Senate Bill 507 Summary

• Township trustees must accept and grant or deny completed township assistance applications within 72 hours; failure to act results in automatic denial appealable to the board of county commissioners.

• Township boards must adopt assistance standards by March 31 each year, with filing required by December 1; failure to adopt standards for two consecutive years prevents budget approval and withholds board member salaries.

• Township trustees must maintain telephone answering service and respond to assistance inquiries within 24 hours (excluding weekends and holidays); all township offices must list address and phone number in local telephone directories.

• Beginning January 1, 2015, township board member compensation capped at $5,000 annually; in townships with 25,000+ population, immediate family members earning $10,000+ annually cannot work in direct supervisory or subordinate relationships with their relatives.

• Township executives may receive rental payments for office space in their personal residences only at rates matching comparable commercial office space; all payments must be separately listed and documented in annual reports filed with state board of accounts by March 1.