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Mt. Lebanon School District Facebook feed

The Jefferson Elementary School hillside on Bower Hill Road is temporarily closed due to unstable soil conditions as a result of the recent rainfall. We ask that you please do not sit on the hillside to watch the 4th of July fireworks. The MTLSD Facilities Department is working to stabilize the hill. Thank You!

South Fayette still ranked #1

The Pittsburgh Business Times' annual Honor Roll ranking is here, with data based on three years of performance on state standardized test scores.

Begor, Grogan, and MTLSD case continues

Begor's Defense

Grogan and MTLSD Defense

Lawsuit information is available in an earlier Lebo Citizens post.

Moody's assigns Aa1 to Mount Lebanon SD, PA's $51.8M 2015 GO bonds

Rating Action:
Moody's assigns Aa1 to Mount Lebanon SD, PA's $51.8M 2015 GO bonds

Global Credit Research - 08 Oct 2015

Rating applies to $92.4M in rated debt, post-sale


New York, October 08, 2015 --


Moody's Rating

Issue: General Obligation Bonds, Series of 2015; Rating: Aa1; Sale Amount: $51,815,000; Expected Sale Date: 10-19-2015; Rating Description: General Obligation

Opinion

Moody's Investors Service has assigned a Aa1 rating to the Mount Lebanon School District, PA's $51.8 million General Obligation Bonds, Series of 2015. Concurrently, Moody's has affirmed the Aa1 on the district's $92.4 million in outstanding general obligation debt.

SUMMARY RATING RATIONALE

The Aa1 rating reflects the district's strong finances and large tax base. The rating also incorporates the district's above-average socioeconomic profile.

OUTLOOK

Outlooks are usually not assigned to local government credits with this amount of debt outstanding.

WHAT COULD MAKE THE RATING GO UP

- Positive financial operations leading to stronger General Fund reserves

- Substantial growth in the district's tax base and socioeconomic indicators

WHAT COULD MAKE THE RATING GO DOWN

- Material deterioration of the tax base and socioeconomic indices

- Structural imbalance leading to decreases in reserves and liquidity

OBLIGOR PROFILE

The K-12 school district is located 5.9 miles south of Pittsburgh. The district serves 5,305 students.

Waiting For This

A Lebo Citizens reader shared some news that we have all been waiting for.

2013 SAT Scores for Public Schools

I’ve been "waiting" for MTLSD to release the SAT scores for 2013. Other districts reported these via press releases a month ago. I was able to locate them on my own.

Maybe the scores were not reported because 1) MTLSH was 14th in the state and 2) they were the lowest average SAT scores since the 3 part test began to be administered in 2006, 8 years ago. They may be the lowest scores ever but I didn’t go back beyond 2006 in this summary. This doesn’t look like a promising direction for SAT scores… which of all the countless tests that are administered to students, these actually carry some weight.

Here are the averages:

2013	2012	2011	2010	2009	2008	2007	2006
1684	1695	1737	1690	1714	1707	1703	1741

The School Board/Superintendent will claim the reduction from 2012 is only 0.65%, a statistically insignificant number. They cannot wiggle out of the reduction from 2006 being 3.3%, which is significant, particularly over a time period where the average cost per student increased by approximately $1,000/student  $2,170 or 19.9%.

Is it time to consider redistricting?

In today's Post Gazette article Allegheny County school districts resize, close schools as population shifts, there is a comparison of Allegheny County K-12 schools enrollment, 2004 vs. 2013. Scroll down to the Mt. Lebanon Schools, and then scroll across to see the population shifts. Just an observation, and I may be completely wrong, but it appears that the elementary schools with increased enrollment are in areas with more apartment buildings.

Even districts with stable or growing enrollments aren’t exempt from enrollment pressures.
North Allegheny — which had similar enrollments in fall 2004 and fall 2013 — considered but decided against closing Peebles Elementary.
North Allegheny, did, however, redistrict 151 elementary and middle school students to better balance enrollment.
North Allegheny superintendent Raymond Gualtieri said redistricting takes place about every seven years to adjust to changing enrollment patterns.
“We have [housing] developments that had a lot of kids at every bus stop 15 years ago and now there are not as many kids at the bus stops. All of those families had kids go through the system. They haven’t sold their house yet,” he said.
“In other areas, we have new developments going in and there are three tricycles in every driveway.”
The county’s fastest growing district, South Fayette, grew 45 percent since 2004. It still has a lot of undeveloped land, and growth is expected to continue, said Brian Tony, director of finance.
South Fayette didn’t have a neighborhood school tradition. Its four buildings — elementary, intermediate, middle and high schools — are on one campus that used to be farmland.
South Fayette is looking at renovating its high school, built in 2002, because it may not be large enough by 2016.
Superintendent Billie Rondinelli said, “I believe that parents are coming here because they want the quality of education we are providing for the students.”
South Fayette’s new intermediate building opened last fall. Both of the other growing districts also have added buildings, Avonworth’s new Primary Center opened last week, and Pine-Richland added Eden Hall Upper Elementary School in 2008.

Mt. Lebanon did move up from #6 to #3 in total enrollment, even though Lebo's total enrollment has declined since 2004.  Yet, the board and the commission spend more and more money to attract young families. MTL's reputation for excellent schools just doesn't trump lower taxes or new housing stock on larger lots. Note: Artificial turf doesn't appear to be a draw for young families. Neither does a multi-million dollar high school renovation.

Lebo needs to demonstrate fiscal responsibility

Mt. Lebanon resident and Lebo Citizens reader, Bill Matthews submitted a letter to the editor of The Almanac. Here is the link to his letter. The letter is published below in its entirety.

Lebo needs to demonstrate fiscal responsibility

Mt. Lebanon School District is embarking on the second bond issue for our high school renovation. As currently planned, the financing will cost more than it should for three reasons: 1: The renovation is too big and expensive. 2: The financing plan is to �wrap� the bonds. 3: The plan includes capitalizing interest in the early years.

It will not change anything now to discuss the size and scope of the project; but we should never lose sight of the fact that our board, when they thought there was room in the budget, added amenities not recommended in the space plan prepared by our former superintendent, yet did not delete these upgrades when the initial building bids burst our bubble.

One could see the proposed bond wrapping coming years ago. Nevertheless, its primary purpose is not to soften the millage impact as alluded to by the board. The bonds are being phased in to provide for actual future millage increases up to Act 1 limitations. Between the demands of this financing, and normal operations, we can anticipate experiencing maximum allowable millage increases for the next few years.

The capitalized interest is, however, an opportunity to demonstrate some respect for Mt. Lebanon residents and taxpayers. The plan includes about two million dollars in borrowed money to fill out the interest expense in 2014, 2015 and 2016. The administration has acknowledged it has three million dollars that could be used to reduce the total borrowing, to which the board turned a deaf ear.

Here is a suggestion, in lieu of hoarding these funds the board could demonstrate some fiscal responsibility by at least paying the interest expense with the available reserves. Effectively, it would do two things: lower the overall cost of the borrowing and consequently, lower our go forward tax burden.

Our school board will be discussing the bond issue on Aug. 12, and possibly give direction to our financial advisor to sell the bonds; taxpayers with similar concerns or even better ideas should contact the board, maybe they will listen.


Bill Matthews
Mt. Lebanon

Gotta love 'em UPDATED 2X

There is a new rule on assessment appeals, in case you haven't heard.

The rules -- passed last month by the Board of Property Assessment, Appeals and Review -- allow only lawyers to charge a fee to appear at an assessment challenge, arguing they can be held more accountable than the average schmo off the street http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/reassessment/new-rule-on-assessment-appeals-drawing-criticism-on-allegheny-county-council-681744/#ixzz2PJXxM7VZ

What makes this even more interesting is that the District hired Dominick Gambino to represent them in assessment appeals. According to his bio listed on The Law Office of Ira Weiss website,

Mr. Gambino is a Certified PA Evaluator and the founder/owner of “Diversified Municipal Services, Inc.” – a firm providing a variety of services and products related to local taxation and property assessment. He also served as Manager of the Office of Property Assessments in Allegheny County from 2001 – 2003. In 2002, his department conducted its first in-house computer assisted mass appraisal; and, the following year, his office facilitated the conversion of 1.8 billion bits of property data to the county’s present system. Under his guidance, Allegheny County’s real estate Web site was enhanced to include an interactive GIS mapping system and a sophisticated search engine allowing the complex queries of assessment data. During his time at the county, over 100,000 assessment appeals were completed. Mr. Gambino also prepared special reports and audits for the Allegheny County Controller’s Office. Over the years, he’s served in several elected positions including local councilman and tax collector; he’s also held a variety of local and state-wide board positions.

I don't see that Gambino is an attorney, do you? The PG article continues with:

He's also challenging a rule allowing school districts and other taxing bodies to cut deals with property owners outside the hearing, which he believes gives an unfair advantage to local governments.

What was that? School districts cutting deals with property owners? Is that why we have some underassessed properties on Standish, Vernon and Arden, for instance?

Update April 2, 2013 3:01 PM I got a response from President Cappucci concerning the fourteen questions I emailed the board.  Here is her response.

Mrs. Gillen,

Most of the questions you have asked have been answered during previous meetings and Board discussions.  All of our past and current budget information is on the District's website.  You can also attend or watch tonight's budget discussion for further information.

For the Board,

Elaine Cappucci
President, Mt. Lebanon School Board
ecappucci@mtlsd.net

My response at 3:05 PM

Elaine,

You know that isn't true.  The list is below. I asked fourteen questions that I have not been able to get answers. Please answer my questions.

Elaine

April 3, 2013 8:30 AM   Allegheny County Council on Tuesday vetoed a proposed rule change in the way property owners are represented during assessment appeals.

Council voted 12-1 — with Councilwoman Heather Heidelbaugh, R-Mt. Lebanon, against — to scrap a plan from the Board of Property Assessment and Review that would have required property owners who hire someone to appeal their assessments to use an attorney.

Read more: http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/3770106-74/council-property-assessment?showmobile=false#ixzz2PP3MnaHj

The Annual Budget Ritual

The following letter is from Mt. Lebanon resident, Bill Matthews.

Letter to the Editor

The annual budget ritual on Horsman Drive is underway. As the Board and
Administration have done for the last few years, they will likely refuse to acknowledge and address the realities of our Community.

They will grimace ... They will offer up quarters like they are manhole covers ... They will lob grenades at “other” public officials ... They will diss those whom they feel are questioning their nobility.

I will be the first to admit we cannot save our way to prosperity. But spending our way to oblivion is no more of an acceptable proposition. The District’s budgets and forecasts (available on its website) project our “per pupil cost” will have doubled by school year 2017-2018, since 2001-2002.

This increasing encumbrance on the Community is simply not sustainable. The long term trajectories of “per pupil cost” and “earned income revenue” are clearly divergent, with the former far outpacing the latter.

Per pupil costs will have grown 4.59% per year.

Earned income revenue 2.74% per year.

Earned income while growing the least; is hardly the least important metric of our economic wherewithal. Earned income revenue is, in my opinion, a good proxy for the buying power of MTL taxpayers, yet it still does not tell the whole story. It is an average, which means by definition, not all families may have experienced even this modest growth. Many of our residents have no earned income to start. And, many are still recovering from double-digit setbacks in savings and investments.

The Board needs to get serious about cost reduction and stop dreaming about revenue enhancement. We are accountable for our own fortune. Immediately, we should chart a course where the average growth in total expenditures is less than the projected increase in earned income!

Yes, this may sound hard to some … but in the real world … leaders do what cannot be done … all the time.

Police to start walking through Lebo schools UPDATED

Mt. Lebanon police officers will begin unannounced, random walk-throughs of schools in the Mt. Lebanon School District, the superintendent told parents in an email Wednesday.

The uniformed officers will be on normal patrol, so the service will not cost the district anything extra, district spokeswoman Cissy Bowman said.

"We are very fortunate to have a positive working partnership with the Mt. Lebanon Police Department and look forward to this increased presence in our schools," superintendent Timothy Steinhauer said.

The walk-throughs come as part of a district-wide review of safety and security procedures, he said.

"As always, our priority is to maintain a safe school environment for our students and staff," Mr. Steinhauer said.

Following the Newtown, Conn. shootings in mid-December, the superintendent immediately launched a review of the district's safety and security procedures, processes and training, Ms. Bowman said.

The committee conducting the review will meet at the end of the month to decide if any other changes are necessary, she said.

Police to begin unannounced, random walk-throughs of Mt. Lebanon schools

Update January 17, 2013 9:15 AM Dr. Steinhauer's email to parents

Are you in the 7%?

The School District website has released the SPECIAL STUDY AND REPORT ON THE FUNDRAISING POTENTIAL OF MT. LEBANON SCHOOL DISTRICT With twenty hours remaining to vote on poll, fifty one votes have been cast. So far, there are four individuals (7%) who are willing to donate.

In concert with creating communications materials that explain the strategic vision, the School District must heighten the community’s awareness of the importance of philanthropy, now and in the future. An integrated and multifaceted Awareness and Cultivation Program should be planned and implemented as an integral part of pre- campaign activities and procedures.

To initiate a Targeted Awareness-Building and Cultivation Program, I am asking those four individuals to send an email to schoolboard@mtlsd.net explaining that you were in the 7% of the Lebo Citizens poll and would like to donate. Thank you so much for understanding the importance of philanthropy. With your help, it could mean only $18 a month for me. If those 7% do come forward, I just identified four donors for free. That is my donation - that and heightening the community's awareness.

To read more about this in the School Board President Reports, don't go here.  Go here.  Or here.

School Board is apparently filing criminal charges against me

I found out that the school board is filing charges against me. I had approved an anonymous comment about the Joint Maintenance Agreement yesterday. The copy of the JMA that Steve Feller has is not a fully executed document. Unfortunately, I only skimmed the comments yesterday and didn't catch that the commenter suggested that those four commissioners who approved the JMA and the SB should be executed. Tonight (technically it was yesterday) after the Commission meeting, I was outside the municipal building talking with Kelly Fraasch. She mentioned that my blog was brought up today. She told me about the post which I totally missed. Dave Brumfield was outside also and Kelly asked him which thread had the comment. The three of us looked through my published comments and found the comment. I was shocked and immediately deleted it in front of them. It was a crazy day and I didn't read every comment carefully before approving them. When I got home from the meeting, there was a very important voice mail where I was told that Mt. Lebanon School District is filing criminal charges against me. The police are investigating. Also, the police were inquiring as to whether the commissioners would want to join in on the complaint.  Fortunately, I deleted the comment in front of two of the commissioners.

"A gift to this District"

The YSA is the School District's best friend, according to last night's meeting. The YSA volunteers to maintain our fields. They don't have to do it. Anything the YSA contributes is a gift to this District. According to Dr. Steinhauer, YSA has paid $328,000 in support of fields.

There was a comprehensive Recreation, Park, and Open Space Plan done in 2002 by Pashek Associates. It is a very large document, over 149 MB, but can be viewed here on the Municipal website. To save time, consider Pashek pages 2-4 & 2-5 particularly, and all 8 "highlights" particularly items 6 and 7.  They can be viewed here. The YSA contributions are not a gift to the District. They are responsible for daily preparation for its own use of the fields including dragging, brooming and lining of the fields.

This brings us to the Joint Maintenance Agreement. We have yet another story about YSA's payments. They are NOT up to date on their payments. According to Dr. Steinhauer, the YSA has made their $30,000 payment for the 2010-2011 school year, but the 2011-2012 payment will be changed to $23,000 since Article 4 in the Joint Maintenance Agreement Extension states:

4. The total cost for each year of this agreement shall be paid by the District in monthly installments. The monthly payments by the District to the Municipality shall be $6,941.66 ($83,300/ 12), payable on or before the 256’ day of each month. The agreement will be amended and price cost renegotiated should there be a reduction in total fields being maintained or alteration ofthe playing surface.

The School District has been in negotiations with YSA, and have decided to lower their $30,000 per year commitment to $23,000 due to any inconvenience as a result of the high school renovation and the reduction of fields.  Furthermore, the School District is considering a six month extension contract which would align more with the YSA's collection of dues. According to Dr. Steinhauer, the YSA contribution will be reduced to $10,000 or $11,000 for the six month extension. Dr. Steinhauer stated that the Municipality is reducing the School District's JMA responsibility to $35,700. I have not been able to verify this with the Municipality. Here is the audio clip of the JMA portion of last night's meeting.

Here we go again with School District Assessment Appeals UPDATED

At the last Municipal Discussion Session, Dave Brumfield brought up school district assessment appeals. You may recall that Dave thought it would be a good idea to share the expense of appeals with the school district. This was when he was under the impression that the school district would be going after both underassessed and overassessed homes. Josephine Posti denied that she ever said anything about underassessed homes. Well, Josephine brought up appeals with Dave again. The most recent agenda shows that school district assessment appeals may be a topic for this Tuesday's Discussion Session. http://mtlebanon.org/archives/35/Discussion%20Session%2007-23-12.pdf  Dave had mentioned at the last meeting how he THOUGHT he understood the school district's plan to be going after underassessed homes next year, but now he is not so sure. Posti claims that they were never planning to go after underassessed homes. Interestingly enough, this letter went out to some of the commissioners today, which I was cc'ed, and ties in with the whole assessment topic.  Even though it was signed, he would rather not have his name published on Lebo Citizens. I am reprinting it with his permission. Here it is:

In today's Almanac in the deed transfers it shows Joe D's property recently transferred at $650,000. Though that conflicts with the sale price reported on the county site of the sale dated 6/18/2012 at $550,000. Don't misunderstand I'm not singling out Joe because I have a vendetta against him, today's paper only brought the assessment fiasco to mind and his property is a good example. It also appears to support James [Fraasch]and Tom Moertel's conclusions.

The 2013 assessed value on Joe's property is $345,000! Since the sale took place in 2012 and his 2012 assessed value is $187,000 the inequity of the system looks even worse. The difference being $463,000 (or $363,000 if the real sale was $550,000). Still the average home value is around $245,000!

So let's look at this another relative way. What does Joe's property have to do with me or any other homeowner. If the deed transfer is accurately reported in the almanac, if Joe's place were assessed at it's "fair market value" and isn't that what the reassessment is suppose to reflect, the $650,000 deed transfer IS the "fair market value." It is what a buyer is willing to pay and what the seller is willing to accept.

That means there is $305,000 of taxable value the school district and municipality is missing out on IN 2013 AND EVERY YEAR UNTIL NEW ASSESSMENTS. With a 27.13 SD millage rate that's approximately $8,300 in actual uncollected taxes each year from just ONE property. Looks like the muni misses out on approximately $1,600/yr due to underassessment. 53 homeowners wouldn't have to chip in $30/yr for Kelly's rec plan from just this one property if correctly assessed.

So, if you/they pursued that fair value they could essentially give say 15 senior citizen homeowners a $20,000 exclusion and still remain revenue neutral. They could give 30 homeowners a $10,000 exclusion. They could give 60 a $5,000 exclusion. Or 120 a $2,500 exclusion.

And how many high priced homes are paying less than their fair market value based on recent sale prices and reassessed values in Lebo?

I find it horrible that the school district will spend $150 arguing against a homeowner that may think his assessment is $20, 40 or $60,000 too high while there are properties that are underassessed by hundreds of thousands.

If the municipality undertook corrective action maybe we wouldn't have to charge stormwater fees, or borrow for street paving, or float bonds for pool upgrades.

Update August 10, 2012 3:45 PM The latest Commission Discussion Agenda is showing "School District Assessment Appeals" has been moved back to the August 27, 2012 meeting.

The never ending story about YSA contributions

Last week, I had sent the following email to the school board.

From: egillen476@aol.com [egillen476@aol.com]

Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2012 10:12 AM 

To: School Board Email list 

Subject: YSA payment schedule 

School board directors, 

Would one of you be so kind as to share a copy of the YSA payment schedule which Dr. Steinhauer passed out to you at last Monday's meeting? Since Mrs. Szalinski is working on so many other RTK's that are coming her way, perhaps you can lighten her workload a tad and share this information with me informally. 

Elaine Gillen

From:  Josephine C. Posti <JPosti@mtlsd.net>

Date:  Mon, Jun 18, 2012 1:43 pm

Mrs. Gillen,
In accordance with Commonwealth law, please send in a Right to Know request and 
Mrs. Szalinski will process your request.


For the Board,

Josephine Posti
President
Mt. Lebanon School Board
412.667.1479
http://jposti.blogspot.com/

Mission: To provide the best education possible for each and every student


________________________________
MTLSD DISCLAIMER: THIS TRANSMISSION IS INTENDED ONLY FOR THE USE OF THE 
ADDRESSEE AND MAY CONTAIN INFORMATION THAT IS PRIVILEGED, CONFIDENTIAL, AND 
EXEMPT FROM DISCLOSURE UNDER APPLICABLE LAW. IF YOU ARE NOT THE INTENDED 
RECIPIENT, OR THE EMPLOYEE OR AGENT RESPONSIBLE FOR DELIVERING THE MESSAGE TO 
THE INTENDED RECIPIENT, YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT ANY DISSEMINATION, 
RETENTION, DISTRIBUTION, OR COPYING OF THIS COMMUNICATION IS STRICTLY 
PROHIBITED. IF YOU HAVE RECEIVED THIS COMMUNICATION IN ERROR, PLEASE NOTIFY THE 
SENDER IMMEDIATELY.

So it looks like I have to file another Right To Know. 

While I am on the subject of RTKs and the YSA, a RTK was granted today with these results.
RTK George Wilson/YSA

So that puts a hole in the story that Jan Klein told the Trib.

Wouldn't this be a cheaper way to go for everyone? UPDATED

At the May 29, 2012 commission meeting, a motion was tabled to pay the Schood District 17% of the actual costs billed by Diversified Municipal Services.

Consideration to financially participate in the Mt. Lebanon School District’s involvement in property assessment appeal hearings.

Diversified Municipal Services, Inc. (DMS) represents Mt. Lebanon School District at first-level Allegheny County property assessment appeals. DMS develops evidence in support of sustaining current values on owner-filed appeals and appears at hearings to present the evidence. DMS charges the school district $150 for attending a hearing at which the owner is present and $100 for appearing for a hearing at which the owner does not attend.

It is proposed that the municipality participate in funding this effort.

Recommended Action: Move to direct the Municipal Manager to reimburse the Mt. Lebanon School District for 17% of the actual costs billed by Diversified Municipal Services in representing the taxing body at residential reassessment appeal hearings for the 2012 appeal year.Move to direct the Municipal Manager to reimburse the Mt. Lebanon School District for 17% of the actual costs billed by Diversified Municipal Services in representing the taxing body at residential reassessment appeal hearings for the 2012 appeal year.

Diversified Municipal Services is owned by Dominick Gambino. Doing a Google search, I found this PG article about Mr. Gambino. Get ready: Assessments are coming next week

Mr. Gambino strongly differs, saying reassessment will lift an existing unfair tax burden on residents of poorer communities. Elected leaders, not a county judge, should have launched and directed the project on their own, he said. Mr. Gambino, who worked for the county for 25 years, now runs a consulting firm called Diversified Municipal Services Inc.

As Tom Moertel and Commissioner Fraasch demonstrated, there is an unfair tax burden on certain wards in this community. To counter this "unfair tax burden," Diversified Municipal Services provides this service to assist individual property owners, businesses and governments in analyzing property data in Allegheny County. http://countypropertyanalyzer.com/about.php

The County Property Analyzer is another service provided by Diversified Municipal Services, Inc. It can be a useful tool for individual property owners, businesses and governments in analyzing property data in Allegheny County.
Diversified has represented clients in literally thousands of property assessment appeal hearings. The County Property Analyzer unleashes the power for anyone to create sales comparison evidence for submission in property assessment hearings.

On their home page, Diversified Municipal Services reads:

Welcome to the County Property Analyzer

The product you are about to preview is an amazing tool for anyone in search of property information in Allegheny County. It will invite you through the door to explore the property data for over 550,000 properties.

But more remarkably, this tool allows you to analyze the data even further by exporting and saving the results of your search - over twenty-five different bits of information including property and mailing addresses, sales validation information, assessed values and numerous land and building characteristics - onto an excel spreadsheet.

The countypropertyanalyzer will also be a valuable resource in calculating property values by easily and efficiently helping you acquire comparable sales and granting you the ability to create and prepare sales comparison reports in a pdf format.

This is a product that has a wide variety of functions and uses. It was developed by the former Manager of the Allegheny County Office of Property Assessments specifically to allow the analysis of property data. Sales ratios studies, Comparable Sales Reports and mail merge capabilities are just a few of the possibilities.

Countypropertyanalyzer is a "must-have" for any real estate professional or property owner.

The best part about the product is the cost. Sign up for a "free week trial period" by clicking on "SIGNUP". After the trial period, you can continue having access to this fantastic tool for only $75 per month!

So my questions are:

1. Couldn't a homeowner use this service for free during the trial period for their reassessment hearing? 
2. Why is the District willing to pay $150 per assessment hearing when they could use this service for $75 a month?
3. More importantly, why is the Municipality are Commissioners Brumfield and Linfante willing to fork over 17% towards this charge?

Update June 2, 2012 6:15 PM With James Fraasch's permission, I am sharing a link to a letter he sent to the Honorable Senior Judge R. Stanton Wettick, Jr on May 30, 2012 concerning the reassessment. It just might blow your mind! It did for me. I hope our elected officials (at all levels) read it VERY carefully.

Before they go away...

Before I delete the three polls regarding the Joint Maintenance Agreement I had on this blog, I thought I would record the final results in a post.

Based on the documentation provided on this blog, do you feel that the Municipality has been a responsible partner in the Joint Maintenance Agreement?
No 24 (51%)
Yes 23 (48%)

Based on the documentation provided on this blog, do you feel that the Shool District has been a responsible partner in the Joint Maintenance Agreement?
No 33 (70%)
Yes 14 (29%)

Based on the documentation provided on this blog, do you feel that the Youth Sports Alliance (YSA) has been a responsible partner in the Joint Maintenance Agreement?
No 39 (61%)
Yes 24 (38%)

Thanks to all who voted.

This feels so wrong

On tonight's Commission agenda:

Consideration to financially participate in the Mt. Lebanon School District’s involvement in property assessment appeal hearings.

Diversified Municipal Services, Inc. (DMS) represents Mt. Lebanon School District at first-level Allegheny County property assessment appeals. DMS develops evidence in support of sustaining current values on owner-filed appeals and appears at hearings to present the evidence. DMS charges the school district $150 for attending a hearing at which the owner is present and $100 for appearing for a hearing at which the owner does not attend.

It is proposed that the municipality participate in funding this effort.

Recommended Action: Move to direct the Municipal Manager to reimburse the Mt. Lebanon School District for 17% of the actual costs billed by Diversified Municipal Services in representing the taxing body at residential reassessment appeal hearings for the 2012 appeal year.Move to direct the Municipal Manager to reimburse the Mt. Lebanon School District for 17% of the actual costs billed by Diversified Municipal Services in representing the taxing body at residential reassessment appeal hearings for the 2012 appeal year.

As was pointed out to me in an email:

The municipality is using tax dollars to fight taxpayers who are using their own resources to defend their property value against an inflated tax dollar funded assessment.

"By unlawfully delegating general authority to staff members (to file the appeals) the commission of Mt. Lebanon unlawfully discriminated against the intervenors and those property owners similarly situated in an attempt to require them to bear an unlawful and disproportionate share of the tax burden of Mt. Lebanon"
-Raymond Cromer on behalf of Mr. and Mrs. William Anderson Jr. of 749 Gypsy Lane, published in the Pittsburgh Press 19-MAY-1976 on page 3.

In yet another email:

Where are the Lebo taxpayers who will suffer as a result? Why is there no injunction being filed against the District & Muni by those being affected? Why, why, why, ? ? ? ? Why have we become a herd (not a community) of sheep??

So far, YSA leads in votes for both Yes and No - Updated

As of Tuesday, May 22 at 11:07 a.m.

BASED ON THE DOCUMENTATION PROVIDED ON THIS BLOG, DO YOU FEEL THAT THE MUNICIPALITY HAS BEEN A RESPONSIBLE PARTNER IN THE JOINT MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT?

No 13 (59%)

Yes 9 (40%)

BASED ON THE DOCUMENTATION PROVIDED ON THIS BLOG, DO YOU FEEL THAT THE School District HAS BEEN A RESPONSIBLE PARTNER IN THE JOINT MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT?

No 19 (82%)

Yes 4 (17%)

BASED ON THE DOCUMENTATION PROVIDED ON THIS BLOG, DO YOU FEEL THAT THE YOUTH SPORTS ALLIANCE (YSA) HAS BEEN A RESPONSIBLE PARTNER IN THE JOINT MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT?

No 28 (63%)

Yes 16 (36%)

Granted, the YSA poll has been up 24 hours longer than the other two polls, but YSA is leading as the most responsible partner and the most irresponsible partner of the Joint Maintenance Agreement. 

It would be helpful to the JMA partners crafting the upcoming extension to find out why people are voting the way they are voting.  

How can the Municipality improve?  What about the School District?  Where have they fallen short? Besides YSA catching up in contributions, what else should be done? 

In addition to voting, now is the time to share your opinion.  Do we forget the JMA altogether? How can it be improved, so that all parties are responsible partners in the Joint Maintenance Agreement?

Update May 22 2012 6:36 p.m. Through a Right To Know, Marcia Taylor provided the following information regarding District payments for the Joint Maintenance Agreement.

"These documents are printouts or copies for General Fund Account No. 01-2845-37102. This account is used for Ballfield Maintenance. These documents mainly show yearly totals, and are marked accordingly. Beginning with the 2010 year, we are able to show monthly data as well, and have produced that."

District payments for Joint Maintenance Agreement