- Provide a brief professional and personal background.
I have had the honor of serving Clearfield County as your commissioner since 2008. I am a life-long resident of Clearfield County and make my home in Lawrence Township.
My alma maters include Clearfield Area High School, Vanderbilt University and the Penn State Dickinson School of Law. I have practiced law in Clearfield County since 1980.
The municipalities that I represent in my practice include Covington Township, Girard Township, Graham Township, Knox Township, Mahaffey Borough and Benezette Township in Elk County.
My community involvement includes the Joseph & Elizabeth Shaw Public Library Board of Directors, the Clearfield YMCA Board of Directors and the Bilger’s Rocks Association.
I am the commissioner representative on the Clearfield/Jefferson Heroin Task Force as well as the Clearfield County Recreation and Tourism Authority.
I also belong to the National Rifle Association.
I am the father of a daughter, Johnna Sobel Pyne, who teaches third grade for the Clearfield Are School District and resides in Huston Township with her husband, Michael.
I worship at the Presbyterian Church of Clearfield where I have served as an elder.
- Why did you choose to run for the office of Clearfield County Commissioner?
I suppose that I have always had an interest in history and political science ever since I was a child.
One of my earliest memories was seeing President Kennedy campaigning for office in Indiana, Pa., in 1960. The idea of seeking elected office has always fascinated me.
More importantly though, I chose to return home to Clearfield County after law school. I want to make my home a better place as so many others here in the county are trying to do.
Although the Office of Commissioner doesn’t have the power that most people think it does, it is, overall, the primary policy maker for the county.
Consequently, the position of commissioner is the perfect tool to improve the lives of our citizens. Hopefully, I will continue to have the chance to make a difference.
- What do you think makes you the best candidate for Clearfield County Commissioner?
I believe that my years of experience as a serving commissioner have given me a wealth of knowledge about the requirements of the job of commissioner. The time that I spent as a Clearfield Area School Board Director additionally prepared me well.
However, I also believe that my training and experience in the law equips me as an office holder as the law of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is the framework within which county government operates. A knowledge of the same is very helpful.
Finally, I just care about my county. I hope to make it the best home possible for all of us.
- Do you think Clearfield County is healthy and successful? If not, why?
I do believe Clearfield County is healthy. Our county government just received a positive fiscal review from our outside auditors. Our unemployment rate is the lowest that it has been in a decade. Employers have many jobs available for prospective applicants.
Businesses such as Rural King and Hobby Lobby, are coming to the area. Manufacturers, such as Makin Metals and Danone Wave, are locating here or expanding.
Thousands of visitors come to Clearfield County every year to experience our great outdoors and attend attractions, such as the Small College World Series in DuBois.
They are finding communities working hard to revitalize themselves with projects, such as the restoration of the Eureka in Houtzdale and the old county jail in Clearfield.
However, we’re not in perfect health. The county is caught up in the drug epidemic gripping rural Pennsylvania as well as rural America. It is a condition that is holding us back and is currently the county’s greatest challenge.
I do believe that we have the ability to get the problem under control. However, it will require all of us to work together to be able to do so.
- If elected, how would you actively build relationships with and gain the trust of citizens of Clearfield County? How would you engage citizens in the decision-making process?
We, commissioners, currently do make special effort to form relationships with our citizens as the same is so important to the effective operation of county government. Input and advice from the same can be enormously helpful.
I regularly attend both day and night meetings throughout the county whenever asked by our citizens. These meetings are with every type of organization from other municipalities to fire companies to neighborhood groups.
Our meetings are open to the public and we welcome public comment. Transparency is paramount with our office.
We try to involve citizens in our decision-making process as much as possible. As mentioned previously, we regularly meet with county organizations for input.
We also appoint citizens to many of the governing boards of our authorities, such as the Solid Waste Authority, the Curwensville Lake Authority and Recreation and Tourism.
Finally, we, commissioners, just sometimes simply try to listen to what people have to say.
- What element of the county’s government is most effective? What element is most ineffective? Why?
The most effective element of Clearfield County’s government is the fact that it is small enough and informal enough that any citizen can deal directly with county elected officials and department heads. Folks can just stop by and talk with us about issues of importance to them.
Residents of our county don’t have to deal with an enormous monolithic structure shielded by an immense bureaucracy that so often is what is found with other higher levels of government. The same just discourages folks from involving themselves in their government.
The most ineffective element in the county’s government is dealing with unfunded state and federal mandates. These obligations imposed on the county by these other levels of government just over burden our already stretched thin services.
We are also then stuck trying to figure to pay for these obligations because the state and federal governments don’t bother giving us any funding for the same.
A perfect example of this is the mandate from our Governor to replace our voting machines. The costs of this process are only being partially reimbursed by the Commonwealth. The remaining costs will be carried on the shoulders of the county taxpayers. It’s simply not fair.
- How would you fight the current drug epidemic that’s created a budget crisis for Clearfield County?
The fight against the methamphetamine/ opioid crisis is one that has to be embraced by our entire county community. Clearfield County government can’t win it alone. We need the help of our churches, schools, service clubs and just plain ordinary citizens, all of whom can do their part.
A cultural change has to happen whereby our citizens and their families just refuse to involve themselves with illegal drugs, no matter what they may be going through.
However, there are steps that the county can take. I would advocate for and be willing to financially support methods of fighting the drug crisis that re-emphasize treatment and rehabilitation.
We have to attack the underlying problem of addiction to eliminate the reason for drug dealers to sell the drugs in the first place. We can do this in a number of ways.
First of all, our region is badly in need of an in-patient treatment facility. There are outpatient services available. However, many folks afflicted with addiction need intensive inpatient treatment. I would support such a facility.
Clearfield County has also been in need of an effective drug court for quite a while. Most Pennsylvania counties have drug courts.
Every county around Clearfield County has a drug court or participates in a multi- county drug court and the reports from fellow commissioners are positive about the same.
I will be interested in seeing what is involved in the most recently announced drug court proposal.
There of course still needs to be a punishment component to dealing with the drug epidemic. In fact, we have plenty of drug dealers who need to be in state prison doing hard time.
However, as mentioned previously, we have to deal with the causal addiction issues in order to keep those addicted from being preyed on by the dealers. Otherwise, we’re just warehousing people in jail.
Finally, I do believe that a good work release program can help support individuals who are incarcerated due to their use of drugs so long as it is part of a comprehensive plan of treatment and they stay off the drugs. It does build their self-esteem and gives them a sense of purpose. Both qualities are necessary for their recovery.
Clearfield County is one of the many municipalities that have sued large pharmaceutical companies in the hope of recovering the costs that it has spent in dealing with this crisis.
If successful, I hope to use the monies gained to support the above programs, as well as other methods of fighting the current drug epidemic. We will see what develops.
- As county commissioner, what do you feel is the best way to address the overpopulation issue at the Clearfield County Jail?
There are a number of ways to address the overpopulation issue at the Clearfield County Jail. I don’t know that one is better than the other, but there are several steps that could be taken that would work well together.
First of all, alternatives to incarceration can be used for disposition of cases involving non-violent offenders with little or no prior records.
Examples of this type of disposition would be the use of home detention with leg band monitoring. Intensive supervision by a probation officer with regular, frequent reporting in to him or her is another. Finally, straight probation is a third.
We also have a high number of individuals housed in the jail in pretrial status. The use of some of the above methods could be possibly used in some instances to address the same.
A strong work release program would also help. Although incarcerated, participating individuals would still be out of the jail for at least a while.
It would help relieve the numbers in the jail at any one time at least and would reduce the ongoing stress of having a higher than usual number of inmates.
I believe that a combination of the above would be the best way to handle the issue of overpopulation.
- What one area of county government would receive more attention if you were elected?
I believe that I would like to see if more effort made to address blight issues in the county.
Despite what people at other levels of municipal government may think, the responsibility for resolving those issues rests upon the shoulders of the local municipality and not the county.
However, many municipalities cannot afford the costs of doing the same as a practical matter. There are things counties can do to help.
I would like to look into the possibility of forming a land bank, for example. Similarly, assisting with the formation of a county-wide redevelopment authority might help.
I do believe that there is some common ground that could be found as long as everyone approaches the matter as partners.
- If the county received a $1 million grant to use in anyway it wanted, how would you use it? Why?
Clearfield County has a desperate need for folks employed in the trades. Too many young men and women go to college nowadays and needed areas of employment go unfilled as a result. Welders, plumbers, masons, etc. are in too short of supply.
Our local employers also report a significant lack of skilled workers in the aforesaid as well as in other professions such as machine operators and truck drivers. Workforce development is clearly a critical issue in our county.
I would, therefore, propose using the $1 million dollars as seed money for a fund to generate incentives for young men and women to enter the trades as an area of employment.
Monies coming from this fund could provide scholarships for post-secondary enrollment in vocational schools or provide grants for start-up costs for things like tools or equipment for young people successfully completing training or apprenticeships.
I do believe that workforce development such as this could help our county be prosperous in the future. A healthy economy with a skilled workforce would also be a powerful weapon against the drug epidemic.