Councilwoman Zanthia Oliver has been publically reprimanded by the Wilmington Ethics Commission.
Wilmington City Councilwoman Zanthia Oliver was given a public reprimand by the city’s ethics commission after voting during a meeting to allocate $200,000 to her brother’s nonprofit.
Norman Oliver’s organization, Our Youth, Inc., offers physical and educational services for children in New Castle County to help them stay on the right path and set them up for success in their future endeavors.
According to the Wilmington Ethics Commission’s public reprimand, the councilwoman voted in 2020 for a 196-page resolution which laid out numerous beneficiaries of different grants, one being her brother’s group.
The grant allocations were officially approved by the city council’s Community Development and Urban Planning committee on May 14, 2020, and the funds were given to Our Youth as part of the council’s 2021 action plan.
Whenever there is a conflict of interest, which includes actions that benefit a relative, Wilmington’s city code requires members to vote “present” instead of “yes” or “no.” Oliver voted “yes,” according to the ethics commission.
Oliver will remain on the city council. Attempts to reach her for comment Thursday were unsuccessful, but she told WDEL that she apologizes to the Ethics Committee and her constituents.
“I was voting on a whole package, not an individual line item. My vote wasn’t the deciding vote, so it was all a misfortune,” Oliver told WDEL.
The reprimand comes a month after Councilman James Spadola introduced a bill to stop nepotism in the city council during the March Finance and Economic Development Committee meeting.
The ordinance would prohibit members of the council from hiring close relatives of current council members.
Oliver was one of the two council members who pushed back, saying she didn’t want council members to get involved with issues that don’t pertain to them and she didn’t want to crush the dreams of some family member who may want to follow family into government.
The City Council is taking a final vote on that ordinance tonight at 6:30 p.m.
Raised in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Jarek earned a B.A. in journalism and a B.A. in political science from Temple University in 2021. After running CNN’s Michael Smerconish’s YouTube channel, Jarek became a reporter for the Bucks County Herald before joining Delaware LIVE News.
