Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Here is why we're spending $9000 UPDATED 2X

Our illustrious Public Information Office has published a list of FAQ (or the ones they want to answer) on the municipal website here. I now see why the commissioners are willing to shell out nine grand to Tony DeNicola to supervise the same archers kill deer on the same twelve private properties. That comes to $750 per property.

A few points to consider:

  • Are these properties really being donated? It has now gone to Commonwealth Court.
  • Twin Hills is NOT listed. Yay, Scott Township!
  • Archery season is not September 17 - January 28, 2017 as the PIO states. The PA Game Commission lists: DEER, ARCHERY (Antlered and Antlerless) WMUs 2B, 5C and 5D: Sept. 17- Nov. 26 and Dec. 26-Jan. 28, 2017. One antlerless deer with each required antlerless license. One antlered deer per hunting license year.  Don't you just love how the PIO makes things up?
  •  "All hunters in Mt. Lebanon’s program will carry identification." Just don't ask them for ID or you will be cited for harassment or interfering with a hunt. Just ask Amy Castor. 
Mt. Lebanon paid White Buffalo $9,000 to supervise the same archers on the same twelve properties (Again, that's $750 per property) for this reason only:
Property owners contacted White Buffalo directly and made donations based on a condition of confidentiality. Mt. Lebanon does not have a list of the properties. 
If the people receive any meat, then it isn't a donation, is it? Are these people really doing this out of the goodness of their hearts? Do you think they have an ulterior motive? Of course they do.

Update August 11, 2016 7:03 PM Contacting the commission is futile. I sent this email as a followup to my last email. What do I get back? Keith McGill's out of office email.

Update August 15, 2016 7:15 PM The municipal website has been corrected. I sent out yet another email, after hearing back from my commissioner. I guess Keith McGill came back from his vacation as I received this from him this morning. And yes, I thanked Keith.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here's the deal. The muni thinks it can absolve itself of responsibility and liability by claiming to know nothing about the archery fiasco. They are dumb enough to think so and turn a blind eye to the locations where lethal weapons will be let loose next month. If I were a commissioner, I would want to see a list of every property and review the background checks on each of the archers. Our commissioners don't give a hoot.
What we know with certainty is that the Mt. Lebanon Police Department will know all the killing locations. They spend their time eating donuts at the base of the tree stands.
Get your dates straight, Ms. Morgans. You make far too much money to publish so much misinformation.

Buddy

Anonymous said...

What I meant to say above is The All White Male Mt. Lebanon Police Department.

B.

Anonymous said...

Keith McGill is the manager of Mt. Lebanon. Isn't it his duty as a manager to know what is happening in this community by "not" turning a blind eye? If I were a betting man, I would bet that Mr. McGill knows a lot more than what he wants us to think he knows. I'm sure Chief Lauth knows a lot more too.

Nick M.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps, Nick. Keith may be in on it. He probably is. The commissioners do not care to know anything. And yes, the cops are in on it. Is anyone among them running background checks on the archers? Same question, different year.

B.

Lebo Citizens said...

My attorneys were appalled that the identities of the archers were not disclosed for that very reason. Mt. Lebanon resident, Judge O'Brien wasn't concerned about background checks. After all, they WERE donating their time. And because they were donating their time, they could remain anonymous.

Remember the Virginia Manor yard sign which was welcoming hunters and hot coffee was inside? Their back neighbor was another Court of Common Pleas judge. Through a RTK, there was a letter from the judge's wife wanting deer killed.
Elaine

RG said...

"After all, they WERE donating their time. And because they were donating their time, they could remain anonymous."

Good grief! This doesn't even come close to making sense! If the judge had said that disclosing the names of the archers would put them at risk it would have been a logical, although not necessarily a true, statement, given the fact that there are two contesting opinions about the efficacy, not to mention the morality, of a deer cull in Mt. Lebanon. But to say that anonymity if a function of time donation is to force a connection between two entirely unrelated things!

Gee; maybe if I volunteer my time to a local animal shelter I could disappear!

Unknown said...

Don't all donations to governmental agencies need to be public? Doesn't the claim that they are donors make it even more important that we know who they are? (so, for example, we know there isn't tit-for-tat quid pro quo favoritism--for example, donate your land, get a government contract, etc.)?

Anonymous said...

Right on point, RG. Thank you.

B.

Anonymous said...

Regarding your update Elaine, unless Mr. McGill is out of the country, which I doubt, I don't understand how he has "limited access to email" when the taxpayers are paying for his data plan on his taxpayer funded cell phone.

Nick M.

Anonymous said...

So what objective legal body is in charge of verifying that these 12 resident yard hunting cooperatives are in compliance with PA's bow-hunting 50 yard safety zone regulations, and have they been verified? The Mt. Lebanon Commissioners and Manager claim total ignorance, and don't want to know anything about the hunting zone cooperatives that they paid DeNicola with taxpayers money to set up. The police claim ignorance, and don't want to know where lethal weapons are being used in the community. Plus, the police are part of the bow-hunting program on public property and in the parks - obviously a conflict of interest. I don't believe that the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) has made any public statement on compliance. The PGC has a conflict of interest to, i.e. they promote hunting in the suburbs for their hunter constituents. Are we to trust DeNicola to verify this compliance since this is his ingenious program to make hunting a permanent fixture in Mt. Lebanon that no one can stop? There seems to be a total collusion of intentional ignorance so that everyone can deny responsibility and liability when an accident happens. So who is the objective legal body that has verified that all of these 12 resident yard hunting cooperatives are in compliance with PA's bow-hunting 50 yard safety zone regulations? Who can residents call to investigate concerns or to enforce the law for protection if the commission, the police dept., and the PGC all have a conflict of interest. If residents even ask a stranger with lethal weapons for identification they get arrested and are made an example of by the local judge who also seems to be part of Mt. Lebanon's collusion to shut down first amendment rights and penalize residents for expressing concerns. BTW, I have little doubt that these confidential yard hunting cooperatives will continue to expand through this program and throughout Mt. Lebanon. I must be missing something, because this seems absolutely crazy.

Lebo Citizens said...

I think more people are starting to relate to "donation" issue. Here is Judge O'Brien's ruling on May 23, 2016 concerning donations.

Judge O'Brien stated that the archers were donating their archery skills, to a program that the "people's representatives in Mt. Lebanon deemed beneficial to its residents and those who use its roads." I still don't understand how killing deer at the golf course, Robb Hollow Park, McNeilly Park, etc., is beneficial to those who our roads. Not a lot of deer/golf cart collisions that I am aware of.

This is where my attorneys filed a motion for reconsideration, arguing that the residents were never donors - never gifting their properties, just granting temporary access to their properties and benefitting from less vegetation being eaten, less animal feces, and even receiving the meat, if they wanted any.

So now it is going to a higher court, Commonwealth Court. All this expense [on both sides] to protect 12 private properties.
Elaine

Lebo Citizens said...

*All this expense [MTL's $9000 to DeNicola and my legal costs.]
Elaine