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EBENSBURG -- Cambria County commissioners approved a five-year financial plan proposal they received from Kafferlin Strategies of Spring Creek during their meeting Thursday.
The unanimous vote came after the county received a $148,500 state grant through the commonwealth's Strategic Management Planning Program in late August to create a five-year financial and operational plan.
According to Commissioner Keith Rager, who moved to accept the proposal, Kafferlin Strategies will review the county's finances and operations over the next few months, look for problems and concerns and then help the county create a financial plan to show officials where the county will be two, three and five years in the future.
Rager's motion was given a second by President Commissioner Scott Hunt and passed unanimously with Commissioner Tom Chernisky's approval.
While Chernisky said he voted to accept the proposal to help put the county back on track, he claimed the grant is not an accomplishment and demonstrates that the other commissioners did not have a plan to address the county's financial issues.
"The Hunt and Rager administration's lack of strategic planning isn't something to celebrate," Chernisky said in a statement, adding the lack of a plan created more debt and a two-notch Standard & Poor's financial bond rating downgrade from an A to BBB+ with a negative outlook.
When Standard & Poor's downgraded the county's rating in December 2025, it cited concerns over the county's long-term financial management, according to Rager, who noted that creating a financial plan for the county was a goal he's been advocating for since he was sworn into office in January 2024.
"This (Strategic Management Planning Program) grant that we got is because I had worked with our previous grant writer and now with Johanna Stock, our current grant writer, to get this," Rager said, adding the county has never hired an agency to create a long-term financial plan before.
"I'm proud that we got it," Rager said of the grant.
"I think it's ironic now that S&P is being cited (when) they're the very ones that told us, 'you need to have a group come in and help you develop a financial plan.' So, that's exactly what I'm trying to do," Rager said.
Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.