They told him that the municipality was a castle surrounded on all sides by a moat and above its highest spires flew the flag of the Old Guard Republicans, who had held a vice grip on the municipality as its financial overseers and lone voices for decades. The township’s Board of Supervisors – Michael Elling, Robert Hammaker and Allan Falcoff – who was locked in an election with Stevens to resume another six-year term – held rigid sway over public meetings; they accepted very little resident input and they carried a banner that informed everyone that the township was a sound and functioning entity. Collectively, the three ran the township from an office in the Township Building, while Manager Lisa Moore quietly and efficiently oversaw the financial checks and balances of the township.

Against that backdrop, Stevens pledged to open the locked doors of the township’s business and turn it into a long conversation between officials and residents – to introduce respectful opinions and arguments into the vernacular of what had been a municipality of whispers.

On the second Tuesday that November, Stevens’ message resonated: He crushed Falcoff by a vote of 1,226 to 795 and became the first Democrat since the Civil War to be elected to its Board of Supervisors. 

For Stevens, whose two-term duration as supervisor comes to an end on Dec. 31 – he will be succeeded by Democrat Pat Muller – his 12 years of public service to the township has rolled out like a canvas of various textures and tenor for everyone to witness. He has been both a gifted orator and an occasional cantankerous grump; both a dedicated public servant and a verbal pugilist capable of tossing those who disagree with him under a bus of his own making. He has a trusted group of supporters and a vociferous list of detractors. The methods by which he has moved the township’s business toward consensus have been both methodical and measured, dotted with respectful argument, and touched off by occasional outbursts that have left him – and those who have disagreed with him – flustered and frustrated. 

In the generous space between these juxtapositions, however, he has taken part in more groundbreaking initiatives than any other Kennett Township supervisor in recent memory. With his fellow board members, he has:

• Served as a key supporter in the township’s purchase of Barkingfield Park
• Been the principal voice in the renovation of the Chandler Mill Bridge as a pedestrian-only structure that also provides emergency vehicle access
• Brokered with local conservation agencies to purchase and preserve open space in the township, including Spar Hill Farm, the Miller Farm and the Lord Howe property
• Reached out to local municipalities that resulted in the formation of the Fire and EMS Commission
• Pressed to encourage more public, open and collaborative input at all meetings
• Been one of the most prominent supporters of the Kennett Township Police Department, advocating for its expansion and its broadened coverage of township residents
• Orchestrated, with his fellow board members, the hiring of a new township manager, finance director and staff that have instituted more stringent financial checks and balances, in the wake of the worst chapter in the township’s history

“I will miss the opportunity to interact with my colleagues on matters that are important to me and my community – to define the issues and search for possible solutions for whatever the issue may be,” Stevens said in an interview with the Chester County Press. “The creativity, the commitment, and the integrity of the people I have worked with have been from my point of view, exemplary.

“I have always valued the opportunity to share ideas. Obviously, I did not always agree with everyone, and while that was a challenge, most of the time there was a level of respect and camaraderie where we could find some sort of shared values.” 

‘Because you’re the enemy’

It didn’t start out that way.

Soon after he was sworn in as a supervisor in January of 2012, Stevens was directed to his office at the Township Building – on the second level, one floor removed from the office occupied by Elling and Hammaker.

“One day after a meeting, we were all gathered on the first floor and I said to Mike [Elling], ‘Why do you act towards me the way you do? Why can’t we work together in some way?’” Stevens said. “Mike looked at me and said, ‘Because you’re the enemy.’ 

“I looked at him and said, ‘Okay, if that’s the way you want it, then that’s the way it is,’ and we went on that way for the next two years. It reflected how one local government was dealing with its citizenry. I assumed it was because I had a ‘D’ next to my name, but it may have been to the extent that I had the temerity to attack his establishment, whether I was a Democrat or a Republican.”

Then, one by one, the Republicans disappeared from the township’s board. In 2013, Richard Leff defeated Republican Jim Przywitowski – thus replacing Elling – and in 2016, Whitney Hoffman became the third Democrat on the board after defeating Republican Ted Moxon – subsequently replacing Hammaker.

In bold defiance of previous administrations, it was clear from the start that the new board would pivot from the township’s tradition of “unanimous vote without discussion” to one of constructive debate, and from his seat as the board chairman, Stevens led the three-person orchestra.

“Scudder is a Quaker, and because of that influence, he brought a lot of the Quaker values to the board – the need to create and maintain quality and stability and build consensus, and they come through in the way that he operates,” said Hoffman, who served with Stevens for six years. “He has brought thoughtfulness and deliberateness to his public service.”

“I think having disagreements on policy issues of importance to the township that are discussed in public is a good way to run our government, and that has been one of the biggest accomplishments of Scudder’s role as a supervisor,” Leff said. “Having differences on how to proceed is the right thing. It’s not about name-calling and attempting to ruin one’s career, but certainly, there should be disagreements, because as things change, so do attitudes.

“It’s healthy that we have had debate -- to engage in substantive arguments on policies that do not always have a clear and definitive answer.” 

For the next few years, Stevens, Leff and Hoffman debated and pushed their way through issues and initiatives both small and significant, but as 2019 began, a new hurdle began to emerge, one so encroaching that it threatened the future and the reputation of Kennett Township for decades to come. 

$3,249,453

In late April of 2019, Stevens was driving in his car when he received a call from then Police Chief Lydell Nolt, asking Stevens to meet him at the Township Building. Stevens was soon met by Nolt and two detectives, who asked Stevens if it was his signature that was attached to various township documents they had in their possession. Every one of his signatures, Stevens noticed, was identical to the others.

“It was a rubber stamp of my signature, and that’s when I learned that [the theft of funds from the township] was in the low six figures,” Stevens said. “I then drove to Rich’s house – he and Whitney were at a work dinner -- and that’s when I laid it all out on the table to them about the situation, and so we began to talk about how we were going to manage the township.”

Throughout the summer of 2019, each new grain of evidence began to unravel a nearly decade-long parlor game of deception, private accounts and thievery that had left the financial accounting of the township in tatters.

On May 11, 2019, Kennett Township sent an e-mail to the Chester County Press, with a headline that read “Important Kennett Township Announcement,” indicating that it was exploring suspicious transactions discovered in its bank accounts. At noon that day, a letter was sent to township residents that began, “The Board of Supervisors pledged to you to have an open and transparent government. In keeping with that pledge, we are writing today to inform you about a serious situation. Rest assured, the supervisors are taking every step to safeguard the township and our residents.”

The second paragraph read, “On Thursday, April 25, 2019, the supervisors were notified by the Fraud Department of our bank that they had found a number of suspicious transactions on township accounts.”

The release went on to say that the township carefully reviewed the findings with the bank, legal and law enforcement representatives and immediately referred the matter to the Chester County District Attorney’s Office. 

Working out of a makeshift office for countless hours and subsisting largely on take-out, the three supervisors worked together, combing through township accounting procedures, hiring the law firm Blank Rome and the forensic accounting firm Marcum, LLP, and keeping in close contact with then Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan and his team of detectives as the investigation got underway. 

Over time, the supervisors created a new accounting system; engaged the support of a non-profit organization that helps municipal governments; hired a temporary township manager and eventually Eden Ratliff as the township’s full-time manager; and later, Amy Heinrich as the township’s director of finance and human resources.

“Under Scudder’s leadership, we were able to find out what was going on and what we needed to fix as well as receive information expeditiously from Hogan’s office,” Leff said. “Scudder led us to working very cooperatively and closely with the criminal investigation and helped expedite information, so that we could get all of the facts out on the table, and it set the tone for how we would to run the township in subsequent years.”

As the timeline of the investigation took root, the truth became clearer. On May 14, 2019, township Manager Lisa Moore was placed on administrative lead. Later that month, she was terminated.

On Dec. 10, 2019, after an eight-month investigation, the Chester County District Attorney’s Office announced that they arrested Moore for embezzling a total of $3,249,453 from the township, dating back to 2013. 

On Oct. 4, 2021, Moore was sentenced by the Hon. David F. Bortner of the Court of Common Pleas of Chester County and taken into custody on five counts: deception, dealing in unlawful proceeds, forgery, tampering with public records and access device fraud.

Moore is currently serving her second year of a three-to-ten-year sentence at the State Correctional Institute at Muncy, formerly known as the Industrial School for Women in Lycoming County.

‘It was our responsibility’

During a three-hour and 45-minute public meeting on Dec. 17, 2019 at the Red Clay Room in Kennett Square, an estimated audience of more than 500 residents, officials and stakeholders gathered to hear Stevens, Leff and Hoffman explain how Moore could pull off her heist while in their jurisdiction. Several in the audience that night accused them of displaying an egregious lack of oversight and some demanded their resignations. For months, they were pilloried by local, regional and Philadelphia media; meanwhile, they were caught in the tangled matrix of repairing a township.

“The reality was that there wasn’t anyone else to do it, we were there, so we had to do it, because it was our responsibility,” Stevens said. “That is not to say that I didn’t feel overwhelmed by all of the pieces that were all of a sudden flying around. It was a difficult time and to be perfectly candid, the beginnings of my tensions with the other board members grew from that point.

“It was a very straining time for all of us, and while we didn’t always see eye to eye, we spent a lot of time talking about what we should do. In trying to achieve balance, we unfortunately took each of our strengths to each other’s weaknesses, but we stayed focused and I believe we did so with personal and professional respect for each other.”

“It was not all smooth waters,” Leff said of his nearly ten years as Steven’s colleague. “There were times when we had policy differences over issues before the board. And then, there was the realization that our long-term township manager was stealing from the township. What everyone should know about those worst of times is that Scudder moved the township forward and helped to lead us eventually onto more stable ground.”

“Although we are members of different political parties and do not always agree, I have come to appreciate [Scudder’s] profound commitment to his township and the immense contribution to it that he has made over two decades,” supervisor Geoff Gamble said at Stevens’ last board meeting on Dec. 20. “He does his homework, he is a man of integrity in the original sense of that word, and his actions are aligned and integrated with his beliefs. He possesses an intellectual honesty and forthrightness that at times can cause discomfort even to himself, but always leads to a more vigorous, genuine and worthwhile consensus.”

The last word

At the conclusion of the board’s Jan. 18, 2023 meeting, Stevens announced that he would not seek a third term as a supervisor.

“I didn’t want to take on the responsibility for another six years, and I thought it was appropriate for others to be given the opportunity to keep on with this fight,” he said, reflecting on his decision. “I am at a different point in my life professionally and personally. I have enjoyed and appreciated being in a place to have some influence on the world around me.”

If there is one remaining item on his agenda that as of now remains unresolved in Stevens’ political career, it is his capacity to forget the difficult moments and forgive those who may have had a hand in creating them. 

“It is an issue that I wrestle with,” he said. “I once asked my now dearly departed uncle if he ever forgave anybody. After a moment, he looked at me and said, ‘I always forgive. I just never forget.’ 

“I have since worked on the question of forgiveness, and it remains a concern. I try to go on as if those moments are behind me, and sometimes it comes up and it’s not behind me, and then I try to go forward again.”

Prior to calling the Dec. 20 meeting to order – at which he was given the ceremonial role of board chairman – Stevens expressed his gratitude to his wife Mary Claire, his fellow board colleagues, township staff and associates, close friends, stakeholders in surrounding municipalities and the residents of the township.

“I started [on the board], knowing that I had wish for the future,” he said. “At this holy time of the year, it is my sincerest and strong-felt wish that we develop the skill to treat each other with gentleness. My biggest personal disappointment as a supervisor was during the Fire and EMS debates, when I did not act with gentleness and respect. I am truly thankful that my colleagues were gentle and kind with me.

“So in conclusion, I am happy to report that no one is locked in the attic today, and no one is identified as ‘the enemy.’ We are all colleagues, and because of this, I am confident in the future of Kennett Township government through this strong and committed board.”

To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, email [email protected].