conceptual issues with this.

Um but uh you know this is not insurmountable, but definitely the housing trust of five million dollars is a lot.

Um is there any consideration even stripping that and then doing the 2.5?

Maybe that allows us to again move it forward and then talk about the housing trust going forward.

Did you want to respond now, Councilmember?

Or at the end of the I just wanted to say what this amendment does is it it takes it's not adding to what um you know the 8.5, it's it's replacing that section.

So it would be um just to clarify that's what the amendment um is so it's not like adding additional assistance, it's like no, the 8.5 would be from the tax stabilization fund and it would be used for these things.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Spadola.

Thank you, Council President.

Councilmember Will Hauer, I appreciate your outreach and your work with this.

Um concern I have uh is there's you know that this in your amendment, it's essentially dealing with four or five ordinances that we haven't vetted or passed yet.

And as they go through uh as they finish up on the council floor, they could look uh materially different than how they are written now.

Um it's almost like we're putting um all of these on a consent agenda, um, even though they you know I think they've gone through committee, but they haven't come to the full council floor, let alone the you know, the mayor is signing them into um into action as well.

So could can you can you speak to that?

Um you know, because it seems like this it seems it's it seems inappropriate to put this forward until these ordinances are actually passed and signed into law, is my point.

I welcome you to rebut that though.

Yeah, I mean well Ms.

President.

So I think that um your point that they haven't been passed yet is true.

Um, but also they have been um introduced and we have in front of us this proposal from the administration to put this very large amount of taxpayer dollars into like one particular approach to housing.

So unless we take this issue up now, we are left with, you know, we're there's only a scarce amount of there's not a lot of money um to invest in like the the taxpayer dollars are limited, I guess is what I'm saying.

And so we need to have a approach to housing that approaches all the different things in a complex way.

And I guess what I'm saying is is the time is now, like the budget is happening now.

If the city goes and spends all our money on something that doesn't involve helping people right now, we're not gonna have the money available to help people right now.

So that's why we're talking about funding these things now.

And you're right, council can continue to like work on this legislation to make sure that it everybody approves it.

But like we're talking about the budget now, we're talking about spending a lot of money on something, and what this amendment says is that we need to take some of that money and spend it on these programs that are gonna meet the immediate needs of Wilmington residents.

And if they're in process, yes, that's true, but they're in process and they're needed.

So we should allocate funding for them so that when they come online, they're funded.

Councilmember Bracie.

Thank you, Ms.

Oh, I'll defer to Councilmember.

Council member Bracey, I think.

Council Member Oliver.

Um, so from our first round, um, I think my challenge, you just uh to the sponsor, um, is that you basically are saying we have this big pot of money that the mayor is uh suggesting that we spend on something, and I'm suggesting that we spend a big pot of money on something too, and I think my something is better.

And I don't know if I think that that's the right approach because again to what um our colleague has mentioned, a lot of what you're is in the approach in this amendment hasn't even been passed by council, and there's no guarantee that it will.

So we're sp we're we're investing in something that doesn't exist and may never exist versus uh uh a vetted, you know, uh a negotiated program that is addressing many of the things that are in the amendment.

So it to me it just seems like uh again there's there's this breakdown in communication amongst council members where it's either my idea or no idea when there's an opportunity for us to be true collaborate collaborators um in addressing these issues.

We all agree that we need to address these issues.

We don't all agree on how, and so I think it's it's it's a little um you know, I appreciate your your your passion around these issues, uh truly do, but I just think that you know replacing one idea with another idea doesn't necessarily get us to the point where we want to be.

Thank you.

Mr.

Mr.

Sure.

Councilmember Willow.

I just want to think thank you, Mr.

President.

So, you know, this is not completely replacing one idea with another idea.

This is taking this idea that we have to invest in housing, and it is like saying that we're gonna let's invest in housing, let's invest in developing housing, let's invest in um, but we have to do a combination of things.

And it doesn't say we shouldn't invest in funding affordable housing development.

It says that we should do that with oversight, and that there should be um really clear guardrails.

And I came to all those budget hearings, and I never heard the administration did not present a plan for how this money was going to be handled or the affordability limits, or if small local developers were gonna be prioritized, or like anything like that.

Like the idea that they are asking us to fund with that 8.4 million is so vague.

What putting it in the affordable housing trust does all the affordable housing trust is is like a funding mechanism that has oversight.

It's saying this is a fund that will fund affordable housing.

What kind of affordable housing will be decided by that by the community advisory board is gonna give advice on to how it should be set up.

There's gonna be what the priorities are.

Like, should the priorities be afforded affordable housing that is very affordable?

Should the priority be like developing um supportive housing?

It's a funding mechanism, and then the decisions that that get recommended by that community board are gonna have to come in front of council to be approved.

So it's it gives accountability for how we spend public dollars.

So it's not the affordable housing trust is not gonna build any housing, it's not gonna like take over housing in the city.

It's gonna give funding of affordable housing development that's funded with city dollars an opportunity for there to be a community advisory board that gives advice on like what the priorities should be, and it gives council a role in deciding in making sure that like those projects are approved by being put into an ordinance that's approved by council and approved by the mayor.

So it's an oversight mechanism for spending city money.

Council member Oliver.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um, I have to agree with my colleagues.

Um it sounds like councilman um willauer is and one um one breath saying, oh, we have this big pot of money, then in another breath we're saying there's not a lot of money.

Um, and then it just sounds like a lot of flip-flop, and I and it hasn't been vented out.

And the main thing that just really hit me, um, the mayor um and administration offered us 16.5 million, where all of us could have said, uh, yeah, we will we will um honor that and let's put um put this affordable housing project in my project in my district, one in your district, one of your district.

So it wasn't like the money wasn't offered out there, so we just have a lot of individuals um saying, no, no, no, we don't want it, but listening to you, which you're saying, um, you're saying they didn't come up with a plan or idea, and neither have you.

So right now, um I'm not gonna vote for the amendment.

I'm gonna work, I'm gonna vote for the one that was negotiated by most of the council.

And as I stated, they did offer 16 uh point five million for housing, and you didn't come up with a plan with it either.

So I mean, I'm gonna go with the majority who did sit down and have some conversations, and that's where I'm at.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I thank you, Councilmember McCoy.

Excuse me, thank you, Mr.

President.

Um, I just want to state that um I definitely understand where uh councilwoman Willow is coming from, but like um council well, many of my councilpersons uh before me, I do realize that this is already, you know, we've already had those conversations, and we have uh already committed to trying to make certain that the nonprofit, and that was another thing too.

You stated nonprofit and for profit.

Now, when we were having these conversations, we always said affordable housing was always about affordable housing.

We have all of these great developer, these CDCs, because uh when they say we're not giving money to developers, I don't know who do y'all expect to actually build them if we're not actually talking to a developer.

So I'm like I said, whether or not you're just gonna go out there with your own hammer and nail.

So the thing is is that we have you know the Cornerstone West, we have the Woodlawn, whatever uh well, Reach Riverside is actually doing.

I can't remember what their actual name is for a mini village.

We have several different types of people who are taking funds, leveraging them, making it a larger pot because our little bit of money is not going to do a lot.

But you being able to use some funds to leverage a multitude.

The one gentleman from Woodlawn saying we could triple that amount.

You know, they have probably more than 400 units, I believe, over at um over off of Union Street around the Woodlawn Library, and however many units they've already built so far uh at the uh old uh Riverside um housing projects.

I'm like I said, so we're seeing we're seeing development, but it needs to happen faster, and I believe that this is the plan to try to make that happen.

Um when it comes to how we are uh how we have already planned this out.

I do want to state that a lot of my colleagues have made mention about we have to help the people right now.

And that's where all of these different things that came out when they talk about the rental assistance and things of that nature, because we did listen, and they're right because the building won't happen for you know years to come.

So we need to make certain that we don't, no one gets displaced as we are waiting to get people in the affordable housing.

We want to make certain everybody gets us, everyone is solid in their spaces.

So um, yeah, I will not be able to support this amendment, but I just want to let you know that uh I feel as though a lot of people's uh ideas actually came to fruition when it came to how this uh the other ordinance was actually put together.

Councilmember Johnson, then Councilmember Owens.

Um, just wanted to make this brief in my second round.

Um, I I echo uh Councilwoman McCoy.

Um we started this with the Water Assistance Program many years ago.

It's getting money in the hands of residents, getting help, immediate help.

And I think sometimes we we try to think big picture, we try to overthink things as leaders.

Sometimes it's actually like the small business grants um that we have from ARPA funds, like all the money we got from ARPA.

We did some of the most impactful things.

So I get the housing trust idea.

Uh look, honestly, I need to learn more about it, and I certainly am open to supporting it.

I just don't know enough about it today, but I do know eviction prevention, homeowner repair, that's been a hit.

The one of the most popular things we've ever had on council, and the residents and seniors love it.

So that's why I'm supporting that program because that's what we know works now.

And again, I get the larger scale issue.

Um, we can work on, but we gotta get hands of our residents uh uh support now.

The Christina Park uh stuff we have going on is real, and so I think helping that situation, helping those in critical emergencies, that's important, and then we can work about the bigger picture issues later.

Councilmember all I understand, Councilmember Kabara.

Yes, thank you, Council President.

Um, I've been listening to this debate, and like I said, I I will always um go for the debate so that we can have the discussion on things.

Um and even on this floor over this process, I've heard a lot of different numbers thrown out.

Um I've heard a lot of different reasons for different numbers as well, too.

Um, I just heard someone say that we should be leveraging these funds, but yet we also cut the amount of funds that we were gonna be pitting up towards it.

So that doesn't make sense, but I think we also have to realize it and I'm gonna speak to the piece of this that is mine, which is the emergency rental assistance, um, which is a very real and now um need for so many people, right?

We've had the providers who came out and said, hey, there's not enough money out there.

We know um that if you go to the state, the state will help you if you have everything else except for the last 450 dollars, right?

Um and I just want to break rent down right now in the city of Wilmington for someone.

If someone is living in um uh apartment, $1,800 their rent is right now, right?

Um, they spend 250 dollars a month on food, they spend 340 54 dollars on electric, 55 dollars on internet, 48 dollars on their water bill, 464 dollars on their car, 253 dollars on insurance.

Um they are a first-year teacher with a bachelor's degree in Brayton One School District.

They start with a salary if they start it this year with $53,000, $5384.

That's their starting salary for this year.

They will pay $3,201 in taxes, right?

If you subtract that uh all those things I added up, right?

They will be left with $11,000 for the whole year.

That's everything they have, and they will fall behind because rental prices have skyrocketed in the city of Wilmington, and salaries have not matched that.

We're talking about people who have good, decent jobs.

And it's a struggle for them as well, too.

Emergency rental assistance helps them be able to stay housed.

We don't want to see exacerbation, even more people out on our streets.

We don't want to see more Christina parks pop up throughout the city of Woman.

Right?

I think we all agree on that that we're in a housing crisis and we're trying to come up with a solution.

Now, if we're going to give money to developers, I think we should also be able to set aside money to help the residents who that money came from.

It came from that $3,211 or $2,021, right?

That's their taxpayer dollars.

Our tax stabilization fund is built from taxpayer dollars from the city of Womanton.

Why can't we use some of it to help them as well?

Thank you, Councilmember Kabara.

Thank you.

I don't disagree.

Yes, I don't disagree with any of the comments that I'm hearing from all my council colleagues.

Um I just think that sometimes there's just confusion or more confusion is added when certain council members put information out there that is not exactly accurate.

Number one, to make clear who is the developer.

We can say that a developer could be someone who develops big for profit, you know, expensive high rises and condos.

A developer could also be that mom and shop uh that mom and pop shop that's out there developing one house at a time.

Developers are people like Jumpstart, who teaches community folks from Wilmington to become developers.

And that is what I understood that 20 million dollars was to reach the small developers and then the other mid-sized developers, people like the Todd Morton and um Ministry of Caring, who is doing affordable development as we speak.

Um Habitat for Humanity.

Those are the developers that I understood this money was for, not these big conglomerates that are not building affordable housing.

So I think that that fallacy was the first thing that needed to be cleared up.

I understand the legislation that is being put forward, and what really changes is the amount of money, and I get it.

I, for one, supported all those programs, but we came to a place where we compromised and we said we will put money in the budget for all of those things, uh, most of those things that council member uh Willower Owens and Hackett had suggested that it's gonna be a smaller amount, it's gonna go into the block brand where we, the city already put money to work with the nonprofits that administer those programs because we certainly are not gonna hire somebody and give them benefits to now run these programs.

We have to work with organizations that already know what they're doing, that are already helping.

And yes, the bulk of the money comes from the state, but as was stated by council member Owens, it may not be enough.

I agree that instead of having people become unhoused, let's help them with some assistance to be able to stay in their homes, especially when they're going through a difficult time and unable to bring income in.

And God knows I've known this for the last month.

So I agree, I don't disagree with any of these things, but I think they do need to be vetted out, not here when we're ready to vote for the budget.

And it got cut down to the amount that it got cut down to, but that's because council members weren't comfortable that there wasn't a process that they would have more say on how the money would be spent and who it would go to.

So we still have an opportunity to do that, especially with the remainder of the money, because if it does get used up, we know that that money will be there to help with that.

And perhaps we can cut out another chunk of money to help as the need arises.

I have always been, I don't want to say opposed to the lottery.

I didn't like the idea that someone who needed help to fix their home had to depend on the luck of a draw to get that money.

I have always been in support of a home repair program and have brought it before the administration well over a year ago in trying to shape that.

I was told talk to your colleagues and see if you have the support for that.

So I'm glad we're moving forward with that, and we should be able to help people, even at a higher income level, to be able to fix their homes on a first come, first serve or on the dire need basis.

We have to structure how that looks.

I know that the budget doesn't give those details, but that is where we as council can provide the oversight before that money gets spent on how to do those things.

So I'm not in disagreement with any of the things that my council members are proposing.

Obviously, the amounts are much higher.

Um, and I am in support of the budget and what we put in there that also addresses these needs.

But I am open for these conversations, council member Willower Owens, Hackett, everything of Darby, all these ideas are good ideas, and I'm willing to sit at the table and further discuss them and develop them.

So if not for this budget, maybe for the next budget.

Thank you.

Yes, I will be supporting the amendment.

I do have a a concern with just the conversation around development and affordability, affordability and minority development because it's never it hasn't been clearly defined.

And I I think it gets lost in the conversation what a big developer is and what affordability is and what a minority developer is.

Um because it's definitely not representative of the demographics of Wilmington, and it never has been.

So I think it's our responsibility to make sure those small developers are one day big developers and not just set aside 10 or 15 percent for people who are from here who who make up the majority of uh of Womington.

Like that needs to be the majority of the people who gets who gets their the contracts, and and I appreciate the nonprofits and all the work that they have done.

They've done a great job, but they don't fit the demographics either.

And at some point we really have to take a look at who are we nurturing, and is it the people who who are from here and who represent the demographics of our city, and we don't, we don't do it in this development, we don't do it in the police department, we don't do it in the fire department, probably in sanitation.

That's about it.

And at some point we really have to take a look at how we how are we moving as a government, as a council, as a as an administration.

Affordability, like what what does that really mean?

And most of the numbers that I've seen, they're not even affordable to most people.

I don't know.

I it's it's very it's very it's can it's not confusing.

It's it's kind of almost it's almost depressing that we we don't have the will to do some of the things that were talked about during public comment.

And I don't I don't know why.

I don't understand why.

We like we don't have to keep on going alone to get along, and I've been saying this probably for the last 16 years, and well, we don't get it as a council.

Some people do, but the majority we just don't understand how impactful we could really be and how trend setting we could really be if we just thought about thought outside the box.

And I'm not sure that the original budget does that.

I'm not sure if the amendment does it.

I think the amendment is a better step in the right direction, but it doesn't even do it because it doesn't it doesn't address this conundrum that we're in.

Um we talk about we talk about homelessness.

How did those people get there?

Because we don't have access, we don't have access to good jobs, we don't have job development, we don't have a good education system, and then and now we just forget all of the things that got us here.

And homelessness is important, but there are so many, there are so many different factors that lead to that that we just don't address the way that we should, I think.

Rehabilitation, re-entry.

I just I know a lot of this stuff is on the state level.

But at some point, as a council, we just have to send a message, whether it's to the administration, to the state, to the feds.

We just want it, we want something done differently.

Every year we just keep going along the same path of normalcy.

And I just wish that we had the courage just to be different and just see what happens.

So it's not gonna fall apart.

The city's not gonna go bankrupt because we decided to help help some people who need the help the most.

But that's my that's my two cents.

And I think probably pretty much everybody has already decided how they're gonna vote.

Mr.

President, I have my second round.

Yes, when I'm finished.

But I was just for him.

I don't know, something going on with my phone.

I'm sorry.

Okay, thank you.

Let us move.

Sorry about that.

I don't know, but it's it's it's um I don't know.

I guess I'm not gonna say and keep repeating myself, but it is it's I I wish that we just had the understanding of how impactful we could really be.

We talk about ordinances that aren't even in effect yet, but we've had ordinances that have been in effect, and the administration won't put them in effect.

They've been funded, but they won't, they won't okay, thank you.

They won't implement them.

We can talk about the the what's that the um the speed reducers.

We put money in the budget.

We're still talking about it.

We put money in the budget for the audit for the police department.

We're still talking about it.

At some point, we just have to send a message.

And if we keep giving them what they want, we will never send that message.

Councilmember Oliver.

Yeah, um, Mr.

President, I just wanted to agree with um several things that you stated uh regarding um about we did have to send a message.

And um one of the messages, I mean, when you're talking about uh affordable housing, um, you're talking about um the nonprofits and minority contractors.

You are absolutely right.

Um we don't get what we deserve.

Um when you're talking about minority contractors, and one of the um biggest things that has been on my radar has been the uh Palmer um Palmer School since you mentioned it.

Uh I want to put that out there.

The Palmer School contract.

Um we have minority contractors that's very interested in that project.

Um it's a minority um, it's a minority district, uh, underserved district.

Um, and we have minority contractors who are qualified to build houses over there.

But again, we just as you stated, we just keep giving it to the same old, same old people.

Um, and we all we are overlooked.

So I just wanted to put that out there.

Um, but just to mention um the senior lottery, um, I'm proud of it.

I know councilwoman Hardy and myself um went to Mike Pazicki and stated that we wanted to keep some seniors in their homes.

And he said, what do you mean by that?

We said we wanted to take some of the money out of the out of the budget to make sure the seniors were um able to stay in their homes because if we don't help the seniors, the people who are from Wilmington stay in their homes, such as what Brother Ron does, is you're gonna just keep seeing this influx of all these people from out of town, which is not a bad thing because it is wage taxes, but we want to keep keep the people, the women's tonians here as long as we can.

So I just wanted to just uh throw that out there because you have mentioned about the you know the nonprofits and all that, and I totally agree with you.

And that's something we need to send a message to um that we want to see more minority contractors out there, not just the same old same, but um, and as you stated, what does affordability look like when you're talking about building these houses and they're charging two or three hundred thousand dollars, you know, and I think we need to change our mentality and state that we we need some apartment buildings for you know, just regular average people.

I mean, Anise makes good money, but buying a house with a roof and this, maybe you need some apartments.

So I didn't mean to get thrown off track, but I just wanted to just piggyback off of what you said, and I'm done.

All right, thank you.

Before I go to council member Darby who hasn't had a chance to speak yet, that that that term minority has been lost because now it's used for it should be black and Hispanic, period.

But now it's and it's not now.

So sometimes that word is thrown around, and we're given numbers and percentages that don't really represent what we wanted to represent.

So I think we have to be more specific about what we're talking about because they they're gonna say, well, we do it for minorities, and that could be not what the intent is.

So councilmember Darby.

Yes, no, thank you.

Um, I am in support of the amendment.

I think it's uh a better balance between long and short-term solutions to affordable housing because there is a need now.

Um a lot of people are feeling it in their household.

I know I'm feeling it.

Um, so I know there's a lot of other people in our city who are um fulfilling it.

The current proposal is not even enough money um to address all the programs that was suggested.

Um I think it was just put in there to try to appease us.

Um, but it's not enough.

Um, so uh that's one of the reasons why I'm not in support of it.

And then the long-term answer and why I can't support the original one is just it doesn't have a lot of accountability for me.

City council was not involved in the creation of it.

It was presented to us at a budget hearing um and told that this is the best idea ever, accepted um until we started fighting um back against it.

Um so I'm definitely uh along those lines of conversations we already had on like just the process, the accountability, and another thing that we have a history of in this city is the administration has used nonprofit developers in the past to try to develop affordable housing and they failed.

I have a whole list here, but I'm just gonna start with the Wilmington Housing Partnership.

I don't know if you guys remember that project, and we um allowed the administration, and I don't even think I was on council at that point.

I think it was my turn before me.

Um, but we allowed um the administration, I'm talking.

So we allowed the administration um to get that money from the Wilmington Housing Partnership, which was a nonprofit, and those prop pro um project though that project till today has not come into existence because of the lack of accountability, the lack of transparency, and city council absolutely did nothing till this day to hold the administration accountable for what happened.

The city of Wilmington owed money because of that project, and guess who paid for it?

Taxpayers, and there were people at that time who were trying to call it out, and they were ostracized.

You know, it wasn't part of the club because who wants to go against the administration?

Everybody wants to get along to get along, but everyone doesn't want to go against what what the real truth is.

So I want that to be known is that we keep saying, oh, it's going towards nonprofits.

That don't mean anything to me when the city has a history of giving nonprofit developers money and it fails the community, and we do not get affordable housing.

So I am in support of this legislation.

And another thing I really keep saying, the programs that is in this amendment that it's not, it doesn't exist.

Everything is hypothetical right now.

What the administration is proposing is hypothetical, it is not real.

There's no vacant lot program.

There's no the things he's proposing, it doesn't exist.

But what's going to happen is once we approve it tonight, well, once y'all approve it tonight, he's then gonna make it come into existence.

That's what we do.

We're legislators.

We don't wait for it to come into like no, we in the budget, that's what we're doing.

We're allocating funds and then we implement it, right?

That's how government works.

So this idea that this proposal is, oh, it's not established programs yet.

The mayor is hypothetical, it's not real.

They're making up stuff and they're proposing it, and then they're gonna make it come into life when we approve it.

So there's no side on any side, anything that is at this point established.

So I don't know where that conversation is coming from.

Except for giving money to a land bank, which is a whole nother nonprofit I can talk about failures with.

But in regards to this, I support the amendment.

I think it's a going into the right direction into what we need to do as a city when we talk about short term and long term.

And I think it's to have this short amount of time to talk about what to do with so much money to benefit developers, and I don't care if it's big developers or nonprofit developers because our history sucks at giving money to nonprofits and approving affordable housing, is that we need to really um invest in a housing trust, a housing trust.

Once hopefully that legislation passes, but we can approve it tonight, and it doesn't have to exist because all of this is hypothetical.

None of these programs actually exist, right?

So if we are able to have a housing trust, then we able to then say, you know what, let's put 16 million dollars into this housing trust and let the community, city council, and the administration all work together collectively to figure out do we want to give money to developers?

Do we want to what does the process look like?

But to give us to do a budget address on in the end of what April?

What was I don't remember what month it was, the end of March, and they only give us this short amount of time to say yes or no, I'm a no.

I am a no.

You're not giving me enough information, it doesn't make sense.

You don't have a good track history, and I'm not gonna continue to fail our community.

I I'm not doing it.

So it's a no for me, and I support the amendment.

All right, thank you.

Councilmember Willowra, any closing remarks?

Oh, councilmember Bracey.

Um I'll keep this short because it's late.

Um, but I did want to get my second round.

I just wanted to say, just in listening everyone talk, I think there's one thing that council can all agree on, and that's that we want fewer evictions, we want tenant protections, we want safe from we want more affordable units.

We all can agree on that.

And I don't think there's any council member uh in chambers online or absent that would disagree in the fact that we all want the same thing.

I think where the disagreement comes in and where I think the the challenge that I'm having is the how and how do we get there, and I think there was a mis there was uh uh a missed opportunity amongst city council.

We should have been at the table together, combining ideas, not throwing competing pieces of legislation at each other, not talking at each other, but talking to each other.

And I know people have reached out, we've had we've you know, people have called, you know, finance chair has been calling, Christian's been calling people, everybody's been calling, but it's more so around convincing you that this is the right way to go versus us coming together.

We all agreed that we were challenged by the mayor's presentation.

I think everyone on council had questions, but everyone on council did not come together and get lockstep and unif and unified on what the solutions are.

I don't think there's a one-size fits all.

I think there are good things in both sides of this uh this uh this argument, and the misstep the the unfortunate thing is because we talk at each other and not to each other enough, we've missed an opportunity to really put some strong policies together versus just being giving option one and option two, where we really have none of us could say that we've talked about these enough to be comfortable with either.

So I you know, I think that this is a lesson to us moving forward that when we are in these situations and we're in the budget season, that we take it more seriously, and that we actually do the work and the research, and then we talk to each other, and then if we're going to do something like Mr.

President said, where we're gonna be transformative and we're gonna actually make real change in this city, that we we actually have a plan on what that looks like.

Not three people over here have a plan and four people over here have a plan, and then two people don't even know what's going on.

We have that this is our job.

We got hired to do this to represent our city, and what I'm seeing right now is a couple people over here thinking this is how we do it, and a couple people over here thinking that's how we do it, and none of us are actually doing anything.

So I I am not in support of this amendment.

I will be voting for the budget.

However, I don't want to see this conversation, and I think we really have some work to do to really get to how we help our communities now in a sustainable way that actually doesn't rob uh the the that actually can continue and not be false hope to all of these people that came and gave uh public comment knowing good and well that we can't afford to keep this up.

We can't afford where we are passing a budget today that's going to take out of the reserves just to balance the budget, which means we don't have enough revenue coming into this city to address the expenses, and we're arguing over this when we have a bigger problem that we need to fix.

So I hope that council keeps the same energy and the same passion.

And if we want to do something, let's come together, let's stop with this.

I don't agree with you, you don't agree with me, you're progressive, I'm concerned.

What who cares?

Let's do what we were hired to do, which is served this city.

Thank you, Councilmember Willower.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um, I uh I just want to say that this you know, this budget season, we did get a proposal to take a significant amount of money out of the reserves, and the reserves are you know, our city's savings account.

And I do agree that you know we have to be looking into the future, and we can't spend down our savings account without addressing the problems we have in front of us.

So um, you know, I disagree that we haven't had time to talk about this.

We had a committee meeting of the whole where the all these ideas were presented.

We've had budget, um we've had council meetings where council, you know, seed up.

We talked about all these programs that council members are proposing.

All these proposals that are in the amendment are legislation that's been discussed by council.

Like our council has been working together to put together some programs that are gonna provide immediate assistance to residents who need it.

Are we gonna be able to do the same thing next year?

We don't know, but we do know we could do it this year.

And people are saying we got to pick keep people in their homes, we gotta help people, we gotta like make sure people are stabil stable.

But putting 250,000 towards emergency rental assistance, assistance with security depositment and first months rent, and eviction prevention, that is not enough money for the need that we know is out here.

So, you know, we're probably not gonna come to an agreement, like we're not gonna convince each other tonight, but this is important.

I haven't been talking about developers because I have anything against developers.

Developers, you know, they develop housing.

But what my point has been with this budget is we're taking taxpayer dollars to put together a program that is primarily about development.

And we need we can't do that.

We can't only focus on development and only focus on developers.

We have to focus on the residents of of Wilmington who quite frankly need our help.

And so that's why this amendment puts in two and a half million dollars of like direct assistance for the city for city residents.

So, you know, I I guess um, you know, those are my closing comments.

I'm hoping that council members will see um this as an opportunity to do something uh powerful for uh the people who sent us here.

And I guess I'm ready to call for the role.

All right, thank you, Clerk.

Please call for the role.

We're voting on the amendment.

Councilman Owens, yes.

Councilwoman Darby, yes, Councilwoman Oliver.

No.

Councilwoman Harley.

No.

Councilwoman Willower.

Yes.

Councilwoman McCoy.

No.

Councilman Johnson.

No.

Councilman Field.

Yes.

Councilwoman Bracey.

No.

Councilwoman Cabrera.

No.

Councilman Hackett?

Yes.

Councilman Spadola?

No.

President Congo.

Yes.

Six years.

Seven A's.

Very defeated.

Councilmember Harley.

Do you have anything?

No, we can call for the vote.

I have my hand up.

Oh, sorry.

Councilmember Colby.

Yes.

Mr.

President, I would like to make a motion for a floor amendment at uh this time.

Um this floor amendment would amend the fiscal year 2027 annual operating budget.

Um to increase the authorized um or decrease the authorization of the fund balance transfer to the tax stabilization reserve portion to the general funds balance to the neighborhood stabilization fund from 11 um 11,800 500,000 to $13,100,000 by changing the allocation of such transfer set forth below.

Um on page 10, section 10, striking um the 11850, 000, and replacing it with 13, 1000, and striking the uh 200,000 um for the um housing support block grant and changing that to 1.5 million dollars.

Second.

Any questions on the amendment?

Uh clerk, please call the roll for their amendment.

So woman McCoy had her hand up.

I'm sorry.

Councilmember McCoy.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

I'm lost.

I'm like, I heard what you stated, especially when it came to going from 11.85 to 13, but where are these the uh what are you just trying to add?

It's adding extra to these other ones.

It's just adding to the uh housing support block grant.

It's adding 1.25 uh to that section there, and this is something that's already been uh proposed by the mayor is just adding more money to it.

Any other council member Johnson?

And um this is for council member Owens.

I guess the attent is that we don't have enough money into the um rental assistance program and uh home uh first and last month program.

We don't have enough money in that, which is something that I stated uh I thought 250,000 was not enough, I think.

When I looked it over with our policy team, 750,000, I think got us um helping, I think about 500 residents.

So um, so um, you know, I think we definitely need more money in that um fund.

So I'm I I'll support it.

Councilmember Darby Yes, um, I'm definitely in support of this.

If we can give whatever amount we about to give to a whole bunch of developers, and I don't care if they're big developers or nonprofit developers because our history isn't well, even with nonprofit affordable developers.

Um I think this is the least we can do um is put this amount of money into this um housing block grant so that we can do the other programs to help people in the short term now.

Um so I'm definitely in support.

Councilmember Hackett.

Yeah, and I just want to uh first thank you, President.

Um when we look at this, I just want to thank the mayor's administration for, you know, I think he spoke with you know uh Financier Harley to make sure that we did have a housing, you know, um community block so that we did have this opportunity to support some of these things that was gonna help the community uh immediately.

And I think after listening to all the council tonight, I think this is something that can help immediate.

This doesn't affect anything, this is move forward.

And uh once again, that we can continue to take out.

I heard a lot of people talk about we in the deficit and we're taking a lot of money out.

Um, but we got an opportunity to help people right now.

And that's just the biggest thing for me.

Uh we could sit in five years, wait for people to build houses, but today people are written in our community and need our support.

Obviously, the mayor heard our crying, he heard us talking, so he added it to the budget.

Uh, this right here is just add more money so that we can continue to support more residents.

That's all that is today.

So roll call on the amendment.

Chair, I just um chair.

I just want to just can we just repeat that um amendment, the floor amendment again.

I think you mentioned um it should be like on line two to strike the 11,850 and insert that with 13 million one hundred, and then the line four strike the eight point eight million four hundred thousand and insert with nine million nine six fifty, correct?

Because you want to increase it to a total of now.

No, this is going towards the housing support block grant.

Right, but you have to increase all of those lines.

So line four and also line six to strike the two hundred and fifty thousand for the um housing support block grant.

Um, and to change that to the one one million to fifty.

Yes.

Um, that's the thing, and we'll have that for the clerk.

I just want to just to clarify.

Yes, and it should say increase, not decrease.

Can't remember what I said, just say increase increase, yeah.

Council member Harley.

I need um Marshell.

Can you repeat that again?

What he what they're trying to do as far as what line items.

Um so I'm basically what um the four amendment that um mentioned sorry, thanks.

It's basically um for line two on page 10, line two, strike the 11 million eight hundred and fifty thousand and insert um thirteen million one hundred thousand on line four, straight the um eight um eight million four hundred thousand and insert nine million six hundred and fifty thousand on line six, strike the two hundred and fifty and insert one million two hundred and fifty thousand.

So basically just changing the housing support um block grant from um from um 250,000 from from the 250,000 number to what to um 1 million 250 1 million five.

I'm sorry, 1 million 500.

Any other questions from any council members?

If not, we'll call the role for only amendments.

I do have one question member Darby.

I just want to confirm the housing block grant.

Is that hypothetical or does it exist?

I'm just saying it's hypothetical, right?

So we're about to vote for some hypothetical that y'all was just complaining about for the um amendment, but thank you.

That's it.

It's hypothetical.

So council member McCormick.

Thank you.

Um, no, well, wait a minute.

When I think of the housing block grant, I think about the all of the nonprofits, but that we already send money to on a regular basis, like CDBG.

This is not what we're talking about, that we already give those those funds in order to keep them running.

This is something different.

This is the hypothetical, it doesn't exist.

So this is what the we don't know what this is actually.

Council members, please wait to be acknowledged.

I'll let everybody speak, but just please wait to be acknowledged.

Any other questions from any council members?

Yeah, I'm sorry, if I may follow.

So because of the fact that we do not want to actually run any programming.

We do not want to have to hire people.

This is the reason why I thought that way that we'd be asking people already doing this job and giving them the funds to do it.

I'm sorry, I'm looking at you.

We'll still be doing it.

Councilmember Kabara.

Yes, uh, I'm just confused when they're talking about I guess the council member Darby said that this doesn't exist.

The C D BG and the block grants, these things have always existed.

These are the people we give money to.

What we're doing now is saying that we would increase the monies that we're giving them to be used for the rental assistant for the eviction, for the down payment, all those things that um were in that amendment that we wanted to do.

So the amendment didn't pass, but now what we're saying is we're gonna put the same amount of money and increase the block grant funding that we basically have already allotted money out of the budget for that, and I'm not sure how that balances out with the numbers, but just saying that it does exist.

Those organizations do get money, and they do fund those things, and what we're saying is we're giving an additional amount of money specifically for those programs that were mentioned in the previous amendment, and were just now mentioned.

So I just want to make sure that we're clear on the same page.

We're going from whatever the hundred thousand dollars is or whatever we said we were giving in terms of that block grant and increasing it to 1.2 million.

Thank you.

Correct.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Willower.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Yeah, I would have to agree.

There's a little bit of confusion over about what that housing support block grant means.

Um, and I want to thank Councilwoman Darby for pointing that out.

For me, they it would go to these programs that council members have proposed that are in the process of becoming programs.

So the emergency rental assistance program, the assistance with the security deposit and first amount rent, the eviction prevention and the homeowner, and that's and hopefully fixing property tax assessments.

I'm hoping this is not just like another non-profit program uh like fund.

I'm hoping this is a line item that would go to support these programs that council has been working on setting up to meet the needs of our constituents.

That's what I'm voting for.

But I'd love if somebody could clarify, Councilmember Bracie.

That's not what this is.

Council Councilwoman Darby hit it on the nail on the head.

This is one of the the ideas that this money would then instead of us propping up our own rental assistance, our own eviction assistance program, as councilwoman Cabrera said, there are there are organizations such as Classy, such as West and Neighborhood House uh and others that are already doing this work, so these block grants would go to the folks that already have uh these assistants, so that are getting funding from the state.

But this is this is what the mayor's proposal was.

So, you know, that doesn't exist as councilwoman Darby said, but the proposal is to fund existing programs that already are doing this work instead of the city propping up its own rental assistance and its own eviction percent uh uh assistance, we would just use the infrastructures that are already in place and fund them for city residents, and that's an immediate way to get the money out to the community because we don't have to build the wheel, we don't have to recreate the wheel, it's already there.

So that's what this is.

This isn't what you're talking about.

Follow up, could I have a follow up?

So the legislation the council members have proposed doesn't necessarily mean we're gonna add all these staff members to the city of Wilmington.

They it it sets up the opportunity to you know have like work with a nonprofit to deliver the program.

In fact, the eviction prevention would be to have the organizations that are delivering that are doing the eviction prevention, like deliver the program, and the same thing with uh you know some of the other programs.

So I just think that we should really focus on funding the legislation that council members have been working on because that's why we've been working on this legislation is because we hear from our people that these things are important and that we shouldn't just like create all this legislation and not fund it and fund like something else, like we're trying to create programs here that meet the needs that people here have been coming up and talking about, and uh so I'm hoping that we can fund that with that line item.

Councilmember Hackett, not go ahead.

Um Councilmember Owens, any comments on your amendment?

Yeah, uh thank you, Council President.

In close, I just want to say that I think we've had a robust discussion about this.

I think um, you know, like my council colleague behind me, I've had to take my jacket off as hot in here, y'all.

Um, but I think councilwoman Bracie's absolutely correct that the conversation needs to continue and be ongoing um as we go through with this, and I think um overall that this is a way to really make sure that we're helping everyone in the short term and in the long term.

Um, and hopefully um we can really do some good for our city.

But with that, um we can call so we're gonna take a vote on the amendment presented by council member Owens, Councilman Owens, yes, councilwoman Darby, yes, councilwoman Oliver, no, councilwoman Harley, no councilwoman Willower, yes, Councilwoman McCoy, no councilman Johnson Yes, Councilman Field No Councilwoman Bracey, yes, councilwoman Cabrera, no councilman Hackett, yes, councilman Spadola, no President Congo, yes, seven yes and six nays.

Yes.

Councilman Field.

No.

Councilwoman Bracey.

Yes.

Councilwoman Cabrera.

No.

Councilman Hackett.

Yes.

Councilman Spadola.

No.

President Congo.

Yes.

Seven yes and six nays.

Declared adopted.

Councilmember Harley.

Okay.

So can we take the vote?

For ordinance 26-025.

I already shared all the question.