CLEARFIELD – Clearfield Borough Councilwoman Patricia Kavelak doesn’t plan to voluntarily resign from her Third Ward council seat.
At Thursday night’s meeting, Borough Operations Manager Leslie Stott announced she’d received an e-mail from Kavelak, who had contested the council’s request for her resignation. Last week during committee meetings, council members agreed to request for Kavelak to resign, as she hadn’t been present for any of the current-year’s meetings.
According to Stott, Kavelak’s e-mail went to her, as well as to Kavelak’s attorney, Kim Kesner, Borough Solicitor F. Cortez “Chip” Bell, Mayor James Schell, four borough council members and the editor of GantDaily.com. Kavelak’s e-mail was provided to the media at the meeting.
In her e-mail, Kavelak wrote she had forewarned Stott that she would have to attend committee and council meetings via a telecommunication device in accordance with Pennsylvania Borough Code Act 43 of 2012. She had also advised Stott she would be working out of town for the winter. At that time, Kavelak wrote that Stott told her the borough didn’t have the capabilities and her participation via a telecommunication device was not an option.
“Fast forward to the present, council now wants to request my resignation and publicly humiliate me. I have been forced to work out of town due to circumstances beyond my control,” wrote Kavelak.
In her letter, she wrote she would agree with council if she had declined to utilize all the options available through the Pennsylvania Borough Code and hadn’t forewarned that she would be out of town. She suggested that if council was concerned about serving all of its constituents, it should remedy its policies and inadequacies that prevent council members from serving as outlined in the Pennsylvania Borough Code.
Council members responded to Kavelak’s e-mail.
“It makes it hard to have committee meetings when she is not here. You have four people on a committee. You can’t conduct business if one other person isn’t here,” said Councilman Fred Wisor.
“I understand her stance, but she isn’t considering what she was elected for. She was elected to represent the constituents of her ward. I don’t have any idea how they communicate issues while she’s away from town,” said Councilman James Kling.
Kling wasn’t aware of any issues being received from Kavelak on behalf of her constituents. He added, “She is not thinking about who she was voted to represent. From what I am reading here, she is only thinking of herself.”
Stott said Kavelak had attended another meeting through Skype. Skype is a computer program that allows free voice and video phone calls between Skype users. In essence if used, Skype would allow Kavelak to hear council members at the borough meetings and vice versa. However, Stott said the quality of this method was intermittent.
“I don’t believe the technology is sufficient here today,” said Stott.
Wisor asked if Kavelak had refused her pay to which Stott said no. Kling asked if there would be any cost for Skype.
Bell said that in 2012, borough code had been revised through special circumstances for council members to attend meetings through telecommunication methods. He said it requires council to set the procedure ahead of time.
“Since this is new, there isn’t any case law yet,” said Bell regarding stipulations for family and business travel and use of telecommunications to attend meetings.
Bell said there would not be any cost for Skype, as there is Wi-Fi access at the borough office.
Bell also said a rule in the borough bylaws, which allows for the removal of a council member, had been ruled unenforceable by case law.
“I’m not saying she is a bad person, just that she is a bad council member for not representing her people,” said Kling.
Kling said Kavelak’s actions have forced Councilman Tim Winters to pick up more work as the other representative of Third Ward.
Council members voted to send a registered letter to officially request for Kavelak’s resignation. Council members Dave Gallaher, Tim Winters and Kavelak weren’t present at the meeting.