05/28/2026
A Statement Regarding CRPD
To the Residents of Clearfield Borough:
As you know, Borough Council has voted to terminate its agreement with Lawrence Township for the Clearfield Regional Police Commission. Council has not taken this decision lightly and has thoroughly reviewed the potential costs and problems associated with staying with the Commission, as well as the potential costs and problems associated with reestablishing its own Police Department. Whether the Borough stays with the commission or not, Borough Council understands that there will be costs associated with either choice but in the end, Borough Council believes that it is more important to have its own control over those expenses as opposed to the control of those expenses by the Regional Commission and Lawrence Township. The following sets forth some of the reasons why the Clearfield Borough Council believes it is in the Borough’s best interest to void or terminate the agreement with the Lawrence Township and reestablish its own police department.
The Clearfield Borough Council members and the Lawrence Township Supervisors formed the Clearfield Regional Police Commission approximately 3 years ago. Unfortunately, at the time of formation, the parties made some serious financial and management miscalculations that have ultimately led to the unsustainable financial situation the Commission, and its members, the Borough of Clearfield and Lawrence Township, are currently experiencing. At the time the Commission was formed, the parties failed to recognize, ascertain or even consider the true financial impact and future cost of the decisions they were making. The cost of operating the regional police department has proven to be much greater than anticipated by the feasibility study for the formation of the Commission. Some of these issues are identified as follows:
The original Charter Agreement between Clearfield Borough and Lawrence Township clearly states that the amount to be paid by each of the municipalities for the police department is to be approved by each of the municipalities annually. Article VIII, Section 2, of the Charter Agreement states:
“The Commission shall prepare an annual budget which shall be submitted for consideration and approval to each of the participating municipalities not later than October 1 of the year preceding the budget year.”
Unfortunately, the Commission has failed to abide by this provision and has forced annual budget amounts on the Borough that have not been approved by Borough Council as provided in the charter agreement. Borough Council is certainly at fault for not dealing with this critical financial issue in a more forceful manner at an earlier date.
For fiscal year 2023, the Borough approved a police budget of $1,039,523, and the Commission approved a police budget of $1,394,265 for the Borough. Based on the study for the regional police commission, the Borough anticipated that the startup costs of the Police Department would be higher in its first year of operation and in subsequent years the Borough’s budgeted share would be closer to $1 million per year. The Borough used reserves to pay the difference of $354,742.
For fiscal year 2024, the Borough approved a police budget of $1,015,822, and the Commission approved a police budget of $1,200,000 for the Borough. The Borough used all of its remaining cash reserves to pay the difference of $184,178.
For fiscal year 2025, the Borough approved a police budget of $1,000,000, and the Commission approved a police budget of $1,200,000 for the Borough, even though there were no remaining cash reserves and insufficient tax revenues for fiscal year 2025. When the new Borough Manager was hired in August of 2025, the $200,000 shortfall in the unapproved Commission police budget became a critical issue for Council. The Commission was also asking for an additional $50,000 to cover increased costs, for a total of $250,000 for the remaining share of the Borough’s unapproved obligation for 2025 regional police operations. Ultimately, the Borough requested that Lawrence Township loan the Borough the $250,000 avoid laying off a large number of police officers in November and December of 2025. This budget shortfall caused a deficit of $250,000 of the Borough’s budget for 2025 and has been carried over into fiscal year 2026.
For fiscal year 2026, the Commission requested a budget of $1,489,959 and the Borough anticipated a budget of $1 million for its share of the 2026 Commission police budget. If Council had agreed with the highly unreasonable budget request of the Commission for the 2026 fiscal budget, it would have resulted in a 9 mill tax increase for the Clearfield Borough citizens in addition to the actual tax millage increase necessary to pay the $250,000 loan to cover the fiscal 2025 police budget shortfall. Essentially, the Borough citizens were facing a $750,000 budget shortfall for 2026, i.e. $500,000 to pay the regional commission increased budget request and $250,000 to pay the budget shortfall from 2025. When the Borough representatives met with the Commission concerning the difference in the amount they were requesting verses the amount of the Borough was willing to budget, the Commission and the Lawrence Township Supervisors steadfastly responded that the proposed police budget could not be reduced, that none of the police officers could be laid off, and that part time officers could not be used by the police department to reduce costs.
The Commission, primarily the Lawrence Township members of the Commission, and the solicitor for the Commission, also advised the Borough that the Commission had the right to approve the Borough’s share of the police budget without the approval of the eight member Borough Council. This assertion was obviously contrary to law and contrary to the clear language of the Charter Agreement which states that the Commission budget will be submitted to the Borough for its “consideration and approval”. The Commission’s solicitor and the Lawrence Township Supervisors were unwavering in their assertion that the Commission didn’t need the approval of Borough Council determine the Borough’s share of the police budget. Obviously, this was unacceptable to the Borough Council and ultimately resulted in Council’s efforts to dissolve or void the Clearfield Regional Police Charter Agreement.
Surprisingly, as soon as the Borough voted to void the Charter agreement, the Commission found a way to reduce costs and approached the Borough with a lower budget request. Considering the way the police commission and the Lawrence Township Supervisors were managing the Police Department, and the failure of either to recognize the Borough’s budget realities, the Council was unwilling to continue to be a part of the regional police commission. At this point, it was clear to Council that neither the Regional Commission nor the Lawrence Township Supervisors could be trusted to negotiate in good faith with the Borough over the regional police budget.
In addition to the foregoing, Council also believed that the high costs of maintaining the police department were due to significant mistakes that were made by the Township Supervisors and Borough Council members when the regional police commission was formed. A contributing factor to the excessive expenditures is due to the collective bargaining agreement that was entered into with the police officers when the commission was formed. The collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the police union contained many expensive benefits that one would not expect in an initial CBA. These benefits include full health insurance benefits for the officer and his family, full health insurance benefits for a retiring officer for life, $1000 per year per officer to cover any deductible or co-payments for medical expenses, eye and dental insurance, retirement pension, officers and directors insurance and personal liability insurance, all of which are paid in full by the commission without any contribution from the officers.
The Commission also bargained away extremely important management rights over the police department in the CBA. The CBA included a provision that requires the Commission to employ at least 25 full-time officers at all times, and these officers are guaranteed 40 hours of pay per week. The CBA also included a provision that mandates that at least 5 police officers are to be scheduled for every shift, 24/7, 365 days per year. Even though this type of provision in a collective bargaining agreement is not enforceable against management, the Department was managed by union employees so there is never an effort to reduce the number of officers on duty and reduce labor costs for the regional Police Department.
To make matters worse, the Police Department and its financial operations are managed by union employees. Currently, the Chief of Police has retired and the operations and financial management of the Police Department are handled, and probably have always been handled, by employees who are members of the Union. There is no nonunion management of the Clearfield Regional Police Department. It is believed that this has resulted in excessive overtime expenses for the officers and very little effort was made over the three year existence of the regional police department to schedule the officers in a manner that would reduce overtime and the costs of police operations. Even with 25 full time officers and 5 officers per shift, the police department has incurred in excess of $300,000 in overtime pay in fiscal year 2025.
The Borough is audited annually. The Clearfield Regional Police Commission has never been audited. They say they can’t afford an audit even though they can incur excessive overtime expenses and have failed to lay off any officers since the first of the year even though their budget has been drastically reduced. The Commission has stated that they have laid off four officers. This is not true. They have reduced the officers to one 12 hours shift per week but continue to pay all four officers full benefits. The Borough has requested payroll records from the Commission, but on the advice of their solicitor, they are refusing to comply with the request.
This issues between Council and the CRPD have never been about the services provided by the individual police officers to the Borough of Clearfield. The Police officers can’t be blamed for excepting the lucrative CBA offered to them by the Township and Borough. The actions of the Borough to terminate the regional police commission only has to do with protecting the financial viability of the Borough and protecting the Borough citizens from having their tax rates determined by the members of the Clearfield Regional Police Commission. Also, there is no indication that the Commission has revised its budget since the Court limited the monthly amount the Borough is paying to the Commission for its share of the regional police expenses. It does not appear that the Commission’s financial management has adequate control of its expenditures and is unwilling or unable to make the appropriate management decisions to cut excessive expenses and bring the officers’ overtime hours under control.
The actions of the Police Commission and the Lawrence Township Supervisors have really left the Borough no other choice but to do what it can to dissolve the regional Police Department and form its own Police Department. The Borough is in the process of reestablishing its Police Department and will ultimately result in the hiring of a new Chief of police as well as one or two police officers initially to handle the matters related to the dissolution of the regional Police Department.
James D. Dennison, Clearfield Borough Solicitor
