Lawmakers mount bipartisan effort to remove Fish and Boat agency head

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pennsylvania lawmakers say they’ll act next week on their threat to force the state Fish and Boat Commission to remove executive director John Arway.

Keith Gillespie, R-York, the House Game and Fisheries Committee chairman, and his counterpart in the Senate, Patrick Stefano, R-Fayette, said that when their committees return to session, they will inform the Fish and Boat Commission that its request for a fishing license fee increase will not be considered until Mr. Arway steps down.

The commission’s duties include aquatic wildlife and habitat management, operation of fish hatcheries, working with federal and state agencies to monitor water quality, and enforcing fishing and boating regulations. Fish and Boat’s $52 million budget is funded almost entirely by license fees and federal taxes on fishing and boating gear, with no contribution from Pennsylvania’s general fund.

An adult resident fishing license costs $22.90. The last time legislators increased license fees was in 2005. In recent years, Fish and Boat has reduced some services and eliminated 66 full-time staff jobs including 20 law enforcement positions. Currently, the agency cannot meet upcoming pension obligations, match grants to repair high-hazard dams, or operate the Fish and Boat training academy.

Mr. Arway has aggressively lobbied for a licensefee increase and a proposal that would allow the agency and the state Game Commission to set their own license fees with legislative oversight.

Last fall, Fish and Boat commissioners informed Mr. Arway that if a funding increase was not approved by the end of the current fiscal year, he was to slash $2 million from the budget. A feud with the Legislature began when Mr. Arway said he would comply with commissioners’ orders by closing two trout hatcheries at a loss of 220,000 fish. For a short time the Fish and Boat website posted the names of streams that would not be stocked, all waters located in the home districts of legislators who opposed a license fee increase.

Days later, even senators who had already voted to advance the self-regulated license fee proposal dropped their support. They joined a bipartisan effort to draft a proposal setting a term limit of eight years on the Fish and Boat executive director position. March 2 marked eight years since Mr. Arway assumed control of the agency.

An assistant manager of First National Bank in Beaver Falls has been indicted on charges of stealing about $20,000.

Robin Chiappetta, 63, of Beaver Falls, was indicted Tuesday on a count of embezzlement following an investigation by the FBI.

The grand jury said she pilfered the money from Feb. 2014 until Dec. 2016. She’s due in federal court March 27 to face the charge.