My meeting with Rep. Miller

Yesterday, I met with State Representative Dan Miller, Commissioner Kelly Fraasch, and former Mt. Lebanon Commission President Matt Kluck. The topic was transparency in Mt. Lebanon. I had attended Rep. Miller's Right To Know Information Session in November and know that transparency in government is very important to Dan.

I am extremely frustrated with what is happening within the Municipality. Just trying to get an email to the Planning Board was an ordeal. I sent an email to Municipal Planner Keith McGill asking him to forward my email to the members of the Planning Board. On the subject of the Planning Board, the meeting last night was in the commission chambers and was not video recorded, even though a staff person was paid to sit there and video record it. Here is an email exchange that I had with Commissioner Fraasch and Keith McGill. Kelly has had a difficult time getting all the boards and authority meetings videotaped. No consistency whatsoever.

I suggested that the boards get their own email addresses, such as sportsadvisoryboard at mtlebanon dot org. It is ludicrous that we cannot reach the boards via email.

Another problem that I have is the lack of transparency when it comes to personal emails and text messages for RTK requests. A Right To Know was granted to me yesterday, after my meeting. My RTK was:

All communication to/from Commissioners for March 11, 12, and 13, 2014 pertaining to turf, Castlegate, Newcomer's tax, and/or about residents or guests who spoke at the March 11, 2014 meeting during Citizens Comments.

I filed an appeal today with the Office Of Open Records over an email exchange from that RTK request in which Kristen Linfante had with Kelly Fraasch. Kristen had sent an email to the commission and copied staff about a citizen who challenged the turf project during Citizen Comments at a commission meeting. The reason why I appealed the RTK is because her personal email, sent by a constituent, was not included in the RTK. I also challenged the RTK because I never get any text messages included in any of my RTKs. I am still waiting for a final determination of a previous appeal that was sent to the OOR for the very same thing.

I couldn't believe I was saying this at Dan's meeting yesterday, but the MTLSD website does not list phone numbers of the school board members, only email addresses in their contact information. The municipality should follow MTLSD, and adopt the same policy. (I know! Can you believe that I said that??) By including phone numbers, residents are encouraged to text message or call commissioners and makes it virtually impossible to access that information for Right To Know requests.

I also raised questions about the turf project. There seems to be a lot of secrecy when it comes to this turf project. Even fundraising has raised flags. I want to share an email exchange that came to me today over the fundraising email sent out by the Recreation Department's Sandy Kyper.

From: Stephen Feller [mailto:sfeller@mtlebanon.org]
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2014 2:57 PM
To: A Concerned Resident
Cc: David Donnellan
Subject: your question

I am told that the email was sent to the addresses on the recreation program notification data base and that this includes over 8,000 addresses that have asked to be notified about recreation programs and facility updates. Some of these folks do not live in Mt. Lebanon. 

OVER EIGHT THOUSAND ADDRESSES? The “recreation program notification database” solely belongs to the Municipality for Municipality specific use and it was used to benefit the Soccer Association, the Lacrosse Association and the Endowment, which are all third party independent organizations.

Finally, I would like to share an email exchange, which was a followup to Rep. Miller's meeting. I do hope changes are made as a result of my meeting.

TOTALLY INAPPROPRIATE!

My mailbox is being flooded with emails complaining about the eblast that was just sent. This is totally inappropriate, using municipal email/resources to raise private funds for a private field. It is my understanding that Sandy Kyper works in the Recreation Department with David Donnellan.

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Sandy Kyper" <skyper@mtlebanon.org>
Date: April 10, 2014 at 1:18:27 PM EDT
To: skyper@mtlebanon.org
Cc: ddonnellan@mtlebanon.org, lwuycheck@mtlebanon.org, pcannon@mtlebanon.org,skyper@mtlebanon.org
Subject: Mt. Lebanon Field Improvement Project

Subject: Mt. Lebanon Field Improvement Project

As you may know, the Mt. Lebanon Commission approved a plan to install artificial turf at Wildcat and Middle Fields, and allocated approximately $750,000 towards the completion of this important field improvement project.

Adding artificial turf at this location will undoubtedly benefit all of our community recreation and athletic programs, from youth soccer, lacrosse and baseball all the way up through our varsity high school programs; and it will create the opportunity for some much-anticipated adult league play.

The funds allocated by the Commission are conditioned upon a non-municipal, private contribution of approximately $250,000. Through the generosity of Mt. Lebanon's various youth sports associations, over $100,000 has been raised so far.

If you would like to make a TAX DEDUCTIBLE donation to the Turf Project Fund, donations will be received and held by the Mt. Lebanon Community Endowment. Please visit the link below to make your tax deductible contribution online:

 http://www.mtlebanonendowment.org/contributions/field-improvement-project/

The deadline for contributions is May 13, 2014.

Mt. Lebanon, are you going to tolerate this? Why are we allowing it to continue? This project is a WANT by Dave Brumfield, Dave Franklin, and David Donnellan.

OK, Dan, only 'cause I like you...

I am going to attempt to explain what happened tonight with the recreation bond.  Dan, Dave, David, Bill, and Dave, help me out here if I don't get it completely straight.  It was a long night and they were nice enough to stay after the meeting to try to explain it to me.

At the Discussion Session, we heard a presentation from Steve Diaz where he proposed a business offer to look at ways to get funding from the government and public/private partnerships.  All five commissioners were present for this proposal. I know how much he wanted per hour, but it was never discussed at the meeting, so I am not sure if I can disclose that here.  Let me just say that it was a crap load of money.  How am I doing so far, guys?

OK, Discussion Session is over and Joe DeIuliis high tails out just before the Commission meeting is ready to begin.  It is time for the vote for the resolution for the rec bond.  Dan Miller explained that the resolution was a compromise for the community.  He had made a passionate speech about the whole process including working on the pool project with Joe D., the years of research that were behind this resolution, and incorporating different suggestions made along the way. I believe Dan was sincere.  Dave and Bonnie also explained why they were behind the bond.  I will put the meeting online as soon as I can so that you can hear their thoughts.  Joe, of course was history.  I guess he was thinking votes.  Then Matt explained why he was not for the bond.  He wanted to pursue obtaining a line of credit from another bank which he felt had more to offer when PNC advised against obtaining a line of credit.  It was a very heated discussion.  Then came the vote.  Here is where it gets confusing.  The resolution passed 3-1.  But the bond issue is dead. In order to pass a bond, there must be four votes for it to pass.  So no pool improvements, even though it was Joe's project, no McNeilly fields, no improvements anywhere - not for the golf course, the Rec Center, existing fields.  Nothing.  It was a package deal. While I was against developing McNeilly Park, I had said many times that we need to fix what we have, including the fields we have, the pool, and the Rec Center, and that is not happening either.  According to those who stayed after the meeting, the time was right for this bond. 
Dan asked me to write about this and ask the question, was this the right decision for the community?  So there it is.  Was this the right decision for the community?


Update: Dan Miller's blog Compromise Rec Resolution Defeated,
 Podcast of meeting

Coffee with the manager and rec staff, Part 2

I thanked the Recreation Department for their new policy regarding background checks for volunteers who work with children.  Dave Donnellan mentioned that the Municipality had invested in new software that shortens the process to 2-3 days and only costs $18 per background check. I added how I was hoping the School District would adopt a similar policy.  As Steve Feller pointed out, many of the volunteers coach more than one sport or activity.  They will be contacting the School District, if they haven't already, to work together on this issue.