Following the announcement that Whitemarsh Township’s board of supervisors voted to cancel the annual 4th of July Parade, a township official, Finance Director Kevin Barron, emailed a vendor that provides an ongoing service to the township.
In the email, Barron stated that “The township doesn’t appreciate” a comment made by the vendor’s owner on social media regarding the cancellation of the parade, and that the township wanted to cancel the contract with the vendor.
In additional emails obtained by MoreThanTheCurve.com, Barron stated to the vendor that “police personnel” had noticed the vendor’s comment on the township’s Facebook page, which read, “weakness promotes weakness,” and that the “police” had “looked you up.” Barron continued that the police shared the information about the comment with him. Following several emails, Barron said the issue was being dropped and the contract wasn’t cancelled.
Starting on May 11th, MoreThanTheCurve.com sent emails to the board of supervisors that were not returned. On May 27th, we called Township Manager Craig McAnally, who discovered that our email address had been blocked. We are told that it has been resolved, and McAnally provided the following statement:
As far as the contract, I spoke with the Finance Director [Kevin Barron] who informed me the [identifying information removed] contract expires the end of the year and is still active. There is no policy about social media playing part in contracts nor having the PD [police department] being tasked to review Social Media posts.
MoreThanTheCurve.com’s original question to the supervisors involved “what the policy is regarding canceling contracts with vendors due to social media comments, and whether the police have been tasked with monitoring the township or other social media accounts for negative statements about the township, and researching those behind them?
After McAnnaly resolved the issue of the blocked email and MoreThanTheCurve.com received his response, which had the board of supervisors cc’ed on it, MoreThanTheCurve.com asked the following question of the supervisors, “Are you concerned that police personnel are researching those behind benign Facebook comments and seeking the township to take action against them? That email was sent on May 27th at 7:30 p.m., and there has been no response.
There are several unanswered questions.
When MoreThanTheCurve.com spoke to McAnally on May 27th, he said he was not familiar with the situation between Barron and the vendor. In Barron’s emails, he stated that he was going to speak with the “higher ups.” McAnally is Barron’s boss. If he didn’t know anything about it, who did Barron speak with?
In Barron’s email, he said that “The township doesn’t appreciate” the comment. Can Barron speak on behalf of the township? Or were others involved?
Are police in Whitemarsh taking notes on who is making benign negative comments? Are they then working to punish them? According to Barron, that is exactly what happened.
More to come.