An Open Letter About Gardella, Vollmer, Bell and Schnee

Here's My Opinion as An Elected Supervisor of Exeter Township:

A year ago, Gardella, Bell, and Vollmer engaged in a series of deliberate lies, publicly accusing me of sexual harassment against an employee. They were fully aware that these accusations were baseless and motivated by retaliation from a disgruntled employee. This employee sent an email the day after I took office. Further, a thorough investigation conducted over the course of a month, which included numerous testimonies from employees, cleared me of any wrongdoing. Despite knowing the truth, Gardella, Vollmer, and Bell still censured me, while Schnee took no action. They all participated in spreading these false allegations for political gain, and Schnee potentially for financial motives.

Throughout the past 12 months, Gardella, Vollmer, and Schnee utilized these fabricated lies and the censure to continuously harass and defame me in public meetings and online. They employed various methods, including exploiting the township website, Facebook page, and providing false information to the Reading Eagle, with the malicious intent of damaging my reputation and character. Gardella, Vollmer, Bell, and Schnee intentionally concealed the investigation report, as its release would have exposed their deceitful scheme. It was only after parts of the report were brought to light by Jerry Geleff and The Exeter Examiner, followed by an anonymous individual publishing the entire report, that the false accusations of sexual harassment miraculously ceased.

In the meantime, armed with absolute power and a majority of votes, and with Schnee's complicity, Gardella, Vollmer, and Bell continued their campaign of harassment, passing one motion after another to unlawfully impede me from fulfilling my supervisor duties. They managed to turn the entire township staff, including the township supervisor, against me, despite my never having set foot in the township offices. I was officially prohibited from entering any township office and subsequently prevented from communicating with any township employee. Whenever I requested information crucial for my supervisor responsibilities, such as invoices, bills, or budget reports, they deliberately delayed or outright denied my requests, using false claims of confidentiality. Eventually, they compelled me to resort to right-to-know requests, further obstructing my understanding by intentionally slowing down the process. Even with these requests, the documents were returned to me heavily redacted, rendering them incomprehensible. Later on, I was forced to channel all my questions and document requests through Gardella, who maliciously and passively denied nearly all of them. Bell exhibited the same unprofessional behavior. Schnee's electronic communications were not only unprofessional but also filled with passive-aggressive language, which amounted to fabricating additional lies for the record.

In summary, Gardella, Vollmer, Bell, and Schnee have conspired over the past year to systematically defame and harass me in public and on social media. They have retaliated against me by effectively blocking me from any opportunities or access to personnel and documents required for me to fulfill my duties as an elected supervisor. Their collusion has rendered me entirely ineffective and useless in my role as a supervisor.

Review full investigation report here. 

Why are Gardella, Vollmer, Bell, and Schnee subjecting me to this treatment? What is the motive behind their intense hatred, malicious slander, relentless bullying and harassment, passive-aggressive vindictiveness, and the continuous infliction of emotional distress in public, on social media, and through email for over a year?

The reason behind their actions is simple: I am asking the right questions about the township's governance and exposing their complete incompetence, laziness, lack of transparency, and their role in destroying the township's finances while promoting unprecedented corruption.  Additionally, I have dared to criticize their pet project, the municipal golf course, which is both expensive and unprofitable, benefiting only a tiny fraction of the township's residents. I have shed light on their lack of intelligence, business experience, misguided views on governance, absence of a plan, and their ignorance of fiscal responsibility and budgeting.

All I do is calmly and rationally ask questions, and they are terrified of facing those questions.

Dear voters, this is the consequence of allowing corrupt, incompetent, unscrupulous, lazy, and, most importantly, incredibly stupid, vindictive, and despicable individuals to attain power through deceit rather than merit. They leave nothing but destruction in their path. And now, as this malicious clique prepares to launch another coup and censure me using new fabricated lies, I have a question for you: what have they accomplished in the past 12 months? They have held complete power with a majority vote, so what tangible achievements can they claim?

---

Here  is a short list of top issues Gardella, Vollmer, and Bell must respond to.

download pdf

---

As they censure me once again, be prepared to witness another narrative, most likely built on psychological projection, in which they will falsely claim that I am creating a hostile environment, solely focused on slandering them and ruining the reputation of our township. They will go to great lengths to propagate this narrative across the township's websites, inundate official meeting minutes with relentless attacks against me, and spread further slander about Supervisor Hughes, calling me the “Trump of Exeter," on platforms like the Reading Eagle and various social media outlets.

At this juncture, it becomes essential for you to question how I can be responsible for all these alleged wrongdoings when my access to information has been completely severed, my freedom of speech forcefully suppressed, and my vote as a minority reduced to insignificance, while Gardella, Bell, Vollmer, and Schnee have enjoyed uninterrupted power for over a year. Do you truly believe that all this spectacle and smoke and mirrors will deceive anyone?

Let me make one thing abundantly clear to Gardella, Vollmer, Bell, and Schnee: The more you spread lies about me, the more resolutely I will expose the truth about each of you.

I will never resign.

Dave H. Hughes, BS, CMA, CFM