UPCOMING
BUDGET
MEETINGS:
Wednesday, April 6
7 p.m.
City Council Workshop
Budget review:
Welfare, Library, Recreation and Community Services, departmental budgets
Wednesday, April 13
7 p.m.
City Council Meeting
School budget public hearing
Wednesday, April 20
7 p.m.
City Council Special Meeting
City budget public hearing
Wednesday, April 20
Following Special Meeting
City Council Workshop
Fire and Police departmental budgets
Wednesday, May 4
6 p.m.
City Council Workshop
General budget review
Wednesday, May 4
Following Workshop
City Council Special Meeting
Budget adoption
Wednesday, May 11
7 p.m.
City Council Meeting
Fallback budget adoption date
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MORE
INFORMATION, RESOURCES
AVAILABLE AT:
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Budget presentations continue
The City Council held its first budget workshop on Wednesday, March 30, where it reviewed several departmental budgets, including School, Executive, Finance, Planning and Information Technology. These proposed budgets, budget presentations and accompanying slides can be viewed on the FY2023 Budget Revelead webpage.
The next workshop is Wednesday, April 6 with departmental budget presentations from Welfare, Library, Recreation and Community Services.
This week's presentations
at a glance
Education
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From left, William Harbron, Superintendent of Schools, Michael Limanni, SAU Business Administrator. |
The Education component of the proposed budget provides General Fund expenditures of $74,955,593, a $5,270,233 increase over the current budget year, or 7.6%. It includes $6,439,335 budgeted for debt principal and interest payments.
The Education budget represents several divisions, including student support services, instructional programs, administrative services, facilities and operations and transportation.
As proposed, the Education budget is $4,284,435 over the school portion of the tax cap. With the city's portion $100,000 under the tax cap, the total tax cap overage is $4,184,435. It would require a two-thirds majority vote for the City Council to adopt the budget as proposed.
The School Board held budget workshops in January and February to craft the budget now in front of the City Council. These workshops and accompanying documents are available on the FY2023 Budget Revealed webpage.
Executive
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City Manager J. Michael Joyal, Jr. |
The Executive Department proposed budget totals $2,169,947, and an increase of $324,090 or 17.6%
The Executive Department budget includes the following divisions: the City Manager's office, Human Resources office, Media Services office, City Attorney's office and Business Development office (formerly Economic Development).
Fiscal Year 2023 objectives of the Executive Department include:
- Economical, efficient and effective management of city government;
- Advising the Mayor and City Council on policymaking matters related to the overall administration of the city government;
- Recommending proposals and programs which address the long-term needs of the community;
- Coordinating with city departments in reaching goals of departmental strategic management plans;
- Revising the new hire onboarding process;
- Negotiating a successor collective bargaining agreement with the city's seven unions to include the smooth transition to a new classification system;
- Redesigning the city's website, and improving and integrating website search tools;
- Improvements to the city's broadcast infrastructure of all governmental and educational programming;
- Partnering with private property owners and developers to leverage public infrastructure improvements to create economic opportunities;
- Coordinating and overseeing downtown infill projects;
- Supporting and recommending initiatives for economic development within the city.
The Executive Department budget begins on page 213 of the proposed budget, which can be viewed here.
Finance
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Dan Lynch, Finance Director |
The Finance Department proposed budget totals $2,459,971, an increase of $202,257, or 9%, above the current year's budget.
The Finance Department budget includes the following divisions: Finance and Accounting, Tax Assessment, City Clerk and Tax Collection Office and the Election Division.
Fiscal Year 2023 priorities include:
- Expanding the use of electronic processing, imaging and record retention;
- Implementing electronic public procurement to streamline the submission and review process and increase bid responses;
- Obtaining and implementing new appraisal software and initiating new agreements for contracted assessing and data collection services;
- Efficiently conducting primary and general elections this year.
The Finance Department budget begins on page 253 of the proposed budget, which can be viewed here.
Planning and Community Development
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Donna Benton, Planning and Community Development Director |
The Planning and Community Development proposed budget totals $966,396, an increase of $37,834, or 4.1%, above the current year's budget.
The department's responsibilities include maintaining and implementing the Master Plan, fostering context-sensitive development, maintaining and administering the planning approval process, and advising several land use boards, including the Planning Board, Zoning Board of Adjustment and the Open Lands Committee.
Fiscal Year 2023 priorities for the Planning Department include:
- Completion of the Master Plan's Vision chapter and the Resilience Plan;
- Reviewing and updating impact fee methodologies
- Coordinating and overseeing the Captial Improvements Program and design work on downtown pedestrian and vehicular access project;
- Supporting initiatives for affordable housing and economic development;
- Continuing to increase interaction with citizens and community organizations in an ongoing effort to familiarize the departments with the wants and needs of the community.
The Planning and Community Development budget begins on page 291 of the proposed budget, which can be viewed here.
DoverNet/Information Technology
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Annie Dove, Information Technology Director |
The DoverNet/Office of Information Technology portion of the proposed budget totals $1,748,481, an increase of $380,948, or 27.9 percent, over the current year's budget.
The IT department promotes the community's connection to its local government services through accessible and accurate information services. It also supports and assists municipal staff by providing access to responsive, easy-to-use, secure and reliable information technology systems and services.
Information Technology's Fiscal Year 2023 priorities include:
- Continue administration of self-insured maintenance program for client systems, printing and other network devices;
- Providing or coordinating staff training when and where required to improve user efficiency;
- Continued administrator-level training to retain the majority of administration in-house and to support the design of fiscally responsible solutions using current and accepted technologies;
- Augmenting the delivery of information and services provided to the community using various Internet-based methods where possible.
The DoverNet budget begins on page 709 of the proposed budget, which can be viewed here. |
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The General Fund accounts for 77.9% of the operational spending of the City of Dover. The General Fund, funded primarily through property taxes, incorporates the spending in such areas as Police, Fire, Community Services and the School Department.
Proprietary Funds are the next largest group, making up nearly 11.4% of the City's spending. This group is self-supporting and includes the Water and Sewer Utility Funds and the Internal Service Funds. The Internal Service Funds are grouped in this section as they have the same basis of accounting, with City departments as their primary customer.
Special Revenue Funds are funds whose revenues are restricted to specific areas of spending, representing 10.7% of expenditures of the City. Many are federal grants, such as the Community Development Block Grant and the School Federal Education Funds. Other Special Revenue Funds were established by the City Council, such as the Parking Activity Fund, Residential Solid Waste Fund, and OPEB Liability Fund. The budget presents the Downtown Dover Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Fund and the Waterfront TIF Fund as Special Revenue Funds. Both these funds are utilized to account for the costs of financing public improvements in each TIF district.
For more information about budget funds, view "Budget Analysis," included on page 14 of the Fiscal Year 2023 Proposed Budget and page 8 of the "Summary of Proposed Budget" document. Click here to access both documents. |
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What's the difference between
public and private finances?
Government finance is notably different from private-sector finances. Perhaps the most significant difference is transparency.
By design, the municipal budget and government finances are open and transparent, allowing public access to all aspects of the city's finances, including reports that track spending and revenue. This transparency enables the city to communicate its financial health to its stakeholders, including taxpayers and elected officials. The city follows rigorous governmental accounting standards to track and report financial performance. These practices have resulted in numerous awards for excellence in accounting. The City of Dover provides easy access to these reports on its Financial Information webpage.
Another key factor in public financial practices is how priorities are determined. The city's priorities are articulated, debated and decided upon by involved citizens and the community's elected representatives who serve on the School Board and City Council.
The School Board adopts its budget in February, which is included in the overall proposed budget before the City Council in March.
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Want to know more? In addition to the online resource for this fiscal year's budget, check out Budget Revealed for more information about the budget process, including previous budgets, insight into the budget cycle, and additional multimedia content.
Click on the image below to view:
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