CENTER TWP — Township Supervisor Ed Latuska aired his grievances at Monday's agenda-setting meeting about actions taken by some of his colleagues at last month's meeting.

“Were the actions morally right? I will leave that up to the residents of Center Township,” said Latuska in comments made at the beginning of Monday's public comment period.

Latuska said supervisors Philip Wulff, Bob Sloan and board president Ron Flatt acted within their legal rights, but he questioned whether they should have made decisions about safety policies and disciplinary actions without the presence of supervisor Alan Smallwood and himself.

Latuska has served as chairman of the board's safety committee since it was created in 2014. Both he and Smallwood were absent from the November meeting due to scheduling conflicts.

“My biggest concern is the failure to communicate with Mr. Smallwood and myself to let us know what they were thinking of doing,” Latuska said after the meeting. “They never did.”

In their absence, Wulff, Sloan and Flatt voted on three issues that Latuska raised concerns about, including rescinding the safety policy, except for the last page; expunging any safety disciplinary actions made in the past year; and authorizing the safety committee to rewrite a safety policy. All measures were approved 3-0.

When the three supervisors rescinded portions of the policy, it also removed the authority for the safety committee chairman to issue disciplinary actions.

“The last page is actually, for now, our policy,” said Flatt in an interview Tuesday. “It specifically details what people should be doing, like wearing hard hats in certain situations.”

In his remarks, Latuska used the example of a situation involving an employee who he disciplined for not wearing goggles in a scenario where he should have worn a face shield.

Flatt said the polices originally were constructed with firefighters in mind, and additionally their employees have never been required to read the safety guidelines.

“I think the safety policy we passed in 2017 was a bad policy. I voted for it in 2017, but I regret doing so,” Flatt said. “It may be a bit unfair to enforce a policy on an employee with which they are not familiar.”

Flatt said he and the other board members felt compelled to act as quickly as possible because the decision involved safety, which could become an urgent matter at any given moment.

Wulff and Sloan did not wish to comment following the meeting.

Flatt said the matter was brought to the board's attention between the October and November meetings and was added to the agenda, but the board had no previous plans to discuss the safety policy.

He said the agenda is made available to the supervisors a few days beforehand, but Latuska had left town for his business.

“Ed was not intentionally excluded from the conversations,” Flatt said. “Had he contacted me and asked me what's on the agenda, I would have told him.”

Despite removing portions of the safety policy, the safety committee will review further restructuring of the policy moving forward.

“We gave it back to the safety committee in the interest of having a fuller discussion,” Flatt said.

As part of his statement, Latuska relinquished his responsibility on the safety committee.

“I will not do it anymore,” he said.

The board has its regularly scheduled meeting Wednesday with an agenda that includes the township's budget for 2020-21.