Feb 1, 2007 By Jenny Susa 3 min read

WASHINGTON TWP. – Residents of the township said they have heard rumors of the Washington Township Municipal Authority losing money because an employee claimed excessive hours of overtime last year, and a large group of citizens came to question the board about the matter Tuesday night. “Is it or is it not a fact that one of your so-called exempt employees turned in almost $60,000 in overtime?” asked local resident Chuck Yetsconish.

Chairman Melvin Weiss responded that a personnel issue is being investigated, and whatever is discovered will be handled by the board.

“That’s the only answer I can give you tonight,” said Weiss.

The authority recently hired attorney Timothy Maatta to investigate the personnel matter, and the board promised to release the results of that investigation as soon as it was complete. Weiss said that until then, they cannot disclose anything concerning what the investigation is about.

Other residents asked the board how authority members could sign off for any amount of money without having details about the exact amounts of money and what the money was for.

Yetsconish told Weiss that he and the board should be ashamed for being unaware of what they were signing for, and said that Weiss and the rest of the board should “do the township a favor and resign” until the investigation is finished.

Local residents alleged that an employee who claimed overtime that he or she was not entitled to did so by using stamps with names of authority members who are authorized to sign checks. They also pointed out that according to company policy, employees who are considered exempt are not entitled to any amount of overtime, but rather are to get compensated with time off when they have to work over 40 hours in a week.

Weiss agreed with angry residents who said that the board should have known what they were approving at each monthly meeting.

Board member Selma Russell said that while everyone on the board has made mistakes, she did not believe that any board member had ever been deceptive.

“We are all human beings, and we all make mistakes,” said Russell. “But we are not dishonest people.”

Local resident Susan Lape said that with all the questions being asked by the public, the board should have known to “take a look at things going on” within the authority.

In other matters, the authority voted to suspend employee Michael Latkanich’s benefits.

Latkanich was accused of assaulting Charles Yusko, another authority employee and township supervisor, in October 2005 outside the township fire hall. Latkanich was suspended after the incident. Yusko returned to work after several months of medical leave.

Local resident Robert Campbell asked why the board had not suspended Latkanich’s benefits sooner, since according to authority policy, they should have been stopped nine months after Latkanich was suspended.

Campbell said that Yusko was the victim and he had been threatened with termination of his employment and benefits if he did not return to work before a nine-month period was up.

Weiss corrected Campbell, saying that while they were advised by the authority’s attorney that Yusko could be suspended from his job, nothing about his benefits was mentioned.

However, Weiss did say that he “messed up” by not making sure that Latkanich’s benefits were suspended at the appropriate time.

“I was wrong, and I’ll tell you to your face I was wrong,” said Weiss.

In addition to suspension of benefits, the authority said that Latkanich will be billed for his previous use of a cell phone provided by the authority.