The Board of Supervisors of West Finley Township held a workshop to discuss the employee handbook on Tuesday, March 19, 2024, at 5:00 pm in the Township Office Building. Chairman Martin and Supervisor Collins were in attendance. Vice Chairman Pritt was absent.
Melinda Duncan was the only township resident in attendance.
CALL TO ORDER
The call to order was made by Chairman Martin at 5:04 pm.
READING OF PRIOR MEETING MINUTES
Reading of prior meeting minutes will be deferred until the next regular monthly meeting on Monday, April 8, 2024.
PUBLIC COMMENT
There was no public comment.
OLD BUSINESS
A draft of a new West Finley Township Employee Handbook was presented to the Board. The Supervisors read through the draft to discuss the different policies and procedures.
While discussing responsibilities of the Road Crew and the Road Crew Foreman, it was suggested to add that they are also to perform any other duties, besides the road specific ones listed, as assigned by the Foreman and/or The Board of Supervisors. This includes any other duties that the Foreman and/or Board of Supervisors deems necessary. This would include administrative tasks for the Road Crew Foreman. More specific details of job responsibilities can be found in the job descriptions that will be included in the handbook.
Supervisors also discussed CDL drug screening protocols pertaining to employees involved in vehicular accidents at work. If a township employee has an occurrence involving another vehicle or resident’s property, the employee should be sent for a drug test. Also, if someone on the Board has probable cause, by vote of the Board, they can request the employee submit to a drug/alcohol screening. This item can be more thoroughly addressed in the Drug and Alcohol Policy section of the Handbook.
Attendance policies and procedures were also reviewed. Supervisors discussed who should be notified when an employee is sick, unable to make it to work, or will be late arriving to work for the day, suggesting that the employee should notify the Secretary in such cases. The Secretary would only need to notify the Board of Supervisors of an employee’s absence if there is no communication from that employee. Since there was discussion of hours of work, Supervisors recommended that start times be incorporated into the handbook. The Road Crew and Foreman would begin their normal work day at 6:45 am and the Secretary would begin at 8:00 am. End times for the day would be 3:00 pm and 4:00 pm, respectively. There will also be some days where conditions would require employees to work outside of these “normal” work times, such as tar and chip days or when treating for snow.
Other items to be reviewed in the handbook include vacation time and the possibility of having a rollover option. The Secretary will inquire with other townships regarding their vacation tier schedule and how they manage rollover times. More information will be needed to develop this topic.
Edits will be made to the handbook and redistributed to the Board of Supervisors, as several sections still need to be developed. It is yet to be determined if another workshop will be needed to address the remaining policies and procedures.
Supervisors briefly discussed the need for extra “Road Closed” signs for Blockhouse Run Road.
Chairman Martin adjourned the workshop at 6:05 pm.