WILMINGTON — Devon Scott is running for mayor of Wilmington against incumbent Mayor Bill Saffo.
Note: Candidate interviews are published largely without editing (besides minor typographical corrections) and without limits on length. Both mayoral candidates received the same questions (which included those asked of council members, in addition to some just for the mayoral race). The questions appear in bold with answers in italics below.
Mayoral role: What’s your view of the mayor’s role in leading Wilmington?
Other than owning our ideals, given Wilmington’s style of government, there is very little the mayor can do on their own. We have a “council-manager” form of government in Wilmington, so the mayor and those on city council have equal rights, obligations, and opportunities. The power is the council as a whole, not at the discretion of the mayor as it is in a “strong mayor” system. The mayor and city council appoint the City Clerk, City Attorney, and City Manager; and establish policy, approve the budget, and generally act as the legislative body for the city.
But the mayor is something more. The mayor is the face and spokesperson of the city; responsible for setting the tone, listening to the concerns of the citizens, serving as the promoter and the defender of the community, acting as the key representative in intergovernmental relations, and communicating the voice of the people of Wilmington to the world.
To do this effectively the mayor should be a good communicator and have the capacity to hold empathy for all people. And the mayor should be able to articulate a vision, one that they can uphold in their words and their actions, and that the public can feel is honest and authentic, so as to stimulate the level of public trust and civic activity required to build a healthy and thriving city.
Mayoral vision: As mayor, what would you like to see Wilmington accomplish over the next two years? What long-term goals would you like to move the ball forward on?
The first thing we need to implement is a thorough and impartial ethics board. If our first action is to make sure city council is run ethically – and with accountability and transparency – we will have solved a systemic problem while bringing positive impact and credibility to every subsequent decision that council makes in one action. What we have now, whether they realize it or not, is a mockery from the public towards local government. Comfort invites corruption, people do not trust our local government to make decisions for us, many are angry, others have checked out completely. This is no way to run a city.
A government that does not express true equality on all levels is defeating its purpose. We must unlock the potential of our citizens and infrastructure, and identify all places where favoritism or neglect is present in government – including purchasing, policy, and government culture – and abolish it. We have amazing people in our city and that work for us in city government, they deserve to be lifted, listened to, and empowered. We need to address the fact that Wilmington is the last large city in North Carolina to have local voting districts. And we need to engage the root of our problems in representation and make government transparent and accessible to all people from technology to wages.
In the short term, I would like to work with city council to craft a Smart Growth Filter that will serve to guide our growth responsibly. We must regenerate our social and environmental systems and restore them to a level of health that improves the quality of life of the people. This can only happen through honest intentioned government and active civic engagement.
Over the next two years, I would like to see city staff complete a “Wilmington 2050 Plan” with an agenda of achieving a balance between growth and quality of life, becoming a carbon-neutral city, attaining compassion in our culture, and coherence in our posture towards equality, ecology, and economy.
Affordable housing: One of the most common concerns we hear from readers is the need for affordable housing. Is the city doing enough to address the issue? If not, what specific plans would you suggest?
There are some interesting ideas around developer subsidization through housing trusts and multi-family zoning that we should explore, but the operable word in affordable housing is “affordable.” Our affordable housing issue is mostly a wage problem and an ownership problem.
When we do not pay sufficient wages to our city staff we are weakening the backbone of our city. Firefighters just received a raise but still have a starting salary of only $36,000/yr, police officers start at $39,000/yr, solid waste workers $27,000/yr. If the people who work for the city cannot afford to live in the city, again, that is no way to build and grow a city.
You can take this further to the salaries of elected officials. The mayor makes ~$14,000/yr, city council just under $11,000/yr. We are too big and important a city to have part-time elected officials working at a part-time wage. Wilmington compensates its elected officials at roughly half of the average salary in NC. For example, the mayor of Charlotte is compensated almost $40,000/yr with expense accounts and auto allowance.
Running for mayor in Wilmington is a means test. Not only does the low wage of our elected officials disenfranchise 99% of Wilmingtonians from being able to afford to run for public office, but it attracts people that can use their power to compensate off of their day job. This conflict of interest is at the root of our representation issues. We need a representation revolution in Wilmington.
Without addressing the growing prosperity gap in our city we are crippling ourselves, effectively watching a wedge divide and conquer the better angels of our potential. If our elected leaders do not infuse some imagination and true compassion for the strife being created by the machinations of their making we are essentially legislating the slow destruction of our city.
Ownership is an antidote here. Prioritizing equity doesn’t happen on its own, it is a choice based on the simple premise that we all do better when we all do better.
Mass transportation: WAVE is in financial crisis and, by some accounts, fails to adequately connect low-income areas with workplaces efficiently (sometimes called a ‘last mile’ problem). Some have suggested cutting back services, others have called for more local support for WAVE. Where do you stand, and what would you like to see public transportation look like in the Wilmington area?
When speaking with the city you get the impression that they feel they’ve been bailing WAVE out of its troubles. Meanwhile, WAVE feels like it is accomplishing a lot despite being routinely underfunded, and feels its hands are tied without a vision from city leadership regarding what public transportation needs to look like for our strategic growth. There is definitely a relationship to repair and priorities and clear communication to establish.
In Wilmington, the public transit systems have become synonymous with poverty, which is not the case in other comparable cities. This has varied reasons, including lack of commitment and ingenuity, and the geographical shape of our city.
We can get around these challenges by refocusing our efforts towards targeted and multi-modal strategies to fund, expand, and diversify public transit services. We can look to the county for more support, or to a greater partnership with UNC-Wilmington and Cape Fear Community College. For example, Appalachian State in Boone and UNC-Chapel Hill both subsidize the bus system and provide rides to all citizens fare-free. By seeking partnerships to make sense of the problem, we can increase the quality of service and fill the gaps with creative solutions like ridesharing.
We could even look at privatizing the transit system in a responsible way. The market works much better on transit than it does for things that involve public health like agriculture or health care.
In the case of WAVE, the bottom line is that a public bus system stuck in the middle of a lack of commitment and a perception of poverty that only shows up hourly and is not functional for the average person will never see the ridership it needs to be an effective vehicle for reducing traffic, connecting the city, and serving as the lifeline that it is to many of the citizens in our city.
Employment: What are your thoughts on Wilmington’s job scene? Are you satisfied with the way incentives have been used in the past? What other specific plans would you suggest to bring jobs to the area — and what kinds of jobs would you like to see here?
I have over a decade of experience working with startups and entrepreneurs, so this subject is near and dear to me. Plus, I’ve had very fulfilling experiences facilitating workforce development programs as a volunteer with StepUp Wilmington.
The form of economic development we have adopted in Wilmington is a legitimate strategy, but insufficient for our problems. We are attracting new residents into our tax base, but we are not meeting the demand for good-paying jobs for our existing citizens by attracting businesses that will hire.
The top-end problem is that Wilmington lacks a clear and obvious brand. Without a compelling strategic identity it is difficult to focus our recruitment on clean forward-thinking businesses that reinforce our values and potential. Just like when establishing a product for market, first we identify our ideal client, then we establish our story and policies to facilitate the desired results. This goes both for attracting businesses that will provide positions and for attracting citizens that add to an attractive labor pool.
Another part of attracting those companies is demonstrating that our city is a great place to launch and incubate successful businesses. We have to establish infrastructure that supports innovators. One of the most important things I want to see from our region is a greater number of IPs and patents being produced and utilizing our current spark of entrepreneurship to light a fire by. Live-work-play and similar models really fit our regional culture and build the type of communities that our local entrepreneurs need to expand.
We already have great companies starting and growing in Wilmington and we are not doing enough to help them. Our economic priorities should lie in showing the world that we can nurture and cultivate forward-thinking companies that can make an impact on the regional, national, and global scene. If we can create an environment where businesses can be creative and grow, then that activity takes on a life of its own and benefits the entire community.
With our natural amenities and convenient airport, we are well suited to recruit the remote working community. And we need to do whatever it takes to get film back and healthy again in Wilmington. Film and tech are great examples of clean and diversified industries that we can work to attract as part of our brand strategy.
Incentivizing companies to bring 50 jobs and a lifetime of pollution is no way to build a healthy city.
Downtown: Wilmington has paid special attention to its downtown area in terms of incentives, police presence, marketing, and other services (including those provided by WDI). What are your thoughts on the current state of downtown? Are there any specific changes you’d like to see in the downtown area?
The immediate downtown and Riverwalk areas have been developed quite impressively over the last decade. Unfortunately, this growth has left many people, even entire communities behind.
According to the Youth Enrichment Zone, there are approximately 3,900 residents in the Northside community of downtown Wilmington – a 140 block area from 4th to 14th Street and Market to Bess Street – where the median income is $26,427, about half of the county average. Due to high demand for downtown real estate, growth, and gentrification, home ownership is declining and poverty levels are increasing.
As is food security. In the Northside Community Health Assessment access to healthy food was identified as a top barrier, and only 72% of residents can use their own vehicles to buy food. There is literature created by the city from 2003 promoting a grocery in the Northside by 2005. That was 14 years ago.
In Stockton, CA they developed a basic income program that provided 100 families $500 a month, and after eight months and a review of receipts, they determined that 40% of the money was spent on food. According to Nourish NC, in New Hanover County 1 in 4 children struggles with hunger. No more food deserts in Wilmington.
We can choose to engage poverty and food insecurity in many different ways. We can prioritize gardens, living walls, fruit trees in streetscapes, and rooftop gardens like we already have on several buildings downtown. We can make a commitment to a City/County Farm that can serve to educate and let children get their hands dirty, serve as a resource for the mental health community, and also for training to use urban agriculture as an economic development tool.
We need to let the culture of downtown breathe. We can do this by empowering our arts community, and stimulating the artist in all of us. We need painted murals as crosswalks in the city’s arts district, and painted intersections in neighborhoods, and other forms of commissioned public art.
I would also be interested to explore making Water Street car-free. This was done in downtown Charlottesville, VA with great success, and would provide the opportunity to expand Water Street Park into a more functional walking and meeting space. Also Bijou Park, let’s put a world-class living urban stormwater demonstration there as a gesture to the reverence we have for the river.
Development: There’s been a lot of discussion about how development has taken place in Wilmington. Are you satisfied with that process? Is there anything about it you’d like to change?
Development in Wilmington is out of control. We must establish a Smart Growth Filter for the city, which ensures that there is a public value checklist applied when making development decisions going forward. If our code reflects our values, there is a check to runaway development.
The Wilmington Comprehensive Plan already has many of the ideas we should begin implementing in the city. The fact that these ideas are not visible in our current decisions speaks to the priorities of our current leadership.
Smart Growth is sensible, planned efficient growth that integrates economic development and job creation with community quality of life by preserving and enhancing the manufactured and natural environment. It encourages healthy growth management through diversity and balance, reduces municipal costs, reduces traffic, regenerates the environment, and improves public health. Finally, it puts true market value on public treasures such as trees, water, parks, and green spaces.
I will work with City Council to ask city staff to draft Wilmington Smart Growth Filter following these principles:
- Improves the quality of life of our citizens
- Avoids the unnecessary cost of sprawl development
- Supports an effective use of public transportation
- Improves our position on affordable housing
- Creates jobs that do not pollute
- Encourages the hiring of local contractors
- Explores Defensive Design postures for our region
- Development near existing development & infrastructure
- Increases the range of housing opportunities
- Protects green space & critical resources
- Increases connectivity, bikeability & walkability
- Respects the desired character of the community
- Is regenerative & sustainable towards Culture, Resources & Rights
The Wilmington Smart Growth Filter infuses every aspect of our platform. There is no other issue that touches more of the important issues facing the future of this city or the people who live in it than the way our growth and land are managed.
But a policy is only as good as a vision that directs it. Wilmington is in great demand, and in many ways our growth is inevitable, the task is to shepherd this growth in ways that bring real value to all Wilmingtonians.
Green space/trees: Every city approaches its green spaces and urban canopy differently. What are your thoughts on Wilmington’s approach? What changes, if any, would you make?
Runaway development, the practice of putting profit before people, and the conventional wisdom of the status quo are actively undermining the natural beauty of our environment and the quality of life in Wilmington.
Wilmington has three times the number of parking spaces to green spaces, and only 10% of its land left open and vacant of development. This puts a supreme value on our open areas and, given our relative lack of parks and public amenities, means that we need to make sure we allocate this area in an equitable way however possible. This includes both as public amenities, and also as potential carbon sinks that can be leveraged to move Wilmington to carbon-neutrality.
It is fair to say that Wilmington does not cherish its trees. One specific point is to reprioritize the city tree division to focus on fertility and maintenance rather than on removal and replacement. There are many tree companies in Wilmington that can handle the removal of trees, so we can let the market bring us the best price. If we instead focus on proper planting techniques, improving soil conditions through fertility, and healthy maintenance; we will increase our tree canopy and all of the benefits that this provides, boost the quality and health of our trees, and enhance the aesthetic and functional value that trees have for our community.
Next time you drive down Randall Parkway pay attention to the trees in the median the entire length of the road. Not only is it embarrassing and totally avoidable with some basic agronomy, our inattention to the health and quality of our trees is costing us in so many different ways.
Finally, we need to strengthen our code to protect trees based on their true market value. We can no longer allow heritage oaks to be replaced with crape myrtles. Value engineering trees doesn’t work. And it doesn’t work for development projects either.
Environmental concerns: Could Wilmington do more to address environmental concerns? If so, what, specifically, would you suggest?
The phrase “quality of life” is used a lot in Wilmington politics. The phrase is typically used to describe the reasons that people want to move here, not the actual quality of life for the citizens that currently live here.
We can start by acknowledging the problem. Despite our incredible natural environment, Wilmington has increasingly become known for the wrong things – GenX, CAFO’s, coal ash, and more. The toxification of our local ecosystems and the poisoning of our people are a result of corporate malfeasance that represents a profound trespass of public trust and deserves serious consequences.
This is a big story and a big issue to tackle, but I will work to make it harder for corporate interests to put our public health at risk, and make it easier to take action against those that do. Within the city, I will pursue policies like emissions ordinances to protect us from contaminants and environmental toxins produced by companies like Enviva and the methyl bromide fumigation industry.
According to the American Rivers organization in 2017 the Cape Fear and Neuse Rivers are the number seven most endangered river in the United States. Wilmington drinking water is polluted with PFAS “forever chemicals” from Chemours, 1,4-dioxane levels are spiking consistently from what the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority says are from “upstream discharge” of industrial solvents, and we are actively using chemicals like glyphosate in our city land maintenance protocols. If we are sincerely going to engage environmental pollution and public health in WIlmington we need to ban synthetic pesticides city-wide.
Unknown to many people in Wilmington, we have the largest concentration of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) in surrounding counties that release pathogens, pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, and other pollutants into the air, soil, and water – particularly when uncovered manure lagoons are compromised in hurricanes.
The conventional agricultural practices conducted in our sister rural counties has a major impact on what happens with us downstream. We cannot continue to sit back and be polluted, we must engage the practice of toxic rescue chemistry with regenerative agricultural methods that are not only cleaner, but more profitable for farmers.
Many are frustrated by the seeming lack of jurisdiction in the city given the remote nature of some of our problems, but there is always more that we can do. For instance, we can enact the legal “rights of nature” for the Cape Fear River as the citizens of Toledo, OH recently did for Lake Erie, and bring the balance of power back to reason. The key is to never give up our creativity.
Not addressing the environmental concerns that are rampant in our area as a matter of life and death is irresponsible, and is not only bad for business, it is bad for people and the quality of life of our citizens. Nobody wants to live in a poisoned city.
Opioid epidemic: What are your thoughts on the city’s efforts to combat the opioid crisis? Anything specific you would change, encourage, avoid?
Wilmington is the number one worst city for opioid abuse in the entire United States. This is not a result of any single policy or personality, it is a symptom of our wounded culture. We cannot have a serious engagement with substance abuse without first choosing to view drug abuse as a disease and not a crime, and then making a heartfelt commitment to the plight of trauma and mental illness.
Harm reduction practices have already laid out a blueprint for saving lives in the face of this epidemic. In places where harm reduction groups are unable to participate, we need to engage our law enforcement by moving their focus from victimless crimes to those that are an obstacle to opioid recovery groups where they are most needed. This collaboration has already begun in some ways, but still isn’t serving the entire community equally.
Not to hearken to a “lesser of two evils” mentality, but we certainly need to embrace all safe alternatives to opioids. Most of these activities do not fall into the realm of policy, but rather into leadership and support from the city.
Jim Crow-era monuments: The two ‘Confederate monuments’ in downtown Wilmington — erected in 1911 and 1924 — have been a source of controversy. Do you have any specific ideas on how to address these monuments?
We have a lot of cultural healing to do. The racial coup of 1898 still lingers in our cultural posture and must be addressed with bravery and compassion. The monuments in question represent and antagonize a still open wound in the history and legacy of our city, and that is why they must be removed or relocated. Despite what they stand for, they are art, and so we should appoint the Arts Council to provide three options for public vote in their place. Public art is sacred, and we must make sure it speaks for all people, not a relic of our past.
Transparency: Do you think the city and its leaders conduct business transparently? If not, what concerns do you have?
Of course, if our leaders were hiding something we wouldn’t know it, but to answer the question, no. I have experienced in this campaign and in city council meetings situations where clear conflicts of interest and abuse of power are communicated.
There is no more important function of government than equality. One of the reasons I am running is a sense that the motives of our decision makers in Wilmington are not representative of all people. And I am not the only one, while campaigning and out around town I am constantly approached by people who do not feel heard by the city and have serious issues about how this city is conducting business.
Leadership comes down to trust, and this is why we have elections. My experience in this campaign has been that I do not think we understand how crippled we have been by the lack of commitment to true equality, clean ecology, and equitable economy over time. I am running to change this in a big way.
Law enforcement: Are you satisfied with the approach that Chief Ralph Evangelous and the Wilmington Police Department is taking in providing law enforcement for the city? Are there specific aspects you’d like to encourage or change?
Our law enforcement is the most direct opportunity for outreach we have with citizens. We need to better compensate our police officers and empower them through the use of restorative justice practices and harm reduction strategies that work to reduce crime through compassion, accountability, and common sense.
Our local police force could be more ambitious, not in their capacity to fight crime, but in their ability to reach hearts and minds. This is not a statement towards the personalities involved, or of anything other than a collective willingness to view our problems in a new way. We cannot continue to attempt the same tactics and expect a different result.
Turnover of the police force is a consistent problem in Wilmington. The best way to create good retention is better pay, new ideas, and a healthy culture. I look forward to getting to know and learning from our law enforcement leadership, and sharing the vision I have for our city with them in the spirit of doing the people’s work.
City management: Are you satisfied with the approach the City Manager Sterling Cheatham is taking in providing leadership for city staff? Are there specific aspects you’d like to encourage or change?
I’m not too shy to admit that it was hard to learn a lot about Mr. Cheatham outside of looking directly at the work of the city staff and city government. I find that most citizens are outright unaware of him and his positions despite the role he plays in the day-to-day activities of the city. I look forward to the opportunity to get to know Mr. Cheatham better. I personally think he could be more engaged with the community and more transparent.
Experience and conflict(s) of interest: What experience do you have that you think would be beneficial for a city leader? Do you have any conflicts of interest that might cause you to recuse yourself from city business?
I am about as transparent as they come, I do not have any conflicts of interest.
I am a compassionate person. I moved to Wilmington in 1996 from Brooklyn, NY when I was 13 years old. I have experienced poverty, and through this human experience I know how hard it is for working families not to be able to make ends meet. This also taught me the meaning of hard work.
For 23 years I have had the opportunity and the privilege of living and working in this beautiful city and, not only do I love Wilmington more every day, but it has forged my sense of identity and purpose.
Over the years I have worked with many exciting companies in Wilmington as a technology developer and product consultant for businesses ranging from Petrics to nCino. I understand the needs of our entrepreneurs and small businesses, the struggle to earn a living wage in our city, and the potential for our economic future. I have volunteered for many local nonprofits, boards, and community projects over the years, including being an active member of the Network for Entrepreneurs in Wilmington, a board director for the Cape Fear Economic Development Council, and a facilitator for StepUp Wilmington.
Wilmington has welcomed me into its arts, allowed me to establish myself and my businesses, and given a home to my family. My three daughters mean the world to me. I am raising three wonderful and intelligent young women who represent the generation that will be responsible for this city in the future, and we have a lot of work to do if we are to hand them a better world than we inherited.
I am a part of Wilmington, and Wilmington is a part of me, my roots are here like a heritage oak. Wilmington has given me everything, now I want to give back in a new way. Whether engaging with businesses, adults, or children, I’ve always appreciated the blessing of being able to play a part in the community narrative. I thrive off of solving complex problems and helping people, and have dedicated my life to service for the greater good. Our city is moving in some very dangerous directions, and people from all parts of the city are telling a similar story – Wilmington has lost its way.
To compound this challenge, our decisions now are going to be what we live with forever, this is an important moment. The answer to our problems is not more concrete, it is compassion. It is a willingness to show up with integrity towards the concepts of equity and representation. I’m running to bring conscious change, and end the status quo in Wilmington.
Other thoughts – Anything else you’d like to add that hasn’t been covered?
Our home is an incredible part of the world here at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. Our local history represents the roots of this nation. We are the leader of our region in Southeastern North Carolina; what is now, and should be going into the future, one of the fastest-growing regions in the United States.
Our growth brings amazing opportunities, but must be cultivated elegantly, and brings with it great responsibility — to our visitors, to those who want to move here, but most importantly to the citizens who live here right now.
We are currently failing in this responsibility.
In our haste to accommodate rapid growth and the influx of new faces we are leaving many of our existing citizens and communities behind, we are harming our people, and we are damaging the economy and the natural beauty that brings people here and that makes people want to stay.
Over the last decade, we have been busy building a Wilmington for people who have not even moved here yet. The development community has a stranglehold over Wilmington that has resulted in a growing inequality over time, and it is clear where the group priorities of our local leadership lie. It is not with new equitable ideas, it is not with the people — it is with runaway development at all costs — it is “New Hanover Corporatism”.
Too many of the actions by our current government in Wilmington are selfish, redundant, bullish, inefficient, and moving us in the wrong direction, against the interests and wellbeing of the people.
There are many of us who see the problems we face clearly, and now is the time to do something about it. We need to organize on a higher level, we need new leadership, reinvigorated civic engagement, an ignition of local independent media, and we need to let new equitable ideas lead the way.
Over the years I have cultivated the ability to be both philosophical and practical. As a martial artist, an activity I’ve engaged in since childhood, I carry the traits of discipline and resilience as well as the martial arts philosophy of maintaining a calm mind while taking decisive action. I demonstrate this in my work, in my life, and in my leadership.
I also recognize the strength in diversity. Because of my background I represent many facets of Wilmington culture as an artist, activist, and entrepreneur, so can listen and relate to the needs and desires of many in our local culture that need to be heard with a mind towards turning it into equitable policy.
I am a philosopher, and a technologist, and a poet. An artist, an activist, and an entrepreneur. But most of all I am a human being that thinks with my brain and feels with my heart. I understand the damage that was done to our culture in the coup of 1898. This original wound needs to be addressed with a serious and open-hearted moment of racial reconciliation in this city.
I am interested to bring a new moment of compassion and imagination to our local culture in Wilmington, one that stimulates collaboration of our arts with our government and a thriving economy. One that recognizes and listens to all people. One that puts #WilmingtonFirst.
We cannot solve dynamic problems with linear thinking. Instead of a golden hammer approach, we can choose to tell new stories and seek healthy incentives instead. With this recognition, we have the opportunity to take a conscious step forward and implement a new era of action, accountability, and empathy between the local government and the people in Wilmington.
We can look beneath the symptoms, identify our weakest links, and choose a systems-based approach to city building and problem solving. With this perspective we can bring all of our human faculties of thinking, feeling, and willing into action and lift Wilmington up so we can move her forward.
I am asking for your support in this effort. My dream is to take a proxy of many thousands of people interested in engaging and working on their local government to make Wilmington the best city in the world.
Many are focused on the 2020 election, which is a very important election, but for the citizens of Wilmington our municipal election generates the greatest direct impact on our lives. The world is run by those who show up.
Only 14% of Wilmington voted in the 2017 municipal election. Let’s at least double that this cycle. Bring five people with you when you vote, and do it early. One-Stop (early) voting begins October 16th, and Election Day is November 5th, 2019.
For too long, our elected officials have been getting a free ride. It is time to bring conscious change, end the status quo, and start putting #WilmingtonFirst.
