The Municipal Solicitor stated at last night's Commission Discussion Session, that the Municipality cannot treat the School District any differently than any other entity. Joe Berkley, from the Inspection Office, broke down all the fees for the Commissioners, based on what the School District submitted. The initial application was one page. By recalculating, based on more details as to how the School District was going to do the project and subtracting what was not applicable in that large number given by the School District, another $170,000 was lopped off the fee. The Municipality will waive reinspection fees, since the inspectors will already be there. They are not treating the School District any differently than any other large project. Reinspection fees are charged when the inspectors have to return to the project for that reason only.
Matt Kluck brought it to the Commission's attention that the inspection fees were restructured in anticipation of the high school project in 2008 for 2009. The Municipality already gave the School District consideration in any discounting in 2008 for 2009.
19 comments:
The Board is nickel and diming the Municipality for a reduction in inspection fees while it is spending $346,000 in political lobbying fees.
I wonder if the Board Members even realize this money was spent since they never discuss the Monthly List of Bills before they vote on it.
Which Administrator is responsible for this mess, Dr. Steinhauer? Someone needs to lose their job over this.
Why should the PTA and Parents contribute money to the District so dollars are available to squander on political lobbying? Why should taxpayers foot the bill? I want a refund on my school taxes!!
John Ewing
Mr. Ewing, since you prefer facts, do you know the source of the monies paid to PSEA? I don't, but the Editor's Note states that these totals represent union dues taken out of the paychecks of public school employees and sent directly to unions. If that's the case in Lebo, then the monies come from the teachers' pocket, not yours.
Dave Franklin
Who pays the teachers, Dave? Just wondering.
Dave, Mr. Campbell can explain it to you.
scampbell@pennsbury.k12.pa.us
Send him and e-mail, and post his response here.
David Huston
Of course, the taxpayers do Elaine. My point was that if this is how things are set up in Lebo, the amounts paid to PSEA are coming out of the teacher's paychecks and not a separate pool of funds.
Dave Franklin
Back at the Business Times Ranking post here Mr. Franklin you wrote: "All excellent points Mr. Good. Too bad we can't dive deeper over a cup of coffee."
Lets dig a little deeper on this issue and skip the coffee.
Why does the MTL PSEA need to spend nearly $350,000 in lobbying fees?
Lets examine the logic at work here.
The board wants the commission to give up around $500,000+ in inspection fees, because the money comes from the "same" resident pocket.
But, they give the teachers a 4% raise...
so they can give some of it to the PSEA lobbyist...
who will go to Harrisburg to lobby for more money from the state that comes from... gosh darn.... amazing the same pockets that will be paying for our high school (or at some point another district's high school).
- Giffen Good
Mr. Franklin, have you forgotten you and I pay the teachers then they take our money and lobby against us. The money came from the taxpayers through the district to the PSEA.
John Ewing
Mr. Ewing, I know how teachers get paid. What the they choose to do with their salaries is up to them. If they want to use them to pay union dues, that's their choice. Frankly, I think this site does more to lobby and work against "us" and the reputation of our schools than the .4% of the overall budget that goes to the PSEA.
Dave Franklin
Once again Mr. Franklin I tend to agree with you in part.
The blogs do tend to appear divisive on first look, but might there possibly be a reason for that?
The school board more so than the commissioners tend to proclaim their transparency. But are they really? How many questions do they not answer... ever go to a school board meeting. A resident ask a direct question and the most likely answer is... I don't have that in front of me, we'll get back to you.
Except they rarely ever do!
The blogs are just a convenient way to see if anyone has the answer, ask the questions again in an open forum and in some instances climb up on a soapbox. Are they working against us any more than good investigative journalism, which personally I think is in short supply. Not really in my opinion.
It falls on the reader to educate themselves on both sides of any issue.
-Giffen Good
And in order to educate myself... the $323,611 paid to the PSEA by the district or by the teachers is for union dues- correct?
How many PSEA members are there in the MTL district?
Is the amount paid by or for each PSEA member taxable income to the individual PSEA member?
-- Giffen Good
I asked similar questions when this thread started (rather than assume the worst like others) and Mr. Huston told me to write to someone I don't know in a different school district. That was helpful (sarcasm intended).
Dave Franklin
Mr. Franklin,
Watch Mr. Campbell's testimony to the PA Senate, 1st video here:
http://www.pennsburyblog.com/Video/Senate/SenateTestimony.html
I am confident Mr. Campbell can explain the fees in detail.
How did he respond to your e-mail?
David Huston
Sort of backs up my earlier comments... some of the divisiveness is of the governing bodies own making!
If we could get clear concise answers to direct questions we wouldn't need to bicker and be sarcastic with each other! Right?
The school board or the commissioners aren't running Manhattan Projects! Why secret meetings on anything the public foots the bill for. (except personnel issues that wouldn't be divulged in the private sector either)
For instance the restructuring... big secret-- ooooowww can't talk about it. Hey somebody is headin somewhere with it, why can't the taxpayer know about it up front.
Or the HS project. We're going to break ground... but they won't tell YOU or I, how much you're going to pay for it!
Absurd in my opinion.
- Giffen Good
I don't know what Pennsbury has to do with Mt. Lebanon. In fact, it looks like Mr. Campbell's district agreed to pay the PSEA close to $700,000 that was deducted from their teachers' paychecks. So what?
Mr. Good, if it troubles you that $364,000 went to PSEA (or why) feel free to ask the question at a SB meeting. I think the only people suggesting that the SB is hiding something on this issue are some of the commenters on this blog. I think the reality is that our district agreed (as part of the negotiation process) to deduct and make these payments for the union, something it can agree to do or not to do in the contract. I'm sure the union likes it because they don't have to chase down the teachers for this money.
Dave Franklin
David, the link didn't come through, so I am trying it again here.
State Senate Hearings
The first video listed is the one that David is referring to, but the third one is pretty good too. Mr. Campbell talks about how taxpayers help finance the union and what teachers are required to do (payroll processing of PAC money.)
How'd we get off the inspection fee topic?
Teachers unions and their lobbying might is probably a topic for another day, me thinks.
I'll bet though that the MTL teacher union is paying close attention to the restructuring in the district!
-Giffen Good
I don't know how we diverted from the original topic of Inspection fees, but on the subject of teachers unions--
"Despite what some among us would like to believe, it is not because of creative ideas, it is not because of the merit of our positions, it is not because we care about children, it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child. NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power and we have power because there are more than 3.2 million people who are willing to pay us hundreds of millions of dollars in dues each year because they believe we are the unions that can most effectively represent them, the unions that can protect their rights and advance their interests as education employees."
Retiring National Education Association General Counsel -- Bob Chanin
Mr. Franklin, if the school board agreed to collect dues from the teachers for the union, fine.
Why they'd want to for a group that has the power to hold them hostage, that's a subject for another day.
Also one they're dealing with in Wisconsin and Ohio right now.
- Gifffen Good
Mr. Good, let's get a coffee. Come on!!
Dave Franklin
Tell you what Dave, the day I throw my hat in the political arena you can host my $100/cup fund raiser!
I can see it now... VOTE FOR GOOD lawnsigns littering the MTL landscape.
But then some "yay" or "naysayer" will probably comment here... "What makes him think he's good?"
Cracks me up just thinking about it.
- Giffen Good
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