Elected officials, agency leaders quit voting roles on Vision Together 2025 board, keep advisory spots

Mar. 25—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — All of the elected officials and most of the participants in local government agencies who had served on Vision Together 2025's board are no longer official voting members of the nonprofit organization.

They have remained in advisory positions, said Robert Forcey, executive director of Vision Together 2025, which coordinates volunteer projects through its capture teams and in recent years has been involved in local politics.

A controversy over government officials being on the Vision board arose last year when it was discovered that the organization was privately developing a "Human Capital Project" to bring Afghanistan refugees to the region.

Vision also presented board members, including government officials, with general confidentiality agreements. No evidence has been produced to show that any elected officials or agency members signed the documents.

"The elected officials haven't stepped away from the board," Forcey said during an interview on Friday. "They're actively participating. We welcome them and any other politicians that want to join us for the board meetings that we have. We did have them take on the role of advisory positions. Some of the elected people that we have in the area, the politicians that we respect, have pointed out that there could be a view of impropriety, so they're stepping away from voting roles on the board, but we still want them to be there."

Forcey continued: "There were a lot of politicians that we really respect that say, 'Hey, the optics of this doesn't look too good,' so if they step away from voting positions, then that should at least keep us from influencing them or them influencing us."

Vision was a major partner in the city's successful effort to acquire more than $24 million in Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) discretionary grant money from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The Afghanistan refugee project, which never came to fruition, involved many facets, including contact with the White House.

Both of those efforts had significant political aspects.

Forcey, who became Vision's new executive director in February, said he instead wants the group's focus to be on improving the community and supporting volunteer efforts.

"That's what this group was always supposed to be," Forcey said. "It's not supposed to be a political group."

Johnstown City Manager Ethan Imhoff, Johnstown Mayor Frank Janakovic, Johnstown City Councilwoman the Rev. Sylvia King, Cambria County Commissioner Thomas Chernisky, Greater Johnstown School District Superintendent Amy Arcurio and Johnstown Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Melissa Komar are no longer on the Vision board.

Two people connected to government agencies remain on the board — Johnstown Redevelopment Authority Chairman Mark Pasquerilla and Michael Kerr, from RDM Johnstown LLC, the company that manages the Greater Johnstown Water Authority but that in itself is not a government agency.

"They weren't included in the advisory role because they're not in paid positions by the city," Forcey said of Pasquerilla and Kerr. "Everyone else was paid by the city or an agency."

Asked for an interview, Pasquerilla emailed a comment, which in part stated, "This issue of having elected officials and paid public employees on our board apparently had become a major distraction to the mission of VISION."

Pasquerilla added: "Johnstown does not have a fairy godmother. The VISION BOARD wants to get more folks engaged positively in building a better Johnstown. I'm very supportive of our new Executive Director, Rob Forcey. He has the leadership skills and passion to re-energize our Vision capture team volunteers."

State Rep. Frank Burns, D-East Taylor Township, has been a vocal critic of Vision, calling for more transparency from the organization and for elected officials to leave the board.

"Regardless of who is at the helm, or how many board members leave or come on board, I still think it's imperative for Vision 2025 to open its board meetings to the public," Burns wrote in a text interview. "That's an important and invaluable step to restoring public trust. ... I can't for the life of me figure out why Vision continues trying to keep people in the dark about its operation, knowing full well that the public is going to find out sooner rather than later anyway."

William Polacek, Sue Mann, Mike Kane, Linda Thomson, Robert Eyer, Amy Bradley, Ed Sheehan Jr. and Jeff Stopko remain on the board. Vision also recently publicly announced that the Rev. John Bayush, of Flood City Church in Windber, and Tim Leventry, of Leventry, Haschak, and Rodkey, LLC, in Richland Township, will join the Vision board in April.

"Vision 2025 recently touted two board additions, but failed to mention the resignations of elected officials and government employees, as they were scrubbed from (the) nonprofit's website," Burns said.