Share: 

Thier makes pitch to Rehoboth voters

July 12, 2024

As a full-time, 12-month resident of Rehoboth Beach, I will be present in this community, committed to the demands of the position of Rehoboth Beach commissioner. 

I am founding partner of Blue Line Planning, a company guiding organizations to improve their financial planning, forecasting and accounting processes, for over 15 years. I have eight years of Office of Finance experience.

I have served on the Rehoboth Boardwalk and Beach Committee since October 2021.

I served 12 years on the school board in Chesterfield, N.J., with five years as school board president.

I have spent my time volunteering at various community organizations in Delaware, including Special Olympics Delaware, Southern Delaware Therapeutic Riding and Save Our Lakes Alliance3.

During my time as a permanent resident of Rehoboth Beach, I have found the financial and, arguably, the administrative processes of the city are broken. Most recently, we have experienced this brokenness with widespread increases in every city fee and tax rate. 

While these increases may have solved the short-term issue of balancing the city budget with no debt, capital expenditures are forecast to increase another $2 million next year. With ordinary increases in operating expenses (i.e. salaries, etc.) and a lifeguard station now $550,000 over budget, we should anticipate more increases in city fees and taxes. 

In early 2023, the city decided to build a new lifeguard station at a cost of $4 million. This decision created the need to increase revenue to avoid a fiscal year 2025 budget shortfall. What I would advocate for is an overhaul of our planning processes and accountability in creating and managing budgets. The city must adhere to a best-practice budgeting and planning cycle that includes:

  • Annual budget
  • Two-year projected financial forecasts. When creating the FY 2025 budget earlier this year, FY 2026 and FY 2027 financial forecasts should have been developed to include capital projects and comprehensive development plan items that need funding
  • The CDP items should be reviewed annually and more frequently when necessary. This includes monitoring progress against CDP items
  • When capital improvement and CDP items are approved, and before any unplanned capital expenditures, all financial forecasts must be updated to provide a clear understanding of the financial impacts. If the updated financial forecasts project a deficit, the city commissioners must immediately develop a plan to resolve the deficit.

By following these processes, the city will have focus on and accountability for critical city initiatives as well as ensuring they are properly funded. This process also provides the city insight into any anticipated deficits/surpluses well in advance, providing time to develop plans to address them.

As we end FY 2024, the city manager projects a FY 2024 surplus of more than $1,000,000. What is the plan for this surplus? Why wasn’t this surplus considered to offset the property tax increases for FY 2025? A comprehensive financial planning process would have recognized a surplus during the budgeting cycle, and consideration could have been given to utilizing the surplus to offset increases to fees and taxes.

Craig Thier
Rehoboth Beach
  • A letter to the editor expresses a reader's opinion and, as such, is not reflective of the editorial opinions of this newspaper.

    To submit a letter to the editor for publishing, send an email to newsroom@capegazette.com. Letters must be signed and include a telephone number and address for verification. Please keep letters to 500 words or fewer. We reserve the right to edit for content and length. Letters should be responsive to issues addressed in the Cape Gazette rather than content from other publications or media. Only one letter per author will be published every 30 days. Letters restating information and opinions already offered by the same author will not be used. Letters must focus on issues of general, local concern, not personalities or specific businesses.

Subscribe to the CapeGazette.com Daily Newsletter