FIX THE POOL.
This is an important notice from LeboALERT.
Due a mechanical failure, the Pool will be closed for the day. We apologize for the inconvenience and will update when the problem is corrected.
Pool Update July 1, 2012 7:45 PM The pool was packed when it had to be evacuated. Our filtration system went down. This morning, the Aqua Club held a meet in dangerously low chlorine levels. Our kids were swimming in filth. I am listening to the March 26, 2012 Commission Discussion podcast. About halfway through the podcast, Kelly Fraasch asked David Donellan what would happen if the filtration system goes down. Matt Kluck had asked for a timeline and would never receive it. Kelly had said that she would hate for residents to have to go to Dormont's or Scott's pool. It was mentioned that if the filtration system would go down, it would be the end of the season. It seems that both James and Kelly Fraasch are prophetic.
44 comments:
Please fix and renovate the pool! It is so overdue!
For the record, it is 91 degrees at 6:40 pm. It is sunny. Tomorrow's high (July 2) is 91 degrees. Commissioners, do you need the dog and pony show too?
Elaine
Sunny, 91 degrees. That would make the temperature on an artificially turfed field what- about 120 according to studies.
Oh yeah that equates to more field time for 7 - 10 year olds.
Seems to me as part of their parks plan, Kluck and Fraasch included the new filtration system for the pool which would have avoided this. Staff said this stuff might break this season. It was at the end of its life.
The same three commissioners that want to turf your fields are the ones that blocked the repair of the filtration system. So if you want to place blame, it lies squarely at the feet of Brumfield, Linfante, and Bendel.
Let's all cross our fingers and hope its just a simple repair and that we don't have to refund season passes.
How can the YSA demand field upgrades instead of pool upgrades only because Aqua Club doesn't contribute as much to them?
The climbing wall had been removed from the list. I included the link to the March 26 meeting in an update to this post. All Matt Kluck and Kelly Fraasch were trying to do was avoid what happened today. That was Dan Miller's intent, as well. The pool is a mess and now we may be out of business.
Don't forget to vote for artificial turf on Dave Franklin's petition, folks. It is that old H.A.T.E. in my heart all over again.
Elaine
How many swimming slots have we lost?
6:51...more field time? hahahahaha.
Maybe since the pool will now be closed due to the three stooges not thinking through a plan, we can turn it into a skate park. You know, for the children. As long as we have people who want to give the kids everything, might as well not skimp. Better yet, let's have a skate park with artifical turf.
Sorry but at some point all of this jumps from the realm of the divisive right into the sphere of the absurd and silly. Here's a message for Brumfield, Linfante and the other guy: start with the basics and spend what we need, not what five residents want. Otherwise, your local political careers will be short-lived. That's all. Thanks.
8:22 How many swimming slots? My guess is ALL OF THEM.
I just got a response from my email to the commissioners. Kristen Linfante writes:
"I fully support fixing and improving the pool. I agree 100% that it deserves repairs and upgrades."
I wrote back "Spare me Kristen. You want the artificial turf." Kelly and Matt were the only ones who wanted to fix the pool. On the podcast, Brumfield said that it should be fixed three or four years from now and do it all at the same time. Linfante said the same thing. Puleeze, all you guys want is artificial turf,and just keep putting off the pool.
Elaine
She put it in writing. So let's hold her to it.
If any of you haven’t seen the Commissioner’s Report featuring Kristen Linfante, it is a “must read”. You’ll get so lost in all the mumble-jumble it will become clear why she fails to see the forest for the trees. Fix the darned pool, Kristen! Otherwise, the swimming pool component of your imaginary municipal orchestra would certainly serve as the worn out wind reeds thrown onto the floor for four more years. Some orchestra....
Commissioner's Report www.lebomag.com pg. 35
The 3-Stooges voted "No" on the Fraasch/Kluck motion to proceed with some pool improvements, including a new filtration system, in March cause they wanted the 2011 unassigned fund balance of $1.3 million for their artificial turf. Only 3 Commission votes are required to spend fund balances rather than 4 votes if a bond issue is required.
Got news for those three--1.3 million ain't gonna go far. ANd March? So they've been plotting this thing for months and only afterward does Franklin formally present the idea? Oh hell no.
I was hoping my commissioner would have addressed some issues in her article instead of resorting back to what she said during the Candidates Forum. It is always about listening/collaborating/communicating. Somehow I don't see it. She didn't listen when the police told her about the car flipping on Connor. She heard Cedar. She wasn't collaborating when she was supposed to present her plan for the unassigned funds. And she communicated more on her Real Lebo blog than she does on her commissioner blog.
Kristen emailed me back with:
"Please refer back to Commissioner Brumfield's proposal. It contained pool improvements, which I did support... Another point of clarification...Commissioner Kluck and Fraasch's $900,000 proposal did not address a single pool improvement, which is one of the main reasons why I did not support the proposal.
The fact that the pool failed today makes me even more convinced that a bond is not only necessary, but necessary immediately."
My response:
Kristen, I understand that you don't read blogs, or at least mine, so I want to refer you to a letter that Kelly Fraasch wrote to Ken Ward in this post, http://lebocitizens.blogspot.com/2012/04/turf-wars.html
Kelly writes:
On another note, my initial thought was to put the undesignated money into the pool facility. After feedback from the Municipal staff, the Commission was told that they would prefer to not do the project in parts. So the Commission will need to consider the full pool plan at a later time.
I recall you and Dave Brumfield mentioning this at a meeting as well.
What is more pressing to you is turfing fields.
Elaine
Do we need a on-line petition to fix the pool? Do we need a hot shot to make the presentation to the Commission?
No, I am not doing a petition to fix the pool. The turf petition doesn't seem to be "representing the families of over 2,900 athletes."
It is a done deal. Everything can be falling apart all around us like roads, sidewalks, the pool, the library compressor, the public safety building, the municipal building, but God forbid we say no to YSA who only represents a portion of its sports organizations. And the same group who makes promises and doesn't follow through. But yes, let's float that bond, Kristen. What you failed to mention in your article, Kristen, according to your website:
"As Chair of the Orchestra Players’ Committee of the San Jose Symphony, Kristen was the elected leader representing the 80 musicians of the orchestra. In this position, which she held for three years, Kristen negotiated union labor contracts, collaborated on balancing its $7.8M annual operating budget, acted as liaison to management and sat on the Board of Directors of the organization."
On June 4, 2002, The San Jose Symphony Orchestra announced plans to file for bankruptcy. You can read about her in the book, "Greed and Good: Understanding and Overcoming the Inequity That Limits Our Lives." Kristen tells reporters that the musicians will be going back to school to begin new careers.
I sure feel so much better knowing that Kristen thinks the time is now for a bond.
Elaine
Some people are simply unqualified to hold office, Elaine. I don't blame Kristen entirely for her lack of comnprehension regarding finance. She's from California. She was surrounded by people at every level who were clueless. So what example did she have to view responsible spending? It's so much easier to keep borrowing.
And why worry about the pool? It's only open part of the year and nobody uses it, right? And it doesn't bring in any money to the township so let's just fill it in. Then we can all go to Dormont or Scott Township (where Ed kubit might be able to get us a cost break as a native son of that area).
I was talking to a friend of mine last week (he lives in an adjoining township) and expressing my disappointment over the political atmosphere in Lebo and the reckless spending. He said "so let them keep spending. Eventually you guys will have to declare bankruptcy and the state will take over". Bingo. And is it just me or aren't Dems the ones who cried about the reduced spending increases, what they call "cuts", in state money this year? Yet they've magically found money for a project that will affect less than ten percent of residents, almost none of whom even know what's going on?
6:53- alleghenyinstitute.org has an excellent paper on municipal bankruptcy, it can and does happen. Here's the start of the article.
"Issue Summary (Updated January 2011)
Municipal Bankruptcy
The Issue:
Chapter 9 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code permits municipalities to file for bankruptcy as a way to reorganize their debts."
It's worth a read.
Dormont was able to raise funds to fix their pool. Maybe we need to talk to them about a plan!
Look, it’s no secret that I think Kristen Linfante has shown some stunningly poor financial judgment, but is there any evidence that her involvement in the San Jose Symphony was a cause of its financial woes? Unless there is, can we please knock off the innuendo and focus instead on actual problems?
Maybe now would be a good time to go back and read Charlotte Stephenson’s letter again. She’s right: If we want better representation, it’s up to us to find candidates who are equipped to solve Mt. Lebanon’s problems, and it’s up to us to get them elected.
But nobody votes for mean people. Like it or not, voters vote for the nice people first, the right people second. So if we want to get the right people elected, we have to be nice people first. It’s the only way.
The elections may seem far off, but they’ll be here soon enough. Maybe we should start now.
Sorry for the cross post. The following threat comes from Dave Franklin. Please humor me and sign you name when you take a shot at him. Of course, on his blog, he permits anonymous shots at me.
Elaine:
Please be advised that I am no longer going to comment on your blog. I'm sure
that makes you happy. However, please also understand that the next time I am
defamed by an anonymous poster, I will take appropriate action. Thank you for
your cooperation.
Dave Franklin
Tom, Kristen is part of the actual problem.
Please don't tell me how to run my blog.
Cheers
Elaine
Elaine, I'm not telling you how to run your blog. I'm telling you how not to reduce the chances of reform candidates getting elected. (And that goes for all of us.)
Cheers,
Tom
I don't see how Franklin was defamed? Humiliated, yes but defamed? I say good riddance.
And to Tom's point, no, people doin't vote for meanpeople. But people also tend to not vote for incompetent and dishonest people if they know those people are incompetent and/or dishonest. I think that's the point trying to be made. Again, though, Tomis right. the time is now to start thinking about replacements for the failed elected people. Next year is the first crack we have at cutting out some of our town's cancer.
Tom, I agree with you in part, to lay the problems Mt. Lebanon or the San Jose Symphony at the feet of Ms, Linfante is just plain wrong.
You asked if there is evidence-- dId she play a role in he organizations collapse, the answer could be possibly if she was indeed a board member or president of the union. Does that make her a bad person, a villian... no, nor does it indicate her resume make her a leader to be followed blindly.
There is an excellent book on the subject of the San Jose Symphony that should be a MUST READ for our commissioners and all of us blogging here and for anyone that doesn't think opinions or votes counts.
And the Band Stopped Playing
The Rise and Fall of the San Jose Symphony
DR. THOMAS WOLF NANCY GLAZEhttp://wolfbrown.com/images/books/sanjosesymphony.pdf
From the book:
"Why did the San Jose Symphony fail? Some of the reasons are familiar:
• Its operation was based on an unachievable and overly ambitious vision that grew well beyond what the community could sustain.
[Is that the breaking point we've arrived at in MTL?]
• It had weak leadership—board, staff, and musical.
[Ms. Linfante? Again is MTL experiencing the same weak leadership?]
• It spent money it did not have and misallocated the money it did have.
• It ignored sound advice from national experts even when that advice was provided free of charge thanks to the assistance of local funders.
• It had insufficient marketing and fund-raising capacities.
• It offered too much of the same product in the same way long after it was clear that there was inadequate demand.
• Its programming, said by some to be “unexciting,” did not address the realities of changing demographics and local taste.
• It ignored obvious competition locally and regionally.
• It performed in poor venues.
• It operated in a collective bargaining environment that led to too many guaranteed services for musicians, services that did not reflect the realities of the marketplace.
• It ignored obvious opportunities for partnerships in the areas of education and technology — partnerships that likely would have been met with widespread community enthusiasm and support.
• It got diverted by the fantasy of an overly expensive new concert hall even when its day-to-day operations were failing. [I find this point most fascinating as it appears to be exactly what we are experiencing here in MTL! Expensive turf while the pool fails!]
• Its inadequacies were tolerated for too long by local funders, thereby exacerbating the problems it faced.
All of these problems and missed opportunities are documented extensively in the following pages. But the most interesting and provocative question may not be, What went wrong? It may be, How much did it really matter?
• It spent money it did not have and misallocated the money it did have. Wow!!!!!
Sounds like floating bonds for Twin Hills and McNeilly property doesn't it.
Also, $113 million for a high school, the school district highlights this point by spending $41,000 on a fund raising study to bring in $30 million they need to finish the project.
What is the old saying -- those that don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
From page 80 of the San Jose book.
6. The organization must have responsible gover- nance and oversight. The failure of any nonprofit organization [or school district or municipality] must ultimately be laid at the feet of its board, which has legal authority to oversee its operations, programming, and financial health. Although some trustees made a valiant effort on behalf of the SJS, the group was not cohesive and did not work in harmony toward a common set of goals. Also, not enough trustees provided the kind of personal financial support through direct contributions and fund-raising that the ambitious vision demanded.
7. Staff leadership must be skilled in the business of running the organization. [don't lose $800,000 in parking fines for instance] Running most organizations takes specialized knowledge and skill. Running an orchestra is a particularly complex activity demanding knowledge of music, orchestra operations, collective bargaining, marketing and fund raising, and personnel management. For long periods of time, the SJS lacked people with these skill sets, and the organization suffered accordingly.
8. Responsible and reliable systems for budgeting and financial controls must be in place. [like knowing if JMA funds are indeed deposited per agreements!!!!] Budgeting and fiduciary oversight are critical to the success of any nonprofit organization. But especially in a field in which contractual commitments must be made as much as three years in advance, budget forecasting and review require special techniques and approaches. What are especially necessary—and what were lacking at the SJS—are systems, controls, and
Running an orchestra [or municipality or SD] demands knowledge of music, orchestra operations, collective bargaining, marketing and fund raising, and personnel management."
So Tom at 10:22 you advised Elaine to " focus instead on actual problems?" and knock off the "innuendo."
So rather than dealing with knocking personalities and drawing up battle lines let's see if we can FOCUS on the actual problems.
Focusing means making something sharper eliminating distractions, pin pointing.
Can you bring the problems into focus for us? Zero in on them and eliminate all the extraneous baggage like name calling and innuendo?
Seriously, no one seems to have listed the problems. If we can create a list maybe we can break it up into manageable parts.
Do you have a handle on them?
Anon 10:50: If you want to know what the problems are, read the letter that Charlotte Stephenson wrote. She nailed them.
Mr. Moertel: the problem is the following. Our pool is unable to serve this town in its current state. At least two members of the Commission have focused on upgrading two fields which are in good condition, based on Mr. Franklin's assessment. How does Mrs. Stephenson's letter address the problem, or nail it as you say? Looking for potential candidates for an election that is more than a year away does not resolve the problem. Crucial decisions are being made right now.
The problems you cite are symptoms. If you trace them back to their cause, you’ll not only find the real problem but also understand why Charlotte’s letter nailed it.
OK she nailed them, Tom.
Let's try and divvy them up into manageable bites. I'm betting first on your list is getting qualified candidates to run for office. It is on mine.
How do we do it? How do we get people involved?
If Charlotte Stevenson has a grasp of the problems, she must, you said she nailed them, does she have a grasp of the solutions?
I not trying to pick a fight, not trying to demean your comments. I believed too she had a pretty good grasp on things and had practical approaches to many of the issues.
She with others tried to open a dialogue- a town hall- and what happene?. She ran for office- what happened? She joined with other candidates to try and managing things. What happened?
So I guess Tom what I'm asking is where do we go from here? Even if somehow we do get people to run on a platform of fixing the "nailed" problems, November is 5 months away. The earliest date to change the people in charge.
The turf issue is being pushed today, here and now. The high school project left the station months ago.
The pool is down, the golf couse mower broken.
We have $800,000 in uncollected parking fines. A Joint Maintenance Agreement needs to be continued or dissolved.
These things aren't waiting for an election, the sweep of a new broom.
So what do we do?
Buy $1.125 million worth of turf. Float a $4 million pool bond?
I'm not trying to fight with you Tom or Mr. Franklin or anyone.
The San Jose book shines a light on what I believe were some pretty obvious missteps. I believe we're well on our way to repeat many of them here inMt. Lebanon. If you and I are in agreement how do we not trip inthe dark before November?
Anonymous 11:55:
Since I wrote the letter please allow me to respond.
Members of our community elevated others into positions as elected officials, (I did the same), but clearly some of those who are now in place did not agree with the others when it came time to deal with our antiquated pool equipment while they have been otherwise in favor of spending money turfing fields. Now we have a pool predicament.
The pool filtration issue, as I understand it, was brought up a few months ago. Some of our officials chose to ignore that so here we are without a pool. May I say that those sitting Commissioners who shared the concern about the pool were ones I supported.
What I am saying is that when it comes to supporting candidates, CHOOSE WISELY, because the community will usually get what it deserves. The time to deal with these issues is at the election. If you want to elect people who have an allegiance to a particular group, e.g. turf hopefuls, then by all means do so.
In my “perfect world”, smart people who can see the big picture will run for office and take an oath to serve the COMMUNITY as a whole to the best of their ability. If they don’t really understand what the COMMUNITY wants and needs, they will go to the effort to find out. That is what the problem is in Mt. Lebanon; we just don’t have enough of them.
That being said, I do believe in my heart that there are two elected officials who really are serving the community as a whole to the best of their ability, it’s just not enough when it comes to getting things done.
As for “nailing it”? Here’s where the rubber meets the road, you (and the rest of the 29% of Mt. Lebanon who even bothered to get off their laurels and head to the polls) lose because your ideal candidate majority isn’t in office. You can’t “do” anything now. You and others “missed the boat” during the last election cycle!
-Charlotte Stephenson
Anonymous 12:23:
Honestly, THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN BE DONE. Once elected, they will do as they please and you can’t do a thing about it, and believe me that’s the truth.
-Charlotte Stephenson
Tom you're dancing. Problems, symptoms, tomato, tohmahto.
As 11:55 said, there are issues that need solved today. Not after tomorrow's elections!
And what does looking back do to solve them?
The McNeilly property purchase was by all indications a stupid move. But it was done.
If we turf a field that money is spent. The pool still will need something. Repair replacement?
Do we forgo turf and put $500,000.
You're really not providing much.
Symptom... Problem... Call it what ever you like, what do you propose we do? Stop everything until the next election?
Tom, you're in a cross walk with a runaway truck bearing down on you.
Yes, you can look back on what events put you in that cross walk. You can dash for the opposit curb . Or maybe turn back from where you came.
Or elect to freeze and hope some candidate steps out to yank yyou to safety or jump in the truck and apply the brakes.
Waiting for a savior seems to be the riskiest choice and it might just kill you.
12:23 AM, I don't mean to burst your bubble, but we cannot change anything in five months. As Charlotte pointed out, Mt. Lebanon missed the boat during the last election cycle. Five seats (the majority) were filled on the school board and three seats (the majority) were filled on the commission. The next election cycle for these offices will not occur until the following November with only four seats for school board and two seats for the commission. We missed the boat big time. That is why I was hoping to get more people to the polls. It was a critical election.
The problem, Tom, is that today, our pool is broken. We knew it was going to happen. We were warned by the staff before they realized that turfing two fields that were to be maintained by the school district would have made Public Works work a little less. We have a commission and school board who would rather do business with a sports group who is not representing their own swimming organization, has no money, but has big ideas to spend our tax dollars.
Elaine
Elaine
We can send representatives to Harrisburg. Ones that would call for enforcement of polling violations and penalties for organization that engage in campaign violations.
Also, lobby for a review of the reassessment valuations (which Tom and James so ably analyzed).
It'd be a start.
Yes, that may be true, but how does that fix our pool when we have a proposal on the table to spend over a million dollars to turf two of our best fields?
Elaine
It doesn't fix the pool problem.
I was just trying to picture a scerio that worked with Tom's opinion that Charlotte nailed it.
Yes she did, but nailing the results of the last election and nailing what we should do in preparation for a local election more than a year away, doesn't solve those on the table today.
I was trying to work with Tom, finding a common ground so that we can come up with 'a plan.'
I'm at at loss... proceed with artificial turf? Doesn't that put next year's commission behind the eight ball then?
They'll have more debt, and still no pool solution.
Seems to me we need to face the issues head on before they snowball into an avalance.
Agreed.
Elaine
Anonymous 9:54:
My experience with trying to influence local elected officials when their minds are made up has not been fruitful, even after a sizeable effort to collect petition signatures, etc.
If you want to do something, you need to recruit residents to contact the Commissioners and let them know their feelings about these issues. The more people you can get involved the better chance that something might change, but “might” is the best-case scenario.
A plan for the community’s asset maintenance and improvements has already been worked on and presented by two Commissioners. It needs support from the others to get through. If you are willing to spend time and energy, perhaps you could recruit interested friends to put some pressure on the Commissioners to consider it. I understand how frustrated you are. I have been there for a long time. Keep us posted if you decide to work on this.
-Charlotte Stephenson
Yes influencing local officials that ran on an agenda is extremely difficult or from my experience darn near impossible.
As far as rounding up neighbors, 71% won't even show up on election day.
The biggest problem in my opinion is stumping for candidates that run on a platform of transparency, yet remain silent when their constituents ask for information. Why the RTK process? How many elections cycles have we gone thru hearing transparency, transparency. Open government, blah, blah, blah, blah.
How many weeks and how many contrary responses did it take to get an answer on JMA payments? Which even today, we don't know if they're accurate.
I have two outstanding RTK's concerning JMA payments. I understand that it may not be public information. So what do you do with that? Take them to court? That takes money which I don't have.
I presented my counter proposal to YSA's. Fix the pool, which I guess they did and don't spend a million plus on two of our best fields. I am still waiting to see it on the municipal website.
Elaine
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