An interesting time at Upper Darby Township Council Committee meetings tonight. My Councilwoman, Marah Manners, wanted to present some issues with the administration of the Township budget. Council did not want to hear what she had to say. This is the statement that she would have made prefaced by the relevant sections of the Home Rule Charter: "Comments Regarding General Fund Budget Reports Dated July 1 and August 1, 2013 "Ref: Home Rule Charter Section 909. Amendments after Adoption "A. Supplemental Appropriations. If during the fiscal year the Chief Administrative Officer certifies that there are available for appropriation revenues in excess of those estimated in the budget, Council by ordinance may make supplemental appropriations for the year up to the amount of such excess. ... "C. Reduction of Appropriations. If at any time during the fiscal year it appears probable to the Chief Administrative Officer that the revenue available will be insufficient to meet the amount appropriated, he shall report to the Council, through the Mayor, without delay, indicating the estimated amount of the deficit, any remedial action taken by him, and his recommendations as to any other steps to be taken. The Council shall then take such further action as it deems necessary to prevent or minimize any deficit; and for that purpose, it may by ordinance reduce one or more appropriations. "D. Transfer of Appropriations. At any time during the fiscal year, the Mayor may transfer part or all of any unencumbered appropriation balance among programs within a department, office, or agency and, upon written request by the Mayor, the Council may by ordinance transfer part or all of any unencumbered appropriation balance from one department, office, or agency to another. ... "Section 911. Administration of Budget "No payment shall be made or obligation incurred against any appropriation except in accordance with appropriations duly made and unless the Chief Administrative Officer or his designee first certifies that there is a sufficient unencumbered balance in such appropriation and that sufficient funds are or will be available to cover the claim or meet the obligation when it becomes due or payable. Any authorization of payment or incurring of obligation in violation of the provisions of this Charter shall be void and any payment so made illegal; such action shall be cause for removal of any officer who knowingly authorized or made such payment or incurred such obligation, and he shall also be liable to the Township for any amount so paid. ... " "Based on the July 1 Budget Report I was prepared to say that the budget was generally doing well. The two major exceptions to that were fire and police overtime which were running low and needed additional funds. However a comparison to the August 1 report and a review of the Home Rule Charter raises serious issues. "Examination of the two reports reveals that the General Fund budget was increased by $27,105.61 from $69,133,856.70 to $69,160,962.31 without any action of Council as required by Section 909 A of the Home Rule Charter. This is not easily discovered as on both reports each line item in the columns Original Budget and Current Budget is the same but some differ from report to report. "The Original Budget column is a statement of historical fact. This purports to be the budget adopted in December 2012. The Current Budget should reflect any authorized changes from that time. Each individual report purports to reflect the performance of the original budget but at least the August 1 report instead reports the performance of a later budget adopted administratively. "There are several line items on each report that have negative numbers in the current expenditures column. Many are in line items that do not suggest a reasonable explanation other than correcting previous mistakes. "I need to know, and Council should be interested in knowing, how these changes appeared in the budget."
Posted on: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 01:39:10 +0000
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