From the Ethics Commission website

I still have not received the final order from the PA Ethics Commission, but here is a link to the April 10, 2018 final adjudication posted on the PA Ethics Commission website which is saved in Google Docs. Actual link is here.

Mary Birks spoke at the May 14, 2018 school board meeting and referred to 41 pages of findings. This document has 24 pages. I skimmed over the pages and found that on page 8, Mary attended an Outreach Board of Directors meeting on May 6, 2010, where concerns of conflict of interest were raised by several Outreach board members.

Outreach Board member David Hartman verbalized Birks' need to recuse herself as a Member of the District Board if /when the District Board voted on any matters involving Outreach.

Outreach can't be too happy with how this all went down.

I also find it interesting that the Ethics Commission noted that Mary had left a block blank on her 2016 Statement of Financial Interests filed in 2017 and was deemed deficient. (Page 16) Upon notification of the above referenced deficiency, Birks amended the SFI with the District. I guess the Ethics Commission did not see the boo boo that Timmy made this year. It is ironic how Mary Birks defended Larry Lebowitz. See below.

I can't help but think how the PA Ethics Commission would have a field day over the municipality's SFIs. Statements of Financial Interests are a big thing with the PA Ethics Commission, but Keith McGill, Susan Morgans, Ian McMeans, Dave Brumfield, Bonnie Cross, and a host of others don't or didn't seem to take it seriously. Nick Meduho was on top of this too.

See We don't pay her enough; she's homeless!
We've been lied to repeatedly
T-R-A-N-S-P-A-R-E-N-C-Y
Mt. Lebanon is on a roll

This is like a locker search at Mt. Lebanon High School, announcing what is ahead: I will be filing a Right To Know for all the SFIs for the municipality, Keith. Just a heads up.

Tim, it's 2018...

From a Right To Know, here are the School District's Statements of Financial Interests.

2018 Statements of Financial Interests for 2017 part 1

2018 Statements of Financial Interests for 2017 part 2

Unfortunately, our superintendent is not aware that it is 2018.

A Right To Know has not been filed with the municipality yet. When Nick Meduho filed for them, Bonnie Cross, the Open Records Officer, redacted everything and then charged him 25 cents a copy which is outrageous. It is all public information.

"New" Policy on Block Parties

It's always been this way, but according to Mt. Lebanon Magazine, there is a new policy on block parties.

For all my long time Lebo Citizens readers, you may remember these posts on block parties.

September 13, 2015 Another unexpected visitor That is when my buddy, Steve Silverman leaked out this information to his friend, who then came to my door and told me to mind my own business.

September 17, 2016 I know. Mind my own business. Susan Morgans' family has since moved from Sleepy Hollow, but Sleepy Hollow was once again excused from this rule.

September 19, 2016 A violation of the Sunshine Law? That is when I found out that the rules can change as often as...well, I won't go there, but you know what I was going to say.

Here is the official Block Party Street Listing. Notice that Sleepy Hollow is not permitted to have block parties. What once was old, is now new again.

Nick, wherever you are, we made a difference with this one too. All your RTKs paid off in the end. Thanks, Buddy.

It took this long for the media to touch this story

Mt. Lebanon to start over with capital campaign fundraiser

"When the campaign started in 2012, the original goal was to raise $6 million." WRONG

The original goal was $30 million.

The feasibility study was in 2012.

Pursuant Ketchum was hired as counsel for the capital campaign in March 2013.

Alyssa DeLuca was hired in August 2013 as Capital Campaign Director.

"Riemer said the goal of the district-wide fundraising effort was to 'provide funding for other innovative programs without imposing additional tax burden onto our community.'” SORT OF. 

The original goal was to avoid a second bond issue.

"While the campaign wasn’t a success, Riemer said more than 250 donors have contributed to projects like Matt’s Maker Spaces, STEAM initiatives and the athletics and fine arts programs." UH, YEAH...SORT OF.

Yes, there were more than 250 donors, but not one dime was raised due to the high administrative costs. Almost $1,000,000 from the General Fund was used as "seed money" or "loan" or "investment," all words used at various times by soon-to-retire Director of Business Janice Klein.

“I too believe strongly that it is in the best interest of the district to recognize the achievements and the people in the past but move it forward,” board member Larry Lebowitz said. “I look forward to the presentation where we’re going to learn about the ideas for the reset with the idea being that we will then decide how to answer a lot of these questions (we have).”

What board member Larry Lebowitz really means is that he is really excited for the opportunity to come up with answers for this failed initiative.

A year ago, Nick Meduho and I were working hard to expose this, but the newspapers never said a word. Nick, I wish you were here. I bet you are smiling down at us. Miss you, Buddy.

$467,275.74+ later...

Mt. Lebanon School District has not released the Capital Campaign Financial Report ending 1/31/18. As of 12/31/17, Mt. Lebanon taxpayers have spent $467,275.74 on salaries, healthcare, and fringes on a position that Lebo Citizens have been saying is totally unnecessary since the beginning of the campaign.

The breakdown for the "Director of Advancement" since its inception, is as follows:

Salaries $355,830.65
Healthcare $61,493.20
Fringes $$49,951.89

Nick Meduho had been filing Right To Knows for all the receipts concerning this issue. He had to face many obstacles because the District was not willing to surrender this information without a fight.
He asked for the "reset" presentation when then school board president Mary Birks would reply with, "Nope." I saw Nick later that week and he was still upset over the capital campaign. Nick died ten days after that school board meeting. He died from hypertension. Since he never went to a doctor, his high blood pressure was left untreated. What a senseless death. I will never forget that meeting.

Now I see that Sloane Astorino's name is no longer listed on the Capital Campaign or the MLFE website. Sloane also drew a salary and benefits for heading the MLFE.  She vanished without a trace. Nothing is listed on Monday's school board agenda

Mt. Lebanon taxpayers deserve some answers. Come on, School Board Directors, do it for Nick.

Another step in the right direction.

From: Michael Riemer <mriemer@mtlsd.net>
To: egillen476 <egillen476@aol.com>
Cc: schoolboard <schoolboard@mtlsd.net>
Sent: Mon, Jan 29, 2018 5:02 pm
Subject: Re: Capital Campaign spreadsheet

Ms. Gillen,

I have spoken with Dr. Steinhauer concerning this matter and moving forward all pieces of the Capital Campaign financial documents will be posted to the website. 

Thank you, 

Mike Riemer 

For the Board 

On Thu, Jan 25, 2018 at 7:56 PM, 'egillen476@aol.com' via SchoolBoard <schoolboardemaillist@mtlsd.net> wrote:

School board directors,

Every month, my friend Nick Meduho would file a Right To Know for the two page Century of Excellence Capital Campaign spreadsheet. I would like to request the two pages for YTD 12/31/17 by emailing the Board, and moving forward, I am requesting that both pages are put on the Capital Campaign website instead of just the one page every month.

Thanks.

Elaine Gillen

In Nick's memory - School board videos UPDATED 01/25/18

Just came back from Nick Meduho's house where his father and sister allowed me to copy his files from his server. Nick had backed up all the school board meetings that are being pulled from the district website for me and saved nine gigs of data when he saved the 24 meetings. I am in the process of uploading them and putting a link to them on the blog.

Sadly, Nick's 88 year old dad saw the October meeting where Mary Birks would not answer his son's questions. Mr. Meduho was pretty upset. Because of that, I told him about my ethics complaint and how Mary lost the election.

The reason why I am telling you all this is because I think I am going to bite the bullet and stick with my blog, which is available to everyone. To all of the nice folks who signed up on Facebook, thank you for sticking with me, but I have decided not go through Facebook. I want people to have access to Nick's videos and will keep Lebo Citizens on Blogger in his memory.

The links to 24 school board meetings that Nick backed up for me will be available in another thirty minutes or so. Until now, I had two gigs of data on Google Docs. With nine more gigs of data, I still have room available. Nick tried to tell me that the District was giving us a bunch of garbage and that they should have the ability to keep far more information than what they were telling us. 

Thanks, Nick Meduho, Jr.

Elaine

Link to Nick's school board meeting videos

Update January 25, 2018 7:44 PM Per 4:40 PM's suggestion, here is a link for the YTD ending 12/31/17 spreadsheet. It certainly is a mess, 4:40 PM. For the two page spreadsheet, that would require filing a Right To Know. Nick would do that every month. Perhaps an email to the new board majority will provide that information without filing a Right To Know. It would be much simpler if they would post the two pages automatically. A new spreadsheet should be available in the next week or so.

A Work in Progress

For the second time in a month, the Century of Excellence Presentation was promised, but was removed from the November 13, 2017 agenda. It appears that we have entered a new Quiet Phase.

On October 16, 2017, Nick Meduho had asked about the Jo Posti reset presentation. His questions were not answered, so Nick had fifteen open Right To Knows with the School District when he passed away. I had to refile them in my name, as I had explained in an earlier post. The RTKs, all related to the Century of Excellence Capital Campaign or the Mt. Lebanon Foundation for Education (MLFE) are starting to come in.

I'm not sure how to go about this, so these will be in no particular order. I will continue to update with RTKs as I receive them.

1. MLFE 990's 2013-2015
2. "On November 8, 2017, the Mt. Lebanon School District (the “District") received your Public Records Request (“Request”), made pursuant to the Right to Know Law ("RTKL"), seeking: the most recent detailed statement by the Mt. Lebanon school board directors of any/all devises, bequests, grants, endowments, gifts, and donations, held and possessed by such school district (Mt. Lebanon), the proceeds thereof, the investments which have been made therewith, the income arising there from, the expenses of administration, and the purposes to which the income arising there from have been applied., Such statement shall be audited as hereinafter provided for the auditing of school finances." Another thirty days, on top of what Nick had to wait.
3. A comprehensive financial report for the Mt. Lebanon Foundation for Education for the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2017.
4. Copies of all invoices pertaining to the purchase of stadium blankets which are being sold to benefit the MLFE.
5. Payroll records for Sloane Astorino from when she began employment in 2015 to present.
6. An absolute complete/comprehensive and accurate income/expense report for the Century of Excellence Capital Campaign for dates January 1, 2012 thru October 15, 2017 which will include all the following; #1 All revenues itemized including but not limited to dates, amount and source of each transaction being as specific as possible, I understand that specific donor names must be redacted. #2 All expenditures itemized including but not limited to date, amount, payee and category of each transaction being as specific as possible. #3 All balance of money whether they be in a bank account, the Pittsburgh Foundation, etc. as of September 15, 2017. #4 All itemized transfers of money with specific dates and amounts transferred back to and from the school district general account for the capital campaign account.                    The District has located, with respect to the Capital Campaign Fund, documents setting forth “Revenue Accounts” and “Expenditure Accounts” for the 2012-2013 school year, the 2013-2014 school year, the 2014-2015 school year, the 2015-2016 school year, the 2016-2017 school year and the 2017-2018 school year as of November 3, 2017. In addition, the District had located a document entitled “Mt. Lebanon School District Fund 27 Capital Campaign.” These documents provide you with your requested information. 
7. The agreement between the Capital Campaign and the Pittsburgh Foundation that was approved on November 17, 2014.
8. "Any/all documents in the form of contracts, agreements, disclosure forms, terms, etc. that each donor was either made aware of, agreed to and/or signed either when they donated any money to the Century of Excellence Campaign or have pledged." Another thirty days, on top of what Nick had to wait. 
9. "On November 8, 2017, the Mt. Lebanon School District (the “District") received your Public Records Request (“Request”), made pursuant to the Right to Know Law ("RTKL"), seeking: The detailed statement for fiscal year 2012 by the Mt. Lebanon school board directors of any/all devises, bequests, grants, endowments, gifts, and donations, held and possessed by such school district (Mt. Lebanon), the proceeds thereof, the investments which have been made therewith, the income arising there from, the expenses of administration, and the purposes to which the income arising there from have been applied., Such statement shall be audited as hereinafter provided for the auditing of school finances." Another thirty days, on top of what Nick had to wait. 
10. "On November 8, 2017, the Mt. Lebanon School District (the “District") received your Public Records Request (“Request”), made pursuant to the Right to Know Law ("RTKL"), seeking: The detailed statement for fiscal year 2013 by the Mt. Lebanon school board directors of any/all devises, bequests, grants, endowments, gifts, and donations, held and possessed by such school district (Mt. Lebanon), the proceeds thereof, the investments which have been made therewith, the income arising there from, the expenses of administration, and the purposes to which the income arising there from have been applied., Such statement shall be audited as hereinafter provided for the auditing of school finances." Another thirty days, on top of what Nick had to wait. 
11. "On November 8, 2017, the Mt. Lebanon School District (the “District") received your Public Records Request (“Request”), made pursuant to the Right to Know Law ("RTKL"), seeking: The detailed statement for fiscal year 2014 by the Mt. Lebanon school board directors of any/all devises, bequests, grants, endowments, gifts, and donations, held and possessed by such school district (Mt. Lebanon), the proceeds thereof, the investments which have been made therewith, the income arising there from, the expenses of administration, and the purposes to which the income arising there from have been applied., Such statement shall be audited as hereinafter provided for the auditing of school finances." Another thirty days, on top of what Nick had to wait. 
12. "On November 8, 2017, the Mt. Lebanon School District (the “District") received your Public Records Request (“Request”), made pursuant to the Right to Know Law ("RTKL"), seeking: The detailed statement for fiscal year 2015 by the Mt. Lebanon school board directors of any/all devises, bequests, grants, endowments, gifts, and donations, held and possessed by such school district (Mt. Lebanon), the proceeds thereof, the investments which have been made therewith, the income arising there from, the expenses of administration, and the purposes to which the income arising there from have been applied., Such statement shall be audited as hereinafter provided for the auditing of school finances." Another thirty days, on top of what Nick had to wait. 
13. "On November 8, 2017, the Mt. Lebanon School District (the “District") received your Public Records Request (“Request”), made pursuant to the Right to Know Law ("RTKL"), seeking: An absolute complete/comprehensive and accurate income/expense report for the MLFE for dates January 1, 2014 thru October 15, 2017 which will include all the following: 1) All revenues itemized including but not limited to dates, amount and source of each transaction being as specific as possible. Donor names to be omitted. 2) All expenditures itemized including but not limited to date, amount, payee and category of each transaction being as specific as possible. 3) All balance of money as of October 15, 2017."  Another thirty days, on top of what Nick had to wait. 
14. District treasurer's reports from June 2013-December 2013
District treasurer's reports June 2013
District treasurer's reports July 2013
District treasurer's reports August 2013
District treasurer's reports September 2013
District treasurer's reports October 2013
District treasurer's reports November 2013
District treasurer's reports December 2013
15. The last RTK was combined with Number 13.

School Board is pulling a whopper!

On tonight's agenda are the following discussions:

Acceptance of 2017 Single Audit Report – The annual audit of the District’s finances has been completed by Maher Duessel CPAs and the results of the audit will be reported by Amy Lewis, CPA at the meeting. There are no findings or issues to report. The Superintendent recommends acceptance of the audit report.

Jo Posti is making her reset presentation tonight for the Century of Excellence Million Dollar Heist. This is what the late Nick Meduho had asked about at the last meeting, when Mary Birks said, "Nope." It is after the election and before the new board takes over.

Athletic Field Discussion - we already know that Bill Moorhead, Dan Remely, and the soccer ref's wife, Mary Birks will be going off the board and they are in favor of turfing everything in sight.

And then there is the Teachers Contract.

Letter of Engagement for Chief Negotiator – The Board is asked to consider the appointment Ira Weiss, Esq. as special counsel for teacher contract negotiations at a cost of $125 per hour plus training services of $1,500. The Superintendent recommends this appointment.

If these items are up for discussion, the board will be voting next week. It will be Birks, Remely, and Moorhead's last meeting. Ever. All of these items should be tabled for the new board! It looks like Mary is not going out quietly.

So how does this work? UPDATED 11/7/17 at 7:52 PM

I filed a Right To Know for a list of all of my friend, Nick Meduho's outstanding RTKs. As many of you know, Mary Birks would not answer Nick's questions. He would be told to file a RTK or that they "would get back to him." Always respectful, Nick would quietly return to his seat and then go home and file RTKs. My RTK was granted today. Nick had filed the following requests.

Nick Meduho's Open Requests

On October 30, 2017, the Mt. Lebanon School District (the “District") received your Public Records Request (“Request”), made pursuant to the Right to Know Law ("RTKL"), seeking “a detailed list of all the outstanding records requested from the late Nick Meduho.” 

Please note that for the requests due on or before the date of your Request, the District informed Mr. Meduho that it required additional time to respond to these requests pursuant to Section 902 of the RTKL

So how does this work? Do I have to refile all of these? Or can I just pay for Nick's requests and get them when he would have received them, had he not passed away?

Thanks, Mary. You never did get back to Nick.

Updated November 7, 2017 8:40 AM From Mary D. Birks' public Facebook feed:

A friend writes: Do bullies recognize themselves? I don't think they often do.

Update November 7, 2017 7:52 PM I ended up refiling 15 RTKs. The official word from MTLSD:

From: Jeanine Szalinski <jszalinski@mtlsd.net>
To: E.T. Gillen <egillen476@aol.com>
Cc: Thomas Peterson <TPeterson@tuckerlaw.com>; Voltz, Chris <cvoltz@tuckerlaw.com>; Dr. Timothy Steinhauer <TSteinhauer@mtlsd.net>
Sent: Tue, Nov 7, 2017 3:07 pm
Subject: Right to Know Requests

Dear Mrs. Gillen:

To ensure compliance with and preserve your rights under the RTKL, you are required to file your own RTKL Requests. 

Specifically, under Section 703 of the RTKL, written requests must set forth the name and the address of the individual to receive the District’s response.  Under Section 1101(a) of the RTKL, only the Requester has the right to appeal the denial of a request for records.  

Some of the specific responses are ready to be sent, so if you wish to submit them individually we will respond to those upon receipt. The rest of the responses will be provided as soon as they are completed.

Sincerely,

Jeanine Szalinski

Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent

Asst. Board Secretary/Open Records Officer

Mt. Lebanon School District

7 Horsman Drive

Pittsburgh PA  15228

412-344-2077

www.mtlsd.org 

Another anonymous letter from the inside!

This time, it was sent to the entire school board and to the superintendent. I would be curious to hear if it was passed on to them.

All should be ashamed

When I ask, it's redacted. UPDATED 5:11 PM

The school district has gone overboard by redacting and withholding public information in Right To Knows about the Century of Excellence Campaign. I filed a RTK for "Sloane Astorino's handout with the campaign financial summary from her November 2016 PowerPoint presentation." This is what I received.  No financial summary. Just a redacted presentation orginally archived without redactions by Nick Meduho here.

And so the emails which emphasize the glut of redactions to the Open Records Officer with copies to the school board begin. RTK emails abt Sloane campaign financial summary 

This isn't the only instance where the school district has gone redaction crazy. From my post, The Butcher, The Baker, The Candlestick Maker, my dear friend Nick M. had filed a RTK for the names of the Advisory Panel. They charged him for the redaction too, even though Lebomag had no problem listing a minor's name in their misinformation/propaganda. Under the Sunshine Law, the school district has the right to charge 25¢ per page of redactions.

Misinformation from 710 Washington Road

“Last year, the district launched the Century of Excellence Capital Campaign, a private funding initiative to bridge the gap between the balance sheet and the wish list. The campaign’s goal is to raise $3 million for things that would enhance the quality of education but fall outside of the budget, and another $3 million to establish a sustainable endowment.”

As a Lebo Citizens reader writes:

WRONG! WRONG! WRONG MTL MAGAZINE! THE DISTRICT LAUNCHED THE CAMPAIGN TO RAISE $6 MILLION IN 2013, NOT 2015 AS THE MAGAZINE CLAIMS. NEED PROOF, JUST LOOK AT THE DISTRICT’S FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE CAMPAIGN.
IF THE MAGAZINE IS GOING TO BE THE MAIN SOURCE OF INFO FOR THE COMMUNITY, IT SHOULD AT LEAST GET IT RIGHT!

Nick Meduho was aware of what was happening with the campaign. He maintained a soft-spoken, unassuming demeanor during Citizen Comments, quietly filing Right To Knows, and Mary Birks knew it. I am feeling overwhelmed with Nick's passing. I hope others will come forward to continue Nick's work.

Update November 1, 2017 5:11 PM Oops! She found it.

Dear Mrs. Gillen,

After I received your email I did locate the attached financial summary that was not originally with the PowerPoint, but was handed out to the Board.

Jeanine

I can see why it was not originally included. YIKES!!!!!!

With a heavy heart UPDATED

I just found out that my friend, Nick Meduho died of a heart attack on Thursday night.

Watch how Mary Birks treated Nick at the 56:26 time stamp.  October 17, 2017 school board meeting video Read about it in my post, Psst, Mary, the truth is in the numbers UPDATED 10/18/17

Mary Birks, you are a piece of shit. How you treated Nick was absolutely horrible.

Update October 30, 2017 5:06 PM To leave a condolence, please click here.

Update October 30, 2017 6:57 PM A memorial service will be held for Nick at 2:00 PM on December 9, 2017 at the Mt. Lebanon Cemetery Mausoleum. Nick's obituary will be in Thursday's paper.

Hello? Anyone home? UPDATED

No answer from the school board or Timmy.

Can someone please explain the following:

In the treasurer’s report for September 2017 the “receipts” total for the capital campaign show a total of $15,492.81.

Doing a little calculation using the financial spreadsheets from 8/31 and 9/30, I come up with a total of $10,727.81.

That’s $32,504.81 - $21,777.00 = $10,727.81.

Where is the other $4765.00? Shouldn’t they match?

Looking at “disbursements,” total shown is $37,554.09 which really threw up a red flag just by looking at that number.

Again, doing a little calculation just as above I come up with $18,492.24.

That’s $62,404.84 - $43,912.60 = $18,492.24.

Where is the other $19,061.85? Shouldn’t that match as well?

Using the same calculations the interest is correct at $261.03.

That’s $816.02 - $554.99 = $261.03

Can someone please shed some light on this? Could my math be that wrong?

Thank you,

Nicholas Meduho

Mt. Lebanon, PA

*********

How's this for a Nightmare on Horsman? Policy DIF/GBEBD Staff Responsibility for Safeguarding District Assets 

The definition of fraud and dishonesty includes but is not limited to the following: 

• theft or other misappropriation of assets, including assets of the District, our students, suppliers or others with whom we have a business relationship;
• misstatements and other irregularities in school records;
• forgery or other alteration of documents;
• bribery and other deceptive unlawful acts; and/or
• any similar acts. 

If there is any suspicion of altered documents, or misappropriations of assets, they are to be reported to Timmy or Jan Klein. OMG

All relevant matters, including suspected but unproved matters, should be referred to the building principal, the Superintendent, or the Director of Business.

He's trying, really trying

Appendix A

I would like to request the following:

An absolute complete/comprehensive and accurate income/expense report for the Century of Excellence Capital Campaign for dates January 1, 2012 thru September 15, 2017 which will include all the following;

#1 All revenues itemized including but not limited to dates, amount and source of each transaction being as specific as possible, I understand that specific donor names must be redacted.

#2 All expenditures itemized including but not limited to date, amount, payee and category of each transaction being as specific as possible.    

#3 All balance of money whether they be in a bank account, the Pittsburgh Foundation, etc. as of September 15, 2017.

#4 All itemized transfers of money with specific dates and amounts transferred back to and from the school district general account for the capital campaign account.  

What a fire drill!

What taxpayers go through to request information. Watch this exercise in futility. Timmy and Mary Birks would be happy to put the taxpayer's request on the school district Capital Campaign website. I don't see it. Do you?

At the 8:13 time stamp, Mary admits that it was an inner fund transfer.

I never heard back from the school district. It is just another exercise in futility.

School board directors,
Thank you for additional information that has been posted on the District website concerning the Century of Excellence Capital Campaign.
I would like some consistency in your reporting, however. Please include the second page in the monthly reports as was shown in a recent RTK document.
Capital Campaign Financial Report for 7-17 Capital Campaign Financial Report for 8-17 
Elaine Gillen
www.lebocitizens.blogspot.com

I doubt that Paula will hear anything either.

Thank you, Nick M., for providing this clip. It had been requested by a commenter in the previous post, without filing a Right To Know, Timmy!

Mt. Lebanon capital campaign fundraising program questioned

Mt. Lebanon capital campaign fundraising program questioned

But the campaign has fallen far short of its original goal to raise $6 million and instead has been operating in the red in the past several years, board members learned during a heated meeting Monday.

 Mt. Lebanon residents have been questioning Jan Klein's creative financing for years. Nick Meduho has been following up by questioning:

Please explain the following…

Item below is from the website that was posted on Wednesday:

Item below is from a right to know that I received on Tuesday:

Fiscal year ending 6/30/2015 disbursements went from ZERO on Tuesday to $3790.00 on Wednesday.

Fiscal year ending 6/30/2017 disbursements went from $112,081.42 on Tuesday to $132,331.42 on Wednesday.

How can you go from one set of numbers to another in less than 1 day and why is wrong information being given to the taxpayers who are funding this thing?

Is it ok to change these numbers years after an audit?

So what are the correct numbers?

“Oh what a tangled web we weave”

Item below is from the website that was posted on Wednesday:

Item below is from a right to know that I received on Tuesday:

Fiscal year ending 6/30/2014 fundraising expenditures went from $234,969.57 on Tuesday to $233,569.57 on Wednesday.

Fiscal year ending 6/30/2015 fundraising expenditures went from $159,552.14 on Tuesday to $155,202.14 on Wednesday.

Fiscal year ending 6/30/2016 fundraising expenditures went from $131,241.32 on Tuesday to $130,121.32 on Wednesday.

Fiscal year ending 6/30/2017 fundraising expenditures went from $181,032.97 on Tuesday to $159,102.97 on Wednesday.

How can this be????? How can numbers change so much in 1 day? Again, what are the true numbers?

Are you folks teaching creative financing at the high school?

Thank you,

Nicholas Meduho

Mt. Lebanon, PA

With permission

The following email was sent to Keith McGill, the Commission, Aaron Lauth, and Tim Steinhauer on Tuesday, August 22, 2017 at 11:55 AM.

On August 4^th Allstate was kind enough to donate another $5000 towards the Look Up Lebo Campaign.

Last year they did the same.

How much of this now $10,000 has been actually used to promote a sorely needed safety campaign in Mt. Lebanon; absolutely ZERO,

but yet, the MLPD wants us to believe that this money is being used for the Look Up Lebo safety campaign.

If Look Up Lebo is such an important community safety initiative, why are we sitting on $10,000 that could be used to promote it more effectively than just having a few banners and some stickers, which may be working just a tad? Did we get LUL stickers over to the library yet?

Why is there no reference to Look Up Lebo on the school district website? Or am I just missing it. We were told by Susan Morgans that the school district would participate.

Our school superintendent loves to retweet tweets and plagiarize his other tweets because at an astounding $205,000 salary can’t come up with an original thought. Why is he not tweeting about Look Up Lebo? Now that would be original, would it not be? Unless he copies and pastes from another source. And to add, doesn’t school start pretty soon…what an excellent time to remind students of being safe in our walking community.

Here’s another novel idea being that all my other suggestions have gone by the wayside because a peon resident came up with the ideas…how about if we have the superintendent, the municipal manager, the commission and the police chief all get together in a meeting room and brainstorm ideas as to how to effectively use the $10,000 that Allstate so generously gave Mt. Lebanon to effectively promote Look Up Lebo. In addition, invite citizens to share their ideas and thoughts.

This isn’t rocket science folks to promote this cause, just good ole simple thinking.

Thank you,

Nicholas Meduho

Mt. Lebanon, PA

This is YOUR government UPDATED including response from Tony

Nick Meduho submitted a Right To Know on February 22, 2017 and received this response on March 1. Nick can file an appeal with the Office of Open Records, but what is the point of that? Mt. Lebanon will just take him to Court of Common Pleas if the OOR rules in Nick's favor. Today, Nick emailed the municipality these questions and received no response.

“Does anyone know who has possession of the trail cameras that were used during the archery hunt that were billed to the taxpayers?

Where exactly are they now?

Anyone??”

Update March 10, 2017 9:09 AM Sorry to report that this update does not include answers to Nick M.'s questions. What I wanted to share is The Almanac's article Deer sharpshooting operation ends in Mt. Lebanon. When information from the municipality is scarce, residents tend to cling to every word, looking for answers. Here is what I got out of Luke Campbell's column.

“I don’t think anybody was expecting 70 degree weather in February,” municipal manager Keith McGill said. “When it gets that warm the deer are less attracted to the bait because they don’t need to expend as much energy. There is also a whole lot more human activity.”

As I pointed out previously, "volunteer" archers started hunting in September, in warm weather and no bait, and killed 36 deer while Tony DeNicola charged us $9,000 for non-existing trail cameras, plastic bags, and zip ties. That came to $250 per deer, using "volunteers."

Campbell goes on to report:

The goal of the commission was to ultimately reduce the deer-vehicular collisions by 50 percent over the course of five years only grew further away with 122 accidents reported to Mt. Lebanon police. Those crashes in 2016 increased in every month other than two – October and December – in 2015 when only 73 collisions were reported.

Again, the "five year" window seems to be subjective. Are we in Year 2? Year 3? Year 4? Whatever it takes to sell the program. Repeatedly, I have been asking for the percentage of deer/car collisions to total collisions - a true measure. We get nothing.

McGill explains:

“The number one thing has always been safety,” McGill said. “Residents have requested an aerial survey but deer don’t recognize borders and don’t stay in one place. Accessibility is the question.”

but in the next paragraph:

density of deer remains high in certain parts of the community according to DeNicola.

Our manager tells us that deer don't stay in one place, while the charlatan claims that deer do stay in one place - mostly within Virginia Manor borders.

Meanwhile, the manager, PIO, and commission continue to blacklist residents.

Update March 12, 2017 6:29 PM Nick M. emailed Tony DeNicola today and got some answers. Our commission could have easily done that. Our manager will probably intervene again and tell Tony to direct all emails to him, as he has in the past. Your  power plays are getting really boring, Keith and commission.
Email correspondence from Tony DeNicola in reference to trail cameras.

Warning: This might get some folks p.o. at the PIO

Warning: This might p.o. some advertisers and/or taxpayers. The mtl Magazine Ad Revenue for 2016 spreadsheet is here.

It appears that many advertisers are getting reduced pricing. Lebo Citizens reader and watchdog Nick M. ran a quick check and found the following discrepancies.

Howard Hanna should be paying $2180 per issue, they get billed $1962…loss of $2180 per year

Coldwell Banker should be paying $2615 per issue, they get billed $2353…loss of $2620 per year  

Berkshire Hathaway pays full price but Howard Hanna and Coldwell Banker get a huge discount.  

Sewickley Spa should have paid $1855 for their ad, they got billed $1000…loss of $855  

Knepper Press should have paid $695 for 7 ads, they got billed $0…loss of $4865   

Jade Grill should be paying $1755 each for 2 ads but only paid $1000 each…loss of $1510  

Quite a few more too. 

I was happy to report that the PIO had a 2017 budget cut of $4,070,  but as Nick pointed out, "There was a one-time $10,500 expenditure added as a service level in 2016 to redesign the lebomag website. That expenditure won't be needed in 2017." The PIO 2017 Budget essentially had a net increase of $6,430!

So why are some advertisers getting a special deal?  Why did the PIO get a net increase of $6,430? Why does Howard Hanna get a special break? Is it because a commissioner is employed by Howard Hanna? Why does the Library get billed for advertising? Public Works? Why do Outreach and Medical Rescue Team South have to pay for advertising when they receive funding from MTL? Why does Mt. Lebanon Recreation Center pay for advertising? They are one of the larger advertisers in the magazine.  How can the PIO get away with all of this?