Resignation Call Does Not Faze Mullica Official
A formal request was handed to Kennedy in an envelope marked "confidential and personal" prior to a recent Mullica Township Committee meeting, Kennedy said.
In the envelope was a letter dated Jan. 17 and signed by 16 people that requested Kennedy's resignation from his position on the county committee due to his "desire to not affiliate with the local Democratic Club and local Democratic elected officials." ....Continue reading
Kennedy is one of six people who represent the township at county committee meetings. It is a two-year position to which the club elected him last year.
Also in the envelope was a pre-written resignation letter, addressed to Atlantic County Democratic Committee Chairman Patrick D'Arcy, for Kennedy to sign.
"They even addressed the three envelopes for me. The only thing they were missing was stamps," Kennedy joked.
Kennedy, who is in his second term on the Township Committee, said he has no plans to succumb to the club's pressure.
"If I want to resign, I'll resign. And I'll do it on my own terms," he said. "Not because these people signed a letter at a meeting that I wasn't invited to."
Even if Kennedy resigns from the club, his political affiliation could stay the same.
"I've been a Democrat since I first registered to vote," Kennedy said. "When I went to register, I asked my mom whether I should be a Republican or a Democrat. She smacked me on the back of the head and said, 'You're a Democrat,' and that was that."
But Deneen St. Amour, the township's Democratic municipal chairwoman and the wife of Democratic Committeeman Michael St. Amour, said some of Kennedy's recent comments seem to contradict that.
"After reading Bill quoted in The Press of Atlantic City saying that he's always considered himself 'neutral or independent,' that he doesn't think 'Democrat or Republican, at this level, means that much,' and that he couldn't support Michael due to what happened in court, I asked the former municipal chair for advise on what I should do," said Deneen St. Amour, adding she was told the only way Kennedy can be replaced is if he resigns.
"No, I don't expect him to sign it," she said.
Michael St. Amour testified against Kennedy in a court case in which the Kennedy - then mayor - was accused of physically assaulting a township resident at a school board meeting. The charges against Kennedy eventually were dropped.
"There is nothing personal involved in this at all," Deneen St. Amour said. "If you don't consider yourself a Democrat, I don't think you should be representing our local Democrats at the county level."
Michael St. Amour took it a step further, saying Kennedy should resign from the Township Committee as well.
"I think that he's lost his moral compass, and I've lost any confidence in his ability to do what's right for the township," said Michael St. Amour, who signed the club's resignation request along with fellow Democratic Committeeman Bernard Graebener.
Graebener said he did not feel it was appropriate to comment on the club's letter to Kennedy.
St. Amour, Graebener and Kennedy are the three Democrats on the five-person Township Committee.
Kennedy seemed to be relatively unfazed by his critics.
"I'm still a Democrat. Apparently I'm a bad one, but I'm still a Democrat," he said. "And I've always acted with the township's best interest at heart."
E-mail Robert Spahr: RSpahr@pressofac.com
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