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√ Council
may again give grants
MEMOS
AT RANDOM
An
apparent majority of County Council members wants to restore their
ability to donate to 'worthy causes'
during the coming fiscal year. Council axed the charitable grants
program from its budget for the current fiscal year.
Coucilwoman Lisa Diller told a
finance committee meeting on Mar. 9 that she would like to see money for
such grants included in the fiscal 2011 budget. She said nonprofit
community organizations are being called upon in the current economic
climate to aid more people, adding that she thought Council should
assist even if its contributions would be relatively small. Referring to
two charitable 'food pantries' in his district, John Cartier said, "You
want to be able to help them at a time when their needs have exploded."
Jea Street agreed saying that "we need to do what we need to do in terms
of our responsibility to our fellow people." During the fiscal year
ended last June 30, Council gave grants totaling $172,849, or 88.6% of
its grants budget. State government also provides such grants.
Council president Paul Clark
noted that county government continues to administer community programs
which serve a variety of social needs while some Council grants went for
other purposes. Committee chairman George Smiley said he would be
"willing to listen differently to grant requests when county employees
get back [the] 5% of their salaries" which were cut to help meet the
budget shortfall. Although there is not likely to be any public
disclosure until County Executive Chris Coons submits his budget request
on Mar. 16, Smiley's comments indicated that he thinks it likely the pay
reductions will be continued. He suggested that Council members might
agree to donate part of their office allowances to charities, but added
that he is "not interested in expanding Council's budget."
√ 'Comp'
plan drafting to start
MEMOS
AT RANDOM
Preliminary work on the quintenial update of New Castle County's
comprehensive plan will begin
with the turn of the fiscal year in July. County Council on Mar.
9 authorized the Department of Land Use to use $150,000 left
unspent in its current salary budget to hire a consultant to
facilitate and interpret the results of public involvement in
the plan-drafting process. General manager David Culver said
that, as a result of personnel reductions, the department is too
shorthanded to do that work in-house as it has done in the past.
Council president Paul Clark noted that "in a county of 550,000
people, there will be 200 or [fewer] who participate" in the
public 'input' portion of the process. Under state law, the plan
must be approved by Council at the start of 2012.
√ Ending
nurses' support decried
MEMOS
AT RANDOM
Arguing
that it would seriously endanger some 11,000 children, school officials
in the Catholic diocese are mounting a grass-roots campaign to turn back
the Markel administration's bid to eliminate the state subsidy for
school nurses.
Christine Zimmerman, the nurse
at Christ the Teacher school, said that without a licensed professional
available full-time, prescription medicines could not be given to
students who require them nor would effective help be available to deal
with medical emergencies, up to and including those which could be
life-threatening. "These subsidies are critical," Schools superintendent
Catherine Weaver said. "If the funding goes away, the nurses go away."
Joseph Fitzgerald, the diocese's registered lobbyist in Dover, said
that, as a result of efforts on behalf of all non-public schools, "we
are close to getting the votes on the [General Assembly's] Joint Finance
Committee to put the nursing money back."
State Representative Gerald
Brady told a meeting of the Delaware Catholic Advocacy Network on Mar. 8
that enacted legislation to permit table games at the racetrack casinos
and a pending measure to allow additional gambling venues in New Castle
and Sussex Counties will partly relieve the budget crisis used to
justify eliminating the nursing subsidy, partial reimbursement of the
cost of transporting students to non-public schools and driver
education. "The good news is we're getting back to where we were" before
the recession, he said. He and several attenders at the meeting referred
to indirect state support as a right of tax-paying citizens not in
violation of constitutional separation of church and state. "They
(support measures) are not a burden on public education," Brady said.
---
There will be no school board
election in the Brandywine district this year. Both board president
Debra Heffernan and Olivia Johnson-Harris filed to stand for another
term and no one came forward to challenge either of them.
---
State in running
for school grant
MEMOS
AT RANDOM
Delaware was one of 15 states
plus the District of Columbia, picked by the U.S. Department of
Education to remain in competition for 'Race to the Top' grants to
improve public schools. In a press statement on Mar. 4, the state
Department of Education claimed that being designated a finalist was
recognition of its "efforts to improve student achievement and create
stronger public schools." Neither state nor federal officials offered
understandable specifics about how the selection process worked. The
finalists will send representatives to Washington to present their cases
and winners of grants in the $4.35 billion program will be announced in
April. State officials have been vague on how the money, if received,
will be allocated among Delaware's public school districts.
McGowan named police
chief
MEMOS
AT RANDOM
The word 'acting' has been
dropped from Michael McGowan's title. He will continue to serve as chief
of the New Castle County police force, the role he assumed when Rick
Gregory, the former chief, was appointed last September to be chief
administrative officer in the Coons administration. McGowan, who joined
the force in 1989, had been Gregory's executive officer for three years.
A press statement issued by Coons's office on Mar. 4 said McGowan "was
chosen from a field of [four] strong internal applicants" on the basis
of his "education, experience and demonstrated ability." His salary in
his new position is yet to be determined, according to spokesperson
Angie Basiouny. He made $104,093 as acting chief. Requisite County
Council approval is considered certain.
√ Significant
pluses and minuses
expected in next county budget
DELAFORUM
NEWS
When
County Executive Chris Coons goes before County Council in March
to propose a budget for the coming fiscal year, his message will
have a couple of proverbial good news-bad news scenarios.
It's a safe bet
that he won't seek another increase in the property-tax rate.
Even if it were not an election year -- terms of six of the 13
members of Council expire this year and Coons himself faces a
titanic battle with implications far beyond Delaware when he
goes up against Congressman Mike Castle vying to fill the
remaining four years of Vice President Joe Biden's term in the
U.S. Senate -- there almost certainly would not be the political
will to impose a fourth increase in five years. One for next
year would follow a 25% hike this year, 17.5% in fiscal 2008,
and 5%, then the statutory limit, in fiscal 2007.
Without generation of some additional tax revenue, it will be
difficult to maintain the current level of public services,
especially considering that the county workforce already is
stretched thin to cover vacancies in the authorized ranks. Then,
too, there's the matter of whether to continue the pay cuts
imposed on employees this fiscal year. While there was no
specific 'sunset' provision in any of the legislation enacted to
effect the cuts, they were labeled temporary, which was widely
believed to mean the former pay scales would be restored after a
year.
In a
broader context, some of dark clouds of the so-called Great
Recession show signs of parting. New Castle County is expected
to soon begin sharing in an economic recovery which appears to
be slowly gaining momentum. Fisker Motors' reopening of the
General Motors plant, possible sale of the Valero refinery and
the expansion of Aberdeen Proving Ground in nearby Maryland all
bode well for a larger and firmer tax base. Shorter term,
the county's Financial Advisory Council was told at its recent
meeting that the real estate transfer tax appears to be, at
least, stabilizing and, when combined with higher fees, has inspired
a $1.5 million upward adjustment in projected fiscal 2010
revenue. The gain is slightly less than 1% over the $154 million
anticipated when the budget was adopted last May.
MORE
√ Board
okays $1.3 million addition
MEMOS
AT RANDOM
The Brandywine school board
approved construction of a
five-classroom addition to Lombardy Elementary and immediately hired
a general contractor to build it for $1,332,500.
John Read, the district's
construction manager, said construction will begin within three weeks
and promised that the new facilities will be ready by the time the next
academic year begins in August. Newark-based Whiting-Turner Construction
Co., which Read said came in the lowest of 10 bidders, was awarded the
contract for the fast-track project. Superintendent Mark Holodick said
it will be paid for with proceeds from the sale of long-term bonds. The
district does not have to go to referendum to obtain authorization for
that capital financing because it falls within the scope of
state-approved realignment of its grade configuration, he explained.
Chief financial officer David Blowman said paying off the bonds over 20
years will require an increase of one-tenth of 1 cent in the capital tax
rate.
Although board member
Ralph Ackerman questioned how the district, having just gone through
"the painful process of closing [two] buildings ... can come back to
approve an addition," he joined five colleagues who attended the meeting
on Feb. 22 in unanimous votes on both matters. He asked rhetorically
whether there were no seats available in the district's other elementary
schools to accommodate added enrollment at Lombardy. Patricia Hearn said
that during planning for reconfiguration "we tried to adjust the 'feeder
patterns', but it wasn't accepted by the community." 'Feeder pattern' is
jargon for 'attendance zones'. Need for additional space at Lombardy
first came into general public view in January and bids were opened on
Feb. 18, before the board consented to the project.
√ Brandywood
School design approved
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