Agenda for Regular Meeting Revision

Synopsis:  This Resolution is being presented by City Council for Council’s review and approval. Those who serve and protect our communities should be familiar with, and value equally, all members of the community, regardless of gender, race, color, national origin, religion, or sexual orientation. Incorporating implicit bias, sensitivity, and diversity trainings and programs long-term is essential so that the Wilmington Police Department may identify and correct dangerous biases within officers and other employees. The Department needs to also become familiar with racist and gang-related symbology so that they can reject applicants with ties to such organizations. The Wilmington City Council encourages the immediate and permanent introduction and use of such programs and standards.

Synopsis:  This Resolution is being presented by City Council for Council’s review and approval. This Resolution confirms the appointment of seven members to the Civil Rights Commission.

Synopsis:  This Resolution is being presented by City Council for Council’s review and approval. Numerous organizations have identified disparities between the past experiences and lived realities of African American, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Communities in the United States and the teaching of their histories and cultures; their scientific, economic, educational contributions; and their political and legal struggles for equal and equitable U.S. citizenship in Delaware public school textbooks and curriculums. For this reason, the                     Wilmington City Council strongly recommends the creation of a Commission by the Delaware Department of Education that will identify inaccuracies and misrepresentations of African Americans, Blacks, Native Indigenous, Latinos and Hispanics, and Asian U.S. Persons of Color in Delaware public school K through 12 history and social studies courses, especially those contained within textbooks, and make recommendations for both curriculum and teaching material changes.

Synopsis:  This Ordinance is being presented by City Council for Council’s review and approval. This Ordinance amends the City Code by creating a Citizens Complaint Review Board authorized to investigate citizen complaints against law enforcement officers employed by the Wilmington Police Department, make reports of those investigations and recommend practice changes to the extent consistent with the current law as it exists now or may be amended in the future. The Ordinance will have fiscal impact and the Board will require a budget to     carry out its duties, but the amount or nature of the budgetary needs of the Board is not unknown.

Synopsis:  This Resolution is being presented by City Council for Council’s review and approval. The Wilmington City Council strongly recommends the Delaware General Assembly to repeal the Delaware Law Enforcement Bill of Rights due to the major issues of lack of transparency, accountability and trust many of its provisions have fostered between law enforcement officers, Police Departments and their fellow citizens due to the actions of some police officers involved in questionable, seemingly racially oriented shootings that according to a WHYY study from 2005 to the present have taken the lives of 56 people statewide, with nearly half of those lives lost being Black people, as well as, provisions in the LEBOR that prevent access to lawyers representing accused persons of police internal records relevant to files on the arresting officer(s), and lack of public access to reports filed by police officers use of force incidents. 

Synopsis:  This Ordinance is being presented by City Council for Council’s review and approval. This Ordinance amends Chapter 2 of the City Code with an additional section that authorizes and directs the Wilmington Police Department to provide the residents of Wilmington access to the Wilmington Police Department’s Police Officer’s Manual in an on-line format, which is only redacted pursuant to the requirements of Delaware law and necessary public policy considerations, through the City of Wilmington’s official website.

Synopsis:  This Ordinance is being presented by the Administration for Council’s review and approval. This Ordinance is the first amendment to the Fiscal Year 2021 Operating Budget Ordinance.  It contains changes to the position allocation list and increased budget appropriations for the Police Department to fund a body camera program.

Synopsis:  This Ordinance is being presented by City Council for Council’s review and approval. This Ordinance amends Chapter 8 of the City Code to require that developers who receive financial assistance from the City of Wilmington on residential construction projects require their construction contractors to participate in and hire workers from Residential Construction Apprentice Programs.