Harrison Township trustees look inward at recent meeting

HARRISON TOWNSHIP — While most meetings of the Harrison Township Board of Trustees involve motions and actions that go beyond township hall, items discussed at the April 24 session had a heavy focus on the mechanics of township government.

First up on the agenda was a revision to township’s record retention policy, described by Township Clerk Adam Wit as a project of Deputy Clerk Teri Salgot.

“As we’re going through the process of scanning all of our different records ... we’re trying to update everything to be in line with what we’re doing as well as modernizing some of the older language that was in our procedure for records,” Wit said. “That’s really what the revisions revolve around, adapting technology and updating it for today’s use cases.”

The revisions define what a record is, describe how records should be handled, retained and destroyed, and explain what to do if records are prematurely damaged in a disaster. On the matter of records subject to a Freedom of Information Act request or other legal proceeding at its scheduled disposal time, the township will suspend its destruction until the request is filled or the proceeding ends.

 

HR assessment
Moving away from government records to government workers, the board approved hiring the company Rehmann to audit the government’s human resources policies and practices.

“We don’t have an HR manager or an HR professional, so ... if you’re doing something and you don’t really realize it but you’re violating some federal standard or some payroll requirement or some best practice, there’s a liability there,” Township Supervisor Ken Verkest said.

Rehmann already provides auditing services for the township. An agreement drafted between Rehmann and the township outlines that Rehmann will perform a review of the township’s HR policies and practices and determine if and where any legal liability exists. The firm will also recommend an “HR business plan” outlining any changes that could be made “to build a solid foundation for the organization and effective support for HR administrative programs and services.”

The agreement estimates the cost of the assessment to be somewhere between $3,500 and $4,000. Trustees approved the agreement under the condition costs do not exceed $5,000.