A lawsuit filed in Superior Court on Friday afternoon claims the City of Wilmington failed to follow its own personnel policies in dismissing the former zoning administrator, Kathryn Thurston.
Wilmington-based law firm Shipman, Wright, and Moore filed the suit against the city, which focuses largely on City Manager Becky Hawke because of her reorganization and restructuring of the city staff. That effort, now being called “One City,” coincided with an increased number of dismissals compared to previous years – 39 dismissals and 4 resignations in lieu of dismissal, double the number from the previous year. Hawke has repeatedly said her reorganization would not involve layoffs and that the terminations were unrelated to the One City project.
The lawsuit centers on Thurston’s December 2025 non-voluntary resignation from her position at the city, where she had worked for 19 years. The cause of dismissal was related to a permit Thurston sought to build an accessory dwelling unit on her property within the city…