Democrats Continue to Help Coverup PGC’s Lies and Crimes

June 10, 2026

HARRISBURG - Democrats on the House Game and Fisheries Committee today shut down an explanation of how employee abuse takes place within the toxic work environment of the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) said Rep. David Maloney (R-Berks).

The meeting was being held to advance legislation that would require the PGC and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) to conduct nationwide searches for candidates when the position of executive director is open for a new hire.

"While the PFBC already does this, the idea was to bring some transparency and accountability to these "independent" agencies who are tasked with serving the sportsmen of Pennsylvania," Maloney said. The impetus for this legislation came from me exposing the illegal/improper replacement of the PGC's executive director in April 2024, resulting in a bit of a scandal.

"At the meeting, I began to relay the results of one of my investigations to committee members because they need to understand the problem if they want to properly address it. The Democrat chairwoman acknowledged my advocacy and commitment to the fixing troubles sportsmen face, but will not help me fix the problems.

"My investigations have resulted in the partial discovery of the mystery of why the former PGC Human Resources director, was demoted, escorted from the building, her badge taken, yet kept her six-figure salary and was told to work from home."

The HR director was "reassigned" to the position of Human Resources Analyst 5 on January 13, 2025, pursuant to a meeting with Steve Smith in which he told the HR director he wanted to "take HR in a different direction." Consequently, the employee was escorted out of PGC headquarters, had her badge access removed, had to hand over her state devices (laptop, cell phone, etc.) and was relegated to working strictly remotely under the supervision of Dave Gustafson. Gustafson told her that Smith assured him that the job was hers until she retires.

The now demoted former HR director was given 3 assignments in 11 months, and 0 in 8 months, yet her job description indicates she will "compile reports, white papers, case studies, lessons learned and other presentations." While there are more important aspects to this case, the PGC was using $110,000-plus of sportsmen's money annually to pay someone to sit at home doing essentially nothing.

The HR director's civil service complaint against the PGC alleged she had been in discussions with the previous executive director, Bryan Burhans, about the possibility of terminating Smith due to poor work performance. Smith likely found out abouts these conversations and retaliated against her when Smith became executive director.

"The most interesting part about this is I met with top staffers to Attorney General Dave Sunday and asked them to look into this matter," Maloney said. "Not 48 hours later the PGC was rushing to make a settlement. I believe instead of looking into the matter as I requested, the AG's office called the PGC and said "heads up, you have a problem that needs to be fixed.

"There is much, much more to this story, so stay tuned."

Representative David Maloney
130th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Charles Lardner
717.260.6161
[email protected]
RepMaloney.com