Good morning Exeter! Rising Water Bills Are Just the Tip of the Iceberg!

In my Opinion, As an Elected Supervisor of Exeter Township:

I fully acknowledge the existing concerns surrounding our escalating water costs. Unfortunately, due to the industry's heavy governmental regulation, our direct control over these costs is minimal. In 2019, I submitted a detailed 63-page document advocating against the sale of Exeter's sewer plant. However, at that crucial time, participation from our residents was noticeably sparse, with only a handful of individuals offering support.

The primary reason for the plant's sale was rooted in years of financial mismanagement by our township supervisors. They, unfortunately, drove us into a position where the only option left was to sell our most significant and profitable asset owned collectively by our community.

Alarmingly, history seems to be repeating itself, as the same financial mismanagement appears to be resurfacing. For example, we are budgeting for our golf course to incur a loss of $400,000, and our banquet business, a for-profit venture, is being subsidized, causing us to lose another $100,000.

In the board of supervisors held on Monday, July 10th, four supervisors, our solicitor, and our short-term manager censured me, alleging disruptive behavior in meetings, which is categorically untrue (please refer to the video footage). They also claimed I was consuming excessive staff time by asking pertinent questions and seeking information.

As a representative of this community, I believe it is my duty to work tirelessly for you. To succeed in this mission, I urgently require your continued support and active involvement.

The handling of our township's affairs by these unaccountable individuals, whom I regard as inexperienced, has resulted in the mockery of our local government. They have perpetuated false accusations and have essentially controlled our township for a year now.
Key questions that need answering include:

• Why did we budget for a loss of $500,000, and then proceed to hire more personnel and issue pay raises costing an extra $316,000? Why are we paying in advance for legal services, amounting to $180,000 annually?
• Why was an unbalanced budget approved, and why was a nearly $2,000,000 budget deficit forecasted? Your water bill might seem exorbitant now, but wait until the next round of poor financial management hits us even harder
• In a recent meeting, our township supervisors agreed to pay a settlement of $1.875 million to JMH Inc. of Wyomissing. This considerable expenditure, in conjunction with other costs such as over $1 million in legal fees and a $2.5 million investment in the Promenade, results in a staggering $5.375 million loss of taxpayers' money

These costs could have been averted since 2019, but were instead met by the sale of our sewer plant. I urge you all to consider the implications of these decisions, for this is your hard-earned money.