A metaphorical grinding of gears attended the transfer of a seat on the Amtran board Wednesday, as new member and City Mayor Matt Pacifico took the position held for the past 25 years by Scott Cessna — who has chaired the Amtran board for the past 17 of those years.

Cessna appeared at the meeting despite having not been reappointed by City Council, so that he could reflect on his time at Amtran, compliment the organization for its status among peer transit agencies, praise managerial staff for navigating a couple key resignations last year, tell current board members and staff he would be available if they had questions and to tell them that he had been willing to be reappointed — while adding that he “can’t tell you why I (wasn’t).”

As he got ready to leave, Pacifico, who as mayor nominates all members of authorities like Amtran for ratification by the whole council, told those present that Cessna hadn’t been reappointed “because you didn’t have the votes” of council members for ratification, in connection with Cessna’s support of Explore Altoona, which council voted last year to decertify in favor of a new tourist promotion agency.

After the meeting, City Councilman Dave Ellis explained that Cessna alienated council members with a Facebook post, following council’s vote to decertify Explore Altoona.

Cessna’s post from February 2025 reads: “… as someone who has worked on behalf of local heritage tourism for nearly 30 years, I’m DONE supporting a city that won’t fight to support itself. The 5 of you (council members who voted to decertify) should be embarrassed and ashamed.”

Apparently, people cannot publicly express their opinion in some cases “without being canceled,” Cessna said at Wednesday’s meeting.

The Facebook post had been an expression of his own opinion — not made as a representative of Amtran, Cessna said.

He is upset at not having been reappointed, as he liked the work for Amtran, he said.

He is also upset at how it was handled.

The decision not to reappoint him was never explained to him, despite his calling to inquire about its likelihood prior to his term ending Dec. 31, Cessna said.

He said the decision not to reappoint him was a case of “We’ll show him.”

It happened because “I bruised the egos of a couple city councilmen,” he said.

Council members didn’t reappoint Cessna because that Facebook post expressed “disdain” for them, said Councilman Dave Ellis.

Although he wasn’t personally offended, he’s not sure why council members should be expected to vote in favor of someone who expressed such sentiments, Ellis said.

Such roles in city government, moreover, “are not lifetime appointments,” Ellis said.

In the aftermath of the decertification of Explore Altoona, Cessna was also upset about a statement from a council member that appeared in the Mirror putting all the blame on Explore Altoona for the failure of the parties to come to an amicable agreement that could have resulted in avoiding decertification, Cessna said.

That seemed to disrespect his wife, Jodi, who chaired Explore Altoona, Cessna said.

Jesse Ickes, the councilman who Cessna said made that statement to the Mirror, was not personally offended by a message that Cessna sent to him afterwards, even though that statement “was not exactly gentlemanly,” Ickes said.

“We all have bad days sometimes,” Ickes said.

“I took (the message) as (merely) a disagreement,” Ickes said.

Ickes abstained from the vote that resulted in Cessna not being reappointed, due to an unrelated work conflict in connection with Amtran.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.