MONTICELLO — Village of Monticello officials are seeking uniformity in the filing procedures throughout the various municipal departments.

Village Trustee John Barbarite spoke of his observations shared with  Village Manager James Snowden after deliberations between the two on the reported disjointment within the village files and paper trails.

“We need some standard operating procedures drawn up so that employees know the steps to take in carrying out their duties,” explained Barbarite.

According to Barbarite, there has been a “number of instances” where they need documentation and find that forms aren’t being filed correctly.

“There is lack of data...that makes it very difficult later on  to adjust problems,” stated Barbarite.

As such, he stated that they are working on checklists and expanding on operating procedures. He says that one of the things that makes this necessary, being a “small Village” [means] we don’t have a large training program, so to speak.”

He also noted that a lot of the people they employ come from the private sector and are not familiar with municipal operations and standards necessary to carry out governmental duties.

“They’re left to do it on their own, and everyone is taking a different approach to it. There is no consistency,” stated Barbarite. “It results in problems for applicants, and it results in problems for Code Enforcement.”

He exampled that a lot of the applicants come in and don’t know the steps to follow so that they can comply, thus creating “a lot of problems”.

“We’re [Barbarite and Snowden] working on making Standard Operating Procedures for most of the everyday tasks that employees have to do so they know just how to do it.”