Alleges ‘Intimidation’ Drove Him off Board

To The Editor:
In response to the Spout Off alleging I was a no-show to the Zoning Board of Dennis Township while I was a board member, let me set the record straight. I left the Zoning Board because I was disgusted by the intimidation I received from Deputy Mayor Dennis Crippen. I spent numerous nights listening to hearing tapes for the Pierson asphalt plant application. After many hours of listening, it finally was time for the board to vote on the application. Prior to the meeting that day, I received a phone call from Crippen. Crippen requested that I vote the way he wanted the application to go. Crippen was not a member of the Zoning Board and did not attend the meetings or listen to any of the hearings. How, then, could he make a proper judgment on how the members should vote? And what was a sitting Township Committeeman doing trying to intimidate and influence a member of the Zoning Board?
After that meeting, I told the chairman of the Zoning Board that this was going to be my last meeting and that I was resigning effective immediately. It was clear that Crippen expected to control board members and I did not wish to be under his control.
After I resigned, Township Committee members failed to replace me on the board for eight months. These meetings that occurred after my resignation and before they appointed a new member are what an anonymous Spouter claimed were absences on my part.
Now, Crippen is continuing his ethically-challenged pattern, and attacking me in the mail on this trumped up issue. He is exactly the kind of politician we don’t need any more in Township Hall. I did not miss eight months of Zoning Board meetings. I quit in protest of Crippen’s bullying and intimidation of the Zoning Board.
BRIAN TEEFY
Dennisville
(ED. NOTE: The author is a Republican candidate for Dennis Township Committee in the Nov. 8 election Crippen is a Democrat seeking reelection to Dennis Township Committee.)
DENNIS CRIPPEN’S REBUTTAL:
The allegations are untrue.
The basis of the mailers is a matter of public record.
Had he resigned, he would have been removed from the board right away.
Recollecting that period of time when the Pierson application came up where Mr. Teefy had to listen to tapes of missed meetings, I think, three or four, in order for him to qualify to vote on the application, I oversee planning and zoning.
I encouraged him listen to the tapes so that we would have opportunity to vote and this application could come to a conclusion, which he did.
That was the extent of my communications with him at that time.