House Bill 456

This Act amends the Charter of the City of Dover, including by doing the following: (1) Making technical corrections to ensure consistent capitalization of City officers and agencies, ensure consistent usage of terms throughout the Charter, (2) Moving the City’s authority to impose a realty transfer tax from Section 3 (relating to employee pension, benefit, and retirement systems) to a new Section 49B within Article IV of the City’s Charter (relating to financial affairs). (3) Removing provisions from Section 5 of the City’s Charter that are out-of-date. (4) Requiring that to be eligible to be elected mayor or a member of council a person must be a registered voter of the City as of the date of the election. (5) Requiring that nominating petitions for mayor and members of council be submitted between the first working day of January and the last working day of January in the year of an election. (6) Requiring election board members to voluntarily remove themselves from the election board before participating in a campaign to elect a candidate. (7) Authorizing a majority of council to remove an election board member if a conflict of interest or potential conflict of interest exists between the member and a candidate. (8) Removing the specific time for the meeting of council on the second Monday in May. (9) Providing that council shall hold an election for a council president pro tempore if there the council president is unavailable for 30 days. The council president pro tempore serves until the council president returns. (10) Providing that the salary for mayor, councilmembers, and other elected or appointed officials is to be adopted annually with the adoption of the fiscal year budget ordinance and that pay raises for mayor and council are to be tied to increases for non-bargaining employees of the City. (11) Providing that if a vacancy in the office of mayor or a member of council is for 6 months or less before the next regular or special election, the vacancy will be filled at the next regular or special election if there is sufficient time to meet the requirements of City and State law. (13) Clarifying that the city clerk is to be appointed by a majority vote of the council, hold office until the clerk’s successor is chosen, and be subject to removal by council at any time. (14) Clarifying that the controller/treasurer is to be appointed by a majority vote of the council. (15) Requiring the city manager to be a resident of Kent County within 180 days of hire. (16) Changing dates for when a draft budget is due to be presented to council and when council must adopt a budget. (17) Changing the amount of taxable assessed value of real property of aggregate principal amount of general obligation bonds issued to finance capital projects that may be authorized by council at any one time to 1% from .25%. (18) Authorizing the mayor and council to authorize and issue, without a referendum vote, tax exempt or taxable municipal conduit bonds. (19) Requiring a two-thirds vote of the members of council to confirm the mayor’s appointee to be chief of police or to confirm the mayor’s removal of the chief of police. This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because § 1 of Article IX of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly to amend a municipal charter.