Philip Bianco Memorial Scholarship

Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight

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

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

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

December 12, 2016 at 11:10 PM

I contacted the ACLU and received this reply:

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

 

Info

ACLU of Pennsylvania

PO Box 60173

Philadelphia, Pa 19102

p: 215-592-1513

www.aclupa.org

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

Thanks, Kristen Linfante, for the sage advice.

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

Very weary

This anonymous comment really got me down:

"Are you saying that Elaine should not have to contribute at all to her defense? You say that she has not received donations to cover round I. Should other people pay for her entire defense? I think she has received enormous financial support from her gofundme effort. People are getting tired of her constant demands for money. 

As far as I know, Amy Castor did not have a gofundme and did not ask anyone for money. I think she spent thousands out of her own pocket.

Elaine CHOSE to pursue this case against the municipality. Amy was dragged into it. Either way, people need to take responsibility for their own actions.

I wish Elaine well and am grateful for her efforts. But she needs to stop laying the financial burden (which you concede is at a very drastic reduced cost) on others.

If people want to contribute to Amy's financial recovery, maybe they could send her a check via her lawyer.

March 31, 2016 at 8:26 PM"

First of all, I was not charged with anything. No citations were issued. I did not commit any crimes or charged with anything. My sin is that the PA Office of Open Records ruled that the information is public, so Mt. Lebanon must comply and provide the information that I requested. Twice. Mt. Lebanon decided to appeal and in so doing, I had to hire an attorney to fight for my rights, all of our rights. 

I have received financial support from thirty people, twenty-two of them are readers of this blog.  I was so discouraged to read the above comment, since I have been maintaining this blog for over four years, and my website will be five years old on April 24. I started these sites to inform our community of the happenings - both good and bad, and to provide a forum so that people have an opportunity to express their opinions. I went from requiring names to accepting anonymous comments. The trolls got the best of me, so I changed the blog to invited readers only. 

In the time that I have had these sites, I have had unexpected visitors at my door, was bullied by "He Who Shall Not Be Named" - also an unexpected visitor, threatened with two lawsuits, and was forced to hire an attorney to protect my assets. Yes, that was my choice, but I don't think that my children should pay the price for their mother expecting transparency from our local governments.

The "hearing" is going to be held on Monday, April 11 in room 705 (7th floor) of the City County Building at 10:00. It will be nothing like the cattle call that Amy Castor had to sit through. This is for the Mt. Lebanon v Gillen litigation only. It is open to the public, so I am hoping to see some friendly and supportive faces there. 

Sorry 8:26 PM, here is where I ask for money. If you haven't contributed and have relied on my website and/or blog for information over the years, please consider contributing to my fund. https://www.gofundme.com/thefightforthertk 

A little bird told me...

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

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

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

"Sharpshooting" is a go

The vote was 3-2. Bendel, Silverman, and McLean voted for "sharpshooting."

After the meeting, a resident asked Chief Lauth what we should do if we see or hear anything concerning that's related to this sharpshooting program. He said without a doubt call 911. Do NOT e-mail. He said he was very emphatic with his officers that any and all complaints that come in to 911 must be recorded. I know it's tempting to keep those complaints to ourselves, but please don't. Make the call.

Terms of the "sharpshooting" contract:

Private properties 7 days per week, shooting starts after 4 PM
Public properties 5 days per week, shooting starts after 6 PM
Public properties are McNeilly, Golf Course, Robb Hollow, and behind Public Works

[Didn't Keith McGill promise the Goddard School that there will be no sharpshooting?]

Apparently, Tony DeNicola was unaware of the Gun Free School Zone Act when he submitted his proposal. (Here we go again with our GPS equipment and Google maps.) He is looking for more private properties. Could my case be having a chilling effect? This might be an opportune time to mention this:



Baiting cannot start until after archery season is over. It is illegal to hunt over bait. Baiting will start January 24, 2016 and gunshots will begin February 1, 2016.

The PG reports Mt. Lebanon to use sharpshooters to cull deer along with this photo. Check out where this photo was taken.

Mt. Lebanon Commission approves sharpshooting program

Update January 13, 2016 9:56 AM My latest email exchange with the commission. Only received one response.

From: Kelly Fraasch <kfraasch@mtlebanon.org>
To: egillen476 <egillen476@aol.com>
Sent: Wed, Jan 13, 2016 9:31 am
Subject: Re: Sled riding

It will continue along with sharpshooting beginning Feb 1st.

Kelly 

Sent from Kelly's iPhone, please excuse typos or auto-corrections. 

On Jan 12, 2016, at 4:29 PM, 'egillen476@aol.com' via Commission <commission@mtlebanon.org> wrote:

Commissioners,

Looking outside my window, there are around six kids sled riding in Rockwood 
Park. Sunset for today is 5:14 PM. Archery will be taking place at the golf course today until 5:44 PM. 

Are you going to continue archery at the golf course or are you going to act responsibly and end the archery program at the golf course now?

Elaine Gillen

Update January 13, 2016 8:26 PM

From: Keith Mcgill <kmcgill@mtlebanon.org>
To: egillen476 <egillen476@aol.com>
Cc: Commission <commission@mtlebanon.org>
Sent: Wed, Jan 13, 2016 8:21 pm
Subject: Re: Citizen Comments

Good evening Elaine,

Julie did tell me this earlier today. We were having some server issues last night. We almost delayed the start of the discussion agenda but Nick Schalles was able to correct the issue and then apparently during the 10 minutes you are referring to we had another separate issue.

The recording equipment for the Commission meetings was budgeted for an upgrade in this year's budget and the new equipment should be installed in the next week or two.

I am not sure if the audio can be recovered. I.T. is aware of the missing audio and is looking into if it can be recovered.

Keith

On Wed, Jan 13, 2016 at 8:10 PM, egillen476@aol.com <egillen476@aol.com> wrote:

Commissioners,

Are you aware that about ten minutes of audio are missing during the January 12, 2016 Citizen Comments? The sound died during Lourdes Castallanos' comments. About ten minutes go by before the audio portion of the meeting returns. 

Interestingly enough, I was not able to hear Jason Margolis call out Susan Morgans for intentionally misleading the public as learned through RTKs.

Are those comments lost forever? It is unfortunate that I was not there with my little recorder as I was on August 15 and August 17, recording Jody Maddock's archery infomercials and making the only podcasts available to the public.

Elaine Gillen

--

Keith McGill, AICP
Municipal Manager/Municipal Planner
412-343-3684
kmcgill@mtlebanon.org 

More RTKs coming tomorrow

That is after I write checks for $67.75 and $7.50. The municipality has quite a gig going on here. They don't have to be transparent unless someone requests information. Then they can charge 25¢ per page of information. How many hundreds of dollars have I spent on RTKs? Too much. THEN Mt. Lebanon can appeal the Office of Open Records' decisions and I pay again!

Which leads me to my court case. The attorneys are meeting on Thursday with the judge to discuss scheduling. I could really use some help with the costs.

Please consider contributing to my gofundme drive. I have already written a check for half of the legal costs and the municipality isn't doing me any favors on RTK fees. The $7.50 is for all emails that Coleen Vuono sent to ME! I'll be sharing everything after I pick up the requested information tomorrow - after I pay their $75.25.

Served! UPDATED

No drama. Just happened to look out my front door today and a very large envelope/package was sitting on my front porch, like when telephone books are delivered. No door bell rung. No sheriff. Nothing. I was hoping to give a pleasant Merry Christmas, but I was denied the opportunity.

Municipality of Mt. Lebanon vs Gillen

Mt. Lebanon served me when there are two - three day holidays in the twenty days that I have to respond. Nice people.