The Town shall operate on an annual budget. The fiscal year
of the Town shall begin on the first day of May and end on the last
day of April in the next succeeding calendar year. Such fiscal year
shall constitute the budget year and the accounting year.
The Town Manager and the Chief Financial Officer shall submit
an operating budget to the Town Council not later than the fifteenth
(15th) day of March each year. The budget shall provide a complete
financial plan for the budget year and shall contain estimates of
anticipated revenues and proposed expenditures for the coming year.
The total of the anticipated revenues shall equal or exceed that total
of the proposed expenditures. The budget and all other financial records
of the Town shall be open to inspection by anyone during normal business
hours.
(A)
The Town Manager shall propose and submit to the Town Council
a five (5) year Capital Improvements Program not later than the fifteenth
(15th) day of March each year.
(C)
The Capital Improvements Program shall be revised and extended
each year as the then current portion is adopted as part of the operating
budget.
(D)
The Town Council shall hold public hearings and by ordinance
adopt the Capital Improvements Program, as submitted or amended, at
the same time as the adoption of the operating budget.
(E)
The Town Manager and the Chief Financial Officer shall include
in the proposed operating budget those capital projects adopted by
the Town Council for the ensuing year.
Before adopting the fiscal year budget and Capital Improvements
Program, the Town Council shall hold a public hearing thereon after
fifteen (15) days notice thereof in one (1) or more newspapers of
general circulation within the Town. The Town Council may insert new
items or may increase or decrease the items in the fiscal year budget.
Where the Town Council shall increase the total proposed expenditures,
it shall also increase the total anticipated revenues in an amount
at least equal to such proposed expenditures. The fiscal year budget
shall be prepared and adopted in the form of an ordinance. A favorable
vote of at least a majority of all members elected to the Town Council
shall be necessary for adoption.
No public money may be expended without having the approval
of the Town Council. From the effective date of the budget, the general
amounts stated therein as proposed expenditures shall be and become
appropriated for the same general objects and purposes named therein.
(A)
Supplemental Appropriations. If during the fiscal year the Town
Manager certifies that there are available for appropriation, revenues
in excess of those estimated in the budget, the Town Council by ordinance
may make supplemental appropriations for the year up to the amount
of such excess.
(B)
Emergency Appropriations. To meet a public emergency affecting life, health, property or the public good, the Town Council may make emergency appropriations. Such appropriations may be made by emergency ordinance in accordance with the provisions of Section 2.309 (B) of this Charter. To the extent that there are no available unappropriated revenues to meet such appropriations, the Town Council may by such emergency ordinance authorize the issuance of emergency notes which may be renewed from time to time, but the emergency notes and renewals of any fiscal year shall be paid not later than the last day of the fiscal year next succeeding that in which the emergency appropriation was made.
(C)
Reductions. If at any time during the fiscal year it shall appear
to the Town Council that the revenues available will be insufficient
to meet the amount appropriated, the Town Council shall then take
such action, as it deems necessary to prevent or minimize any deficit
and may by ordinance reduce one (1) or more appropriations.
(D)
Limitations, Effective Date. No appropriation for debt service
may be reduced or transferred, and no appropriation may be reduced
below any amount required by law to be appropriated or by more than
the amount of the unencumbered balance thereof. The supplemental and
emergency appropriations, and reduction or transfer of appropriations
authorized by this Section, may be made effective immediately upon
adoption.
Any transfer of funds between appropriations proposed by the
Town Manager or Chief Financial Officer must be approved by the Town
Council before becoming effective.
No officer or employee shall during any fiscal year expend or
contract to expend any money or incur any liability or enter into
any contract which by its terms involves the expenditure of money
for any purpose, in excess of the amounts appropriated for, or transferred
to, that general classification of expenditure pursuant to this Charter.
Any contract, verbal or written, made in violation of this Charter
shall be null and void. Nothing contained in this section, however,
shall prevent the making of contracts or the spending of money for
capital improvements to be financed in whole or in part by the issuance
of bonds, nor the making of contracts of lease or for services for
any period exceeding the budget year in which such contract is made,
when such contract is permitted by law.
All appropriations shall lapse at the end of the budget year
to the extent that they shall not have been expended or lawfully encumbered.
Any unexpended and unencumbered funds shall be considered a surplus
at the end of the budget year and shall be carried into the subsequent
fiscal year in the Town's cash balances.
All fees received by an officer or employee of the Town in his
or her official capacity shall belong to the Town and shall be accounted
for to the Town.
The Town Council shall determine and fix a rate of taxation based upon the most recent assessment after the budget [Section 3.104] has been adopted. The Town Council shall determine and fix a rate of taxation, which will produce approximately the amount of money necessary to defray the expenses of the Town for the current year, including interest on bonded indebtedness, for redemption of maturing bonds, and for maintenance of a sinking fund. The Town tax rate shall be stated in terms of a certain rate on every One Hundred Dollars ($100) of assessed valuation.
The Town Council shall have the power to levy and collect taxes on real property within the limits of the Town, except that which is not assessable and taxable by virtue of any law of the State of Delaware, to defray the expenses of the Town as determined pursuant to Section 3.110. The power to levy and collect taxes includes such amounts as are necessary to pay the principal and interest on general obligation bonds of the Town, for redemption of maturing bonds and for the maintenance of a building fund.
(A)
Assessments.
1.
Assessments. In the manner provided by law or ordinance, the
Town shall assess all property liable to assessment and taxation as
follows.
[Amended 5-24-2018 by
81 Del. Laws, c. 246]
a.
The Town may value and assess all property in the
municipality liable to assessment every five (5) years. All property
that has increased in value because of additions, new buildings and
improvements shall be assessed annually. The Town shall also in the
annual assessment revise the assessment with respect to all real estate
which has been sold or transferred during the year and keep current
the assessment valuation of all other assessable property within the
Town. The Town shall notify property owners by letter when their assessment
has changed and this valuation and assessment shall be subject to
the provisions of paragraphs 2. through 5., set out hereafter; or
b.
The Town may by ordinance elect to use the assessments
and supplementary assessments for property in the municipality as
established annually or quarterly by Sussex County, as the assessment
roll for municipal taxation, subject to statutory judicial appeals.
2.
Assessment List. The Town shall make a written record showing
the property; name(s) of owner(s), arranged alphabetically; the value
of the property; and the amount of each owner's assessment.
3.
Public Inspection. The assessment list shall be completed not
later than the fifteenth (15th) day of February of each year. The
Town shall post a copy of the assessment list in the Melson Administrative
and Public Safety Building for public inspection and advertise by
publication the inspection hours.
4.
Appeals and Corrections. Any taxpayer of the Town aggrieved
by the assessment on his or her property shall notice the Town, in
writing, within twenty (20) days after being notified by letter that
the assessment has changed, or by means of the posting of the assessment
list for that year. Thereafter, Town Council shall hear and determine
the appeal, and, not later than the thirty-first (31st) day of March,
certify the assessment roll in its final form.
5.
Board of Assessment. The Town Council may, by ordinance, assign
any or all of its power under this Section to a Board of Assessment
which shall be chosen in such fashion, serve for such term, and have
such duties as the Town Council may ordain. After the valuation, assessment
and any revision thereof, all taxes so assessed shall be levied and
raised in equal proportions and rates.
(B)
Taxation of Real Estate Transfers. Transfer Tax. The Town Council
of the Town of Ocean View shall levy, assess and collect, or provide
for the levying, assessment and collection of such taxes as determined
by ordinance.
All Town taxes shall be due and payable May first (1st). After
the thirty-first (31st) of August in the year in which the taxes shall
be due, a penalty of one and a half percent (1.5%) per month shall
be added until the same shall have been paid. The Council shall have
the power to make just allowance for delinquencies in the collection
of taxes.
(A)
It shall be the duty of the Chief Financial Officer to proceed
forthwith to collect all taxes in a fiscal year in which assessed
and, in the collection of said taxes, the Chief Financial Officer
shall have all the same powers conferred upon or vested in the Director
of Finance for the Department of Finance of Sussex County.
(B)
The provisions of Title 25, Sections 2901 through 2905 of the
Delaware Code Annotated, as amended, with reference to tax liens,
shall be deemed and held to apply to all taxes late and opposed under
the provisions of this Charter.
(A)
The Town Council may borrow money, and issue bonds or certificates
of indebtedness to secure the payment thereof, on the faith and credit
of the Town of Ocean View, to provide funds to defray the cost or
the share of the Town of the cost of any permanent municipal improvements
or appeal bonds; provided, however, that the borrowing of the money
therefore shall have been authorized by the Town Council and shall
have been approved in the following manner:
1.
Council by ordinance shall be permitted to borrow for the cost
of permanent municipal improvements or appeal bonds. The ordinance
shall state the amount of the money desired to be borrowed; the purpose
for which it is desired; the manner of securing the same; and other
facts relating to the loan, which are deemed pertinent. Such ordinance
shall be passed by the affirmative vote of a majority vote of all
members of the Town Council. The proposed borrowing ordinance must
follow the same procedures for approving any ordinance enacted by
the Town Council. If the sum to be borrowed does not exceed one-half
percent (0.5%) of the current total assessable tax base of the Town
of Ocean View in current fiscal year, the ordinance becomes effective
immediately.
2.
If the sum of money to be borrowed exceeds one-half percent
(0.5%) of the current total assessable tax base of the Town of Ocean
View, the ordinance shall not become operative until after a thirty-one
(31) day waiting period to permit the filing of a petition for a Borrowing
Referendum to be filed.
3.
a.
If not less than thirty three percent (33%) of the
qualified voters of the Town of Ocean View shall sign and deliver
to the Town Manager a petition calling for a Borrowing Referendum
any time within the thirty-one (31) day waiting period established
above, the Town Council shall, within twenty (20) days, adopt a resolution
proposing to the electors of the Town that an amount of money be borrowed
for any of the above purposes. The resolution shall state the amount
of money desired to be borrowed, the purpose for which it is desired,
the manner or securing the same, and other pertinent facts relating
to the loan which are deemed pertinent by the Town Council, and ordering
a Borrowing Referendum to be held not less than thirty (30) nor more
than ninety (90) days after the adoption of said resolution.
b.
Notice of the date, time and place of holding of
the said Borrowing Referendum shall be printed in two (2) issues of
a newspaper having a general circulation in the Town of Ocean View
within thirty (30) days prior to the date of said Borrowing Referendum.
c.
At said referendum, every owner of property, whether
an individual, partnership, corporation, or other entity, shall have
one (1) vote and every person who is a bona fide resident of the Town,
but not an owner of property within the municipal limits of the Town
and who shall be entitled at the time of the Borrowing Referendum
to register and vote in the annual general election if such were held
on the day of the Borrowing Referendum shall have one (1) vote whether
or not such person be registered to vote in the annual general election.
d.
Any Borrowing Referendum shall be held pursuant
to the provisions of this section shall be conducted by voting machines
that shall have the ballot:
|
[ ] For the proposed borrowing.
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|
[ ] Against the proposed borrowing.
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The voter shall be instructed to mark the box for which he casts
his vote.
| ||
e.
In the event that an individual holds a power of
attorney duly executed and acknowledged of another person or the resolution
of the governing body of a partnership, corporation, or other entity,
specifically authorizing the said individual to vote at the Borrowing
Referendum, a duly authenticated copy of which has been filed in the
Board of Elections, such individual shall be entitled to cast the
vote of such person, partnership, corporation, or other entity.
f.
Immediately upon the closing of the polling place,
the Board of Elections shall count the ballots for and against the
proposed borrowing and shall announce the results thereof and shall
make a certificate under their hands of the number of votes cast for
and the number of votes cast against the proposed borrowing and the
number of void votes and shall deliver such certificate in duplicate
to the Town Council. Said certificate shall be filed with the papers
of the Town Council.
4.
In the event that the Borrowing Referendum fails, no related
ordinance shall again be considered for adoption for a period of at
least six (6) months from the date of the Borrowing Referendum.
5.
If the Borrowing Referendum passes, the Town Council shall determine
the form of indebtedness; the interest rate; the time or times of
payment of interest; the classes; the time or times of maturity; provisions
as to registration; any callable or redeemable provision; the denomination
and name, and other relative or pertinent matters. The bond or bonds
or certificate or certificates of indebtedness may be sold at either
public or private sale. The Council shall provide in its budget, and
in fixing the rate of tax, for the payment of interest and principal
on said bonds at the maturity or maturities thereof, and may establish
a sinking fund therefore. The full faith and credit of the Town of
Ocean View shall be deemed to be pledged for the due payment of the
bonds and interest thereon issued under the provisions hereof, when
the same have been properly executed and delivered for value. There
shall be no limitation upon the amount which may be raised from the
taxation of real estate for the payment of interest on, and the principal
of, any bonded indebtedness whether hereinbefore or hereafter incurred.
6.
The bonded indebtedness shall not at any time exceed in the
aggregate the total sum of twenty-five (25%) percent of the assessable
value of the real property situate within the limits of the Town as
shown by the last assessment pending the creation of the said indebtedness.
(B)
The Town Council of the Town of Ocean View shall have full power
and authority to anticipate revenue by borrowing upon the full faith
and credit of the Town of Ocean View, when, in the opinion of the
majority of the Town Council, the needs of the Town of Ocean View
demand it. The Town Council may secure such sum or sums of money so
borrowed by promissory notes of the Town executed by such officers
as designated by Town Council, either with or without the corporate
seal of the Town of Ocean View affixed, as is requested by the Bank
or persons advancing the money on said notes. No officer or Council
Member shall be personally liable for the payment of such note because
it is signed by them as officers or Council Member of the Town of
Ocean View, and said note is authorized by ordinance of the Town Council.
And no part of the principal of or the interest on any borrowing authorized
by this Section shall be taxable by the State of Delaware or any political
subdivision thereof.
(C)
The Town Council may accept from any authorized agency of the
State or Federal government, or from persons, firms, or corporations,
grants, loans, or contributions, and enter into agreements with such
agency respecting such loans or grants.
(D)
The Town Council shall not borrow money for its annual budgetary
needs.
The Council shall provide for an independent audit of all Town
accounts and may provide for more frequent audits, as it deems necessary.
The person or persons selected to audit the accounts of the Town shall
have no personal interest, direct or indirect, in the fiscal affairs
of the Town or any of its officers. An annual audit of the financial
records of the Town shall be made at the end of each fiscal year,
the fiscal year being from May first (1st) of each year to April thirtieth
(30th) of the following year.
