~by Janice Harbaugh
The camera doesn’t lie.
We’re all becoming aware of that in these strange days of pandemic when videoconferencing is becoming the way to meet. We’re getting good at reading people because we have time to study them without their actually being aware we’re doing it.
At a face to face meeting, we can’t study others, but the small video portraits at a videoconference show us facial expressions up close, with body language and movements that tell a world about the person we’re observing.
At a recent public hearing hosted by the Greene County Board of Supervisors, Todd Stumpf from Twin Lakes appeared on camera as 15 people from Greene County spoke against the board approving his application to construct a hog confinement in Highland Township.
Moreover, several speakers alleged Stumpf and Becky Sexton, representative of Twin Lakes Environmental who was coaching Stumpf, had “trashed” residents of the county for their opposition to the proposed Stumpf hog confinement.
During these serious objections to the project and allegations of attempted intimidation, Stumpf could be seen on camera rolling his eyes, looking downward with a petulant expression, laughing and talking to someone off camera while speakers were voicing their ideas.
Stumpf made a very poor impression. Whether he knew he was on camera or not, the messages he sent were loud and clear: he didn’t want to spend the time listening to his potential neighbors. The visual impression he gave was that he was wasting his time at the public hearing.
Moreover, Stumpf and Sexton did not address or deny the allegations.
While rudeness can have many interpretations, the allegations of attempted intimidation are serious.
Some might say that gossiping, triangulating, and trashing people are not intimidation, but they are. The purpose of trashing is to recruit others to our side to use peer pressure to make the person recant their opinions or simply shut-up.
This is bullying. We don’t tolerate it in Greene County. Not from kids. Not from adults. We get help for the bully and for the bullied.
Both Todd Stumpf and Becky Sexton should be afforded an opportunity to address the board of supervisors and explain their behavior toward residents of this county. If the allegations are misunderstandings, they can rectify that.
