Corbett fires conservation official

Action could affect state's oversight of drilling in parks

The longtime head of the citizens advisory committee that has oversight of the state's parks and forests was fired Friday by the Corbett administration, a termination that council members say was illegal and raises concerns about reduced public accountability of Marcellus Shale gas drilling in state forests.

Kurt Leitholf, who served as executive director of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Citizens Advisory Council since 1996, was told Wednesday that his position would be eliminated. He was let go two days later.

Mr. Leitholf, 56, said that even though he was hired by and worked for the independent committee, he was told by a DCNR administrator that he was an "at will employee" and that the governor's office had determined this position was no longer needed.

"The legislation creating the advisory committee seems to say it has the right to employ the staff it needs, but it's a unique position because my paycheck came from DCNR," said Mr. Leitholf, who admitted to being "disappointed" by the administration's decision.

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Christina Novak, DCNR spokeswoman, said Joe Graci, the department's legislative liaison, will become the department's "adviser to the council" and perform Mr. Leitholf's executive director duties in addition to his liaison duties.

"The department has paid for the support staff for the council and has determined that funding a full-time executive director is not cost-effective," Ms. Novak said in an email response to questions about the firing. "DCNR will continue to provide support staff to the advisory council and remains fully committed to providing the council with the resources it needs to carry out its work."

Although the administration decided not to fund Mr. Leitholf's position and reassigned his administrative assistant to other duties within the department a couple of months ago, the DCNR has in the past year expanded its own administrative staffing, adding two new executive assistant positions.