On December 21, 2011, a few days after the Christmas Party for the Municipal workers of Northampton Township the following post, What the $%^ happened at the Christmas Party? was put on this website. Since then additional information has been forthcoming about the same supervisor. She notarized her own signature on a circulators oath, which means she acted as a witness for herself. PA’s notary law is pretty clear that a notary cannot notarize anything in which she has an interest. Her signature was incorrectly notarized or her notary was incorrectly used. Either way, it appears to violate the PA notary statute.

But, unfortunately, there is more. It’s about changing the minutes of a supervisor meeting.  At the June 22nd, 2011  meeting Supervisor Rothermel wanted to make sure the minutes of the May meeting reflected the truth about the discussions. Instead George, Vince and Eileen voted against it. Fast foreword to January 25, 2012. The supervisor at issue made a motion to change the minutes of the November 2011 Board of Supervisors meeting where there was a lot of politicking going on when one supervisor decided to change his vote. The Board didn’t want the public to see the discussion so they went into Executive session, possibly in violation of the Sunshine law that mandates all discussions of three or more supervisors be done in public. When they returned the issue was either re-voted or some votes were changed before the matter was closed. Now the same supervisor who voted not to change the minutes in June of 2011 wants to change the minutes of November 2011. How quickly some people forget how they acted in the recent past.

Ǿ And there is even more. Her attitude towards the municipal workers could be taken as a threat. If it was a threat, it might be considered an assault. Generally, the essential elements of assault consist of an act intended to cause an apprehension of harmful or offensive contact that causes apprehension in the victim. In the case of a municipal worker who is called dumb, drunk and drug taking by a supervisor who is in charge of managing the township, it could be serious so far as a tort is concerned. Even if it is not quite a civil threat, most reasonable people would consider the words a threat that their job with the township may be in jeopardy If someone was inclined to file a complaint about these matters with the Secretary of State it might affect the judgment of the State ahout the good character needed to be a notary.

What the $%^ happened at the Christmas Party?

 Rumor has it an elected official became extremely upset; began f-blasting; got even more agitated; used even more despicable language; kept up the atrocious behavior; was asked by police, we believe off-duty, to leave; refused; became even more abusive using language that embarrassed every adult within earshot, language that I’ve never heard before and which embarrassed me when it was reported, and, which official was finally persuaded to leave and had to be helped outside by another elected official. We have names but because we believe in not mentioning names when the consequences of the report would be damaging and because we have respect for ourselves will not be the first to publish them. It’s being reported as a rumor. It’s based on reports from people who have credibility and we believe the incident happened just about the way it’s reported above. Of course it may be unfair to every official who was not involved but there is no alternative which reveals itself. The lack of knowledge about the personal life of an official who goes far over the line make it prudent to keep certain information to one’s self.

 It is unfortunate when we witness people who cannot control themselves. It’s even worse for people who are elected officials. They are held to a different standard, as they should be, because they have power because of their position and more responsibility. An incident like this embarrasses innocent bystanders who are swept into an incident through nothing more than they happen to be near the miscreant. The embarrassment is because even though people have accidents some bad behavior far exceeds the norm. Adults have a vast range of experiences that inures them to the unusual and to the abnormal but when the un-acceptable goes well past even the most flexible standard, we cringe inwardly. We hope this incident doesn’t happen again although word of mouth indicates it’s happened before and more than once.   Developing…

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