This decadeslong debate still divides Wilmington leaders, residents. Can it be solved?

Wilmington residents’ voices were clear – they want new hires to live in the city they’re serving.

About 75 people packed the City Council chambers Thursday to voice their opposition to plans to eliminate a law that requires city employees to live in Wilmington for at least five years.

Dozens of residents spoke during a three-hour public comment session, most of them calling for council members to reconsider plans to eliminate the law and reminding them who elected the council people into office.

“This is about our community. People are suffering right now,” said Brandon Fletcher, a city resident and tenant advocate for the Delaware Community Legal Aid Society. “We will support you if you do the right thing.”

The opposition ultimately prompted the ordinance’s sponsor, council member Al Mills, to table the legislation, but the ordeal has laid bare a distinct disconnect between Wilmington’s elected leaders and the people they’re meant to serve.

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Residents expressed frustration with Mayor Mike Purzycki’s administration, suggesting that the city should do a better job advertising available positions and offer training and workforce development to city residents so they obtain the skills necessary for available jobs.

Some commenters pitched providing incentives to new hires for moving into the city, like help on down payments or hardship stipends.

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Others expressed more sweeping fears of diluting Black and brown voices.

“In my opinion, this is nothing but a move to metropolitan government, which would seriously dilute political power for people of color at a time when many have made it into the middle class,” resident Susan Regis Collins said. “This is an old game left over from the Civil War days. If it looks like people of color are gaining power, it must be stopped by any means.”

The fear of losing Wilmington

A fear of Wilmington losing control over its policing and turning to New Castle County instead for these resources has often risen out of conversations surrounding residency requirements for employees, especially first responders and other public-facing positions.

Discussion of the law, and whether it should stay or go, has oscillated with changes in administrations for years, but city mayoral candidate Velda Jones-Potter warned Thursday that it has “long-standing implications” as well.

“Its financial health, its economic viability, our sovereignty as a self-governing incorporated entity here in this state,” she said. “Who gives up power and self-control? No one does that.”

The term “metropolitan government” was used by speakers more than once Thursday, suggesting fears that without Wilmington employees living in the city, the municipal government could be absorbed by a larger governing entity like New Castle County.

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Supporters of the residency law say it increases loyalty among those employees, enhances the community’s tax base, fosters better community relations and preserves the city’s character.

Advertising, training and incentives

Many residents spoke to the disbelief and insult they felt from Wilmington officials suggesting that those who live in the city don’t have the skills necessary to fill the open positions, pointing to Delaware Department of Labor local area unemployment statistics that show Wilmington with about 2,100 unemployed residents in September.

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Rather than eliminate the residency requirement, residents said the city should do a better job advertising and recruiting current Wilmington residents for the positions. Several speakers said they wanted to be applicants.

“It’s very simple; it’s not complicated. Allow people to be trained to do the jobs you want rather than remove the residency because people who live here care about us here,” one commenter said.

Others recommended holding job fairs or news conferences to notify people about open positions. Some suggested offering financial assistance for new employees to find housing or even using vacant property for housing opportunities.

One Wilmington police officer stressed that the department is doing everything it can to attract applicants, but law enforcement nationwide has struggled to recruit as few people have an interest in entering the profession.

“We are bleeding. We need to do anything (we can) to get applicants to apply,” Wilmington Police Detective Michael Hayman said. “People don’t want to do this job anymore. If we can get rid of any impediment or any perceived impediment, I would implore you to do that.”

The department’s current police academy is the smallest in history with only seven cadets.

Wilmington employees who testified Thursday cautioned that the current economics make it difficult for new hires to find affordable housing in the city, too.

Candidates for jobs are looking for more flexibility, proponents of the residency law’s removal said, and many experienced applicants have already settled elsewhere, making it unattractive to uproot their families and leave affordable mortgages.

Got a tip? Contact Amanda Fries at afries@delawareonline.com, or by calling or texting 302-598-5507. Follow her on X at @mandy_fries.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Wilmington public, city leaders divided on residency law for employees