CLEARFIELD- Some residents came to the Clearfield Regional Police Commission meeting Wednesday after a letter from the teamsters Union Local No. 205 was released to the media from the department regarding a no-confidence vote for Police Chief Vincent McGinnis.
In a previously published article, members of the bargaining unit made the vote via spreadsheet with 14 votes of “no-confidence,” three “confidence,” three “no” votes and one who did not sign.
The letter which was initially sent to Police Commission Chairman Randy Powell, stated: “The Bargaining Unit feels that Chief McGinnis has engaged in a course of conduct designed to intentionally undermine the morale and work environment of the department. These actions jeopardize the safety of officer and the community which it serves. Chief McGinnis has continuously gone against the CBA [Collective Bargaining Agreement] between the Police Commission and the Union causing unnecessary grievance and labor costs. He has not attempted to hire full or part-time officers to fill gaps in the schedule causing unnecessary overtime and financial burden on the department. This has resulted in cuts to training, both internal and external, for current officers further jeopardizing the safety of officers and the community.”
A full text of the letter can be found here.
According to information from other media sources, at the June Commission meeting Assistant Chief Julie Curry reported three open positions which caused a high amount of overtime for other officers.
McGinnis then recommended filling two of those positions, but the commission approved filling only one due to funding concerns.
Clearfield Borough did not allocate the expected amount of $1,215,000 to the Police Commission in the 2025 budget, only $1,034,276.
Additionally, Curry stated at a previous meeting that not all training requests were being approved because the department is working to have specialization among officers and the administration decides who is most qualified for certain training.
At Wednesday’s meeting the commission immediately went into a nearly hour-long executive session regarding personnel and when they returned Solicitor Dan Nelson gave a statement to those gathered.
He said that the commission takes the matter seriously and they understand that many people want to see some sort of action, but the commission does not want to act without having all of the information.
Therefore, an investigation will be conducted and the situation fully vetted, and until this is done, the commission members will not be talking about the matter publicly.
Afterwards the meeting agenda was quickly dealt with, including McGinnis reporting that they will need to look into replacing a vehicle very soon, noting that several of the police vehicles are showing high mileage.
Additionally, training on interrogations and interviews was approved for one of the officers in Indiana Borough at no cost to the commission.
A second executive session was then called for personnel with no action taken afterwards.
