According to Josephine, most of the Cabinet members have resigned

Wow! What a meeting! I was so pleased with the emphasis on education at last night's school board meeting, but then in a heartbeat, it went to hell. Except for Frioni and Diamond, Katie Caste threw the school board directors under the bus. According to Caste, the school board was responsible for all the decisions regarding the capital campaign. Nick Meduho was correct in stating that the Century of Excellence Capital Campaign is in violation of § 2-216 of the PA School Code. In October, Hugh Beal had said that the school board should take ownership of the capital campaign.

https://lebocitizens.blogspot.com/2017/10/who-is-in-charge-of-capital-campaign.html

Then Josephine Posti got up to say that most of the Capital Campaign Cabinet have resigned. In fact, the personnel report confirmed my suspicions that Sloane Astorino resigned. DID YOU READ THAT, MEDIA? Where the heck are you guys?

Posti was really fired up and started going after Hugh Beal's loan/donation, and demanded answers from Mike Riemer. WOW! There will be a discussion about the Capital Campaign at the March meeting.

Before all of this, a resident - I believe her name is Dr. Melanie Austin talked about banning the rifle team. She shared her credentials, and presented her data. Bill Cooper also agreed that they should have a discussion about the rifle team program. Dr. Austin stated that the shooter in Florida was also on the school rifle team. A rifle team student from McGuffey School District took a rifle and committed suicide. She also said that people are against the deer cull here because of the guns. Coincidently, I posted the results of the deer killing earlier today.

What a meeting! Nick would have made video clips for me. Sadly, that is no longer the case. Here is a link to the school board meeting video. The comments are toward the end of the meeting.

Illegal! Updated 8:14 PM

Just came back from Foster School. Here is what it looks like outside.

Do you see any candidates standing in the rain? I don't either. Katie Caste was inside, at the top of the steps, handing out CCRB literature. Now she is at the bottom of the steps.

Voters are walking in to the polls holding their fliers. No other candidates are there. Anywhere. No matter what you say, Katie, it's illegal. But she "can live with that." I bet she could. She's living with a lot of shit.

Hey Democrats - is the CCRB sign permitted on your board? I thought the bulletin boards were only for endorsed candidates. Remely and Caste are Republicans!

Hey Republicans - is the CCRB sign permitted on your board? I thought the bulletin boards were only for endorsed candidates. Birks and Cappucci are Democrats! Call it sour grapes, but when I ran for commissioner, I was not permitted to put my sign on your precious board and I am a registered Republican!

Update November 7, 2017 8:14 PM From Facebook:

Attn: Mt. Lebanon voters: A school board candidate on the yellow ticket* was denied putting her sign on the endorsed democratic slate board. Ten minutes later her campaign manager showed up, screaming at the poll worker and pinning her against the board so she couldn't back away. She called the police and reported his aggressive behavior. Police took a report and told him to back away. Turns out he’s the brother of the school board member. Vote for people who don't have so much to hide that they need thugs to intimidate poll workers.

 *CCRB This happened at Hoover this morning.

Add it up

The yard signs for November's election are starting to pop up. In my opinion, the school board race is the most critical.

 

Consider who is asking for more transparency in the Post-Gazette's Debate continues over Mt. Lebanon schools' capital campaign. Mike Riemer and Stephen Strotmeyer

Who have been to known to make personal attacks, roll their eyes, and be disrespectful toward their colleagues and inquiring residents? Birks, Cappucci, and Remely

Who is under investigation with the PA Ethics Commission? Birks

Who had to resign because of the nepotism policy and for the hiring of her son, a Mt. Lebanon School District teacher? Cappucci

Who is running to replace herself on the school board? Cappucci

Who hired Timmy? Cappucci and Remely

Who was part of the team that negotiated the current Act 93 agreement for our District administrators (Jan Klein)?  Cappucci

Who is a Century of Excellence Capital Campaign chair who originally claimed that $1.5 million were raised, but then back peddled when we learned that the campaign had more expenditures than revenue and pledges combined. Her bio now claims that "the Campaign has raised nearly $1 million." Caste

Which candidates are endorsed by their political committees? Riemer, Strotmeyer, Diamond

Which incumbents were excluded from the Timmy Ticket? Mike Riemer and Stephen Strotmeyer

Whose yard sign is going in my yard?

Look what I found in my mailbox from five years ago

Some things never change.

RE: Eblast 

From	Nancy Dapper ndapper@verizon.nethide details
To	egillen476 egillen476@aol.com, rkang174 rkang174@comcast.net, katiecaste katiecaste@yahoo.com,skccreations skccreations@aol.com, hunz176 hunz176@gmail.com, mkressler mkressler@verizon.net,turnpike73 turnpike73@gmail.com, johnstonhouse johnstonhouse@verizon.net,themaselkos themaselkos@gmail.com, kubits kubits@verizon.net, 4saxtons 4saxtons@comcast.net

Since I don't "do" blogs, I'd rather that you not post my reply. That would require me to start to follow and possibly respond to others. It just isn't something that I feel the need to do.

I removed the other folks because I don't think they would need or want to be bothered by this kind of dialog. I did include you since you had sent the original email.

-----Original Message-----
From: egillen476@aol.com [mailto:egillen476@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2012 1:11 AM
To: ndapper@verizon.net; rkang174@comcast.net; katiecaste@yahoo.com; skccreations@aol.com; hunz176@gmail.com; mkressler@verizon.net;turnpike73@gmail.com; johnstonhouse@verizon.net; themaselkos@gmail.com; kubits@verizon.net; 4saxtons@comcast.net
Cc: cmcdonough@mtlebanon.org
Subject: RE: Eblast

Nancy, I am not sure if I was to receive this since you had removed other email addresses from your reply. Of all the people I sent my letter to, your response was the only one I received personally.
Because you don't read my blog, I should tell you that Kim Ressler responded on my blog. Thank you for your response, Kim.

Do I have your permission to publish your response? If not, I do understand.

I copied Chief McDonough so that he is in the loop.

Elaine Gillen

-----Original Message-----
From: Nancy Dapper <ndapper@verizon.net>
To: egillen476 <egillen476@aol.com>; rkang174 <rkang174@comcast.net>; katiecaste <katiecaste@yahoo.com>; skccreations <skccreations@aol.com>;
hunz176 <hunz176@gmail.com>; mkressler <mkressler@verizon.net>;
turnpike73 <turnpike73@gmail.com>; johnstonhouse <johnstonhouse@verizon.net>; themaselkos <themaselkos@gmail.com>; kubits <kubits@verizon.net>; 4saxtons <4saxtons@comcast.net>
Sent: Mon, Apr 9, 2012 10:53 pm
Subject: RE: Eblast

I must be missing something. PTSA warns parents that they may get a ticket if they disobey the drop-off rules on Lebanon….and somehow that translates into an apology being owed to someone? All ML PTAs have a long history of notifying parents of unsafe drop-off / parking / driving situations around the schools. Telling people to observe the road signage rarely results in a widespread habit change ~ but telling them that a ticket might be forthcoming often does the trick. The mentioned eblast is no different than countless messages that have been sent to parents over the years at the various schools. I don’t read this blog so I don’t know the history of what these folks are complaining about. Seems like they have it in for Council PTA and PTSA for some reason. Thankfully that doesn’t affect our day to day operations. We will just keep doing the best that we can in our volunteer capacities and hope that the bloggers can manage to get past their grudge. From: egillen476@aol.com [mailto:egillen476@aol.com]
Sent: Monday, April 09, 2012 6:44 PM
To: rkang174@comcast.net; katiecaste@yahoo.com; skccreations@aol.com; hunz176@gmail.com; mkressler@verizon.net; turnpike73@gmail.com;johnstonhouse@verizon.net; themaselkos@gmail.com; kubits@verizon.net; 4saxtons@comcast.net; ndapper@verizon.net
Cc: TSteinhauer@mtlsd.net; bmcfeeley@mtlsd.net; schoolboard@mtlsd.net
Subject: Eblast
Dear Mt. Lebanon PTA Council and Mt. Lebanon High School PTSA,

I think you know how I feel by reading this.
http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=2395310382514169324&amp;postID=3683433117241749776&page=1&token=1334010818566
I believe the PTA owes an apology to the Mt. Lebanon Police Department and the rest of the community.

Elaine Gillen

Aaugh!!! UPDATED

I can't get on any sites for election results. I received a text that Bob Lee lost, but I haven't been able to confirm that.

I understand that Mary Birks is completely out. Mike Riemer finished first. So far, that's all I know.

Sorry that this post is in piecemeal.

Try this site for County results:
http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/PA/Allegheny/68994/Web02/#/

It looks like Cappucci won the 2 year term on the R ballot, and Riemer won the 2 year term on the D ballot.

Total votes (adding both R & D)

Cappucci 2194

Riemer 2642

Diamond 2270

Strotmeyer 2423

Caste 2038

Remely 1588

DePlato was only on the R ballot with 328 votes.

On the Dem ballot for 4 years: 

Riemer 

Diamond

Strotmeyer

Cappucci

On the Rep ballot for 4 years:

Caste

Cappucci

Remely

Riemer

Here are the updated unofficial results. The County has to certify the absentee ballots in the next week or so.

I do know that Mt. Lebanon voted yes for the commissioners to raise taxes. Shaking my head.

Update May 17, 2017 5:04 PM The Pennsylvania Ethics Commission received additional information concerning my complaint against Elaine Cappucci this morning at 10:41.

Anonymous letter from the inside

This is post #2,200!

I got an anonymous letter sent in a MTLSD envelope. Why do I get a sick feeling when I receive a thick envelope from them? It usually meant trouble- either for my kids or taxes (never got letters about either), but it still makes me nervous. Today's letter was about the Timmy Ticket.

Here is a copy of today's letter. 

A few things off the top of my head...

I see that I was not the only one who thought the 2015 Great Alumni Awards were shameful with Lebowitz and Posti being recipients. Shaking my head I was so happy to see that my former priest was recognized, but Lebo Larry and JoPo? OMG. And then Mary Birks was honored last year? Come on!

Also, why would these jerks expect a guy who had a kidney transplant to donate to the fund? Weren't there fundraisers held for him? Why would Timmy only donate $5,000 when he earns thousands, thanks to the Timmy Ticket? That was also mentioned in my link Shaking my head. 

Yeah, why weren't Riemer and Strotmeyer asked to be on their slate? The Timmy Ticket is not endorsed by either party and all have been shunned by their respective parties.

I have a feeling much more will be exposed before the May Primary. Why don't they just back out now and save themselves a lot of embarrassment?

What started out to be a post about the budget...

It all started with this article in the Post Gazette, Nice surprise: No tax increase in Mt. Lebanon after all. Thanks to some refinancing of bonds, and trouble in the world, taxpayers in Mt. Lebanon will not see a tax increase.

That’s because the district was the unexpected benefactor of a fortuitous dip in interest rates due to recent world events, such as the conflict in Afghanistan, tensions in North Korea and an upcoming election in France, according to the district’s financial adviser.

The article continues with

The board is expected to approve the final budget May 22. Until then, it will be available for public inspection online at www.mtlsd.org. (Go to http://www.mtlsd.org/page.cfm?p=1415 for the budget.)

And that is when my research took an ugly turn. Looking at the budget, I don't see anything about the Capital Campaign originally suggested by Pursuant Ketchum in 2013.

We are now in Year Four of the "Quiet Phase." The longest quiet phase E V E R 

District spokeswoman Cissy Bowman [What the hell does that woman actually do???] said the campaign remains in its “quiet phase,” with organizers planning “awareness events” for potential donors during the summer and into the next school year. 

That was two years ago. Still nothing. Nothing is in the budget. No totals are mentioned ANYWHERE. We have been given crumbs, like the current brochure and the webpage showing the Campaign Cabinet. OMG!   Look who is on the committee? Two members of the Timmy Ticket! Hey Ladies, how about coming clean with some amounts in the Capital Campaign, now known as the Century of Excellence Campaign? How about a spreadsheet showing what your expenses are and what you have taken in? This is starting to sound like Mary Birks being executive director of Outreach!

How about you, Jan Klein? What can you tell us about the Capital Campaign? Exactly how many more years will we be in the Quiet Phase? I guess Mark Cuban is finding better ways to invest his money on Shark Tank.

Yet, Lebo Larry is more offended by Dan Remely's comment. (See PG article above.) I never run out of things to blog about here. The Timmy ticket has really made a mess of things in Mt. Lebanon.

Yet another letter opposing the Timmy Ticket

Was: The nonsense is NOT stopping. Now: The Timmy Ticket UPDATED

Original publication date: 3/13/17 3:00 PM

Elaine Cappucci sure is a gutsy woman. Not only did Elaine file, but is running for both seats! Let me back up a minute. As it was explained to me last week, there is a two year term seat which is the remaining portion of Elaine's term. Then there are the usual four year seats that expire at the end of this year. I believe all are running for both seats. Word on the street is that the solicitor is wrong on this, but what do I know? If Elaine wins both seats, or any of school board candidates win both seats, then there will be an appointment or another special election. (It is not clear what will happen.)  Even with 111 mostly negative comments in my post, This nonsense has to stop!, Elaine is running in TWO elections.

I received another anonymous letter this morning. Again, I will permit anonymous comments to protect the individual(s) who sent this to me.

March 14, 2017 4:40 PM Another anonymous letter in today's mail. This time, the author claims to be a teacher.