Washington Township Follows Majority of Best Practices

Washington Township officials met Tuesday night in a special meeting to review answers to the required best practices checklist, which determines if a municipality receives all of its state aid. The township follows the majority of the 50 items, but officials said some changes should be implemented to increase the municipality's score.

This is the second year the best practices checklist is required for municipalities to receive all of its state aid. It's the first year that members of the governing body must review the answers before they are certified by the CFO.

Township CFO/Treasurer Jacqueline Do must sign off on the answers and submit the checklist to the state by Sept. 1. Do said she hopes to have the checklist completed by Friday. After the discussion Tuesday, there were a few items she wanted to further investigate.

There are four answer options to each of the questions: Yes, No, Prospective Implementation or Not Applicable. Municipalities receive credit for all answers of Yes and can receive credit for Prospective Implementation and Not Applicable if the explanation is satisfactory.

The township follows many of the best practices, including entering into shared services agreements, backing up computer information regularly and adhering to the Equal Employment Opportunity and non-discrimination policies.

But more work needs to be done in some areas. There were 10 questions Tuesday night that officials determined should be answered with Prospective Implementation, meaning the township plans to follow the best practice by the end of the year.

One example includes a joint yearly public meeting with the local Board of Education. Council President Fred Goetz said he plans to send a letter to the school board and the Westwood council to schedule a meeting for this year. Do said she could answer that with Prospective Implementation with an explanation and a copy of the letter.

Another item officials said they plan to implement is a light duty program for employees out on workers' compensation so they can return to work sooner. Mayor Janet Sobkowicz explained that some members of the township police department have agreed to return to work in such a capacity, but councilmen said the current contract does not have a light duty policy. Since they plan to implement such a policy, Do said she would indicate that on the checklist with an explanation.

Officials also plan to add information to the township website to comply with the best practice of having financial statements and meeting minutes and agendas for the council, Planning Board and Zoning Board. Currently, audits are not posted on the website nor are the minutes for the Planning and Zoning boards. Do said she would write an explanation of what does appear on the township website and hope for at least partial credit on that question.

In order to receive all of its state aid, a municipality must get credit for at least 41 questions. After that, there is a penalty on the last five percent of state aid. Last year, Washington Township had $339.34 of its aid withheld because of the best practices checklist, which had 88 items instead of the current 50.

After the preliminary discussion Tuesday, there were 33 answers of Yes, 10 Prospective Implementation, two No and two Not Applicable. Do said she had to further investigate the rest of the answers before submitting the checklist.

The next regular council meeting is scheduled for Sept. 12.