Council Questioned About Police Review Board Ordinance

Washington City Council heard nearly an hour of public comment at their meeting Thursday. Most,  centered on questions raised by Dr. Andrew Goudy, President of the Washington, PA Branch of the NAACP. His frustrations are about the lack of motion in the establishment of a police review committee for the city of Washington. He is disappointed that no meetings have occurred since an ordinance to create the committee was tabled in June. Much discussion took place between Goudy and City Council and Mayor Scott Putnam. Putnam explained that the city is working with the Fraternal Order of Police and their concerns of discipline aspects of the ordinance. He also explained that there are steps to follow for ordinances that create review committees and the city needs to follow rules for a third class city and hire based on civil service rules. Councilman Joe Manning explained to Goudy that he had tried to establish scholarship programs with previous NAACP presidents to try and get local high school students to join police, fire and EMT services in the city. Manning also suggested that a review committee specific to Washington is unfairly singling out the city and wanted to know if Goudy has approached any other surrounding communities in an effort to make the review committee a county wide effort as opposed to just the city of Washington. Both Dr. Goudy and Mayor Putnam are going to schedule a meeting to keep things moving forward.