Towamencin board hints at next steps in aftermath of resignation

With the resignation of Towamencin township supervisor Laura Smith now official, what happens next?

Several township officials gave hints at what they’d like to see happen soon during the heated meeting Wednesday night in which they accepted Smith’s resignation.

“We really need to unite, in this community, and move forward. We need to decide, among the four of us, on a successor,” said board Chairman Chuck Wilson. “We’re trying to work together,” he added.

On Tuesday night all four remaining supervisors voted to accept the resignation of Smith, who has been at the center of an international controversy ever since Jan. 24, when a now-deleted TikTok video caught fire on social media showing Smith mimicking an alleged Nazi salute in the manner of Elon Musk at the inauguration of President Donald Trump. After more than a day of growing uproar online, the township announced Smith’s pending resignation on Jan. 26, and the board voted unanimously, after dozens of residents sounded off on the video and the board’s subsequent response, to accept the resignation on Feb. 4.

Amid that discussion, several supervisors hinted at next steps that could occur now that the resignation has been made official. During the special meeting, Wilson said any talks between the remaining four members on how to proceed must be handled one-on-one, in order to avoid running afoul of the state’s Sunshine law.

“We can certainly ask for staff to put up some call for resumes, if that is the consensus here, or if we want, to deal with the known population of possible contenders that we have,” Wilson said.

    

One of the three Republicans on the five-person board, Smith had first been elected in 2013 and was reelected alongside Wilson in 2019 to a six-year term that expires at the end of this year. In that election, Smith topped all four candidates with 2,544 votes, followed by Wilson with 2,455, then Joyce Snyder — a Democrat subsequently elected in 2021 alongside Republican Kristin Warner — with 2,354 and Democrat Peter Murphy finished fourth with 2,305 votes.

Having the resignation approved starts the clock on how long the township has to fill that seat, the chairman said Tuesday night, and the remaining supervisors have already begun internal talks on candidates who could be appointed to fill out the rest of the term.

“We’ll try to work through this as soon as we can. We have 30 days from tonight to get this done. So our goal is, we get it accomplished in that window, and we don’t have the need to forward this on to the common pleas court to make a decision for us. We need to set our own path forward, not have the courts do that,” he said.

    

Kofi Osei, the board’s newest member and a Democrat who was elected in 2023 in a tie vote broken by a county drawing, pointed out a key appointment that’s currently vacant and could have helped resolve the open seat.

“If you notice, on the agenda, there is a revision marker. Chuck Wilson tried to put an agenda item to appoint a vacancy board member. For those that aren’t as big Second Class township nerds as me, we’re about to have a two-Democrat and two-Republican board. The vacancy board member is supposed to be appointed at the beginning of every year, to break ties,” Osei said.

After saying staff had been “bombarded” by communications in the days since the viral video, and repeating prior jabs at Wilson and his leadership, Osei suggested several next steps, including that the full board draft and approve a statement condemning Smith’s actions, apologizing, and “condemning antisemitism and hatred in general.”

“We should not appoint a vacancy board member: that’s a mistake by Chuck, and he should hold onto that. We should take applications for this vacancy, and advertise it on the website, and then unanimously approve an appointment,” he said.

    

Osei then dropped what may be a familiar name as a possible short-term replacement.

“The candidate we should appoint should be able to jump in seamlessly, be friendly with all the sitting supervisors, and be a respected member of our township. In my mind, I cannot imagine anymore more perfectly suited to fill this role, in this time this township is having such a great difficulty, than Dan Bell,” he said.

A former teacher at an elementary school in Souderton and a teacher, then administrator at a charter school in Philadelphia, Bell ran in 2019 as part of the Republican “North Penn VIEWS” team that unsuccessfully challenged six incumbent Democrats for seats on the North Penn School Board. Two years later, Towamencin’s board named Bell to fill their last vacancy, finishing the term of predecessor Jim Sinz who had been elected in 2003, ’09, and ’15 before passing away in May of 2021 with six months left in that term.

“Chuck has appointed Dan as a supervisor before. Kristin was his running mate when he ran for supervisor in 2021. He ran a respectful race against Joyce, and in spite of my habit of running my mouth, I’ve been able to have very good conversations with Dan about issues in this township,” Osei said.

“Again: we should take applications, but Dan would be very hard to beat in my mind,” he said.

In that 2021 race, Snyder finished just ahead of Bell roughly two weeks after election day, when a late county vote total gave Warner a total of 2,770 votes, then 2,752 for Snyder, with Bell just 15 votes behind at 2,737 and then fellow Democrat Steven Kulp at 2,654.

Snyder said she “unequivocally agree(s) with everything” Osei said, and said she thought the community was built on values of “respect, inclusion and accountability,” before outlining what she’d like to see.

“I want to ask: how can we move forward, not just as individuals, but as a united community? How can we create an environment where incidents like this are addressed swiftly and effectively, and where everyone feels heard and supported?” Snyder said.

“Healing does not happen overnight, nor does change occur without effort. This is why I’m asking you to share your thoughts, ideas and perspectives with me. I am committed to assuring that this moment is not just something that we move past, but something we learn from and use as a foundation for meaningful progress in Towamencin,” she said.

Snyder then asked residents to stay involved, and laid out what she’d like to see next.

“I urge our residents to stay engaged, to continue advocating for accountability, and to make it clear that we expect and deserve better from those in a position of leadership,” Snyder said. “We have an opportunity before us, not just to address this incident, but to strengthen our community as a whole. Let’s ensure that this is a turning point for positive change, built on honesty, responsibility, and a shared commitment to making Towamencin a place where every voice matters, and every person is treated with dignity and respect.”

And Warner warned about the backlash and vitriol she received while traveling during the day between the viral video and the resignation announcement, and noting she already had a denunciation of a synagogue attack on her Facebook profile from years prior, yet some rushed to judgment.

“Calling someone a Nazi, calling someone a Nazi sympathizer, saying things like ‘You only put that on your profile because of this incident,’ is as abhorrent as being anti-Semitic,” Warner said.

“It wasn’t until I actually read the hatred — directed not at Laura, because they were mad at Laura — but at me, because I was an elected official that worked with Laura? It goes both ways, guys. Hatred goes both ways. You can’t condemn what Laura did, and then turn around and call someone you don’t even know, that you haven’t even spoken to,” a sympathizer or worse, she said.

“As an elected official, I stand against anti-Semitism. I stand against hatred being perpetrated or spoken towards people, without full knowledge of their circumstances. I stand against any group of people that act in prejudice against any other group of people. I have always stood against that, and I always will,” Warner said.

In response to several calls from residents, and Osei, to specifically denounce Smith and her video, Warner said she thought the video was “foolish,” before rebuffing calls from the crowd to go farther.

“I believe that every person is responsible for their own behavior. Laura is responsible for her behavior, and I’m responsible for my behavior. My behavior is: I’m against anti-Semitic behavior. I am against hatred toward others. I’m against any group coming together and assuming prejudice against another group. I don’t know how much clearer to say that. It’s not my job to condemn Laura Smith,” Warner said.

After the unanimous vote to accept the resignation, Snyder closed with a unifying message.

“I hope this unites the community: Go birds!”

Towamencin’s supervisors next meet at 7 p.m. on Feb. 12 and 25 at the township administration building, 1090 Troxel Road. For more information visit www.Towamencin.org.

This article appears courtesy of a content share agreement between North Penn Now and The Reporter. To read more stories like this, visit https://www.thereporteronline.com