Brian E. Lewis represents the 2nd District on Dover City Council.
Let me start by noting that voting on a budget is a critical responsibility for most elected officials. To budget effectively, council members must understand and represent the values of the community. The budget must reflect the residents’ values and ensure that they will continue to receive the quality city services for which they are paying taxes. A core part of City Council’s job is to hold city staff accountable, and the most important element of that is its oversight of the budget.
At the June 23 council meeting, I voted against the proposed fiscal year 2025-26 budget introduced by city management. I wanted to take a moment to explain the reasons for my choice. The vote was seven council members in favor of the proposed budget and two against — me and Councilman Roy Sudler. There were actually some things I supported in this budget, but pleas to reject the electric and utility rate increases were fully expressed to me by my constituents in the 2nd District. This prompted me to ask significant questions and voice concern at the council meeting. Many citizens are feeling frustrated about another proposed electric and utility rate increase, since they were just faced with one a year ago. There are a lot of folks already struggling to pay electric and utility bills in our economic climate. Hearing the people’s objections to an increase, I adhered to their wishes and voted no!
The citizens of Dover and perhaps businesses, as well, are suffering in a tremendous way financially. It is very unfair and unreasonable for hardworking, good individuals — especially those living on fixed incomes — to bear the burden of financing an Electric Department that has become excessively costly in recent years. The city is at a critical juncture and needs to make a humane decision regarding the Electric Department. The residents of Dover can no longer be forced to pay higher electric bills, and city management needs to find a better alternative.
Further, I have been out talking to people, and many said they cannot afford to see their bills rise. To hit them with additional costs seems outrageous to me. There are people on dialysis or on oxygen who require medical equipment 10 hours a day, and these rates are going to be devastating for them. How do they cover their costs? We have many older adults in the city who have told me that, with the increases, they will have to make not only hard decisions but some life-threatening ones, such as choosing to either pay the increased utility bills or buy necessary medication or food. Frankly, I’m disappointed to see my colleagues favor monied interests over ordinary citizens’ hardships. Again, city staff needs to come up with practical solutions to lower costs.
During the final budget vote, two of my council colleagues brought up the fact that Dover’s electric infrastructure is old — a point that many are aware of. Some of us have experienced temporary blackouts, and when you’re driving around the city, you will see some transformers that are scorched. Our electric overhead infrastructure is abysmal. It’s terrible that the city does not have the money to overhaul the system. Unfortunately, Dover management and leaders failed to address this over the previous years.
We can’t continue to rely on working families’ tax dollars to cover up City Hall’s mistakes. The people need relief, solutions and proposed new revenues to balance city budgets without burdening homeowners.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
