SANATOGA PA – All employees of Lower Pottsgrove Township – everyone from rank-and-file workers to administrators and supervisors – will be involved Thursday (July 19, 2012) in what is described as “anti-harassment training” that the Board of Commissioners hopes will help will close a months-long and expensive investigation of “certain personnel complaints.”

Thursday’s two training sessions – one in the morning for non-supervisory employees, and a second during the afternoon for management employees – is part of what a paid advisor has recommended as a solution to charges filed with the board during February (2012), in which one employee apparently alleged another was involved in harassment.

Most details of the charges, the investigation, and its outcome have been purposely withheld by the board. Solicitor R. Kurtz Holloway has said commissioners have a legal right to keep such personnel matters confidential.

The municipal building at 2199 Buchert Rd. will be open, and public business conducted as usual, while the training occurs, board President Jonathan Spadt said Monday (July 16) in an e-mail.

The board has involved at least two out-of-town law firms and several of their professionals, spent more than $13,000, and had several individuals interviewed in the personnel investigation that so far has taken five months and almost as many executive sessions for its discussion.

Spadt announced last Monday (July 9), during the board’s first of two monthly meetings, that the investigation was completed and that “it has been determined … no violation of law occurred.” As an employer, the township did find the employee against whom the complaint was filed in need of “corrective action,” Spadt said, but in his e-mail he noted the discipline did not involve termination, suspension, or withholding compensation from him or her.

He declined to discuss specifics of the discipline, adding “It would be hard to say in more detail what that is without tying it to the person.”

Thursday’s training sessions were recommended by attorney Ryan Cassidy of the Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC law firm of Philadelphia, which specializes in labor issues and on which the board has increasingly relied during the past two years for advice in personnel matters. An Eckert Seamans representative will conduct the training, the exact cost of which was not immediately available but which Spadt estimated to be $2,000 or less.

He also was somewhat philosophic about the value of the training for all who receive a township paycheck. “Remember that this is training that is necessary periodically anyway, and I see it as much more valuable than simply a remedy to this particular situation,” Spadt wrote. “It is good for the township as a whole and in the long run.”

“Such awareness is part of running any organization or business, and a township is no different,” Spadt added. “We want and expect the best from all of our people, and sometimes we need to help foster that behavior.  We are on the right track for that.”

Commissioners have been invited to attend the training as well. The employee who filed the complaint has received what Spadt called a “disposition letter” relating the board’s findings and actions. “Hopefully we can put this matter behind us and move forward,” Spadt said.

Depending on the nature of the harassment alleged, however, the complainant has other state and federal venues in which to protest the board’s decision or make separate filings.

Related:

• Township Hopes Training Ends Harassment Complaint
• Lower Pottsgrove Personnel Investigation Not Yet Over
• Township Hires Investigative Lawyer In Personnel Issue

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ meeting of July 9):

• Township Hopes Training Ends Harassment Complaint
• ‘Acting’ Title Gone; Foltz Now Township’s Police Chief
• Foltz Promotion Due When Commissioners Meet Tonight