Hugg Report Recommendations

INSTITUTIONAL MEMORY AND CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE PREVENTION

RECOMMENDATIONS

Institutional Memory

I recommend that the Board appoint a "Continuity Officer" someone other than Mr. Berger, perhaps a Township librarian — to establish and implement formal measures to assure that the Township has continuing knowledge of the history of matters important to it as an institution. Several commentators have observed that institutional amnesia is one of the chief reasons for the recurrence of pedophilia scandals over the past few decades. Alleged perpetrators hide behind the fact that normal personnel turnover results in an institution "forgetting" its knowledge or suspicions of alleged misconduct.

In general, the Continuity Officer should function as the Township's historian and archivist. The Continuity Officer should have the responsibility, as requested by the Board and Township staff, of gathering information about the history and context of matters confronting the Township or on the Board's agenda. The Continuity Officer should have the duty of informing the present Board and Township staff of the actions and reasoning of previous Boards and staff. To prevent gaps in the historic record, the Continuity Officer should have authority to review draft Board minutes and memoranda by the Township Manager and recommend points needing clarification, expansion, and/or documentation. The Board may even consider giving the Continuity Officer responsibility for drafting the minutes. The Continuity Officer should also monitor the transition between outgoing and incoming Board members and Township staff. As part of this, the Continuity Officer should develop and conduct systematic exit interviews of, and orientation training, for Board members and Township staff. Considering Mr. Berger's key role in Township administration for almost three decades, it would also well serve the Township for him, in any event, to begin to keep a computerized diary or notebook regarding his daily decision-making.

Furthermore, the Continuity Officer should develop a means to facilitate review of Township's existing records. As part of this effort the Board should charge the Continuity Officer with drafting a formal document creation, retention, management, access, and destruction policy. The Board should then fund any improvements needed to execute the policy, including the possible retention of a record management vendor to digitally scan and organize the Township's documents. At present, while the Township's record management practices may comply with state law, the description provided to me by Mr. Berger makes the Township's approach seem haphazard. It is unclear to what extent the Township has systematically organized its documents. Some boxes and filing cabinets are apparently hand labeled but most are apparently unmarked. There is apparently no searchable computerized index. Creating a means of quickly and efficiently locating the Township's files and documents on a particular topic should be an ultimate objective. Ease of use of the Township's records will in turn foster greater use. Over time, it will hopefully become standard operating procedure to consult the Township' records, rather than a burden and an afterthought as it seems to have been here.

Child Sexual Abuse Prevention

I recommend that the Township adopt and enforce a written policy to prevent the sexual abuse of the Township's minor employees. Furthermore, the Township's Park and Recreation Advisory Board should draft mandatory written standards for all youth service, recreation, and athletics organizations that use Township facilities or property, or that receive subsidies or support from the Township. Proof that the organization has an adequate policy and has actively taken measures to adhere to it (for instance, by screening and training adult volunteers) should, by ordinance, be a condition for the Township to grant a permit or provide funding. The Township, the Park and Recreation Advisory Board, and youth organizations seeking Township assistance should inform themselves with the guidelines recently suggested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ("CDC") in the CDC's publication Preventing Child Sexual Abuse Within Youth-serving Organizations: Getting Started on Policies and Procedures. The Board my consider allowing the Tremls to have some kind of advisory role or voice in the formulation of the Township's policy and the standards the Park and Recreation Advisory Board will require.

It is a matter of good risk management for the Township to promulgate a child sexual abuse prevention policy and to require outside organizations using Township property to do the same. The alleged sexual assault of Mr. Treml by Mr. Axford allegedly occurred while Mr. Axford supervised Mr. Treml, then a minor, at a Township job. But for the statute of limitations, Mr. Treml could have a cause of action against the Township. Because of Mr. Treml's allegations, the Township is now on notice that its adult employees could conceivably prey upon minors they oversee. Implementing a child sexual abuse prevention policy will render the Township less vulnerable to liability by deterring future incidents. If incidents nevertheless occur, a policy will demonstrate that the Township acted in the aftermath of the Treml-Axford controversy instead of "burying its head in the sand" to the possible risk. It will be harder to fault the Township if its policy fails than if the Township consciously opted to have no policy. Moreover, even though no one has ever alleged that Mr. Axford assaulted anyone in the youth sports programs he ran on Township property, the Township is now aware that its facilities could conceivably provide a setting for abuse. In the event there is an allegation of abuse in a youth organization using Township facilities, it will protect the Township from a possible claim if Township forces all youth programs on Township property to take formal measures to protect the Township's children under their supervision.

There is growing literature on the prevention of child sexual abuse in youth organizations, especially in child athletics programs. The CDC has integrated much of the latest thinking into a comprehensive and sensitive methodology for developing a child sexual abuse prevention policy tailored to the specific needs of an organization. The CDC emphasizes six main considerations for a policy: (1) screening and selecting employees and volunteers; (2) guidelines on interactions between individuals; (3) monitoring behavior; (4) ensuring safe environments; (5) responding to inappropriate behavior, breaches in policy, and allegations and suspicions of child sexual abuse; (6) training in child sexual abuse prevention.

In accordance with the CDC's suggestions, the Township at a minimum should promulgate written rules for the direct supervision of minor employees. These rules should emphasize the professional distance necessary for effective oversight. Practically, it may deter abuse to prohibit minor employees from working alone, one-on-one, with adults, out of the presence of others. The Township should also bar all physical contact between adult and minor employees and direct them not not to socialize. Moreover, a single Township employee with human resources responsibility should have the duty of advising all current and incoming Township employees — both adults and minors- of the rules for adult-minor interactions and assuring understanding and compliance. To assure that minor employees have someone to whom to turn, this Township employee should also serve as the Township's designee to receive and document allegations of sexual abuse, to bring reports of abuse to the attention of the police for investigation, and to advise the Board and Township Manager (and possibly parents and medical professionals).

CONCLUSION

The Township has a basic moral obligation to protect its minor employees. Some may believe that the Township hires its youth merely so that the Township has a source of cheap and flexible menial labor. It may also keep kids "off the streets" and out of trouble. However, youth employment is an important means of building the character of the Township's children. For many kids, it is their first job and introduction to the world of work. It should now be obvious that the Township, apart from its responsibility as a boss, needs to act proactively and vigilantly to assure that youth employment with the Township is a safe, wholesome, and positive experience that parents and children have a right to expect.

NOTE TO READER:

At the April 9, 2008 meeting of the Board of Commissioners of Springfield Township, the Board concluded their discussions on the Hugg Report. The Board announced the following in response to Mr. Hugg's recommendations:

1. The recommendations on the permitting of the parks have been incorporated in our recently re-drafted Park and Recreation Permit policy. We have specifically benefited from the input of Paul and Colleen Treml on the scope and language of the permit policy. Charlie Carabba, the Director of Parks and Recreation, is concluding the review process of the draft policy, obtaining input from other local youth sports organizations. Among other provisions, the proposed policy requires national criminal checks for all full and part-time paid staff, all coaches and for all other volunteers who work with children under 18. The Board of Commissioners will vote to consider enacting the revised policy as soon as this review policy is complete. The revised policy includes advice to the community on what actions they should take when abuse has been alleged by a child.
2. Document retention policies have been reviewed and confirmed with our current solicitor.
3. The Board of Commissioners has developed a new procedure to address the dissemination of necessary information to subsequent boards. We have instructed the firm currently serving as Township Solicitor that at the conclusion of their engagement, they will be required to prepare a summary of legal matters with which they dealt during their tenure. Each successive solicitor will receive the cumulative set of summaries which have been prepared. In a special executive session, the outgoing law firm will brief the incoming firm on the items summarized. New Commissioners will also directly benefit from this briefing.

Janet Saul and Natalie C. Audage, Preventing Child Sexual Abuse Within Youth-serving Organizations: Getting Started on Policies and Procedures, Centers for Disease FControl and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Atlanta, Georgia (2007) (available at cdc.gov/ncipc/dvp/PreventingChildSexualAbuse.pdf).