Wilmington Council president to councilmen: Your 'Coalition of Foolishness' is out of order

Hanifa Shabazz is president of Wilmington City Council. 

There are some members of the Wilmington City Council who are unapologetic about their approach to governance.

Personal gripes, grudges, spite, vendettas, attempts at bullying — it's what drives their actions.

To Councilmen Sam Guy and Vash Turner: You are out of order.

You are out of order for your displays of contempt of the legislative process, your colleagues on Council and the citizens of Wilmington, Delaware.

You are out of order for how you consistently conduct yourselves at council meetings, which is indicative of calculated and strategic attempts to circumvent the law and undermine the legislative process.

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This “Coalition of Foolishness” you’ve managed to establish is built on your belief that you don’t need to follow the laws and statutes you took an oath to observe and execute.

We can all disagree with laws, and we have a system in place for changing those we agree need changing. But what we cannot do is pick and choose which rules we want to obey, the ones we ignore, or circumnavigate it altogether because we don’t like the process.

If we continue to allow this, what then becomes the point of a law? 

According to the Wilmington City Charter, when a vacancy on the City Council occurs, a special committee is appointed to lead the process for filling the seat. It is a meticulous process designed to be thorough and fair.

It is also a process that’s not perfect and needs to be amended or be replaced, on which I have already started work. The procedure we followed is the one outlined in the city code to make the selection and subsequent recommendation to the full Council.

After interviewing 12 very capable candidates, the committee was unanimous in its selection and was confident the Council would concur.

While the council rejected the recommendation presented, the Dec. 6 Council debate over the vacancy was not focused on the candidate selected. The debate, turned circus, was over the process.

Councilman Turner was successful in executing his premeditated plan to derail that process by his attempting to put forth someone else’s name. After being informed the action was out of order, a tantrum ensued, throwing the proceedings into a chaotic embarrassment.

Sir, you can’t decide to override the law simply because you disagree with it. The process was created by legislators and must be changed through a legislative process, not a coup. If you don’t understand or respect that concept, perhaps you need to step down.

Mr. Guy, stop trying to make this about President Hanifa Shabazz. The law doesn’t say “Hanifa Shabazz” gets to choose, it says that the Council president shall form a committee. The law also says the president can do a lot of other things without your permission.

And, stop running around town calling people racists. It’s embarrassing.

A small tally of how our constituents will be impacted by the shenanigans that unfolded over the past two meetings alone show:

• The City’s 1st District still has no representation on the Council
• Progress on setting up the needed Complete (US Census) Count Committee is stalled
• $500,000 in funds stripped from local families, who want to acquire a vacant property and hire contractors to renovate it so they can call it home

Our residents didn’t elect us to the 107th session of the Wilmington City Council to spend two hours every two weeks fighting and trying to humiliate each other.

Our city doesn’t have time for this.

Our residents don’t have time for this.

We don’t have time for this.

These kinds of antics have gone on since the beginning of this session and I am calling on our constituents to pay attention and hold us all accountable.

Tune in to WITN-22 to watch council and committee meetings aired daily or visit WITN22.org to watch online.

It’s time to bring order back to the body of the Wilmington City Council and I’m asking our residents — our constituents — to assist us in this endeavor by demanding we do better and hold us accountable in representing your interests with dignity and integrity.