Wilmington City Council President Theo Gregory announces bid for mayor

Wilmington City Council President Theo Gregory announced his bid for Mayor Tuesday.

The Democrat will face incumbent Mayor Dennis Williams, D-Wilmington, in the November 2016 elections.

Gregory, who is a lawyer and former federal prosecutor, said he’s been a public servant most of his life, and wants to improve the City of Wilmington.

“I believe the city needs a better direction and a new direction,” he said. “It needs leadership that moves the city forward—someone that can lead, implement a plan, execute the plan, be response to the community and stay on message.”

Gregory said he doesn’t believe Williams has been successful leading Wilmington in the right direction during his term as Mayor.  He said one of the major issues facing Wilmington is inadequate public safety.

“I think you put a police chief in place, and you stay out of chief’s way, and then you have a plan you put in place,” Gregory said. “The plan has to be executed with vigilance and it has to be responsive to the community.”

He said if elected he will evaluate all areas of city government to ensure they are working successfully.

“In the first four months I will put a commission together, look to transforming and modernizing city government, look at all departments and see where we have redundancy and ineffectiveness, and make all city departments better,” Gregory said.

During the election Gregory also will face former Democratic City Councilmen Kevin Kelley and Norman Griffiths.