One week after appearing to exonerate Ratliff, Supervisor Leff hires a lawyer to investigate him. How unbiased will this be?

With no discussion whatsoever, the Kennett Township Board of Supervisors (KT-BOS) quickly passed a special resolution at a special public meeting on 12/28/21, allowing Leff to sign a “special legal counsel engagement letter”. Leff acknowledged that this letter pertained to “personnel matters”. We understand that an independent legal counsel will be tasked with investigating the claims against Ratliff. This latest development is striking given that a special press statement authored by Supervisors Leff and Hoffman just 8 days earlier lavished praise on Ratliff. In this statement, Leff is quoted, “I ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO BE CAUTIOUS IN BELIEVING PETER DOEHRING’S IRRESPONSIBLE ALLEGATIONS”.

Just how “independent” this legal counsel will be is very unclear, given that this special press statement all but exonerated Ratliff and has been widely disseminated through the popular press. It also appears likely that others may hesitate to step forward with new information, as long as there continues to be the threat of public repudiation through more “special press statements” by the KT-BOS. It is doubtful that any investigation can be truly productive and unbiased until the KT-BOS publicly retracts this special statement and makes it clear that they will not seek to intimidate or retaliate against any citizen who steps forward to publicly express concerns about township matters.