New Reports Raise Questions in "Lettergate"

A report published Thursday on Main Line Media News indicates that few of Tredyffrin Township's seven elected members of the Board of Supervisors may have actually seen, let alone signed off on, a controversial letter posted in September on the Township's official website.

The letter on township letterhead (which inlcudes the names of all seven Board of Supervisors members) and posted on the township's website was written by Board of Supervisors Vice-Chairman John "J.D." DiBuonaventuro. A copy of the letter is attached to this article as a pdf file.

In the letter DiBuonaventuro took pointed political shots at Pattye Benson, a private citizen and blogger. Benson's role as "Community Matters" blogger (whose blogs often also appear on TE Patch) have led some to questions whether she is purely a private citizen or a public figure. While that is a subject for debate among some close to this saga, it is not what's at issue in the newest developments.

The new article in Main Line Media News outlines the paper's efforts to track down exactly who knew about DiBuonaventuro's letter and its contents before it was posted on the Township's official and taxpayer-funded website.

The article reports that far fewer than a majority of the seven members of the Board saw it before it was posted.

For her part, Pattye Benson posted a blog Friday morning on Comminity Matters expressing serious concerns about the way the township and the township solicitor have handled the incident and the legal fall out.

Friday's posting follows Benson's release of a letter sent to township supervisors on her behalf by noted First Ammendment attorney Samuel Stretton.