Bell steps up attacks on Board Chair Piho

Raises the level to actual threats in thuggish bid to take over Board

Illegally appointed Exeter Township Supervisor George Bell has raised his level of attacks on Board Chair Jack Piho to actual threats, the Examiner has learned. 

Public attacks by Bell against Piho before the last Supervisors meeting stemmed from Piho’s wish to have a dialogue with his fellow Board members about the 2025 township budget. Nothing more.

The row kicked off after staff, under Township Manager Bill Heim, submitted a proposed budget to board members on October 31st. This budget fit Bell’s idea of what the budget should be, and he was infuriated when Piho suggested having a conversation to bring  more ideas into the mix. 

Piho went through the budget with staff and made a list of suggestions for conversation that Bell attacked furiously at the November 12th Supervisors meeting. 

In the days before that meeting, Bell attacked Piho and non board members from the community on his social media account (an account which has since been taken down from the platform) in a bid to once again bully and intimidate people, Piho specifically.  But those intimidation tactics were raised to another level when Bell sent an email to Piho in which he threatened him.

Being “done with games” is the threat. What is Bell going to do? Force Piho into capitulating to what he wants? Employing what means? Physical violence? Blackmail? If it is blackmail, that is illegal under both state and federal law, and Bell has left himself open to criminal prosecution.  Federal statute 18 U.S.C. § 873, and under state law at 18 Pa.C.S. § 3923.  Physical violence is a Mafia tactic that is not just illegal, but reprehensible as well. Leaving it vague in that fashion is a cunning move, but it doesn’t remove the fact that a threat has been made and that threats of this nature have no place in our local politics. This is supposed to be about building consensus, not forced capitulation through threats and intimidation. Is this what you want from your township government, Exeter? Do you support this thuggery and these Mafia tactics? It makes perfect sense, coming from Bell, who conspired with Supervisors Kircher and Hamm, and the former Vacancy Board Chair to get himself placed on the board again in an unlawful manner.  Bell continues to rack up the crimes that can be attributed to his name as he goes along. 

Bell also posted to his Facebook page another message to Piho, in which he chides Piho about transparency, and muses, with no context given, that he spoke to staff “BEFORE the budget meeting.”, while simultaneously threatening Piho with sharing “privileged communications” in emails.  Those communications are no longer privileged when they venture into the realm of illegal behavior such as threats of violence and or blackmail. He also refuses to acknowledge his own pushing of a $20 million fire station, while chiding Piho for his wish to expand the township building. This whole affair is no longer just illegal, it’s wrongheaded and stupid to the extreme, too. 

This is a soft version of Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch at a local level. It’s not an outright coup through physical force and guns, but this demonization of Piho, threats, and Mafia tactics are a definite move, coupled with the previous attempt listed in one of the above mentioned articles, to take the chair of the board down. It is also an attempt to make Exeter Township government work the way that Bell wants it to work, not in the way that a consensus of five Supervisors wishes to see it work. This is shameful behavior, no matter your perspective, and I’d wish for the people of Exeter to let those in the township building know this. And maybe legal authorities like the District Attorney.