The city Parks, Recreation Grounds and Facilities Authority voted Monday night to disband, but not before selling its share of Kelly Automotive Park’s primary tenant.

The authority, responsible for managing the ballpark, voted to sell its 40 percent share of the Butler BlueSox baseball team to U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-3rd, for $60,000.

The board then voted to have its solicitor draft an agreement with the city redevelopment authority, which owns the ballpark, to end its management responsibilities.

The redevelopment authority will take over managing the park itself, but will likely turn much of that role over to the newly reformed Pullman Board of Trust, which includes members Dave Schmidt, Bill Spohn and Tom Burnatoski in addition to Kelly, who is the chairman.

That group last month expressed interest in volunteering to handle management of the park and its concessions for the authority.

The trust managed Pullman Park for about seven decades before the redevelopment authority rebuilt the stadium in 2007 and took control of it.

After the meeting, board member Jeff Smith said that dissolving the facilities authority could take several months, but said he doesn’t expect the facilities authority to be active past the first couple months of next year.

City council will need to act on the measure, and the city would have to go through the state for final approval, Smith said.

Smith said facilities authority members felt it would be an unnecessary layer to government now that the trust will manage the park.

“We took out a layer of bureaucracy,” Smith said following the meeting. “Now the redevelopment authority will deal directly with the Pullman Board of Trust. This will make everything more efficient and transparent.”

Kelly’s $60,000 offer to buy the authority’s 40 percent share of the BlueSox, the stadium’s primary tenant, topped the only other bid made by the team’s majority ownership group, Perfect Game LLC.

The majority group bid $40,000.

Kelly’s bid for the team will need approval from the Prospect League before it is finalized.

The authority attempted to sell its 40 percent share of the team last year to the Nonprofit Development Corporation of Butler for $40,000, but the league’s board of directors voted against the idea.

At that time the team’s majority group was claiming first right of refusal to buy the team for that price.

Kelly’s car dealership bought the naming rights last year to the formerly-named Pullman Park for $150,000 over five years.

Kelly of Butler was not at the meeting Monday.

The facilities authority knew last week it had two bids for the share of the BlueSox, but did not know if it would be able to take action on a sale due to the resignation of four of its seven members during the past month.

However, member Nick Ban’s resignation came after last month’s meeting, and therefore had not been voted on by the board. Ban asked the board to rescind his letter of resignation, and he remained on the board for Monday’s meeting.

He seconded Smith’s motion to dissolve the authority.

The authority was looking to sell its share of the BlueSox to help pay off its debts until the stadium would be able to start generating more revenue.

Smith said the board’s debts to the Nonprofit Development Corp., which managed finances and the ballpark for the past year, to its solicitor and to its auditor will be paid off first. It owes about $21,000 to both the nonprofit group and to its solicitor, and about $2,000 for its annual audits.

The authority had more than $138,000 in debt to the redevelopment authority for costs associated with the park, but that money likely won’t be paid back.

The authority also owes about $27,000 to Dollar Bank for mortgage payments on the park.

Mayor Tom Donaldson, who was at the meeting, said he is pleased with the board’s decision.

“They’re going to drain the tank and start over,” he said. “They’re going in a new direction. It’s a positive for the city.”

Donaldson said city council will discuss the move at its meeting tonight.

“Will this solve all the problems tonight — no,” Donaldson said Monday after the meeting. “But at the end of the day we’re moving forward.”