Three weeks into the recent year, one of Pennsylvania’s largest municipalities still hasn’t approved a 2025 budget — missing the Dec. 31 deadline after a lawsuit derailed council members’ initial attempt.
Upper Darby County officials are scheduled to vote in behind schedule February on the 2025 budget and on a recent income tax that takes effect mid-year.
The vote follows a two-month debacle that began when a local judge struck down a municipal tax ordinance just before Thanksgiving, removing more than $15 million from the approved budget.
Since then, members of the municipal council have made several attempts to amend the budget, encountering criticism from residents and conflict over the best solution and the procedures they must follow.
So how did they get to this point?
Contentious litigation
In September, Upper Darby Town Council approved a recent 1% income tax, which is expected to come into effect this month. The tax would escalate municipal revenues by more than $15 million.
However, the tax measure was invalidated.
Council members approved the tax at the same meeting at which they passed a resolution limiting public comment at public hearings and applied those restrictions to the public hearing on the tax. Upper Darby residents filed a lawsuit to invalidate both policies, arguing that the council used improper procedures to approve them and that the restrictions on public comment are unconstitutional.
“We as residents were simply tired of city officials making policy on the fly,” said John DeMasi, lead plaintiff in the lawsuit filed in behind schedule September. DeMasi, a Republican from Drexel Hill, began attending council meetings in 2023 after hearing that the council prevented a community member from speaking at meetings because he was not a resident.
Just days before Thanksgiving, a Delaware County judge sided with residents and struck down both rules because the council voted to adopt them at its first meeting of the month, which is expected to be more of a workshop meeting than a vote.
That decision sent council members and the administration back to the drawing board because a huge chunk of revenue was now missing from the approved budget. They will operate under the 2024 budget until a recent budget is approved, Upper Darby Mayor Ed Brown said.
The city authorities said they disagreed with the ruling, but did not appeal against it and are working to find a recent solution.
Hafiz Tunis, chairman of the council, noted that similar procedural errors had been made during previous councils without legal action being taken. For more than a year, council meetings have been characterized by tense exchanges between residents and council members.
“Some people … are really focused on slowing down the progress of the new administration and they think that’s the path to victory,” Tunis said, adding that he viewed the lawsuit as politically motivated and part of an effort by some to snail-paced the rate of economic growth. progress on a Democrat-controlled council.
DeMasi, who filed the lawsuit, said the suggestion that he and others were politically dynamic was frustrating platitude. He said residents were forced to bring the lawsuit over the council’s decision to limit public comment and members’ “blatant disregard for free speech.”
“We literally stood up and read the law and they ignored it. It is neither right nor left [issue]it’s not Republican or Democrat. You have to respect the residents, period,” he said.
Council member Laura Wentz, a former council president who ran unsuccessfully for mayor last year and continually clashed with Tunis, said the budget fiasco was a consequence of local officials disregarding city procedures. Wentz is a former Democrat, currently unaffiliated.
“If only they obeyed the rights in the Home Rule Charter and weren’t afraid of public opinion,” Wentz said. “If they just let people speak freely for a few hours, most of the administration and council wouldn’t be in this situation.”
Pointing the finger
Residents and members of the council’s minority faction have for months been pointing to former council lawyer Sean Kilkenny as the source of the council’s problems. Kilkenny, elected sheriff of Montgomery County, is an influential Democrat in suburban Philadelphia whose general counsel firm represents dozens of municipalities.
Upper Darby critics argued that Kilkenny gave bad advice to the council over the speech restriction resolution and a number of other issues. They argued that Kilkenny benefited financially by giving bad advice because he would then represent the municipality in the lawsuit.
At the December council meeting, Republican council member Meaghan Wagner called for Kilkenny’s replacement, citing the high fees he received for representing Upper Darby in two cases he lost.
Kilkenny resigned in early January. He said the controversy and residents’ frustrations did not cause him to leave the facility. However, he pointed out that representing the commune had become difficult.
“Upper Darby is, as I said, a contested place. All of your decisions are questioned and many of them are litigated, so as an Upper Darby lawyer you always need to be vigilant,” Kilkenny said. “I was happy to do it, but I’m also happy to be able to focus my attention on other clients.”
Kilkenny spent five years as town solicitor. Brown said he appreciated much of what the attorney did, but there were some problems.
“There were some errors on the part of the lawyer, and there were some mistakes and missteps that were disturbing, but it was his decision to resign and step down from that role,” he said.
What now?
Last week, the borough council presented a new 2025 budget that defers some projects and takes money from the county’s reserve to make up for lost tax revenue. Council members also moved quickly to introduce a new income tax of 1% of income, which would take effect in the summer if approved. The original tax was reduced too late for council members to reintroduce and approve it.
The rollout came after weeks of council discussion, with the Brown administration recommending further solutions, but residents and council members, including Wentz and Wagner, insisted that the borough had once again failed to follow proper procedures.
“The inability to pass the budget on time means there is no clear vision for the future of this town,” Wagner said.
Ultimately, efforts were made to pass a budget before the end of the calendar year before the process restarted. Brown said he also wants to make sure city officials have taken enough time to review the new budget before taking further action. The delay ultimately helped the city avoid a property tax increase council members were considering.
This decision, however, was partly driven by the feeling that residents who disagreed politically would be inclined to question the budget.
“We have a group of citizens who watch our legislative process closely, and we can be sued if they think we’re doing something wrong,” Brown said.
