Township offers advice on handling racism
Local controversy is basis for lecture to other towns
A local controversy is basis for lecture to other towns in the area.
NEW HANOVER >> Having weathered accusations of racism in its police department and experienced little in the way of permanent consequences as a result, two township officials have taken it upon themselves to share the lessons they learned with other townships.
Township Manager Jamie Gwynn and Solicitor Andrew J. Bellwoar presented an hour-long online lecture, for which other officials could get credits for watching, to the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors titled: “Claims of Racism at your Doorstep, What is a Township to Do?”
A Quiz Format
In the video, the two officials answer that question in a multiple-choice quiz format, by outlining the 11 situations that evolved and the steps they took after retired police officers Keith Youse and Dennis Psota leveled accusations of racism against Chief Kevin McKeon and retired sergeant William Moyer in 2019 and asking those participating what they would have done each step of the way.
At one point Gwynn even joked as they waited for those answering the questions that “we should play the ‘Jeopardy!’ music while we’re waiting.”
The Pottstown NAACP — which was involved in the matter for months saying it wanted “to work with the township,” brought additional information to the township for investigation, and was provided with a copy of the slides used in the presentation obtained by MediaNews Group — issued a statement Friday which noted, in part, “within the presentation, we detect a note of mockery, an attempt at humor that belittles the seriousness of the accusations.”
Gwynn provided a onepage summary of the presentation when contacted by MediaNews Group, but did not respond when asked for the full presentation.
Gwynn replied to a MediaNews Group query that he does not have a copy of the video to provide and share with the public. MediaNews Group was nevertheless able to view the video, as well as obtain copies of the slides from the presentation.
Beyond the slides used, discussion between the two township officials on the video presentation, which is available only to PSATS members, revealed some of the thinking and back-room discussions over the course of the 15-month-long investigation by both the township and the state Attorney General’s Office of Civil Rights.
It also revealed some information not previously made public.
For example, Gwynn revealed that he was on vacation when McKeon called him to let him know that a complaint about a racist incident in the department had been filed; as well as the fact that McKeon’s intent was to “take care of it himself,” which Gwynn rejected, choosing instead to immediately inform the board of supervisors and take charge of the matter.
Bellwoar, later in the video, notes that “when the chief said ‘I’ll handle this,’ the way things evolved, there’s no way that should happen and, in the end, it didn’t.”
Using Attorney-Client Privilege
Also previously unspoken publicly was the acknowledgment of the reasoning behind hiring an outside attorney, John Gonzales, to conduct the township’s evolving and broadening investigation.
In addition to trying to avoid the impression that the township was investigating itself, the township nevertheless was able to keep from releasing its final report on the investigation to the public under the position that the township enjoyed the protection of attorney-client privilege, Bellwoar explained.
Because many of the people Gonazles interviewed spoke under the promise of confidentiality, making the report public would have violated that promise, Bellwoar and Gwynn both said.
“We wanted to make sure the people were in an environment where they could speak freely without consequence and that’s what (Gonzales) maintained,” Gwynn said on the video.
“The NAACP made the argument, and I think there’s some validity to the argument, that taxpayer money paid for it. It should be provided,” Gwynn said on the video.
“I think what benefitted us is we were pretty transparent about why we couldn’t do certain things and the reasons why we couldn’t release the report,” Gwynn said.
How Much to Reveal?
There was also extensive discussion among township officials, according to the conversation Gwynn and Bellwoar had on the video, of how detailed a statement to release to the public once the township’s investigation was completed.
At one point “we had a longer statement and there was a little back and forth and the reason we didn’t get into too many details is because then the veil of confidentiality might have been lifted and we may have been forced to release the report under the Right to Know law,” said Gwynn.
Conversation between the two on the video also revealed that when the township was contacted by the attorney general’s office, the township chose not to provide the report of its own investigation to investigators from the Attorney General’s office, and the state investigators never asked for it.
“There was privilege attached to the report and frankly, the OAG never asked for transcripts or anything like that and did not hit us with a subpoena,” Bellwoar says on the video.
Smoothing Relations With the Attorney General’s Office
On the video, Bellwoar and Gwynn also said they believe that the process the township followed, and the police and employee training it scheduled on its own,
made its interactions with the attorney general’s office go more smoothly.
“To me, I didn’t care what they said,” Gwynn said on the video. “I wanted to make sure they got the message that even though our results were negligible, I wanted them to take seriously that even though I couldn’t identify if there were people doing as the NACCP suggested, I want to send the message to the community, with the board, that we take this stuff seriously and we’re not going to do this stuff.”
In addition to training inside and outside the police department, the township also revised some policies and hiring practices “to make them a little more inclusive and we told the public what we did,” Gwynn said.
“I think with the attorney general’s office being told that, I think that helped us a lot and the OAG’s office did come back and say ‘we want to see a little bit more,’ and were OK with that because the end goal was the same,” Gwynn said.
Gwynn replied that neither he nor Bellwoar were paid, nor was the township, by PSATS and neither billed the township for their time in preparing and giving the presentation.
“It was a public service effort for other municipalities and officials, through PSATS,” Gwynn wrote in an email response to a MediaNews Group query.
‘What We Did, What Would You Do?’
The presentation takes the viewers through a series of situations the township faced as the matter evolved and gives viewers three choices about what they would do in response.
One of the slides talked about options the board had when the matter first arose and Bellwoar chuckled when none of those watching chose the option “report to the NAACP and let them investigate and report to the board of supervisors.”
Saying he was not surprised by that result, Bellwoar went on to say “you don’t want to lose control of the investigation to my mind. The NAACP, the attorney general, the district attorney, they may do their own investigation but we wanted our investigation to be done by then.”
Dealing With the NAACP
The NAACP did interview some people about incidents involving the police, who said they were afraid to speak to the police and brought that information to the township. After informing the supervisors of this during a public meeting, township officials met privately with NAACP members and on the PSATS video, outlined their reasoning for doing so.
“We had the NAACP basically saying ‘we have all these people telling us all this stuff’ and here we are as a manager, solicitor and a board,” Gwynn says on the video. “We don’t know who these people are, we don’t know if these statements are credible so it’s like what do you do? And we have residents filming the meetings and broadcasting on Facebook and we’re kind of in this box, it’s kind of a huge surprise.”
Residents at the meeting, both officials noted “wanted swift justice.”
Bellwoar said on the video the township met privately with NAACP officials because “we did not want to
throw up a wall like that. If they had information, we wanted to determine what that was. We went into that meeting with open ears, not necessarily saying much, because we wanted to hear what they had to say. We didn’t want that discussion to take place at a board of supervisors meeting, but we did want to have an exhaustive discussion, or an exhaustive relaying of information from the NAACP to us, at a meeting that took place elsewhere.”
Gwynn said “the NAACP wanted us to tell them everything about the investigation, which we weren’t going to do because we wanted to have a respective process and we didn’t really know what their true intent was, although we didn’t want to get into that.”
Added Bellowar, “we didn’t want to be accused of limiting the investigation as to what (Gonzales) could do and we didn’t want to be accused of limiting those persons who wanted to provide him with information.”
‘A Mere Public Relations Problem’
In fact, Bellwoar and Gwynn repeatedly talked about “optics” when discussing the steps taken and why they made certain choices, as much for how it would appear to the public as for any investigatory purpose.
“We are disturbed that New Hanover Township management would cavalierly treat acts of racist behavior as a mere public relations problem,” the Pottstown Chapter of the NAACP wrote in its statement after viewing the slides.
“The allegations in New Hanover Township were credible enough to warrant the intervention of the Office of the Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Yet, based on the slide deck, the township manager and township solicitor sought to twist the issue into an opportunity for a statewide coaching program” the statement said.
“There is no effort to address actual problems within the police department or restore the public trust. Nor do the slides demonstrate any concern for New Hanover’s residents, some of whom told branch leadership they remain afraid to call the police department due to fears of harassment and mistreatment,” the NAACP statement reads.
“Who thought delivery of such a presentation was a good idea? We certainly do not. Instead, it calls into question both the judgment and objectivity of the people managing New Hanover Township and reveals the township’s overall prejudice and insensitivity,” read the NAACP statement.
“I’m not going to say we’re good, I think there’s a lot of luck involved here,” Gwynn said on video as the presentation reached its conclusion.
“Others can appreciate our experience and really understand that you’ve just got to take it step-by-step and just follow what you think is right,” Gwynn said.