Washington Township residents continue questions
WASHINGTON TWP. – After several months of waiting to get the facts about possible wrongdoing by an authority employee, the Washington Township Municipal Authority had to inform the public Tuesday that the investigation concerning the matter would not be complete until July. Residents have been asking questions about why the board allegedly approved too much overtime for one of its employees. Chairman Melvin Weiss and other board members have told the public that no questions concerning the personnel issue can be answered until the investigation is complete.
Although the board hoped to have some results to share with the public Tuesday, attorney Timothy Maatta, whom the board retained to conduct the investigation, sent a letter to the board’s solicitor to inform him that the investigation was not complete because he needed to question certain office employees. Maatta said that he is trying to schedule a time to meet with the employees’ attorney.
Resident Bob Campbell also raised questions with the board about whether its members also would investigate the reasons employee Michael Latkanich was paid health benefits after his suspension that followed after Latkanich allegedly fought with Supervisor Chuck Yusko, also an employee of the authority.
Campbell said he asked five months ago what would be done to correct the mistake, and he “never got an answer.” He said he would seek advice from an outside agency, if necessary, to find out if Latkanich should have to pay back what he received.
Residents also continued to ask questions about why Latkanich was paid unemployment, and some people commented that the authority should have tried to deny him unemployment because he was suspended.
When resident Chuck Yetsconish asked once more who authorized the payment of Latkanich’s unemployment, plant manager Joe Alverez said that those decisions are made by the state, and he explained the process so that the public might understand why the authority agreed to pay unemployment.
“The state wants to know what went on, and we say why he was suspended,” said Alverez. “They send us a letter of determination, and the claim was that Mike fought in self-defense. It did not happen while he was working and it was not work-related. They say they’re going to grant the unemployment. We did not appeal that, because to me, that’s throwing good money after bad. How much money do I want to waste trying to keep him from getting a few months of unemployment? To me, this was a gray area, and we were going to lose the appeal.”
Yetsconish said that if the board had chosen to appeal the decision, even if it lost, there would have been no argument from the public because people would have known the authority had done the right thing, and someone else made the decision.
Residents also questioned the board about the possibility of getting a replacement for board member and former secretary Judy Arrow because she has missed three consecutive meetings.
Solicitor Mark Ramsier said that unless the board excused the absences, board members could ask the township supervisors to appoint someone else as a replacement if a member of the board misses three meetings in a row.
Weiss said that Arrow has informed him that she is ill, and the board voted to table making a decision about their recommendations to the supervisors until they know more about the situation.
In a further matter, the board said that its sewer project is on hold because it was unable to obtain PENNVEST funding at this time.
Weiss said that while the board has received some grant money for the project, more funding from grants is on the way.
He explained that the board would continue to seek as much financial help as the township can get to fund the project, and engineers believe that construction still could begin within a year.