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County apologizes after impact-fee awards were delayed; $1 residual to Claymont prompts minimum-disbursement discussion
Summary
County staff said five impact-fee awards approved in April were delayed in processing due to an administrative error in the county executive's office; all five were signed off the same day the board met. A separate issue of a $1 residual disbursement to Claymont (from rounding interest) led members to discuss setting a minimum quarterly payout to avoid confusion.
Board members discussed two related impact-fee items: an administrative processing delay that held up five previously approved impact-fee awards, and a separate small residual payment to Claymont that drew questions.
Kenny Dunn of the county executive's office told the board the five impact-fee requests had landed in the executive office and were not forwarded to land use in a timely fashion; staff jumped on the issue after being alerted and said all five awards cleared land use and were signed by the county executive late that afternoon. "They were never forwarded off to land use. ... I apologize for the delay; it will not happen again," Dunn said.
Separately, the board discussed a $1 residual disbursement sent to Claymont after a quarterly distribution; staff explained the dollar represented residual interest from a previous quarter and not an extra impact fee collected. The group raised the idea of setting a minimum disbursement (suggestions mentioned ranged from $100 to $200) so recurring rounding or interest residuals do not create confusion.
During online public comment, Chief Mike Edwards of the Elsmere Park Company said his group submitted the impact-fee request that arrived late and asked Representative Williams to follow up. Staff said they would contact the submitter to clarify the outstanding questions.
Board members also noted that a county finance report to the council will summarize how much has been collected in each impact-fee category; staff said collections for fire-related fees were "close to $600,000" last year (an approximate figure provided at the meeting).
