About This Blog

The purpose of this blog is to give an accurate account of what is said during Public Comment at Mantua Township Trustees meetings.



Trustees' decisions are in the official minutes, available on request from the Mantua Township Fiscal Officer, Jodi Thompson, at 330-274-8443. The Township charges 10 cents per page. FAX, 330-274-8447. E-mail, fiscalofficer@mantuatownshipohio.gov. The minutes are also posted on the website after they have been approved. That means that there is usually a two-week lag between a given meeting and the minutes being available to read on the website.

Since meetings are the first and third Thursdays of the month, there is a three-week wait during months with five Thursdays.



Other items of interest or the writer's opinions will be included from time to time, clearly identified.



This is not a forum or chat room, but a source of information, so it is closed to outside input.



During the time I have been doing the blog, the posts have expanded to become very detailed accounts of the meetings. Doing that is time consuming, to say the least, and I am going to try to return to the public comment focus, with background and perspective (and the occasional pointed editorial comment). Such additions are usually enclosed in brackets. However, since some extended accounts of the meetings reveal significant things--and character--better than I could by commenting, there will probably still be a fair amount of semi-transcript. (Sigh.)

My thanks to the readers who have found the blog, and to the ones who from time to time tell me that they value it. You have encouraged me when the tedious work of keyboarding has made me wonder why I am doing this. Then you have reminded me, and I am grateful.

Principles

Two ideas guide and support me:

The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
______Attributed to Edmund Burke

GOOD PREVAILS.

Those ideas are also the reason I have been doing the blog since late February 2011.

I have discovered that a transcript is almost impossible to do and that verbatim accounts are usually not absolutely necessary. When in doubt, I check against a recording.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Background Checks

Earlier this year, a question was asked in a trustees meeting about a background check on a new part time hire.  Someone also asked me, separately, about background and drug checks, so I decided to get more than the brief answer that was sufficient in the meeting.

It appears to me that the employees who are required to have background checks and drug tests are those who are full time or will be in regular contact with residents.

Those employees in the township are Jim Aldrich, Tierney Bryant, and Dan Wysznski.

Jim and Tierney were hired late in 2012 and early 2013, respectively.  Dan was hired part time for snow plowing in 2011 and then was put on full time about the middle of 2012.

When the decision was made to put Dan on full time, the fiscal officer informed the trustees that the budget could not support a full time person past (if I remember correctly) the end of 2012.  Jason Carlton and John Festa voted yes; Victor Grimm, based on the fiscal officer's advice, voted no. Dan was placed on full time.

It is the responsibility of the trustees to request the background checks and drug tests.  No check or test was requested in 2012.

When Jim Aldrich and Tierney Bryant were hired, Victor Grimm requested background checks and drug tests for them and Dan earlier this year. The background checks all came back OK, and all the drug tests came back clean.

The official minutes should show a record of payment for both of the above.  As of the date of this post (4/1/13), nothing had shown up.