4 in 10 Wilmington boards, commissions inactive — sometimes for decades

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misidentified the state's boards and commissions webpage.

Wilmington's ethics commission was reinstated this year after being allowed to dissolve over two years ago, but it is just one of many citizen-led groups the city has abandoned.

Three dozen of Wilmington's boards and commissions are inactive, according to a review of public records by The News Journal, meaning 40 percent of the city's 78 groups charged with overseeing and advising city government essentially do not exist.

Many of the organizations are required by city code to meet regularly and sometimes write reports, but many haven't convened in years, and in some cases, decades, documents show.

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According to city records, those defunct groups include:

The Civil Rights Commission, a group of 15 city residents and four City Council members who addressed issues of discrimination in city programs and policies.

The City Beautification Commission, an advisory group that made recommendations to "enhance the attractiveness of the city's landscape"

The City and County Intergovernmental Relations Commission that provided a forum to discuss important issues affecting both jurisdictions

The Employee Suggestion Board, which solicited ideas on city improvement from employees and rewarded them with small monetary awards

Many of the unpaid, volunteer groups were established by City Councils past that thought these oversight and advisory organizations could help improve the city.

When functioning, these groups provide panels of experts for officials to consult with, act as checks on city departments that otherwise don't operate in the view of the public and allow citizen participation in city operations.

"It's a shame," said John Flaherty, a director for the Delaware Coalition for Open Government. "People do want to get involved but they don't know how."

Falling off the radar

The Civil Rights Commission was created in 1985, according to News Journal archives, and for decades it took on significant city matters.

In January 1987, City Council gave the group "wide latitude" to review, among other things, employment, affirmative action and allegations of discrimination in the operation of city programs, according to the News Journal archives.

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Two years later, a subcommittee of the commission published a report that reviewed city hiring practices and made recommendations on how to increase minority employment.

In 1995, the group held public comment sessions to discuss the possibility of a civilian review board of the Wilmington Police Department, archives show.

After that, the commission fell off the public radar.

"The civil rights commission was announced with a lot of value and just quietly disappeared," Flaherty said. "The people are not served. It’s not a good way to do government."

Elected officials' interest in these types of groups tends to fade after the press conferences are over, Flaherty said

"Legislators like to legislate," he said. "They don't like to monitor the activities of what they create. There’s no fun in that."

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Councilman Samuel L. Guy brought the commission up at a recent housing-related meeting where he expressed concern about selective enforcement of code violations.

"We don't have a Civil Rights Commission dealing with it," he said. "So people are going to be taken advantage of."

Other groups missing in action include:

The Building Code Standing Committee, a group of individuals who advised city council on building code changes

The Contract Compliance Review Board, intended to review city contracts to ensure equal opportunities for disadvantaged businesses

The Children's Environmental Hazards Education Commission, charged with disseminating environmental safety information to youth

The Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission, which is supposed to help the parks department identify project and funding opportunities

Staff for Mayor Mike Purzycki, who took office 11 months ago, said the office is still reviewing all boards and commissions to determine what vacancies need to be filled, why some haven't met in years and which should be formally dissolved.

"Within the next 60 days, we will have a plan formulated to share with City Council, so that together, we can verify which are functioning groups as intended, and which perhaps, should be removed from City Code," said John Rago, the mayor's deputy chief of staff for policy and communications, in an email.

A staff member in the mayor's office is responsible for maintaining the list of boards and commissions and notifying higher-ups of vacancies. Purzycki's office is considering transferring management of certain groups to the departments most closely related to their operations.

"We feel this will provide better administrative oversight of the groups," Rago said.

Councilman Bob Williams said groups created as a "kneejerk reaction to a situation" should be removed from the code.

"Instead of taking action, they comprise these panels and boards to study (issues)," he said. "Seventy-some boards, I think it’s overkill."

But the District 8 councilman wonders why some groups, such as the ethics commission, are allowed to disappear while others, like the Wilmington Tree Commission, continue to meet.

"Is it selective amnesia? Are they concerned with what the boards' recommendations are so they selectively forget to reenact them?," Williams asked.

'Asleep at the switch'

One reason many boards and commissions are forgotten could be that the city does not maintain its data in an easily searchable format.

City law states that the mayor or a designee must keep and update "a computerized database" of all city boards, commissions, task forces, committees, and similar entities.

The code says that database is supposed to maintain the same information fields as the governor's database. According to the governor's office, this includes appointee name, appointment date, reappointment date, expiration date, city, county, party and gender.

The state publishes a list of boards and commissions on its website.

In Wilmington, no such spreadsheet exists.

When The News Journal filed a Freedom of Information Act for the code-mandated database, the newspaper instead got hundreds of paper documents in pdf files. The mayor's office said it is complying with the code.

"It’s obvious to me they’re not following the minimum criteria to keep this thing computerized and it needs to be assigned to someone in an authoritative position," Williams said.

The records do not follow a format. Some groups listed the city code section that created it, members, contact persons and an indication of their status. Others listed crossed-out names or "n/a" in the membership field and "inactive" as its status with no explanation of why the group stopped meeting and no note of its last meeting.

"That's ridiculous," said Flaherty. "If 400 pages of explanation are required, that’s craziness."

For some groups, like the Arbitration Commission, the city doesn't seem to know what happened. "Commission likely inactive," city records indicate about its membership. The "contact person/status" is listed as "unclear."

The database, nicknamed by the city code "The COWBAC" for City of Wilmington Boards and Commissions, is supposed to be updated "not less than quarterly" and copies of each update are supposed to be provided to the president and each member of city council, according to the city code.

But that doesn't actually happen.

Williams said he's received "nothing in five years" he's been in office.

"It sends a message that they’re asleep at the switch," Flaherty said. "They need to be alert to all the avenues of government. This is one vital function of that."

The administration will compile "a more concise database" in the next 60 days, Rago said. He added that the mayor's office will also start providing the required reports to council by next year and will post updates to the city website.

Contact Christina Jedra at cjedra@delawareonline.com, (302) 324-2837 or on Twitter @ChristinaJedra.

In the absence of a city database of boards and commissions, The News Journal made its own. Red indicates an inactive group. Yellow means the group dissolved or the responsibilites were assigned elsewhere.