Community Corner

Warminster Supervisor Chairperson Ellen Jarvis Accused of Misappropriation of Funds

Jarvis requested exemption for voluntary monthly health benefit payments due to recent financial hardships.

In an e-mail sent to reporters Thursday afternoon, Warminster Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Ellen Jarvis defended herself against accusations of misappropriation of township funds and calls for her resignation. While she did not identify her accusers, Jarvis laid out the reasons why she has not made the last three monthly premium payments for the township's health benefits.

Jarvis said in the e-mail that a combination of financial factors, including her loss of a full-time job and her husband, Centennial school board candidate John Jarvis, had been stripped of his disability payments, forced her to write a letter to township manager Bob Tate informing him that she would not be able to make the voluntary $1,500/month health care premiums.

"I’ve asked this Board for understanding and compassion during my personally difficult time," she writes, "and instead, I’ve been met by some with heartlessness, inhumanity, hatred, and hypocrisy."

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Again, without naming names, she matches the accusations of misappropriation of funds with examples of the same supervisor using township cell phones for personal use, playing free rounds of golf at Five Ponds Golf Club and "even got a discount on a home built in a development on which he voted approval (which he 'flipped' a few months later for a large profit, thanks to that discount)." 

Jarvis has sent a letter to the Pennsylvania State Ethics Board to advise the township on the matter, requesting that the board render an opinion on whether or not she is liable for unpaid benefits for February, March, April and May of 2011 and whether she had committed any wrongdoings in her transaction with the township.

Find out what's happening in Warminsterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Requests for comments have been made to Tate and other members of the board of supervisors. Jarvis anticipates the matter to come up during tonight's supervisor meeting.

"I don't plan to voluntarily resign from chair, or the Board of Supervisors," she writes, "but stay tuned. We women have a way of changing our minds.  If it happens, at least this e-mail provides some background as to why it might, if not today, then soon." 


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