CLEARFIELD – Yesterday, the Clearfield County Commissioners approved a resolution to appropriate funding for the first quarter to the Area Transportation Authority (ATA).
Clearfield County is among the municipalities that incorporated the ATA. The commissioners previously appropriated their local match to the ATA on an annual basis but now plan to consider the same on a quarterly basis.
Commissioner John A. Sobel, chair, said the county will appropriate $29,667.50 to the ATA for use during the period of July 1-Sept. 30. He noted it’s paid the last two quarterly payments due from the last fiscal year.
According to him, there’s been some positive progress so far as ATA management being more transparent about its operations and fiscal responsibility to its membership. He said the commissioners were trying to show “good faith” by considering partial funding for the next fiscal year.
“I say that because it’s this board’s belief that we still have a long ways to go yet,” said Sobel. Commissioner Joan Robinson-McMillen indicated that the state Department of Transportation has agreed to permit the county to consider its local match in the form of quarterly resolutions.
By breaking the local match up quarterly, Robinson-McMillen said the commissioners will not be locked into a full-year as in the past. She said it will also permit them to evaluate progress on some “large concerns” with the ATA budget and fiscal responsibility to Clearfield County.
The commissioners, she said, have been greeted with at least 50 percent resistance from ATA board members. While some agree there’s a need for improvements, she said other ATA board members and county commissioners have been quite abrasive about the Clearfield commissioners questioning the ATA.
According to Robinson-McMillen, PennDOT has conducted a performance review of the ATA. She said the ATA does have best practices regarding drivers and maintenance staff but not its administrative staff.
PennDOT, she said, identified areas where the ATA needs to revamp some of its board procedures, as well as its transparency. “Our concerns were not so far out in left field, as some of the other commissioner members and ATA members would like the general public to think,” said Robinson-McMillen.
Clearfield County, she said, will continue to work with the ATA in trying to resolve their transparency and fiscal concerns. She said at the same time, the commissioners, or at least she, will also be working on an exit plan in case it doesn’t work out by the end of the year.
Commissioner Mark B. McCracken said the PennDOT review validated the commissioners’ concerns. He said they have never questioned the local ATA drivers or the “top flight equipment” out on the roadway. Instead, McCracken emphasized that “it’s always been the management.”