Township settles lawsuits with former supervisor

Fred Theil will get $18,000 for legal fees

DOUGLASS (MONT.) >> With a unanimous vote, township supervisors unanimously settled a two-year legal battle with former supervisor Fred Theil.

The vote Monday, Nov. 21, followed a half-hour closed-door executive session and its ramifications were explained by Anthony Sherr, one of the attorneys representing the township on the case.

He said the township’s insurance company will pay $18,000 toward Theil’s legal fees and the township will pay its deduct-

ible, which Township Manager Peter Hiryak told Digital First Media is $2,500.

Another condition of the settlement is that it states that Theil’s countersuit against the township “has no merit,” Sherr said.

Theil resigned from the board of supervisors in 2013.

He told Digital First Media Tuesday “I never wanted to burden the taxpayers, I just wanted to make my point and clear my name.”

“This is the third time they’ve sued me and they lost every time,” said Theil. “I guess they thought I would just fold and in the end, I just wanted my legal fees and to clear my name.”

At the core of the dispute is the township’s yearlong battle with Mountain Mulch, a company that set up shop in Sassamansville but whose operations exceeded the guidelines set up in the zoning variance that allowed it.

In fact one of the supervisors who voted on the settlement Monday, Alan Keiser, first came to public prominence as one of Mountain Mulch’s aggrieved neighbors.

The township’s battle with Mountain Mulch ended in 2015 as the result of a 2014 settlement that moved the operation out of town.

However, in June of 2014, one month after reaching the agreement with Mountain Mulch, the sitting supervisors at the time had former township solicitor Paul Bauer file a lawsuit against Theil seeking nearly $37,000 in damages for his role in an incident at Mountain Mulch that stretched all the way back to 2012.

The lawsuit alleged that in December 2012, Theil received a phone call from “an individual representing the Army Corps of Engineers stating they had an excess of storm debris due to Hurricane Sandy and requesting to move the debris to the property located at 244 Sassamansville Road.”

Theil “on his own and without the legal authority to do so, granted the Army Corps of Engineers’ request without contacting any other supervisors, zoning board members or Douglass Township officials in general,” the suit alleged.

“Approximately, 250,000 yards of debris from Hurricane Sandy was transported through an otherwise remote and quiet community from December of 2012 to April of 2013 and resulting in numerous complaints” to the township “from concerned neighbors,” according to the lawsuit.

“The delivery of the debris to the property greatly expanded the size and functions of the operation on the site, violating the property’s use variance,” the original complaint read.

As a result, the township “was required to expend $36,943.82 in legal and engineering fees,” an amount the complaint requested that Theil pay.

That same month, Theil countersued the township seeking $100,000 in damages.

In a 37-page filing, Theil not only denied the township’s claims; questioned whether his alleged actions had the effect the township claimed they did; and made numerous accusations against Bauer, not the least of which was that Bauer had forced him into resigning in the first place and attempted to get him to sign a paper pledging never again to run for public office.

Theil’s suit further alleged that Bauer advised the supervisors to sue him only after he and his wife Linda were elected to the local Republican committee and there was talk of Theil running for supervisor again.

In fact Theil did run again, losing the Republican primary in 2015 to Keiser, who went on to unseat longtime Supervisor John Stasik in the general election.

The current settlement contains “no stipulation to prevent (Theil) from running for public office. I don’t even think that’s legally enforceable,” said Sherr.

“We’ll have to leave that up to our voters,” said Supervisors Chairman Anthony Kuklinski.

Monday night, Sherr said the legal battle with Theil “expanded and involved several attorneys and we now have a situation where we can settle the matter, put the entire matter behind everybody, end all exposure to the township or any other individual and prevent any other lawsuits from taking place as a result of this incident.”

He said the decision to settle was driven by the insurance company’s concerns about escalating costs. “This settlement is strictly for monetary purposes on the part of the insurance company,” Sherr said.

Middle Creek Road resident Alex Brumwell told the supervisors Theil “did so much damage to this township; so much damage to the people who live near Mountain Mulch, it seems ludicrous to me we’re going to give him 18 grand. It doesn’t make any sense to me,” he said.

Robert Brant, the townships current solicitor, said “when a settlement happens, often, not everyone is happy. But the supervisors are cognizant of spending the people’s money and they have decided its in the best interests of the township,” he said.

Brant also said the settlement will become a public document only after “it is fully executed.”