If your township has a police department, contracts with another department for police services, or is part of a regional police department, you will want to attend this webinar to get caught up on all of the recent laws, as well as proposed legislation, affecting municipal police departments. You will also learn about what changes your townships and departments may need to make as a result of these new laws and legislation.

This virtual class is broken out into two half-day sessions. It is designed to provide each student with a fundamental understanding and working knowledge of QuickBooks Accounting Software, and is intended to demonstrate the application of QuickBooks and QuickBooks Pro to assist in municipal accounting. We will review how to set up your company files and create your DCED Compliant Chart of Accounts. From start to finish, how to write a check, make a deposit and reconcile your checking account. You will learn how to set up vendors and customers for all of your information that you could possibly need to replace that old rolodex. (note: no payroll will be addressed in this class)

A property is abandoned, and the neighbors are outraged. What do you do when an owner ignores/avoids code enforcement and tax sales? The Abandoned and Blighted Property Conservatorship Act gave municipalities a powerful tool to eliminate persistent blight. This webinar will introduce participants to the process of conservatorship, how to evaluate if a property fits the qualifications, and how to bring a property from blight to blessing in just one year.

In this webinar, Chad Bruckner of Intercounty Investigations & Solutions and Chris Gerber of Siana Law will review what constitutes a proper employee background screening process, the problems that arise if you don’t conduct proper background screening, and the benefits of a quality screening process, including how it positively impacts your municipality’s culture and performance. They will also review examples of successes and failures from municipalities around the state and review best practices, including when selecting third-party screeners.

This virtual class will provide proven and effective methods and techniques to help new and veteran township supervisors, secretaries, treasurers, managers, road masters and public works officials develop budgets that work.

Municipal stormwater regulations can put pressure on limited administrative and financial resources. This webinar will provide an overview of inter-municipal collaborative arrangements that have been used in Pennsylvania and have yielded efficiencies and cost savings. Pros and cons of each will be discussed in terms of initial investment, cost of compliance, co-benefits, and suitability for different situations.

Employee fraud or fraud committed by public officials is an issue in local government, unfortunately. This webinar will team an investigator and a CPA with experience in financial fraud examinations and forensic fraud methods to help municipal officials learn about common internal fraud schemes, as well as how to recognize weak internal systems and develop controls to prevent fraud by those who are entrusted with the finances of the municipality and it agencies.

Tom Hughes, PEMA’s State Hazard Mitigation Officer, will discuss numerous funding opportunities through FEMA, including the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, which assists with hazard mitigation projects. He will also address grants available through the Flood Mitigation Assistance program, which can be used for projects that reduce or eliminate the risk of repetitive flood damage to buildings insured by the National Flood Insurance Program.

This webinar will describe how townships and residents can use native vegetation to protect and restore streambanks that suffer from mild to moderate bank erosion. Topics will include how streambank erosion starts, how to identify suitable restoration sites, plant selection and installation, and maintenance.

Are you overwhelmed with records? Do you need to free up storage space? Curious if you can keep records electronically? Join Josh Stahlman from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission/Pennsylvania State Archives to learn the basic tenets of records management and what the Municipal Records Manual can do for you.