Sec. 2-300. - The annual operating budget ordinance.

(1)

It shall be the duty of the council, at least thirty (30) days before the end of the fiscal year, to adopt the annual operating budget ordinance for the next fiscal year. The consideration of the operating budget ordinance shall begin forthwith upon the receipt from the mayor of his annual written operating budget message and the proposed annual operating budget ordinance. The proposed budget ordinance shall be regarded as having been introduced immediately upon its receipt.

(2)

The annual operating budget ordinance shall provide for discharging any deficit and shall make appropriations to the council, the mayor, and all officers, departments, boards and commissions which form a part of the executive or administrative branch of the city government, and for all other items which are to be met out of the revenue of the city. All appropriations shall be made in lump sum amounts and according to the following classes of expenditures for each office, department, board or commission:

(a)

Personal services;

(b)

Materials, supplies and equipment;

(c)

Debt service;

(d)

Such additional classes as the mayor shall recommend in his proposed annual operating budget ordinance.

Expenditures for the repair of any property and for the acquisition of any property or for any work or project which does not have a probable useful life to the city of at least five (5) years following the time the expenditure is made for it shall be deemed to be ordinary expenses to be provided for in the annual operating budget ordinance. Appropriations for the use of any departmental board or commission shall be made to the department with which it is connected.

(3)

The mayor's estimates of receipts for the ensuing fiscal year and of surplus or deficit, if any, for the current fiscal year may not be altered by the council.

(4)

In every annual operating budget ordinance:

(a)

The amount appropriated to the auditing department shall be adequate to enable the city auditor to perform the duties of his office and of the auditing department. Should the council fail to make an adequate appropriation to the auditing department, the city auditor may petition the appropriate court for a mandamus to the council to perform its duty under this section;

(b)

Provision shall be made for the payment of compensation to certified public accounting firms to be selected by the council for consulting services which may be rendered to the auditing department with regard to the manner in which the affairs of the various offices, departments, boards, commissions and other agencies receiving appropriations from the city are audited by the auditing department;

(c)

Provision shall be made for the payment of compensation to a firm of certified public accountants to make an audit of the expenditures of the auditing department. The council shall, by separate ordinance, name the firm of certified public accountants to be engaged for this purpose.

(5)

Provisions shall be made for the payment of compensation to a firm of certified public accountants to make an annual audit of the affairs of every officer, department, board, including the accounts of any board of directors of city trusts, and commission of the city and, as far as may be necessary, the accounts of any other agency receiving an appropriation from the city. Audits shall include all collections made on behalf of the city by an officer, department, board, commission or other agency. The accounts of police and firefighter's pension funds receiving appropriations from the city shall be audited annually. An audit report shall be made on every audit.

(6)

The annual operating budget ordinance may be amended after its passage to authorize the transfer of items but the aggregate of the appropriations made by it may not be increased, and transfer of budget items may not be made during the last four (4) months of any fiscal year, except upon the recommendation of the mayor.

(7)

The annual operating budget ordinance shall make appropriations to the various departments, boards, commissions or agencies for all items which are to be met out of special funds. Such appropriations shall be made in single lump-sum amounts to each of the various departments. Such appropriations are made contingent upon the receipt of funds and shall be utilized in the manner prescribed by the statutes, ordinances, resolutions and/or grants from which they derive. In the event new funds are received or funds are received in greater or lesser amounts than appropriated in the annual operating budget ordinance, spending shall be adjusted upward or downward in accordance with the funds available. Special funds may not be appropriated or spent without council approving by resolution the receipt of such funds. The provisions of [subsection] (6) above shall not apply to such special funds; however, in no event shall spending of appropriated special fund[s] exceed the amount available.

Sec. 2-301. - Other appropriations.

The council may not make any operating appropriations in addition to those included in the annual operating budget ordinance except:

(a)

To meet emergencies which could not be anticipated when the operating budget ordinance was passed;

(b)

To pay the expenses of holding special elections and elections on proposals to amend this Charter;

(c)

To pay the cost of councilmanic investigations and inquiries and the compensation of attorneys retained by the council as authorized by this Charter.

Unless paid for out of current revenues, all amounts appropriated under this section must be included as liabilities of the city in the next succeeding annual operating budget ordinance and except to meet emergencies, operating expenses shall neither be appropriated nor paid out of loan funds.

Sec. 2-302. - Balancing the budget.

Not later than the passage of the annual operating budget ordinance, the council shall ordain such revenue measures as will, in the opinion of the mayor, yield sufficient revenue to balance the budget. For this purpose, new sources of revenue or increased rates from existing sources of revenue not proposed by the mayor shall be deemed to yield in the ensuing fiscal year such amounts as the mayor shall determine. The annual operating budget ordinance shall not become effective and the city auditor shall not approve any order for any expenditure thereunder until the council has balanced the budget.

Sec. 2-303. - The capital program and capital budget.

(1)

Prior to the passage of the annual operating budget ordinance, the council shall adopt a capital program and a capital budget.

(2)

The capital program shall embrace all physical public improvements and any preliminary studies and surveys relative thereto, the acquisition of property of a permanent nature, and the purchase of equipment for any public improvement when first erected or acquired that are to be financed in whole or in part from funds subject to control or appropriation by the council. It shall show the capital expenditures which are planned for each of the six (6) ensuing fiscal years. For each separate purpose, project, facility or other property there shall be shown the amount, if any, and the source of the money that has been spent, encumbered or is intended to be spent or encumbered prior to the beginning of the ensuing fiscal year and also the amounts and the sources of the money that are intended to be spent during each of the ensuing six (6) years.

The council may delete projects from the capital program as submitted to it, but it shall not otherwise amend the capital program until it has requested through the mayor the recommendations of the city planning commission. The council shall not be bound by such recommendations and may act without them if they are not received within thirty (30) days from the date they were requested.

(3)

The capital budget ordinance shall show in detail the capital expenditures intended to be made or incurred in the ensuing fiscal year that are to be financed from funds subject to control or appropriation by the council, and shall be in full conformity with that part of the capital program applicable to the year which it covers. Amounts specified as intended to be spent out of new appropriations shall, upon enactment of the capital budget ordinance, constitute appropriations of such amounts.

The council may amend the capital budget ordinance but no amendment shall be valid which does not conform to the capital program.

Sec. 2-304. - Authentication, recording, codification and printing of ordinances.

(1)

The clerk of city council shall authenticate by his signature and record in full, in a properly indexed book kept for the purpose, all ordinances and resolutions adopted by the city council.

(2)

As promptly as possible after the submission to it by the law department, as required in this Charter, of a proposed codification and revision of the effective general ordinances of the city, and at least every ten (10) years thereafter, the council shall consider and act upon such a code and revision; and after the code has been adopted, all measures of general application shall be ordained as amendments of or additions to it. The council shall cause the code to be published by and distributed through the division of procurement and records as other publications of the city are published and distributed. The general codification shall be published promptly in bound or looseleaf form together with pertinent provisions of the Delaware Code and any amendments thereto, pertinent provisions of the Constitution and other laws of the State of Delaware applicable to the City of Wilmington, and such codes of technical regulations and other rules and regulations as the city council may specify. This compilation shall be known and cited officially as the City of Wilmington Code. Copies of the City Code shall be furnished to city officers, departments and boards, placed in libraries and public offices for free public reference and made available for purchase by other persons for a reasonable price fixed by the city council.

(3)

The city council shall cause each ordinance having the force and effect of law and each amendment to this Charter to be reproduced promptly following its adoption; and the reproduced ordinances and the amendment to this Charter shall be distributed or sold to any person at reasonable prices to be fixed by the city council. Subsequent to the publication of the first City of Wilmington Code, the ordinances and the amendments to this Charter shall be printed or reproduced in substantially the same style as the City Code currently in effect and shall be suitable in form for integration therein. The city council shall make such further arrangements as it deems desirable with respect to reproduction and distribution of any current changes in or additions to the provisions of the Constitution and other laws of the State of Delaware or the codes of technical regulations included in the City Code.

Sec. 2-305. - Legislation affecting powers and duties of the executive and administrative branch.

Council may create, abolish, merge, divide or transfer functions among departments, boards or commissions by ordinance, except for the offices of the city solicitor, city treasurer and city auditor. The council may by ordinance add new powers and new duties, not inconsistent with the scheme of this Charter, to the powers and duties of the offices, departments, boards and commissions which are herein designated as the agencies of the executive and administrative branch of the city government. It shall not abolish any agency unless the agency no longer has any functions to perform.

Sec. 2-306. - Legislation affecting zoning, physical development plan or land subdivision.

The council shall not enact any ordinance which shall in any manner affect any zoning ordinance, the physical development plan of the city, plans of streets and revisions of such plans, and land subdivision plans without first receiving the recommendation thereon, through the mayor, of the city planning commission. The approval of the commission shall be presumed unless its recommendations are received within forty-five (45) days from the introduction of any ordinance affecting plans of streets and revisions of such plan, and land subdivision plans, and within thirty (30) days from the introduction of any other ordinance subject to this section. It shall be the duty of the city clerk to submit any such ordinance to the city planning commission immediately upon its introduction.

Sec. 2-307. - Pension and retirement system.

When the board of pensions and retirement shall have submitted to the council its proposal for a comprehensive, fair and actuarially sound pension and retirement system covering all officers and employees of the city, the council shall promptly consider it and act upon the setting up of such a system. However, any system enacted shall not impair or diminish rights of officers and employees under any pension and retirement system in force at the time of the adoption of this Charter, and the existing separate systems shall be maintained for city policemen and for city firefighters unless otherwise provided by law.

Sec. 2-308. - Leases and contracts for more than one year.

The council may by ordinance authorize the leasing of real estate for more than one year and the contracting for personal property to be supplied or for services to be rendered over a period of more than one year without making appropriations therefor beyond the current year. Such leases and contracts shall be valid and binding upon the city although no appropriations have been made for the ensuing years during which the leases and contracts are to be operative; but it shall be the duty of the council to make subsequent appropriations from year to year to pay amounts coming due under such leases and contracts. The obligation of the city under such leases and contracts shall not be considered to be a part of the indebtedness of the city.