Plum
Boro Athletic Association, Inc.
By now most of you have heard the news that our board has decided not to appeal the lease eviction from the borough at this time. This decision was not made easily, and to be honest, tears were shed at the table when the final vote was taken.
After sitting through the hearing at the magistrate’s office, all PBAA members present were shocked at the outcome. Unfortunately, Linda Zucco ruled in the borough’s favor—revoking the PBAA lease. She informed us that we had 30 days to appeal.
If you were not able to attend the general membership meeting Thursday night, we would like to share with you some of our reasons for not pursuing this further. Our attorney feels extremely confident that if we appealed to the next level, we would win. The question we had to ask ourselves was, “What do we win?” We would have an extremely hostile council sitting directly across the street from our fields, and poor public perception that has been fostered by our local media spreading misleading and less than truthful information.
Would the borough continue to initiate investigations, regardless of efforts to revise internal operation procedures? Would the concession stands be scrutinized by the health department weekly? Would we have to pay student workers differently? Would we be granted easy access to the pavilions during tournaments? Would we need written borough permission to fill a hole in an outfield—is that an IMPROVEMENT? Would the borough tag and/or tow cars during tournaments or restrict our parking? If you think we are exaggerating, check out the new signs posted at the parking lots of the municipal offices.
Simply stated, the borough owns the property and has the means, resources and apparently motive to make the PBAA operations difficult on a daily basis--they have already demonstrated that. In addition, the board feels the council will use its position and leverage to push into our personal lives as well. Nobody wants to spend each day fighting. We are supposed to be watching our kids play ball.
So what happened? Well, we feel that Plum Council was dishonest in their dealings with us from the start. Representatives of the PBAA were told months ago that if our executive board resigned and a new “clean” executive board was in control, they would stop the lease eviction proceedings. They added, "That will never happen.” Well, it did happen, and good people stepped up to the challenge only to be told council would not work with them either.
Please know that the executive board members of the PBSA were recently asked to stop this madness and rejoin the PBAA board. They were asked to come help us implement the changes that they felt were necessary. They did not respond.
This left us with the difficult decision to dissolve the PBAA. Sometimes you just can’t fight city hall. Unfortunately, to disband is a much more difficult process than any of us imagined. In summary, we cannot simply donate the equipment to another organization. We cannot just sell it all to another organization. According to the Attorney General’s (AG) office we have been evicted and MUST adhere to the laws surrounding the dissolution and distribution of non-profit assets regardless of popular opinion.
The AG’s office and the Orphans Court (OC) must review all fundamental change transactions. They will review all asset distribution. The PBAA cannot donate physical assets or cash assets to ANY organization or cause without the approval process which must flow through the AG and OC. The PBAA is obligated to remove PBAA property from the fields, securely store and inventory the assets, and exercise due diligence in obtaining documentation of fair market value. Any assets left after paying expenses must be solicited to another non-profit which desires to receive the donations. Then both the PBAA and the recipient organization have to produce paperwork for filing to the AG and OC. The recipient organization must draft a letter to the AG regarding the intended use for the donation.
Believe me; we couldn’t make this stuff up. Please take a moment and go to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Attorney General Website and look for the “Charitable Nonprofit Organizations Handbook”. Read the last three pages and it will summarize our discussion with the AG office. We estimate that this process will take at least eight months to a year! Specialized non-profit attorneys need to be hired to supervise the process, and storage fees will need to be paid. Tragically…. sufficient non-profit assets will be liquidated to cover expenses--we did not ask for this mess . . . the organization has been evicted. The organization must and WILL follow the guidelines and direction from the AG office.
We hope our borough is ready for this. . . . they asked for it and by law, we have to follow the AG and OC guidelines. The PBSA will not be allowed by law to “inherit” any assets from the PBAA until all state guidelines are followed and completed. To top it off, your local government now states their intention to hire an employee at tax-payers’ expense to run the baseball and softball program that has been run with volunteers for 50 years.
Did the PBAA make some mistakes? Yes, they did. Are the errors irreconcilable and warrant this treatment? Certainly not--the new executive board was never given a chance. Please don’t be misled to believe that this is a fight between the PBAA and the PBSA. This is a fight between the PBAA and the Plum Borough Council regarding the lease of the fields. The council is insisting upon a year to year lease and we will not agree to it. That is why they endorsed the formation of the PBSA and put borough muscle behind them to force the takeover.
We thank you for your support, and will hopefully continue to receive it during this difficult time.
Sincerely,
PBAA
Executive Board