Bill raised many concerns in his 2006 letter in regard to the July/August 2006 article, Around Town Community Endowment Launched. As usual, Mt. Lebanon Magazine only reported the entertaining part, and not the rest of the story of community issues.
- The Municipal government spent $36,000 in tax funds to create the MLCE.
- The Commission wasted $40,000 when sports organizations backed out of funding support for McNeilly Field/Park.
- The Mt. Lebanon Soccer Association was to contribute $135,000 to the MLCE for the specific purpose of developing athletic fields. [Why is this sounding like déjà vu?]
- Public officials and youth sports leaders were claiming that people with children wouldn't move here and housing prices would fall if we didn't have more fields. [Remember, this was in 2006.]
- When was spending $36,000 discussed in a public forum?
- Why does the magazine taint the good thing it does with editorial and publisher hype and managed news?
Thank you Bill, for sharing this letter with me and now, the rest of the community. I looked in the Blog Lebo archives to see if anything was written about this. As usual, I got side tracked because of all the information in those archives and found this about Mt. Lebanon Magazine and the TIF issue for Washington Park. Laurels and Lances Some things never change. Anyway, I did find this post on Blog Lebo called, Donation Allows Endowment
As one reader pointed out, Mt. Lebanon Magazine is definitely not a news magazine. In the words of former Commissioner Humphreys, Mt. Lebanon Magazine remains the "house organ" and "propaganda tool" for Mt. Lebanon.
As one reader pointed out, Mt. Lebanon Magazine is definitely not a news magazine. In the words of former Commissioner Humphreys, Mt. Lebanon Magazine remains the "house organ" and "propaganda tool" for Mt. Lebanon.
18 comments:
As they say in sports-- "you can't tell the players without a scorecard."
Thanks "Lebocitizens" for keeping score!!!
In addition to "house organ" and "propaganda tool" please free free to add my label for the magazine ->
"Community Mouthpiece!"
All money raised for artificial turf for Middle and Wildcat Fields will be going to the MLCE just as the $135,000 for developing athletic fields from Mt. Lebanon Soccer Association did, as reported by our community magazine.
Elaine
I'm confused.
Did the soccer association actually contribute $135,000 for the McNeilly Field development or just pledge it back in 2006?
If they actually contributed it, where'd it go?
How can we ask for a full audit of all advisory boards and publicly funded charities? There has to be some accountability in Mt Lebanon.
Damion, that's a very good point. I'd assume that you can go to a Commission meeting and make the request during citizen comment. (There is a meeting tonight, I believe.) Or, you can send an e-mail to all of the commissioners with your request. The worst thing that can happen is that they say no...which is entirely possible.
10:08 AM, the soccer sports cabal have "pledged" the $125,000 about four times to various schemes, but have never paid it out.
This blog posted a particular case, with the documentation, that the $125,000 was pledged towards the purchase of McNeilly in a state grant request to show local public financial support. The state approved the grant, but the Municipality did not call for soccer's $125,000 and borrowed the entire amount via a 20 year $2 million bond issue instead.
See anything wrong with that ? Neither soccer nor the Muni does. Life is great in the bubble !
Thanks 2:37.
That clears it up.
We get promises, promises, promises!
I'm suspecting that the promises to help pay for maintenance and replacement of the proposed Wildcat/Middle Fields will vaporize once the turf is in place as well.
One would think with all the lawyers involved in the turf scheme that one of them would be able to come up with an ironclad contract covering soccer contributions!
So the muni is paying $2 million for the McNeilly property that is assessed at a value of $500,000 and sits vacant today.
And people are all over afraasch for trying to unload that albatross... incredible!
3:27 a follow up to your question why won't the staff or other commissioners get on board and help fraasch?
So most soccer players don't like synthetic turf, so I am not sure why the league is interested in synthetic turf versus good field maintenance. In fact, there are currently protests among pro soccer players regarding future games being played on synthetic turf.
How much money was spent on field maintenance over the past 10 years? Who was in charge of it?
Some towns actually outsource the sports field management to pros.
Why didn't Mt Lebanon consult pro natural turf managers with the science background necessary to address field problems?
The SAB didn't do that because the idea probably didn't come up among the select group on the board. Further, the PIO/magazine didn't tell anyone that synthetic turf versus natural sport turf management was open for discussion so that the money could be allocated to synthetic turf as quickly as possible and with little controversy.
5:44, hasn't the school district since the Muni/YSA field maintenance agreement fell apart contracted with an outside firm to maintain their grass fields?
I believe for less money than they were paying the municipality.
4:43, I don't know why they shot down Fraasch's Robb Hollow Plan. It added sports fields, a dog run, learning pavillion and walking trail and allowed them to unload McNeilly.
When you see a special folder "emails from kelly" and anonymous comments about "Queen Kelly" or "All Hail Kelly" or threats that Kelly and I will be sued, why do you think nothing was in the magazine, 5:44 PM?
Elaine
After "to market, to market"-gate, I read some work by Jennifer Seibel Trainor to try to understand what is going on here and I think the attacks on Kelly (and Elaine) are displacement.
From Trainor's work, I learned that there may be a process in our community in which attention to the larger problems are ignored while anger and anxiety such problems create is redirected toward familiar targets. The most common response to criticism/skepticism/challenges aimed toward the muni, the PIO, the school district is to emphatically urge a focus on the positive, often coupled with an assertion that some people complain or whine too much.
So from my observations, if someone continues to challenge the status quo, or a commissioner refuses to play along, s/he might expect to target, labeled, perhaps admonished, called names, or punished in some way or another. At the very least, one will receive the silent treatment and the "whiner" will be identified as being a member of a very small minority.
That is an interesting analysis, 10:59 PM. That may be part of it, but here is the thing. It has already been established that the role of the PIO is to focus only on the "good" news. There have been threats of litigation or "punished in some way or another" to not just Kelly and me personally, but Lebo Citizens readers, Blog Lebo, the PG, the Trib, In Community Magazine, former school board directors, former commissioners, and even staff members. I believe that is virtually everyone.
All this is coming from people who earn their livings on our dime. It is also coming from the "volunteers and their tireless efforts" on the school board, municipal boards, and a commissioner who receives a stipend for her efforts.
Elaine
Why is it OK for the PIO to write a critical satire of people-- their shopping habits, language, dress, weight, income in her (ours actually) little magazine, but saying anything critical of her writing or community magazine and the dogs are unleashed?
4:04, the PIO thinks that we're dog-dung under her solid gold shoes.
An attractive, informative and well-designed website could serve all of the community's needs while allowing residents to peruse it at their leisure.
Everything a resident would need---from contacts to forms to upcoming events would be within easy reach.
Post a Comment