Deer and the Courts Update

A court ordered appearance before Judge McCarthy was to take place on July 26, 2016 between Scott Township and the Municipality of Mt. Lebanon regarding killing deer in Twin Hills Park located in Scott Township. The docket is available here. Anyone know the results of that conference?

My attorneys have appealed Court of Common Pleas Judge Terrence O'Brien's decision concerning donation exemptions. It is now in Commonwealth Court. Don't worry, Taxpayers. This isn't costing Mt. Lebanon taxpayers (including Judge O'Brien) anything additionally, thanks to the sweet deal Mt. Lebanon has with Buchanan Ingersoll. MTL can take anyone to court (or be taken to court) and it doesn't cost taxpayers a dime extra. Scott Township residents aren't so lucky. Neither are those who are granted TWO Final Determinations by the PA Office of Open Records of whom Judge O'Brien disagreed.

My gofundme is still active. See side bar for the link or click here. I have made Not In My Yard key fobs this year to match the yard signs which are still available. A $10 donation will get you both a yard sign and a key fob. What a deal! You would have to buy 104 yard signs and 104 key fobs to equal what taxpayers are spending just to register Susan Morgans for the NYC trade show!

Archery starts up again next month.  It sure came up quickly, didn't it? In Mt. Lebanon, we kill (or try to kill) deer more often than not.

MTL is failing again with the Office of Open Records

The Municipality of Mt. Lebanon lost, at the minimum, a third Final Determination by the PA Office of Open Records. See http://www.openrecords.pa.gov/Documents/FinalDet/22979.pdf  Mt. Lebanon is pulling the same crap as they did with me.

• Mt. Lebanon invoked a 30 day extension to respond to the Request, but failed to do so in 30 days. At that point, the Request was deemed denied.
• On the 33rd day, MTL claimed that the records were confidential AND argued that the request was "overly broad."
• The Requestor appealed to the OOR, challenging the denial. A week later, both parties submitted position statements, as in both of my appeals.
• The Requestor only asked for electronic records, nothing scanned or printed. Mt. Lebanon admitted that there were some electronic records, but then goes on to say that the Requestor was modifying the request, which is not permitted. They pulled the same crap with me. In all three cases, the requests were not modified on appeal.
• MTL argues that there was too much information to email. MTL is permitted to put all the information on a CD or a flash drive and charge the Requestor the actual cost of the media.

Mt. Lebanon has thirty days to comply or go the same route as they chose with me TWICE, and appeal to the Court of Common Pleas. As noted by Commissioner Steve Silverman, appealing to a higher court is free to taxpayers according to the contract with Buchanan Ingersoll. The only cost for transparency is with the Requestor.

I know that Rep. Dan Miller is personally inviting our five commissioners to his Office of Open Records seminar on September 15. Thank you, Dan!