Over the course of a 15-minute Dec. 6 meeting whose primary purpose was to officially adopt Kennett Township’s 2024 budget, the only dangling decision left hanging was whether or not supervisor Scudder Stevens was going to rescind his position as the lone dissenter of the advertised budget, a position he took a month ago when he opposed the township’s rejection of a proposal to bolster its police department by hiring additional staff.

Following his comments, Stevens joined his colleagues Geoffrey Gamble and Richard Leff in approving next year’s township budget, which is estimated to be $8.9 million in revenue and $7.7 million in expenses. 

“I was concerned after our last budget review and voted against it because I was concerned with the motion we took regarding the number of police officers that we should be hiring, in the face of documentation that I consider to be strong, if not overwhelming, for why it was necessary and appropriate,” Stevens said. 

“I feel very strongly that the position I took several weeks ago voting against the budget was an appropriate one. The needs of the police have been well documented, but have not been embraced by the board, in my opinion. The question remains, ‘How will I vote tonight for a budget that accepts those numbers that were previously presented?’

Stevens said that he considered whether to abstain on casting his vote or even vote against next year’s budget, “but I am concerned that if I vote against it, that in the face of the needs of the township and the acceptance of the police department’s sense of working with the township in the future – and having heard my fellow supervisors talk about the longer goals -- I believe a negative vote would be detrimental to the overall well-being of the township in this regard,” he said. “With all of this preamble, I reluctantly vote in favor of the budget.”

Stevens’ comments stemmed from a Nov. 1 meeting -- designed to authorize the advertisement of the 2024 budget – when he objected to Manager Eden Ratliff’s recommendation that the township maintain its current staffing level for the Kennett Township Police in 2024, which came in the wake of an Oct. 18 presentation by township Police Chief Matthew Gordon requesting that the township consider increasing the size of the township’s police department with the addition of two more officers beginning in January and two more officers in January 2025. 

Stevens said at a minimum, the township should hire at least one additional officer in 2024 and one additional officer a year for the next several years in “step-by-step” increments that he said will allow the township to effectively manage the cost of these increases. 

Ratliff recommended that the township begin looking at options to determine what the township can realistically provide with its current roster of police. 

“We will look at academic research, we will figure out what the community needs are and what the police needs are for the community and begin to untangle that,” Ratliff said at the Nov. 1 meeting. “It will be a series looking at alternatives and figuring out what direction the board wants to go and begin pulling those levers, as part of a data-based decision process.”

Gamble and Leff backed Ratliff, calling for the township to explore further evaluation and engagement with township residents before any decision is made regarding increasing the number of township police.

In her first introduction of the 2024 budget on Oct. 4, Finance and Human Resources Director Amy Heinrich said that the township’s anticipated revenue for next year will mostly come from $6.54 million in earned income, local service, real estate and real estate transfer taxes, and an additional $2.4 million in fees, fines, grants and interest. She said that the township is expected to see a surplus this year in the amount of $1.2 million, which she recommended be transferred into next year’s capital budget. 

The operating expenses for next year -- projected to be $1.2 million higher than 2023 – are due to increases in the township’s membership to the Fire & EMS Commission, which will see a 41 percent increase in 2024; a $260,000 one-time cost for the construction of the Magnolia Crossing project; and $143,000 that will be needed to hire two additional staff and appointing a part-time staffer to full-time status in the Public Works Department. In addition, the township projects additional expenses in its Finance and Human Resources, Planning and Zoning departments. 

On the expense side, the township’s police department is projected to account for 32 percent of operating costs for 2024 – about $2.4 million, Heinrich estimated -- with Fire & EMS accounting for 20 percent and Public Works anticipated to account for 13 percent of expenses. 

To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, email [email protected].