Exeter Supervisors have paid Dave Hughes $805,000 in taxpayer money so that he wouldn't sue them personally

Public money was used to protect them personally. The entire board and the Solicitor must resign immediately.

The Exeter Township Supervisors have paid former Supervisor Dave Hughes $805,000 out of the public treasury primarily so that he wouldn’t sue them personally, according to a provision in the agreement, released to the Examiner through a Right to Know request.

Section 14b of the contract details the linchpin of the agreement. In it, the township states, “Hughes has given notice to the Township of his intention to file claims against the Township and certain of its officers, agents, and retained professionals in federal court. Hughes ·agrees that he will not file any future claim, suit, or demand against the Township, its officials, employees and professional consultants, and their immediate families as defined above, in any federal or state court or administrative agency regarding any action or conduct occurring up to the signing of the agreement.”

So there it is. The taxpayers of Exeter have paid $805,000 so that George Bell, Michelle Kircher, Clarence Hamm, Jack Piho, Solicitor Chad Schnee, and others currently connected to the township won’t be sued by Hughes. The fact that they are willing to put our money on the line says that they took the threat to sue seriously and see that a proper case can be made to sue them personally, AND the township for following through on their actions.
Is it our responsibility as taxpayers to indemnify them? No, we are not responsible for the actions that they took as responsible adults. They had a choice on September 11th, 2023 not to pursue this lawsuit, but the BOS voted 4-1 to do so. On January 2nd, two new Supervisors came on board in the persons of Piho and Hamm. They could have stopped this with three votes. They chose to continue it, therefore THEY are culpable for the actions.

Taking apart other portions of this agreement, it is full of unenforceable stipulations. One being that Hughes can’t run for Exeter office ever again.

It is the right of a U.S. citizen to pursue public office and any of those things listed. This is not a product liability suit. The Township is behaving as if they’re Proctor & Gamble silencing someone who got hold of a bad product, signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) of some sort to keep them quiet. The difference being that P&G isn’t a government unit, charged with defending rights of citizens. They’re a public company, and an NDA between a public company and a private individual is not subject to the same degree of scrutiny as this, since Exeter is publicly financed.

The next provision is even MORE ludicrous.

Again, he can’t exercise his right as a citizen to petition his government for redress of grievances for two years. Nor can he play golf at the Reading Country Club, or walk in one of our parks. So he gets to pay for these things but can’t use them? How do you think that would go over with the U.S. Department of Justice, who itches for civil rights litigation?

The next provision might be the stupidest of all of them.

So, as a friend pointed out, if Hughes has an emergency situation at his house, he can’t call the police, because he can’t consort with township employees. Or possibly, he can’t call 911 in the case of a burglary at his home. How’s that one work? “You don’t have a right to protection of law enforcement or investigation of crimes committed against you.” If such a thing were to happen, would they call in Berks County Detectives to do an investigation, and then Exeter taxpayers get to pay THEM for their time?

Another insane clause.

So does this mean that if a group of citizens got together and sued the township and Supervisors personally over this, to get the money back from them personally, Hughes doesn’t have to give back the money? They gave him this money and they meant it!

Does this also mean that other past members and employees who participated in actions against Hughes in connection to this smear campaign that was waged are on the hook for legal action? Like the “harassment report”, which the Supervisors commissioned, attempted to embargo, then went on a month’s long journey of lies as to the contents, until the Examiner outed their lies by obtaining and publishing the report? So is former Supervisor Ted Gardella as well as former Township Manager Betsy McBride on the hook for legal action since they’re no longer in Exeter’s employ, but definitely DID participate? Does the private company Keystone Municipal Services have to worry, since they were McBride’s employer? The case can be made that Hughes’ lawyers have found the way to pierce the veil of protection of Supervisors, since the BOS took this action. I’d be nervous if I were those entities.

The Exeter BOS has behaved in an insanely inappropriate fashion, and used our money to remove THEM and contractors of the Township from legal jeopardy. That is not the responsibility of citizens to undertake. The entire BOS and the Solicitor must resign immediately for this gross dereliction of their duties to properly oversee the money of the taxpayers of Exeter Township, and for using our money for their personal gain in removing themselves from harm. It should have been up to THEM to pay any penalties that arose from their own actions, not the taxpayers.