Some things never seem to change about how Dover City Council runs the city. Council and the mayor seem to lack vision in making the city an affordable and safe place to live. They can come up with fancy speeches but are not able to keep fees and utility rates low or to keep taxes from going up.
Let’s deal with current facts:
- Council members are guaranteed a yearly raise, no matter whether they do a poor or decent job. Most citizens do not get any type of yearly raise.
- Gun violence incidents and robberies are becoming daily occurrences. Every time you turn around, you learn of another criminal occurrence.
- Council has failed to develop any type of capital improvement budget. Example: One key factor in our 10% electricity rate increase was because council failed to budget replacement transformers.
- The mayor and council justify any fee increases or utility increases or tax increases as the cost of doing routine business. However, they have not developed or shown any foresight in bringing in more business for revenue. You cannot and should not put all your energy and eggs into downtown development. Would it not be smarter to bring in all different types of businesses, citywide?
- The city has failed to address the homelessness that is widespread. Making an ordinance in the disguise of safety to address panhandling from the median is not going to improve or correct our homelessness situation.
- The effort they have put into the downtown improvement project should also indicate that they do not know what they are doing. Who in their right mind would start any major improvement project without securing all the required funding?
I encourage all the citizens of Dover to call and send emails to their individual council representatives, demanding prudent spending and the stop of wasteful projects, which causes unneeded increases in next year’s budget.
If you fail to act now, do not complain when next year’s budget includes a double-digit increase of an unknown percentage.
It’s something to think about.
William G. Faust Jr.
Dover
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
