Today, the Clearfield County commissioners approved the resignation of two Recreation and Tourism Authority members, and outlined their plans to take control of that agency.

Commissioners gave out a two-page press release and said the actions they took at the CCRTA meeting are legal.

The commissioners plan to take back from the board all CCRTA positions, and the power to hire and discipline, like it was back in 2005.

“We will begin the process at the next Rec and Tourism meeting,” says Commissioner John Sobel.

The board will still give out about $500,000 per year in funds from a 3-percent hotel tax.

“The volunteer boards of directors spend too much time dealing with administrative issues, employee-related issues,” says Sobel.

We were at a contentious CCRTA meeting last week.

“You have taken that right away from us, commissioners!” said Hildred Rowles at that meeting.

“Look at the by-laws…” said Commissioner Tony Scotto. 

“We never followed the by-laws in 10 years!” said CCRTA executive director Holly Komonczi.

Now, commissioners say the by-laws are meaningless to them: only the Municipal Authorities Act applies, and the Act doesn’t prevent all three commissioners from being on the board.

“We just felt we had to step in temporarily in this case to deal with the situation. It was the only way we would be able to effect change,” says Sobel.

Originally, Sobel says he was upset at CCRTA spending more than 50-percent on administration, and rebuffed attempts to schedule a meeting, to which no one showed up.

During last week’s meeting, Rowles said he was not ignoring Sobel, but had gone to the birth of a new grandchild.

“I’m done. I resign,” said Rowles at that meeting.

“Be quiet! Be quiet, Holly!” said Sobel at another point in the meeting.

“Whoaaa,” said the audience. “Order!” said Sobel.

Commissioner Mark McCracken now says that meeting just proves volunteers can’t handle difficult situations like staff management.

Commissioners say a single board member attempted to cancel a scheduled board meeting without authorization.

After the change is accomplished in a few months, they plan to have only one commissioner on the board again.

“There should be a better focus for a rec and tourism organization, which again is on marketing and promoting Clearfield County,” says Sobel.

Sobel says they officially want to make it into a nine-member board and that will have to be discussed at the next CCRTA meeting. That’s after they realized that it’s still technically a 12-member board.