Danville council approves package of raises, new positions and one-time projects, sends budget to DLGF

Danville Town Council voted unanimously to approve a package of salary increases, new staffing slots and one-time capital items and directed staff to submit the budget to the Department of Local Government Finance for publication ahead of a Sept. 17 public hearing and an October adoption meeting.

The vote capped a special-call session called to resolve outstanding questions before a Friday filing deadline, Speaker 3 (town manager) told the council: "Friday, I am required to publish with the DLGF our budget that will be presented at the September 17 for the public hearing, and then we will adopt it in the second meeting in October." Council subsequently voted 5-0 to include the increases as presented.

Why it matters: the package includes an across-the-board raise option and several targeted pay adjustments, new positions requested by departments, and one-time host-fund projects that affect the towns near-term spending profile. Council members said they supported moving the package forward for publication to meet the deadline, but asked staff to return with precise line-item costings so elected officials can confirm long-term affordability before final adoption.

Key decisions and items

- Pay increases: staff presented two scenarios: a straight 5.6% raise and an alternative combining 5.6% with a $5,000 administrative pay bump. The town manager said the general fund would show an approximate surplus of $422,781 under the 5.6% scenario and about $279,275 with the $5,000 admin increase. Council approved the increases to be included in the DLGF filing and requested final numbers for review.

- New positions: departments requested several additions including an administrative assistant in the building department, a parks maintenance manager, two police officers, and laborers for street, stormwater, wastewater and water divisions. Council approved including the requested positions in the filing pending final cost reconciliation.

- Police pension base: the police chief requested creating a higher "first-class" pension base for long-tenured officers. The manager summarized the presentation: the pension base in the current plan is about $72,100 for a first-class officer in 2025 (plus $3,000 longevity, roughly $75,100); the requested new first-class/pension base would be $78,000 plus $3,000 longevity (about $81,000). Council members pressed for the total town-wide cost because increasing the pension base for a defined first-class tier can raise costs for all employees participating in the PERF 77 program. Speaker 2 said about long-term commitments, "If we build this in now, we're committed to it going forward." Staff said Rudy has the detailed cost breakdown and will supply it.

- Host-fund and one-time projects: staff listed host-fund priorities including moving a basketball court to North Park, a one-year lease payment for five police vehicles (presented as about $70,000 for the 1-year lease payment), holiday street-light decorations, two or three quarter-time pickup trucks for snow removal, and software for meeting-video storage and ADA compliance (presented as an annual cost of about $15,000). Council and staff noted a discrepancy between host-fund revenue projections and the requested amounts and asked staff to reconcile the host-fund sheet with the budget summary.

- Other items: the police uniform allowance was proposed to increase from $1,000 to $1,500 per officer on the first or second paycheck of the year; the budget also includes utility certification pay and other department-level items presented by staff.

Context and next steps

Council favored a single aggregated vote to approve presenting the full package to the DLGF for advertisement. The motion to approve the increases and include them in the DLGF filing passed 5-0; Speaker 1 moved to approve the package and Speaker 2 seconded. Staff were instructed to finalize cost breakdowns and reconcile host-fund figures before the next meeting, when the council will consider final adoption after the public hearing.

The council adjourned after completing the vote.