Atlas Twp.-Former Township Supervisor Paul Amman says the recent fracas which erupted over a damaged township computer hard drive is simply a diversion.
Former Township Supervisor Paul Amman responded to a request for $600 in restitution for a township computer hard drive that was removed and allegedly damaged by a township trustee prior to newly elected Township Supervisor Shirley Kautman-Jones took office in November.
Kautman-Jones said on her first day of office she discovered the original hard drive had been removed from the supervisor’s computer. A new, generic, unformatted hard drive had been put into the computer.
She contacted Township Trustee Scott Statson who retuned the hard drive. Statson said he removed the drive at the request of Amman who feared massive damage to the township server if the old hard drive was left in the computer.
The issue was presented at the Jan. 19 township board of trustees meeting.
‘I was simply trying to get rid of personal data,? said Amman.
‘There was no sensitive township data on that hard drive. There were letters to residents along with memos to other employees. I was supervisor at the time the hard drive was removed’I asked someone to help me change out the hard drive before I broke something.?
‘The flipside of that is if Atlas Township has to spend $600 to repair that computer, it’s too much. A hard drive like that cost $50. If she has nothing better to do but whine about a hard drive, then something is wrong. I have nothing to hide other than I used it for personal use. It’s a diversion by Jones from bigger problems the township is having right now.?
Township Trustee Scott Statson told The Citizen he replaced the hard drive on Kautman-Jones’s computer after former Township Supervisor Paul Amman asked that his personal data was removed prior to leaving office in November.
His intention was to protect the township server, so he purchased a new hard drive and plugged it into the computer before Shirley took office. She later called and returned the old hard drive’none of the information was sensitive data.
‘It was nothing more than a switch of the hard drive with a new one,? said Statson.
Atlas Township does not currently have a computer policy and is working to establish one.