Benner Township supervisor stands firm despite residents’ calls to drop Sunshine Act complaint

A few dissatisfied residents of a small township in Centre County asked one of their elected supervisors Monday to drop her allegations that the board violated Pennsylvania’s open meetings law.

One man who spoke during the standing-room only meeting cast the legal challenge as frivolous and said Benner Township could “find a better use for our money.” Another man asked the township to stop airing its dirty laundry in public.

Robert Kuhlman, meanwhile, asked township Supervisor Kathy Evey to “drop what she’s doing.” But in comments during the meeting and speaking with the Centre Daily Times after, Evey seemed resolute.

She plans to march forward with her complaint against the township’s two other supervisors and its longtime secretary, a dispute that Chairman Randy Moyer said has “ broken the board .”

At issue is the way in which a Bellefonte woman was hired by Secretary Sharon Royer to perform transcription duties for the township, a responsibility Evey said belonged to Royer.

In a court document filed last month, Evey argued the public was not given ample notice before the hire and was unable to comment about the details of the position.

With minimal discussion Monday, the board approved a transcriptionist for minute taking. Moyer and Supervisor Larry Lingle voted in favor of the measure, while Evey abstained.

It was not immediately clear how the action would affect Evey’s complaint against the board, if at all. The township has not responded in court to the allegations, but have intimated they believed they acted properly.

Moyer has openly questioned how effectively the township will be able to carry out its business as the friction among its leaders unfolds. Royer, for example, has hinted she may leave the township after working there for 37 years.

“I don’t need this,” she told the CDT after a heated meeting Friday. “I don’t deserve this.”

Moyer, Lingle and others have vouched for Royer, saying the township would be “doomed” if she and her institutional knowledge departed. Kuhlman told a crowd of nearly four dozen people he believes Royer is “getting a bad deal.”

Evey and her attorney have rejected any notion their filing amounts to a vendetta against Royer. Rather, it aims to ensure the township is following the state’s open meetings law now and in the future, they’ve said.

It’s not yet known how much taxpayer money will be spent by the board to defend against the filing. Solicitor Rod Beard is set to be paid an hourly rate.

The township’s next supervisors meeting is scheduled for Nov. 4.

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