Susan Morgans and John Hayes, you disgust me.

Susan Morgans and John Hayes, you disgust me. In your article, New regulation expands the role of ‘public’ hunting for suburban deer 

Municipal spokeswoman Susan Morgans said the community kerfuffle has calmed since the deer-reduction policy was enacted, and deer numbers seem to be dropping in parts of Mt. Lebanon. There have been no hunting-related shooting incidents related to the program, she said.

"Community kerfuffle," Susan? You beat us into submission. We have given up. We filed Right To Knows. You cited us. You took us to court. We have shared photographs of hunting-related incidents. We have had protests. We were harassed for walking through parks. We have gone to court. We tried to use facts. We tried to be logical. We feared for our lives and you call it kerfuffle? Despicable.

John Hayes, you call yourself "Outdoors Editor." Please. Why don't you just admit that you are the mouthpiece for the PA Game Commission? You write:

The municipality won a court challenge that attempted to force its commissioners and controlled-hunt organizer to reveal the names of participating hunters and property owners.

For your information, what I was challenging was the right to know WHERE lethal weapons were being discharged, so that people like me with PTSD, could avoid those areas. But evidently, $7,000 later, we don't have that right. Parks remain open during hunting season as well as culling . And now, as you so gleefully like to bring up Mt. Lebanon every chance you can, the public will be shooting in our parks. Thanks, John. You are a real piece of work.

MTLSD appeals PA Office of Open Records' Final Determination

On April 17, 2018, Josephine Posti submitted a Right To Know to the school district, asking for "all electronic communications, including text messages, between and among school directors between December 2017 and March 2018 regarding support for or against the District's capital campaign or its rebranded effort titled "Lebo Gives."

The District partially denied Josephine Posti's request, so Josephine appealed to the PA Office of Open Records.

On August 24, 2018, the OOR issued a Final Determination. Posti's appeal was denied in part and granted in part.

MTLSD wants the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas to reverse the OOR Final Determination for the following reason:

Electronic communications sent among less than a quorum of the District's school board members on their personal devices and accounts are not records of the District.

I wish I could download the document. Here is the link to the petition.
https://dcr.alleghenycounty.us/Civil/CaseSearchByCaseNumber.aspx?CasID=SA-18-000773

Coup de grace UPDATED

I am so discouraged with the system. Things are so unfair here in Mt. Lebanon.

• The PA Office of Open Records ruled in my favor. No land was donated to kill deer. Property owners only granted access for deer to be killed. Mt. Lebanon appealed and won. Twice. PA Supreme Court would not hear it.

• A local magistrate threw the book at a visitor from Boston when she came across a hunter who had just killed deer in an area which had no warning signs posted. When the case was appealed in Common Pleas Court, the judge called the case, "A tempest in a teapot."

• A school board director had to resign from office because her son was interviewing for a teaching position and ultimately got the job. The job posting was altered nine months after he was hired. She ran again and is back on the school board. Yep, no conflict there. It also helped that she made a sizable donation to the capital campaign. Covering all her bases, she pushed for an early contract amendment for the Superintendent, that resulted in a pecuniary gain of roughly $50,000 over three years. I filed a complaint with the PA Ethics Commission, but they dismissed it.

• A man is out until 4 AM and gets cited for public drunkenness and similar misconduct, runs for commissioner, beats out a fire fighter, has his hearing delayed to two days after the election, and then gets his case dismissed. He also had other cases dismissed by his next door neighbor, the magistrate. (See above.)

And the final blow?

A year ago, I filed a complaint with the PA Ethics Commission against Mary D. Birks. I felt that it was a conflict of interest with Mary D. Birks serving as president of the Mt. Lebanon School Board while being the executive director of Outreach Teen and Family Services. She represented Outreach and the School District and never recused herself from any votes whenever the District contracted with Outreach. Mary Birks used her position to speak with PTA. She had a close relationship with the magistrate (see above) who referred defendants to Outreach. He also officiated at her daughter's wedding in Lake Tahoe.

Complaints filed with PA Ethics Commission against Birks and Cappucci

The PA Ethics Commission recently issued an order concerning my complaint. Finding: "De minimis economic impact." I haven't gotten a copy of the final order, but Mary Birks spoke at the school board meeting tonight and talked about the complaint.

Personally, I will never forgive that woman. After how she treated Nick Meduho at the October 17, 2017 school board meeting, Nick was really upset. His sister told me that she had seen him the next day and knew something was bothering him, but Nick didn't say anything to his sister. It wasn't until after he died, did Nick's family have any idea as to what was going on. With a heavy heart Nick was asking about the capital campaign.  Watching that segment of the video, Nick was trying to find out about taxpayer money being paid back to the general fund. Based on Mary's terse response, the money in the general fund is there to be used by the District. It has been out of the general fund for five years. Kiss that $910,930.02 goodbye.

There is no justice in this world. However, Mary did admit guilt. I know that the Democratic and Republican Committees want nothing to do with her. She lost the election big time. Mark Hart had gotten in trouble for not filing Statement of Financial Interests. Because he won the presidency over Josephine Posti, a scathing report was in the Posti Gazette. Former Mt. Lebanon school director cited in audit In this case, Mary Birks admitted to voting on Outreach contracts while on the school board. She admitted guilt. Let's see how this is covered up by the media since she is best buds with Josephine Posti.You won't hear much from the Posti Gazette. It was certainly downplayed by anonymous commenters in my post from June 20, 2017. Yesssss!

Update May 15, 2018 1:24 PM To hear Mary Birks' rant, go to the timestamp 01:59:05 of the May 14, 2018 school board meeting. She doesn't get it. Her behavior over the years, caused her to lose the election. Back when I attended school board meetings, Mary would make snide remarks during my comments. She would roll her eyes when residents would speak. Her attitude as school board president, particularly to anyone who questioned her, was dreadful. To put it simply, she was a bitch. She was power hungry and it went to her head. She didn't lose the election because of my complaint or because of any board member. She lost it all on her own.

Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight

An earlier comment suggested I contact the ACLU concerning my Commonwealth Court affirmation.

If you are still interested in pursuing this case, I would suggest that you give Vic Walczak, the legal director of PA's ACLU, a call. I think he lives in Upper St. Clair, and see if he would be willing to take this case to the Pa Supreme Court. 

Thanks for all of your efforts to identify these hunting and shooting locations so that residents can warn their children to stay out of harms way, and try to protect the safety of their family and pets.

December 12, 2016 at 11:10 PM

I contacted the ACLU and received this reply:

From: Info <Info@aclupa.org>
To: egillen476 <egillen476@aol.com>
Sent: Wed, Dec 14, 2016 8:59 am

 Thank you for contacting the ACLU with your question.  Unfortunately, the ACLU does not currently have a confidential system by which to process email complaints, or the resources to answer general questions about the law. 

 

The ACLU is a privately funded organization relying heavily on the services of volunteer attorneys.  We seek to preserve and extend certain constitutional principles, most of which are found in the Bill of Rights.  We are not a general provider of legal services.

 

We generally take only those cases in which the facts are not in substantial dispute and, more importantly, in which there is a significant civil liberties issue.  We give priority to cases where our participation can benefit a large class of people or lead to a positive change in the law.  Scarce resources are an unfortunate constraint, preventing us from taking many meritorious civil liberties cases.  As a result, we must be very selective in choosing which issues to address.

 

To obtain an answer to your question or other legal advice, we advise you to contact a private attorney or other legal services provider.   If you believe that your rights have been violated, you can complete and submit an online complaint form on our website at http://www.aclupa.org/our-work/legal/fileacomplaint/electronic-complaint-form , or you may fill out and mail in a general complaint form, which is available athttp://www.aclupa.org/downloads/intakequestionnaire.pdf More information about the types of cases we take is available at http://www.aclupa.org/legal/fileacomplaint.htm.

 

 

Info

ACLU of Pennsylvania

PO Box 60173

Philadelphia, Pa 19102

p: 215-592-1513

www.aclupa.org

Taking this case to the State Supreme Court is very expensive. I still haven't recovered from the first round at the Court of Common Pleas, thanks to our commissioners who appealed the PA Office of Open Records Final Determinations. My gofundme was helpful (thanks again to all who contributed) but left me with quite a legal bill. Unless Santa leaves me a check under the tree, I don't see how I can continue to pursue this. We don't have the right to know where or when arrows are flying or bullets are discharged in our densely populated community. I'm arranging a bus trip to Rolliers to meet with John in the paint department, so that he may advise us on soothing colors to paint our basements.*

Thanks, Kristen Linfante, for the sage advice.

*In case there are readers who do not recognize sarcasm, there is no bus trip to Rolliers.

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.

A little bird told me...

that Mt. Lebanon plans to appeal if I win on April 11, which means that they are taking it to Commonwealth Court!

Mr. Steve "It is free" Silverman thinks that this litigation is not costing Mt. Lebanon taxpayers any additional money, but wait till the retainer fee goes up next year with how they are keeping our solicitor busy this year.

I guess my gofund me will be staying up longer than I expected. Mt. Lebanon sure is sticking it to me.

Legal Notice

Legal Notices
MT. LEBANON,
PENNSYLVANIA
LEGAL NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE is hereby given that Mt. Lebanon, PA will present a
Petition to Approve Tax Levy Pursuant to 16 P.S. § 4980.2 (the
anti-windfall law) to the Court of Common Pleas in open session. The
Petition is filed at GD11-26432, and requests approval of a real estate
tax levy over 105%. It will be presented before the Honorable W.
Terrence O'Brien in Room 705, City-County Building, 414 Grant Street,
Pittsburgh, Pa on December 29, 2011 at 1:30 PM.
MT. LEBANON, PA
Stephen Feller
Manager

Update 01/03/12 Mt. Lebanon, Thornburg get exemption to limit on increase in revenues