Accusations of racism infect New Castle city politics

A New Castle city councilman has been censured by the city government for "vulgar and racially charged language" used in an interaction with a constituent. 

John A. Di Mondi, 74, a local tax accountant who has served on the City Council for two two-year terms, was formally rebuked by the council last month. It's a move that amounts to no more than a public reprimand, but the residents his words offended have vowed to seek greater punishment.

The City Council is also not done with the issue. Di Mondi said he has received notice from the City Council that there will be another vote to reprimand him again based on his comments made during his first censure hearing last month.

"I think he should be removed from the council," said Aritha Brown, one of two city residents that filed complaints leading to the censure. "He is unprofessional, and he doesn't care of the people he works for."

Di Mondi denies any wrongdoing and said the censure is small-town politics in which he is the latest target of abuse of power by some on the council. 

"It is local politics is at its worst," Di Mondi said. "I'm not a racist."  

The issue stems from a parking complaint among neighbors in the William Penn Square neighborhood. Di Mondi said a white woman who lives in the predominantly black neighborhood has seen more than 100 police complaints stem from her property. He said the woman has been harassed by her neighbors living in the area over the years.  

Earlier this year, the woman complained to him that her neighbors, who are black, were blocking her driveway and making it impossible to remove a rented trash bin. Di Mondi said he unsuccessfully tried to intervene with the neighbors and then asked City Administrator Bill Barthel if parking could be restricted on the street to end the problem. 

A yellow "no parking" line was installed on the street and "the whole roof exploded," Di Mondi said.

"If she was black and these people were white, I'd do the same thing," Di Mondi said.

Brown said the area was barred from parking serves as overflow parking when residents have parties or entertain guests. She said without that parking, it's likely some would have to park on the main highway nearby, which she feels is unnecessarily dangerous.

Upset about the parking restriction and lack of notice or input from the rest of the neighborhood, she confronted Di Mondi outside his home in the city. 

What happened next is the subject of a he-said, she-said argument.

"He said 'You people have been picking on this lady for 22 years ... You black people, you don't vote for me. You never have,'" Brown said recalling the confrontation.

Di Mondi doesn't deny those comments.

"In fact, they don't vote for anyone, and they are the ones that make all the demands," Di Mondi said.

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Di Mondi said Brown was wearing a "Black Lives Matter" shirt. He said she revealed the shirt and then began cursing him.

"The ghetto talk came out," Di Mondi said, claiming Brown told him: "We don't need white [expletive] like you coming to our black community telling us what to do." 

Brown denied making that statement and said she did not seek to bring race into the argument. She also denied wearing a "Black Lives Matter" shirt during the interaction but said Di Mondi was keen to trash the movement.

"The thing was never racial," Brown said. "I wanted to talk to him about the yellow line on the street."

William Penn resident Tim Couch, who is co-pastor of Unity Christian Church, said a phone conversation with Di Mondi later took a similar tone. 

"He said, 'You people have terrorized our neighbor,'" Couch said. "He went on to say that we were a racist community."

Couch also filed a complaint against Di Mondi leading to the censure last month.

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Di Mondi said the community is racist and he was just trying to stick up for a woman who has been harassed for decades.

Couch said the comments were hurtful and unnecessarily cast a blanket statement over black residents in the area.

"When someone says 'you people' to someone black, it comes across to us as we are not human," Couch said. "I was highly offended. He was talking about the community I lived in. He is painting a picture that is not so."

Di Mondi said it is not inappropriate to use the term "black."

"Have we gone that far that we are not able to call people black anymore?" Di Mondi said. "They call themselves black."

After getting a response about the complaint from Di Mondi, the council moved to censure him.

City Council President Linda Ratchford and City Administrator Bill Barthel did not return multiple phone calls seeking comment. 

At the council meeting where the censure was passed in July, Di Mondi called Brown a "lying SOB," she said.

"I know I called her a liar, but I don't remember the SOB," Di Mondi. "Maybe I did. I was mad."

Di Mondi said he has received notice that another censure motion regarding his comments at the July meeting will be heard by the City Council in the coming weeks.

Brown said the censure amounts to a "slap on the wrist." She along with the Rev. Aaron Moore, who pastors Manna Christian Fellowship Church in Wilmington, went to various public bodies, including the attorney general and New Castle County Ethics Commission, seeking greater punishment.

Those entities said they don't have jurisdiction over such an issue, Moore said.

"We are going to have to march, get people involved and all that," Moore said. "If it takes that, that is how far I'm willing to go. Nobody has jurisdiction of New Castle City Council." 

Di Mondi said his record of helping hundreds of blacks residents through his business and other government work helping the black community see him not giving preference to white people in his district. He said he has close friends who are black and family members who are not white. Still, he said he won't tolerate being bullied by black people.

"I treat everyone the same. Everybody else should treat everybody the same," Di Mondi said. "This country gives you opportunity, not privilege."

He said intimidation from black residents has pushed politicians into inaction on important issues.

"Anytime in these days and times, when a white politician stands up for himself and isn't intimidated, he is in trouble," Di Mondi said. "I'm not going to be intimidated." 

He said he is no fan of the Black Lives Matter movement and said politicians who support the group have the blood of white officers killed recently on their hands.

"My life and my family and the people I know have lives that matter just as much as yours," Di Mondi said.

Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@delawareonline.com. Follow @Ber_Xerxes on Twitter.