CLEARFIELD- With the resignation of former Clearfield Borough manager, Julie Brooks, two weeks ago, council convened on Thursday evening with the agenda listing to approve advertising the open position. That discussion led to some arguments between a pair of members.
The motion request from Borough President, Ann Jane Ross, was made and then immediately went into a discussion, led by council member, Bruce Fair, who then began questioning the need and salary for the position.
“I do not see what the value in a borough manager. They are being paid a salary of $71,000 per year, for what; writing grants. The grant we received for the borough manager covers 75 percent of that salary for the first year, 50 percent in the next, and 25 percent in the third,” Fair said. “That’s without benefits. We are the ones paying the benefits. I feel we would be better off using that money in a different way.”
Borough solicitor, Jim Dennison, disagreed with the idea of not having a manager for the borough.
“You need to have someone that can tell you every day where you financially stand,” Dennison said. “What happened with the council’s budget last year should have not happened. You are hurting yourself not having a manager.”
Fair and Dennison then got in a debate about the advice that Dennison was to give, with Fair stating that Dennison was to give legal advice, not financial advice. Dennison said that he wasn’t giving financial advice, but rather saying they were hurting themselves not having someone there to oversee some of these decisions, stating that the oversight in 2025 with the budget, and the 2026 deficit could have been prevented.
The two continued to bicker, with Dennison saying that he felt having a manager was the right move, and Fair countering by stating he was wrong. Dennison told Fair that they could take his advice or not, he didn’t care. He did, however, say to council they should take their time to hire the right candidate.
“That’s what I am saying. I feel we have so much talent on this council now, who are capable of doing many of those tasks, we don’t necessarily need a borough manager right now,” Borough secretary Barb Shaffner said during the meeting.
The final decision on hiring a borough manager was ultimately tabled. Prior to council going into executive session for legal matters, Shaffner spoke more on why she felt the decision to wait to hire a borough manager.
“I feel that this council that we have now is better and we are capable of making many of these decisions,” she said. “I don’t want us to rush into hiring because we are told to. We need to take our time and hire the right candidate, even if that means elevating someone we already have.”
Solicitor Dennison was adamant about hiring a manager, namely pointing out how council has not been fully aware of their finances, going back to the deficit last year regarding the police funding, and how they are still needing to pay off the TAN loan through Mid Penn Bank that was used to recoup costs in paying back the $250,000 borrowed from Lawrence Township to fund the regional police department through the end of 2025.
Rick Mattern spoke on the situation during public comment, speaking on how Brooks resigned and it was in effect immediately, stating, “Six months of being hired before resigning feels impatient among council.” He would further go on noting how council is already in shambles with all the uncertainty surrounding the regional police department and their intent to leave at the end of 2026 to start their own police force.
“Council is now without a professional voice,” Mattern said.
Other notes from Thursday’s meeting:
- Paving projects approved on South 4th Street is moving from starting at East Market Street to East Cherry, while still finishing on Leavey Avenue.
- Kuharchik Construction Contract approved for traffic signal maintenance, should the maintenance be more comprehensive than what the street crew can fix. Todd Kling noted that majority of the issues for traffic signals can be fixed by his crew, but this was to be for extensive repairs that they can’t figure out and repair.
- The fire company’s 2002 American LaFrance Freightliner was approved to readvertise, with Fire Chief Brett Collins requesting council to consider hiring a fire truck salesman or broker. His reasoning was that when it was previously on Municibid, the reserve was not met by the bid submitted. Collins felt that a broker would be able to get the most value out of the sale.
Council will be back in session on March 19, beginning at 5 p.m.
