Controversy on agenda for new commissioner

Pennsylvania Game Commission Executive Director Carl Roe described our area’s new commissioner, Jay Delaney, as having the right disposition for the post.

I’ve known Delaney for quite a few years and he is a very rationale, level-headed person. But what did Roe mean by “having the right disposition” to be a commissioner?

We’ll find out shortly, because Delaney, who was sworn-in last Thursday, is joining a board of commissioners that has started to erupt.

Last Tuesday, the board held a special meeting in Harrisburg and voted to remove commissioner Tom Boop from his post as president.

Commissioners Rozane Palone, Gregory Isabella, Russell Schleiden and Daniel Hill voted in favor of Boop’s removal. Schleiden said the move was made due to doubts about Boop’s leadership ability.

According to Boop’s biography on the PGC Web site, he operates his own law office, is a past member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association House of Delegates, former president of the Northumberland County Bar Association, former chairman of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Disciplinary Committee, is vice president of a bank board, a graduate of the Dickinson School of Law, a member of numerous sportsmans, church and civic groups, grew up on a family dairy farm and is president of a livestock operation.

The real reason, in my opinion, why the four commissioners went against the advice of counsel and voted to remove Boop as president, is because he is opposed to the agency’s current deer management program. He also supports state Rep. Sam Rohrer’s call for an audit to gauge the accuracy of the PGC’s deer management program.

Boop’s only offense, if you want to call it that, is he isn’t afraid to vote his conscience and do what he feels is best for the future of hunting.

After Tuesday’s vote, Boop released a statement detailing a March 5 House Game and Fisheries Committee meeting in which both Democrat and Republican legislators stated if the PGC wants a license fee increase, there would need to be some changes made to the deer program. Instead, the aforementioned four commissioners voted to keep the same plan and increase antlerless license allocations.

The vote killed any chance of a license increase for another year, putting other wildlife programs and land acquisition hopes at risk. Boop didn’t hide his criticism of the deer program, and subsequently a special meeting was called to remove him as president.

Boop called the vote a “heavy-handed attempt to censor me for the voicing of my criticism. What the board did today (May 1) is a clear message to those who disagree with them and have the termerity to voice their dissenting opinions.”

In a letter blasting the commissioners for their action against Boop, state Rep. Ed Staback, who chairs the House Game and Fisheries Committee, called the four commissioners a “self-destructive circular firing squad.”

“Your votes showed that dissent is not only to be ignored by you and your three colleagues, it is to be silenced and publicly punished,” Staback wrote. “If the Commissioners treat one of their own this way, what chance does a hunter, or for that matter, does anyone have to get the board to adapt its policies when they are in error or just in need of improvement?”

The matter will be discussed during the PGC’s June meeting, which will be Delaney’s first. Delaney always said he wants to be the one to build bridges on the board, but is it possible to bridge a gap seemingly wider than the Grand Canyon?