Business as usual for local councils as Boy Scouts of America files for bankruptcy

Local Boy Scouts councils said their activities will continue as usual, despite the bankruptcy filing of their 110-year-old parent organization, the Boy Scouts of America.

Each council is its own entity, financially and legally separate from the national organization.

Leaders of the Laurel Highlands Council, which includes the Pittsburgh area and Alle-Kiski Valley and has about 17,000 Scouts, are making no public comment about the filing aside from a short statement. The statement notes the council itself hasn’t filed for bankruptcy.

“Meetings and activities, district and council events, other Scouting adventures and countless service projects are taking place as usual. In short, there should be no change to the local Scouting experience,” according to the statement. “Our camps, properties and all local contributions are controlled by our council.”

The statement was the sole comment Laurel Highlands Council Chief Development Officer Erik M. Tomalis would provide. Other council leaders declined to comment beyond what was released in the statement.

The Westmoreland-Fayette Council, which has about 3,500 participating Scouts, receives no funding from the national organization, according to Scout Executive Martin Barbie.

“We’re going to continue doing the things we’ve doing for the last 80 years,” he said.

Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy while facing hundreds of lawsuits related to allegations of sex abuse.

In 2012, an Oregon court compelled Boy Scouts of America to release its secret “perversion files,” which included the names of thousands of scout leaders who were quietly dismissed from the organization for allegations of sexual abuse, including hundreds in Pennsylvania.

An coalition of lawyers called Abused in Scouting last year created its own list of more than 350 incidents that are not in the perversion files, including 10 from Southwestern Pennsylvania.

It’s unclear what effect, if any, the bankruptcy process will have on local councils in the long term, Barbie said.

“I don’t really have any idea at this point, it’s too early in the process,” Barbie said.

Jacob Tierney and Tom Davidson are Tribune-Review staff writers. You can contact Jacob at 724-836-6646, jtierney@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Soolseem. You can contact Tom at 724-226-4715, tdavidson@tribweb.com or via Twitter @TribDavidson.