When she was sworn in as a member of Jim Thorpe’s Borough council in January 2022, Jessica Crowley wore a dress with lights. Perhaps this was her way of saying that she planned to light up the seven-member body.

This she has done, and then some. Thirteen months into her four-year term, her six colleagues have had enough. They unanimously adopted a resolution of censure earlier this month, calling her out for a number of her actions that they say run counter to the council’s efficient operations on behalf of the borough’s residents.

Crowley and some who have spoken in her defense have criticized the council’s action, calling it vindictive and an effort to silence her, especially on social media where she has active Facebook and TikTok accounts, and she hasn’t been afraid to criticize council, even some members by name. As you might imagine, this has not gone down well among her colleagues.

The resolution stripped Crowley of all of her committee positions, including chair of the Water Committee. It questioned her attendance at council and committee meetings and her disruptive actions. It does not affect her tenure on council, however.

“The continued negative, unfounded and unilateral actions taken by Councilwoman Crowley have hindered the ability of council to provide efficient and effective services to its residents,” according to the resolution.

A single parent whose husband died in 2016, Crowley is the mother of two children, one of whom is a special-needs child. She said some of her attendance issues are the result of her situation and the unwillingness of council to accommodate some of her scheduling requests.

I was surprised to learn that there is a social media policy that prohibits council members from posting negative information about the council, other borough entities or their members.

As some community members told council, preventing a person from expressing her First Amendment rights is an overreach. It’s a known fact that members of governing bodies hate controversy and strive for unanimity, but this is not always the case, especially when there are outlier members of the governing body who want to expose actions they feel are being swept under the rug.

This is certainly the case with Crowley, who uses her social media platform to communicate directly with borough constituents. In fact, her TikTok account has more than 40,000 followers who eagerly check in to see what or whom she might be calling out next.

Of course, no public official likes to be called out on social media, but most are reluctant to respond in kind for fear of getting embroiled in a no-win online back-and-forth.

In her mid-30s, Crowley is a lot younger than her colleagues. She views herself as an environmental activist whose primary role is to be a good steward for issues involving water, air quality, land use and conservation. What she is much less concerned about is being viewed as a team player since she owes her allegiance to the borough’s residents, not her council colleagues.

One legitimate concern among council members is whether Crowley’s complaint to the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources over the Silk Mill Restoration Project might have poisoned the DCNR against future borough grant submissions. Although the Silk Mill project grant has not been revoked, a different grant the borough submitted to the agency for funding for the Memorial Park improvement project was rejected. Was it because of Crowley’s earlier complaint?

It has been said many times before, but it is nonetheless true that democracy can be messy. I am a proponent of free speech, so long as it does not advocate violence or illegal actions.

Some of Crowley’s posts are borderline troubling, especially the one where she is said to be showing her hand emulating a gun pointed at the names of several council members with sound effects of a gun being fired and reloaded.

Aside from these lapses of good judgment, I see nothing wrong with Crowley expressing her opinion on her own social media accounts. She does not become a second-class citizen because she is an officeholder.

What we can expect is that Crowley will become even more active and critical. If the council’s objective was to muzzle or punish her or make her see the “error of her ways,” look for a completely different reaction from this woman who in recent months has taken to wearing facial designs when attending council meetings, perpetuating the message that this drummer plans to keep delivering a different beat.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com

(Some background information for this column was provided by Staff Writer Jarrad Hedes, who covers the Jim Thorpe Borough Council for the Times News.)

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.