Budget Hearing 1: Follow-Up

Residents of Upper Darby Township,

The first of two Budget Hearings was held last night (November 13, 2024) in the Council Chambers at 100 Garrett Road. During the meeting, a number of residents posed questions that were not answered explicitly during the Hearing. The information below should clarify these resident questions and concerns. The remaining questions and comments were addressed explicitly during the Budget Hearing and can be found in the livestream of the meeting.

To view the Budget Hearing in full, please visit the Township’s archived livestream, located here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbsf5UrlvSs.

Question 1: Where in the budget does it show the revenue we collect from Trash Fees?

The trash fee revenue is in the FY2025 Budget under line item 101-36430-480-10000, categorized as “Trash Collection Fee”, and totals $7,081,688.00

Question 2: Are there any additional scholarships processed through the Recreation Department outside of the $125,000.00 for Summer Stage?

No, there are no additional scholarships besides the Summer Stage Scholarships.

Question 3: The YTD expenses seem to indicate that the Police Department will fall short of their projected expenses, are we sure that those projections will be met? If not, why have we increased the PD's expenses?

The Acting Director of Finance and the Police Department have completed their third quarter variance report with projections for year end. It is estimated that at year end (12.31.2024), the Police Department will be overdrawn by $222,336.00

Question 4: If no union contracts (OPIU) allow for a decrease in salaries, why is there a decrease in the jailer's salary in the budget? Captain and Lieutenant.?

The Township has 9 Part Time Jailers that work approximately 650 hours per year. There is one Part Time Jailer that works approximately 163 hours per year.  Based on discussions with the Superintendent and CAO, these Jailers were budgeted for a 3% increase in 2025. Part-time employees are not part of the OPEIU union.   

In the Proposed 2025 Police Personnel Budget the Township has budgeted for 4 Captains and 9 Lieutenants. If a position is filled, the budget is based on the 2025 salary for the respective position, plus longevity or step up based on their hire date. In addition, officers can have additional compensation for other duties. If a position is unfilled, it is based on the 2025 salary for the respective position.

Question 5: Why was the Civil Service Commission Clerk position reduced to $0 from $3,000 in the budget? Is the position not compensated for their work?

The Civil Service Commission Clerk is listed as position PCS001 in the budget and is budgeted at $3,000.00. It is important to note that this is a part-time position separate from the Municipal Clerk, and is filled by a different employee than the Municipal Clerk position.

Regarding resident comments and questions surrounding the funding of the Libraries and the UDAEF:

The Upper Darby Library is a private, non-profit organization, responsible to a board of Directors--not a Township department. UDT currently provides approximately 80% of their funding, the Commonwealth  provides approximately 14%, and  6% comes from the County, special grants and Friends of the Library.

Upper Darby has and in 2025 will continue to fund $125,000 in scholarships for Summer Stage, which was created and convened by the Township and the UD school District for 46 of the 49 years of Summer Stage.

The $800,000 in ARPA funds sought by the UDAEF is to fund rent, salaries, and some operations for a REGIONAL arts center.  By federal law, UDT ARPA funding is for Township residents only.  Funding a regional project with UDT specific funds is disqualifying and would result in the need to use taxpayer dollars to repay the federal government for improper funding of non-UDT programs/residents. Recent history has shown most Summer Stage participants are not UDT children.

There are other challenges with their application as well.