Dover Council Approves $425K Emergency Payment

Two 30-year tax incentives for Bassett Highway developments get support; salary issues to be addressed at a separate meeting.

Dover Town Council meetings remain virtual through 2025 (Photo/DOVERNOW.com)

Dover’s town council voted this week to approve a nearly half-million-dollar emergency appropriation from next year’s budget to cover legal expenses. While Mayor James P. Dodd attributed the $425,000 bill to unresolved expenses from the previous administration, residents attending the virtual meeting raised questions about the resolution and questioned whether these emergency legal expenses were associated with the town’s numerous ongoing legal disputes, particularly with Dover Police Chief Jonathan Delaney.

The meeting was marred by audio problems, with low volume and frequent outages that made it challenging to follow the discussions.

“Since 2022, legal bills have been rolled into the following year,” Mayor Dodd said. “In 2024, when I came back, I had to ask, at the time, the [town’s chief financial officer] to apply for emergency appropriations. The state allows us to pay off those bills over a five-year period, which will take the burden off the municipal budget in 2026.”

 Edward Ramirez, the town’s municipal administrator/CFO, and the mayor reiterated that these expenses have nothing to do with the legal dispute with Chief Delaney. He insisted that the emergency appropriation is related to the ongoing development in the city and costs that the town’s CFO allegedly mismanaged between 2022 and 2024.

The emergency appropriation amounts to less than 3 percent of the town’s operating budget for next year, and accounts for legal expenses that were not covered in the 2025 budget, making the appropriation permissible under state law.

“They [past administrations] did not request an emergency appropriation, the way the Department of Local Government Services says you can to alleviate the next year's budget…,” Ramirez said. “When I came in as CFO, accounts were not reconciled for over 6 months... So the reason for this emergency appropriation is to be done the right way. It hadn't been done this way in 2022, 2023, 2024, and we got the opportunity to do it the right way in 2025.”

Before the resolution passed by a 5-4 margin, Mayor Dodd specifically tied a portion of the emergency legal expenses to ongoing development in the town, a message he delivered moments before the council approved two new tax incentive agreements for projects along Basset Highway.

The first agreement, a 30-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement, was adopted on second reading and will support the redevelopment of the commercial property at 90 Bassett Highway. That project will redevelop a commercial building and deliver 11 attached townhouses. The vote passed 8-0, with Council member Geovani Estacio abstaining from the vote.

The second PILOT agreement will support the redevelopment of the commercial properties at 63-105 Basset Highway. According to the legislation, the project will deliver 31,000 square feet of commercial space, including retail, and up to 640 residential units across three phases. The ordinance passed 8-1; Council member Sandra Wittner cast the lone vote against the ordinance.

Only two council meetings remain before the new year, raising the odds of further votes on new development agreements and potentially revealing the true cost of the town’s ongoing legal disputes.

In other news, there was considerable confusion during the meeting regarding Dover municipal job postings, specifically the salary ranges for the positions. Council member Sandra Wittner questioned wide swings in raise percentages, prompting an extended discussion that ultimately led to the discussion being tabled. Today, a special Council meeting was scheduled for Friday, December 12, to reintroduce the salary ordinance. Check back with DOVERNOW.com for updated information.