From The Press of Atlantic City — The Aug. 7 editorial, “Free speech in Mullica/Bad law resurfaces,” was right on target. Former mayor and current Mullica committeeperson Kathy Chasey has been lobbying Mullica’s Township Committee for the past two years to prohibit campaigning outside our waste transfer station, where people bring their trash, ever since her challengers began to use the location to have their voices successfully heard by the residents.

During these two years, both Republican and Democratic majorities on committee have repeatedly rejected her bid due to First Amendment concerns.

Citing an unsubstantiated and flawed safety report and unproven claims, Chasey finally got a majority on committee to agree to restrict free speech outside our transfer station. It will not stand; it will either be successfully challenged in court by some aggrieved party, or it will be repealed next year, when a new committee is in office.

Her allegations of safety concerns are disingenuous. Chasey has regularly campaigned for herself and for her party’s candidates outside the transfer station during election time, even having her husband sleep there on those weekend nights leading up to elections in order to reserve the preferred exit for her use. The litmus test will be if Chasey herself is again seen standing outside Mullica’s transfer station this election cycle. Based on her contention that she is acting in the name of safety and to relieve the taxpayers of potential liability, her presence there will only prove her to be a hypocrite.

BERNARD GRAEBENER, Committeeman, Mullica Township
MICHAEL ST. AMOUR, Committeeman, Mullica Township

The original version of this article can be viewed at:
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/opinion/letters/article_ca560a94-b15c-5767-a11b-dbc8b886128b.html