By Rachel Sawicki

NEW CASTLE — A resolution for the first step to create neighborhood improvement districts in New Castle County was passed by County Council on Tuesday.

The 9-3 vote, with one absence, followed nearly 30 minutes of debate between council members about service fees that would ultimately come with the creation of NIDs.

Before the county can levy any fees on unincorporated areas, the Delaware General Assembly must give the county approval to do so. Thus, the resolution passed by council Tuesday is not yet creating the districts but asking GA for legislation authorizing them.

One of the sponsors, Councilwoman Lisa Diller, said that, in her years on council, she has heard numerous criticisms of how the government treats communities.

“How the police aren’t always there when they should be there, how people are calling and complaining that they have rats and everything else in their neighborhood because of the garbage that’s been out there,” she said. “So this is, in my mind, a way to look at some of the communities that cannot govern themselves and see if we can be some sort of stabilizing force within those communities.”

She added that creating NIDs is a “pilot program” but that she and the other three sponsors have been discussing and researching the ups and downs of the proposal for nearly a year.

“Those of us who have these challenged communities have really struggled with how to assist them,” she said. “I think this is a best-faith effort, … to try and assist our constituents.”

Councilman George Smiley said he lives in one such community, adding that some people move to an unincorporated area so they don’t have to pay a municipality for services. And Councilman Bill Bell said there are certain residents who likely won’t ante up and pay their fair share of service fees if they are placed in an NID, which could lead to confusion about enforcement.

“Who would take the reins as far as any type of penalties?” he asked.

Additionally, some NIDs would have the option to include more police services, based on a particular community’s needs.

Councilman Jea Street voiced vehement opposition to creating NIDs in regards to the fees, as well. He said the crime initiative that would be included in an NID is a “hoax” and that fees imposed on property owners for services will just be passed on to renters.

“None of you have as many challenged communities as I do, and I don’t support this,” Councilman Street said. “For one, you’re gonna take low-income communities and tax them further for police services that are obviously not working. And second, … the slumlords who are helping to cause the problem won’t suffer, but the people who have to stay there, they’re going to have to pay the increase in cost of rent, and I don’t think it’s going to change anything.”

Councilman John Cartier, another of the resolution’s sponsors, said the fees are intended to be limited in scope.

“It is not about paying for extra police,” he said. “It is mostly about public sanitation and having neighborhoods that have a better level of service for things that are very common in most neighborhoods throughout New Castle County and are managed on a volunteer basis by residents in those communities.”

Councilwoman Diller noted a few reasons why an area would roll in funding for extra police protection, namely community events, and that no one will be “automatically charged” for law enforcement services.

Councilman Street asserted that community policing won’t be the answer for all neighborhoods, since it is really about response. He said that crimes in his district generally get no attention, and police wait “for all hell to break loose” before running in with five or six cars.

Councilman Street added that the large sum of federal funding the county received during the pandemic should be spent on solving community issues at hand rather than imposing another fee on residents.

Councilman Cartier went on to clarify that NIDs are not just about service fees, and that community engagement and education about the benefits of such services are essential to making them work.

“Governance structure just can’t work these things out because they don’t have the resources to work them out,” he said. “But if we do the planning right, if we engage them with good technical people to do it and if we provide some incentives to help them get up and running and get all the programs under control, I think it can help, and I think it can build that civic pride and capacity.”

The one thing that most of council did seem to agree on was the issue of landlord-dominated communities. Councilman Cartier said that select neighborhoods he represents are dominated by absentee landlords, who have implemented a business model to extract wealth from residents in the form of Section 8 vouchers or private rent but don’t tend to overhead expenses.

“So what we have is an ongoing problem where New Castle County government, like a dog chasing its tail, is going back in, cleaning communities up,” he said. “The fee would go to the landlord. It doesn’t necessarily go to the tenant. That’s a decision of the landlord to do that. And then, if they fail to pay, then it would be incumbent upon New Castle County government to decide if we’re going to ... recover these back fees, just like we would a property tax.”

In levying taxes from rental properties, the government is one step removed from tenants through the landlords, who could actually be a large corporation or LLC rather than a single property owner. Councilman Street said that if people were not paying for trash or snow removal because they couldn’t afford it before, they won’t start paying it now.

“So now, we’re saying we’re going to snatch these properties from the landlord,” he said. “To me, it just doesn’t make any sense.”

Now that this resolution has passed, it is unclear when the GA will consider the legislation. If and when state lawmakers do authorize NIDs, however, another resolution must be passed by council to move forward with creating them.