Why Should Delaware Care?
The Wilmington Neighborhood Conservancy Land Bank is the city’s primary tool for redeveloping dilapidated housing to new affordable units. The nonprofit receives funding from city taxpayers each year, but it has also been marked by mismanagement, embezzlement and accusations that it has strayed from its mission.
The Wilmington City Council will now have more oversight of the city’s embattled land bank – an organization that has faced criticism in recent years over a lack of transparency and financial mismanagement.
On Thursday, the council passed an ordinance that will require council members to approve certain appointments made to the board of directors of the organization, formally called the Wilmington Neighborhood Conservancy Land Bank.
The proposal aims to “increase oversight, transparency, and accountability” over the city-created agency responsible for redeveloping dilapidated city blocks, the ordinance stated.
It passed four months after council members vowed to make reforms to the organization just as it faced a tipping point of criticism sparked by its rehabilitation of a stately historic mansion, called Gibraltar. Some even suggested dismantling it.
In June, Councilwoman Zanthia Oliver introduced the ordinance to mandate council approval for new Land Bank boardmembers.
Shortly thereafter, the organization’s executive director, Bud Freel, asked her to hold the ordinance for further discussion.
During that time, the Land Bank’s board appointed Leroy Tice, a Wilmington-based personal injury lawyer, to the Land Bank board. Tice previously had served on former-Mayor Mike Purzycki’s transition team, along with Freel and Rick Gessner, the Land Bank chair. The involvement of Purzycki in the Gibraltar project — he lives next door and is leading its renovation now as a private citizen after directing funding to the project as mayor — has become a flashpoint to the latest criticism of the land bank.
Because Tice’s appointment occurred while Oliver’s ordinance was being held, the city council did not need to approve his position on the board.
During Thursday’s meeting, Councilwoman Shané Darby, who has called for reforming the Land Bank, noted Tice’s appointment, saying to Olivier, “They got ahead of you.”
Asked if Freel wanted Oliver to hold the ordinance to get Tice appointed, Freel said, “one is not connected to the other.”
Community interest
Last spring, the city council began to express frustrations with what they described as a lack of transparency, citing the Land Bank’s failure to update its property inventory, financial reports, and website.
During that time, several council members and residents also raised concerns with the organization’s involvement in spending millions of taxpayer dollars renovating the historic Gibraltar mansion.
Before introducing her ordinance in June, Oliver said she was approached by constituents with experience in housing who asked her how they could join the board. Those conversations prompted her to propose the idea of city council-approved board members.
“We, as a body, as city council, we have put money into the land bank, and I think they do a very good job, but we as council members have the right to put in legislation to include the community,” she said during the Nov. 6 city council meeting.
The Land Bank receives about $500,000 from the city’s budget each year and additional funds from other sources. Earlier this year, the organization received a $250,000 grant from Bank of America.
It also earns money from the properties that it secures and sells.
‘Slipped by Council’
The Land Bank is currently advised by a 15-member board of directors. Many of those seats are reserved for city officials and individuals chosen by state legislators and the Governor.
But four of those 15 seats belong to “representatives of the local community.” It is those individuals who were previously appointed by the Land Bank’s board of directors, and now must be approved by the city council.
Currently serving as public members on the board are Tice; Vandell Hampton, president and CEO of True Access Capital; Cassandra Marshall, Wilmington’s Democratic Party chair; and David Ross, executive director and founder of Education First Golf.
Under Oliver’s new ordinance, once those board members rotate off, the Land Bank will notify the mayor’s office of a vacancy. The mayor will then submit a name for consideration by city council to approve the appointment, said Caroline Klinger, spokesperson for Mayor John Carney’s office.
Board members serve four-year terms and can be reappointed, but current members who seek reappointment must go through the new approval process as well. It is unclear how many times a member can seek reappointment.
City Councilwoman Christian Willauer, who previously served as the Land Bank’s executive director for almost two years, noted that those representatives used to be approved by the council, but that changed a few years ago.
“I think it was a decision that was made that I think kind of just slipped by council,” she said during an October committee meeting.
During last week’s meeting, other concerns involving the Land Bank’s board were discussed, including public access to it morning meetings, and a need for council members who miss those meetings to find replacements.
“Everybody has to be doing their job to improve the long-term performance of the land bank,” said Councilman Nathan Field, who represents the Highlands community where Gibraltar is located.
Previously, Councilwoman Maria Cabrera, a supporter of the Land Bank, had criticized Council President Trippi Congo for not attending board meetings. Congo, Cabrera and fellow Councilwoman Michelle Harlee are sitting members of the Land Bank’s board.
