The new buzz word for 2011

2010 Word of the Year    Fear mongering
2011 Word of the Year    Vitriol

David Reese used it in his email to me.  It also appears in some anonymous comments here on Lebo Citizens.  What did the teachers tell us in vocabulary class?  "Use a new word ten times and it becomes your own."  What number are we at?

Here is an email exchange from Commissioner Brumfield concerning Dave Reese's letters to me.
  

On Sep 12, 2011 12:30 PM, <egillen476@aol.com> wrote:
 Is this a threat?
 Elaine

From: david brumfield

To: egillen476 Sent: Mon, Sep 12, 2011 12:43 pm
Subject: Re: Fwd: Good morning!

Elaine,
I do not see a threat but I would recommend not circulating emails people sent you in which they explicitly deny you the right to forward. I do not believe any legal obligation is created but I would tell a client not to invite the trouble.
All that said I do not believe any of your posts are improper. My issue comes with some of the responses. You for the most part post reported facts. Unfortunately, at times those posts are high-jacked by people who favor vitriol and rhetoric over facts and discussion. I have never found you guilty of such behavior nor do I expect you to be able to stop it.
I just hope overtime we are able to return civility soon.
Thanks
Dave

On Sep 13, 2011 2:24 PM, <egillen476@aol.com> wrote:

Hi Dave,
You just don't see it, I 'm sure, but don't you think you described Dave Reese's email as something coming from a person "who favors vitriol and rhetoric over facts and discussion?"
See you tonight.
Elaine

From: david brumfield

To: egillen476

Sent: Tue, Sep 13, 2011 2:53 pm
Subject: Re: Good morning!

Elaine,
I have a slightly different standard for a private email than a public communication.  I would agree that it was at best a testy email and may have been angry.  I just believe that more latitude is given in private communication.
Dave

 

Dave,
Thank you for clarifying when it is appropriate to be rude, hostile, and by my feelings, threatening. I do hope the Chief talks with him about it and doesn't justify Dave Reese's behavior as you have.  Sorry, but I don't see the difference, public or private.

See you in a bit.

Elaine

Bullying is nothing new here in Lebo.  See the April 2009 BlogLebo archive for how crazy it gets around election time with athletic supporters or see this:http://bloglebo.blogspot.com/2009_04_01_archive.html

Here is a post on Civility.

http://bloglebo.blogspot.com/2008/12/civil-and-civic-disobedience.html
The comments are nice too.

Lack of civil discourse?

I read with horror Daniel Rothschild’s letter to the editor in the PG entitled, “Mt. Lebanon investments.” http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11258/1174689-55-0.stm  In his letter to the editor, Dan is responding to David Reese’s letter to the editor, “Suburban jewel town loses its luster.”  Dan writes:

I share Mr. Reese's concerns about the lack of civil discourse not only in Mt. Lebanon, but also in American society. One need only look to our elected officials in Washington to see how often people talk at each other, not with each other.Mr. Reese uses examples of uncivil tones in local blogs in our community. I would suggest that blogs have some similarities to cable news channels. Each is influenced by the personality of the author. Just as there are cable news channels some people would prefer not to watch, so, too, they can choose to avoid those blogs that are not civil. However, the right of free speech is one of the foundations of a strong community.

I received two personal emails from David Reese on Monday, September 12.  Both were hostile in tone, to the point that I felt threatened.  I was forced to forward them to the Commission since I had no email address to forward to the police department. Two of the commissioners gave me Chief McDonough’s email address (cmcdonough@mtlebanon.org).  Chief McDonough gave me a non-emergency email for the police department, but warned me that it is only read during business hours and may not be answered until the next business day.  Here is the email address for

NON-EMERGENCY email. mlpdmgt@mtlebanon.org

I hope that David Reese didn’t send an email to Dan Rothschild about his blog too.  It took awhile to get to Dan Rothschild’s message, but as he wrote, “The right of free speech is one of the foundations of a strong community.”

Since I don't get the Almanac anymore...

I am reprinting this article in its entirety. The Almanac doesn't archive its articles for any length of time, but here is the link for now. ML school project on track for October rebid

9/14/2011 

ML school project on track for October rebid

By Nick Lewandowski For The Almanac writer@thealmanac.net

The Mt. Lebanon school board again heard from the design team for its high school renovation project Sept. 12. Architect Tom Celli said revised drawings were received Sept. 9 and that they were "99 percent there," estimating the project would be ready to bid by early October. The redesign features some $16 million in cost savings, and will be bid to seven multiple prime contractors, including a general contractor. Other contractors will handle mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection and asbestos abatement. The seventh is a casework team assigned to assist the general contractor with managing architecture.
Celli described the impact of the design changes as "so minimal as to be inconsequential."
Though the redesigned building will not obtain LEED Silver certification (a sustainability rating administered by the U.S. Green Building Council), the resulting loss of energy efficiency is expected to be relatively minor.
The redesigned school will also qualify for less reimbursement from the state, though it is difficult to determine an exact figure given the number of variables involved in the calculation.

A rough estimate from director of fiscal services Jan Klein put the figure at about $12.5 million, down from the original $14.4 million. Celli-Flynn Brennan and construction manager P.J. Dick will spend the next month double-checking their numbers regarding cost savings and energy use. According to Celli's tentative timeline, the district can then advertise for bids Oct. 11 and open them Nov. 22, finally breaking ground in January 2012.
The high school project is still set to last three and a half years, ending in July 2015, though the academic buildings will likely be finished several months before that.
A point of contention remains the structure of add and deduct alternates specified in the bid documents. Deduct alternates are items that can be removed from the project if bids come in high. Add alternates are just the opposite: elements that can be included should there be funds to spare.
In this case, the tennis courts and an auxiliary gym are currently listed as deduct alternates, the school's rifle range as an add.
Board member Dan Remely was in favor of making all three of those items add alternates, arguing a contractor will quote a fairer price to add an item than for one built into the base bid.
"I don't want to leave profit sitting on the table," he said. "I'm not trying to fund anyone's retirement with this project. I want to know where I'm taking taxpayer money."
Board vice-president Dale Ostergaard was against the idea. He insisted neither the gym, nor tennis courts, nor rifle range should be on the list in the first place.
Mary Birks echoed his statements, saying, "this is not just a high school, it's also the crown jewel of our community in terms of having a community center. I can't promise I'll vote for something that's less than we have now."
Overall, a significant portion of the board indicated it might not support the project if the auxiliary gym or tennis courts had to be removed.
Architect Celli insisted the debate was premature, that the board needed to wait to see the bids. He also argued contractors would bid deduct alternates as aggressively as adds to have a better shot at a larger pool of funds.
"I think it's time to build a building," he said. "Let's go do it."

1 comments Of course Celli said... : 9/14/2011
"Let's go do it." So easy to spend other people's money! I certainly hope Ostergard and Birks stick to their guns should the bids come in over the limit again. It is too bad the bids won't be in pre-election so we can determine whom to get rid of!
Taxpayer

Doing our homework

Last night’s Commission Discussion Session was a revelation. I learned that there is nothing in the Home Rule Charter to protect us from electing commissioners with a criminal record. 

Home Rule Charter

Section 305. Qualifications of Commissioners

At the time of election or appointment, a Commissioner shall be a citizen of the United States, shall be at least twenty-five (25) years of age, shall have been a registered voter in the Municipality for at least two (2) years immediately prior to election, and shall be a bona fide resident of the ward from which elected.

The Commissioners recommended that we do our homework before we cast our votes. The disturbing part of this statement is that voters in Wards 2, 3, 4, and 5 are counting on the voters in Ward 1, for example, to do their research.  Once elected, the Home Rule Charter states:

Section 306. Authority

All Commission authority shall be asserted by the Commissioners as a body only.

In simpler terms, what happens in Ward 1 doesn’t stay in Ward 1.  Whew!  Talk about pressure!!!

So, how do we do our homework?  Google?  Criminal records don’t show up using Google. For magisterial dockets, one must search here: http://ujsportal.pacourts.us/DocketSheets/MDJ.aspx

For Criminal Courts of Common Pleas dockets: http://ujsportal.pacourts.us/DocketSheets/CP.aspx

Appellate Courts:

http://ujsportal.pacourts.us/DocketSheets/Appellate.aspx

But we are advised that, “Docket sheet information should not be used in place of a criminal history background check.” 

Now what?  Who is responsible for running a criminal history background check?  The parties?  Clearly, that didn’t happen.  Should there be something in the Home Rule Charter that the individual must be able to pass a criminal history background check?  If so, how long? Five years? Ten years?  What convictions are acceptable?

The bottom line is that we must be mindful of all candidates running.  Once elected, they govern all of us, regardless of ward.

Commission says to let voters decide

There was quite a discussion tonight during the Commission Discussion Session held before the regular meeting concerning arrests and convictions of candidates.  The Commission has no say when it comes to candidates, but they do when it comes to boards and committees.  Solicitor Phil Weis, Marcia Taylor, Susan Morgans, and Chief McDonough all participated in the discussion with the Commissioners and Steve Feller.

Commissioner Bonnie VanKirk said that the political parties are to vet their candidates. I don't know who is responsible for the Democratic Committee, but Commissioner Joe DeIuliis does that for the Republican Committee here in Mt. Lebanon.  He was unable to attend tonight's meeting.

President Dan Miller stressed how important it is to know the candidates. We all need to do our homework before we vote.

Update September 14, 2011 6:52 p.m. Dan Miller contacted me to say that he "asked the solicitor to check into a couple of things to flesh out the discussion last night."  To be continued...

The poll is closed. The results are in.

"The School Board Members Should All Resign." Do you agree?

137 Yes they ALL need to go.
40 Not completely. Some of them need to go.
31 They are doing a fine job.

Total: 208 votes

Will we see this in Posti's report tonight?

Last night, I received an email from Josephine Posti. Here is my response, which includes her original email. Again, I become the issue. Before you ask, the joke was about teaching math through history that is going around globally. Mary Birks' reaction is for a future post.

Josephine Posti,

If you listen to the five minute podcast on my blog, I never once accused you of plagiarism.  I was very careful to say that you had not cited your sources. I purposely avoided that word when I mentioned that Tom Moertel came up with 11 examples where you did not quote your sources.  It was Policy Chair Lebowitz who said that I "was making allegations of Mrs. Posti allegedly committing plagiarism." (3:54 on the recording)

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B9r_1biKte_bZmQzYTFhMWUtNjY4Ny00ZmQwLTk1OTEtYjI4ZWI4ZTVhMDIy&sort=name&layout=list&num=50

I guess I can make the same statement. The accusations you've made about me are serious, potentially defamatory and incorrect. 

Elaine Gillen

-----Original Message-----
From: Josephine C. Posti <JPosti@mtlsd.net>
To: egillen476 <egillen476@aol.com>; commission <commission@mtlebanon.org>; School Board Email list <SchoolBoardEmaillist@mtlsd.net>
Sent: Sun, Sep 11, 2011 7:23 pm
Subject: RE: What is Mt. Lebanon turning into?

Mrs. Gillen,

The accusations you've made about me are serious, potentially defamatory and incorrect.  I've spoken to three attorneys, including our solicitor, an English professor, my management team and a number of Board members and District staff and none of them identify my inadvertent lack of citation as plagiarism.  Plagiarism involves taking credit for someone else's work, doing it without their permission and receiving a grade or compensation in return.  I didn't do that.  I've apologized for my lack of citation and corrected the error.

This email seems to be your defensive response to the reaction you got from one of my fellow Board members on Friday when you sent us an extremely offensive joke that is derogatory toward children with special needs, English learners and education in general.  Her reaction is shared by each Board member I've spoken to; we each found it to be distasteful.  If you're not getting the reaction you anticipated, perhaps the message is being distorted and a cup of coffee might help clarify your intent.  I sincerely would welcome the opportunity to meet with you to gain a better understanding of your concerns.  My experience has been that conversations are much more effective in helping someone understand your point of view rather than name-calling and leaking documents and emails and that we are at our best when we seek common ground.  Consider it.  We both may learn something.

Best regards,

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

---

From: egillen476@aol.com [egillen476@aol.com]
Sent: Saturday, September 10, 2011 12:08 AM
To: commission@mtlebanon.org; School Board Email list
Subject: What is Mt. Lebanon turning into?

Dear Commissioners and School Board Directors,

I have emailed you at various times about situations that were embarrassing moments for the community.  We have a commissioner that lied about paying his taxes and yet voted on issues that affected all of us. We have a school board president who apologizes for not citing all her sources and the school board does nothing about it, yet all vote on policies that affect our students.  We have a candidate for Ward 1 who thinks nothing of running for commissioner and has a criminal record.  And now we have a swimming coach who is charged with leaving his five and seven year old children alone in a car.  Yet, when I bring up these situations, I become the issue.  Why is that? 

Must you create new policies or update our comprehensive plan for our leaders, or at some point, should our leaders take responsibility for their actions?

Elaine Gillen

Update 9:25 a.m. Bill Matthews submitted an excellent letter to the boys over on Blog-Lebo. School Board should learn from mistakes, reflect upon role Here is the link to Policy GBEE, which is up for discussion at tonight's meeting. Policy GBEE Student Communications Now, the School Board wants the teachers to do as they say, not as they do.

An open letter to our leaders

This was sent to the Commission and school board directors.

Dear Commissioners and School Board Directors,

I have emailed you at various times about situations that were embarrassing moments for the community.  We have a commissioner who lied about paying his taxes and yet voted on issues that affected all of us. We have a school board president who apologized for not citing all of her sources and the school board does nothing about it, yet all vote on policies that affect our students.  We have a candidate for Ward 1 who thinks nothing of running for commissioner and has a criminal record.  And now we have a swimming coach who is charged with leaving his five and seven year old children alone in a car.  Yet, when I bring up these situations, I become the issue.  Why is that? 

Must you create new policies or update our comprehensive plan Home Rule Charter for our leaders, or at some point, should our leaders take responsibility for their actions?

Elaine Gillen

Update September 13, 2011 4:20 p.m. Mt. Lebanon suspends coach accused of leaving kids in car

Is this the same T. Michael Brown?

An anonymous packet arrived in my mailbox today. The cover letter summarized a litany of citations for a "T. Michael Brown."  The letter goes on to say that this individual is the same T. Michael Brown who is running for Commissioner in Ward 1 of Mt. Lebanon.  I have scanned all the documentation and am presenting it here. T. Michael Brown Dockets Do these documents belong to the same municipal candidate, T. Michael Brown?

Update September 9, 2011 10:47 a.m. More information has surfaced.  These are criminal dockets from the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County.

Update September 9, 2011 1:41 p.m. This was just sent to me.  Brown Someone did his or her homework before letting me know about it.

Update September 10, 2011 6:35 p.m. T. Michael Brown nomination petitions

According to mtl Magazine

A recent post on mtl's Facebook:

mtl -- Mt. Lebanon Magazine

How many Mt. Lebanon households have kids 18 and younger? The 2010 census says 4,238 or 29.9 percent of our households. They shall be doing the victory dance on Monday when school is back in session! Source (and for more census data): http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=DEC_10_DP_DPDP1&prodType=table. August 25 at 2:02pm

As David Reese wrote in a PG article and later reprinted in the Almanac, 

Families with children are clearly a minority of homeowners now, and there is an "older demographic" in the community.

Seventy percent of Mt. Lebanon households have no children 18 and younger.  Does this really warrant spending $3 million plus on more ball fields? Can any of our tax money ever go for recreation for the 70%? How many six year old girls are actually being told that there aren't fields available?  What about the five year olds? We can't be all things to all people.

In other news, Keystone Oaks is meeting tonight to present and consider a school consolidation plan. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11251/1172872-55-0.stm 

The district's fact sheet noted also that a demographic study done by the state education department and a Carnegie Mellon demographer showed that 80 percent of residents don't have children in district schools and a high percentage are elderly and living on fixed incomes, making tax hikes untenable.

Don't let this get out

On Tuesday, September 6, 2011, the PSBA (Pennsylvania School Boards Association) published a list of school districts known to have adopted a wage freeze for administrators, teachers, and/or staff. http://www.psba.org/news-publications/headlines/details.asp?id=1767 Here in Mt. Lebanon, the school board (I stopped capitalizing those words) just approved a nice increase for our superintendent which included a salary increase and added vacation benefits. As of 10:00 this morning, last year's goals are still online. http://www.mtlsd.org/superintendent/goals.asp The 2010/2011 goals were not published until November 2010. Dr. Steinhauer's contract runs from July 1 to June 30. When his raise was approved, the school board indicated that they were still working on his goals.  Wasn't that a month ago?
While some school boards are adopting wage freezes, our directors are quick to hand out increases faster than establishing goals. Gee, this isn't a violation of Policy BDD, is it? 
Here is proof that we make up our own rules here in Mt. Lebanon. School entities statewide adopting PSBA Standards for Effective School Governance

Another little tidbit on the PSBA website is this New bills address superintendent contracts. Remember the Sable buyout?

Robb Hollow Park update and stormwater fee update

It looks like the Solicitor for the Municipality is keeping busy.  First, the Trib had instructions on how to declare the stormwater fee as unconstitutional. http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_754811.html

Also, the Friends of Robb Hollow Park sent out an update which I am printing below.  To grind or not to grind (and I am not talking about skateboarding here,) that is the question. Please read to the end of the letter.  I love the last two paragraphs.

Last night Friends of Robb Hollow Park’s Core Group were pleased to attend a meeting of the Parks Advisory Board. We shared information from the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources regarding the violation of Project 70 regulations limiting the use of Robb Hollow Park solely to recreation. This was apparently the first the Parks Advisory Board had heard of the violation.

 

Commissioner Brumfield informed the attendees that Mt. Lebanon has turned the matter of grinding in Robb Hollow Park over to their solicitor. Mt. Lebanon’s response to the DCNR’s letter is to try and pass this activity off as “conservation”. It is clear that our elected leaders are planning “business as usual” at this industrial production site in the Park.

 

The board members listened to our concerns about the health effects of the smog emitted by the Beast. They expressed frustration that many of the needs in the parks have been put aside due to a lack of money.

 

We heard a good bit of discussion regarding the proposed 3 Million dollar bond issue to create playing fields in Mc Neilly Park. We listened as Commissioner Brumfield spoke emotionally and sincerely about not wanting to be in the position of telling little six year old girls that they cannot play a sport this year due to a lack of availability of sport fields.

 

We wonder why the Mt. Lebanon Commissioners are comfortable telling our children that they cannot have the same quality of clean air that all other neighborhoods in Mt. Lebanon enjoy?

 

Mary D’Angelo

for Friends of Robb Hollow Park

Can your kid get away with this?

I went to the Policy Committee meeting today at 4:30.  It was nice to see Dr. Steinhauer recording the meeting which will be shared on the District website tomorrow.

I uploaded the entire podcast on the Lebocitizens website.  The meeting lasted about an hour.  I was the only resident again.  Matt Santoni, from the Trib, was also in attendance.

For the citizens comments and questions portion of the meeting - the last five minutes of the meeting, one of the things I brought up was the Posti/ plagiarism issue. I mentioned page 13 of the 2011-2012 Student & Parent Handbook which is supposed to be used as a current reference to the many school district policies, procedures, guidelines, rules and services that apply to the high school, according to Mr. Brian McFeeley, Principal.  Please listen to the last five minutes of the meeting, which I have provided here. My comments about Posti. Our kids are required to demonstrate academic integrity and are expected to refrain from academic dishonesty. They are to report any knowledge of such acts of others. So when I reported Posti's actions, I was wrong for doing it and was criticized by Posti. Larry Lebowitz considered them as allegations using his lawyer voice. The policy committee would not respond since it was not on the agenda and Mrs. Posti wasn't there to defend herself. I pointed out that none of the school board members reported this behavior and yet, they expect students to report this. Again, do as I say, not as I do.  I guess I am supposed to go to a school board meeting and bring it up there.  Then Posti can publicly humiliate me again. Then each Board member will say something like how disrespectful I am, or some such thing. Unfortunately, I work on Monday nights now, so I will not be able to give them the satisfaction of doing that.  We don't stand a chance, Folks.  I feel really sorry for the kids.

62+ days until Election Day

Steve Diaz, guest writer on this blog, has submitted another post. This time, it is out of respect for the 4,000 people who signed the petition to cap the renovation project at $75 million. The following pledge is for school board members, commissioners and candidates.  Since no one seems to be campaigning with just 62 plus days to go, this pledge written by Steve Diaz might be a good start.  And for the incumbents, the current poll shows 67% of voters feel that ALL school board directors should resign. Only 25 votes (13%) out of 186 total voters feel that the school board is doing a fine job.

A Pledge for Public Service:

As an informed citizen, I hereby call upon every elected official of the Municipality of Mt. Lebanon and the Mt. Lebanon School District, and all candidates for such office, to publicly agree to be bound by the following principles of open representative government:

MT. LEBANON OFFICE HOLDER/CANDIDATE PLEDGE OF RESPECT FOR CONSTITUENTS

As an elected official of the Mt. Lebanon School Board, or of the Municipality of Mt. Lebanon, or as a candidate for a seat on the Mt. Lebanon School Board or the Council of the Municipality of Mt. Lebanon, I pledge that my public service will be dedicated to the following principles:

1.  It is my duty to give due and patient consideration to the substance of constituent sentiment on all matters of policy and taxation.

2.  It is my duty to provide a civil, respectful, and thoughtful response to every constituent communication, whether or not I agree with the points of view expressed by my constituents.

3.  It is my duty to be forthright, complete, honest, accurate, and fair in every communication I have with my constituents.

4.  It is my duty to be clear and consistent with my constituents as to my position on all issues, and to be honest, forthright, and timely when I deem it desirable to change my position on public matters.

5.  It is my duty to conduct myself at all times in an open and transparent manner, avoiding meetings with other public officials in circumstances that are likely to hide from public scrutiny my actions and purposes.

6.  It is my duty to assure that meetings at which public business is conducted or decided are open, transparent, duly noticed, and scheduled so as to maximize the opportunity of the public to attend, observe, and/or participate.

7.  It is my duty to fully disclose all information that I reasonably believe is of interest to my constituents and to assure full disclosure and full public knowledge of how official business is conducted.

8.  It is my duty to assure that intergovernmental meetings and coordination are fully open and transparent in a timely manner to my constituents.

9.  It is my duty to seek redress from appropriate authorities for all acts of fraud, waste, abuse, or unethical, illegal, or improper conduct by public officials and employees in the course of my official duties.

10.  It is my duty to consider and avoid any unnecessarily negative impact on the economic welfare of my constituents, including taxation.

11.  It is my duty to speak out against and to actively oppose all attempts to limit diversity of opinion by official policy or action, formal or informal.

12.  It is my duty to insist upon compliance with these principles by the body to which I am elected, and to hold my colleagues accountable to these principles as well.

I ask each person holding or seeking public office in this Municipality or this School District to subscribe to these principles by giving their written concurrence, thereby indicating their commitment to constituent service and respect.  I would hope that all members of the Council and the School Board, and all candidates for seats on these bodies will subscribe to these basic democratic principles now and in the future.

Respectfully.  Steve Diaz

Private Joint Steering meetings need to stop

The following email exchange was sent to me for posting on Lebo Citizens by David Huston.

From: David Huston
To: bvankirk@mtlebanon.org
CC: dbrumfield@mtlebanon.org; commission@mtlebanon.org; schoolboard@mtlsd.net
Subject: RE: Your quotes in the trib
Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2011 13:07:07 +0000

Bonnie,
  Thanks for getting back to me and asking a key follow-up question. Mt. Lebanon has a long history of private Joint Steering meetings. Private Joint Steering meetings may have been allowed before the Sunshine Act was enacted, but they are not permitted now. I will attempt to shed some light on the history with newspaper reports, blog posts and school board minutes. I have included the commission and school board on this for full disclosure. Members of the public are welcome to review this message and comment.

From http://www.post-gazette.com/neigh_south/20030507s19bigbucks0507p2.asp P-G 07-MAY-2003:

"Leaders of the two boards meet quarterly in a private session called a Joint Steering meeting
at which finances are always a topic, school board President Skip Kasky said."

Don't you see something fundamentally wrong with the quote? If taxpayer money
is a topic of discussion, the public must be allowed to comment and attend the meeting.

From http://www.postgazette.com/pg/06292/731034-55.stm P-G 19-OCT-2006:

This quote highlights the way the school board does business.

"In March, the commission decided not to pursue any more such appeals and not to fight any
appeals filed by residents or Mr. Onorato's office seeking to lower those assessments.

Even though the commissioners' decision was reported in the Post-Gazette in March, school

directors said they were not aware of it until a Joint Steering committee of the school directors

and commissioners was held in late August. Shortly afterward, the school board decided to hire

the firm Diversified Municipal Services to represent the school board at appeal hearings."

The school board used taxpayer money to fund a legal attack against the taxpayers for
higher assessments to collect more tax money. Theoretically, this approach could be used in an iterative technique to challenge assessments indefinitely even if the assessments are ratcheted up beyond what is reasonable. Clearly, the school board attempted to use the private joint steering committee to strong-arm the commission into approving the use of municipal funds to help finance the services of Diversified Municipal Services. When the municipality announced their decision not to appeal taxpayer assessments, the school board ignored it, then moved to appeal taxpayer assessments on its own after meeting privately with the commission.
This maneuver enabled the school board to fabricate a story that the commission would
not cooperate with funding the appeals but the same municipality would benefit from
the windfall generated. The school board could say it came to the table in good faith,
but the commission stepped away from the talks, and the public would be none the wiser.
I am worried this scenario could happen again with the 2012 assessments, aren't you?

From http://www.mtlsd.org/district/stuff/october%2020,%202008%20board%20meeting%20summary.pdf SBM 20-OCT-2008:

You may be aware that the high school small-bore rifle range is not suitable for police use.
If the joint steering committee meeting was public, the commission could have been advised
by members of the public the rifle range could not be used by the police.
The range has been in place for decades, yet Mr. Silhol presented his offer for sharing the range
at the joint steering committee meeting not open to the public. Mr. Silhol should have known better because he graduated from Mt. Lebanon high school some years ago, and was familiar with the high school facility. Currently, the rifle range for just small-bore rifle use is a delete alternate with the high school
renovation and may not be included in the final design at all. It is a good thing the municipality didn't promise to fund the range because the school district would have diverted that money to something like off-budget kitchen equipment instead. I would have liked to see the commission's presentation for the sports fields. More details regarding the McNeilly property discussions would be helpful at this time.

From http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_717864.html T-R 13-JAN-2011:

"Joint Steering – Mr. Silhol reported that he and the superintendent attended the Mt. Lebanon

Commissioner’s meeting in October where they spoke in support of an office for a police officer

in the high school, and shared use of the rifle range with the Mt. Lebanon Police. A presentation

was made by the commission of various alternatives for baseball and soccer fields."

Clearly the public was kept in the dark about this matter that should have been
subject to sunshine review. Tax dollars are used to maintain both municipal and school
district properties, so the taxpayers should have been able to comment and attend.This quote by Ms. Posti indicates the private meetings were not effective in hashing
out all the details, and she would have preferred additional private discussions.
Ms. Posti also discounted the public comment made at the commission meeting
as interfering with government actions. She neglected to mention that she could
have commented at the same municipal meeting, representing the school board as president.
Allowing the public to comment at the Joint Steering committee
meeting would have permitted the district to respond to public comments.

From http://www.yoursouthhills.com/newslinks/mt-lebanon-officials-wont-agree-closed-meetings SHR 17-FEB-2011:Why did Mr. Brumfield, against the solicitor's advice and commission vote, go ahead and participate in the Joint Steering committee meeting? The article states Joint Steering committee meetings are executive sessions. When did the commission announce Brumfield had the executive session, as required by the Sunshine Act?
Even the school board failed to announce the Joint Steering committee was held in
executive session and provide the exceptions as required by the Sunshine Act.

From http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_723014.html T-R 17-FEB-2011, http://bloglebo.blogspot.com/2011/02/trib-mt-lebanon-officials-wont-agree-to.html 27-FEB-2011:

"Because the meetings would often involve legal agreements between the two bodies, [Ms. Posti]

said they'd be closed to the public until their recommendations are brought to

the respective boards for public discussion and approval."

"Though both sides worked together behind the scenes on the agreement,
some questions raised by the commissioners came just before they voted
on it, leaving no time for the district to respond"

"Commissioners Joe DeIuliis and Dave Brumfield initially agreed to serve on the "joint steering committee" with school board President Josephine Posti and Vice President Dale Ostergaard, who would meet in closed-door executive sessions to facilitate more freewheeling conversation and protect discussions of legal matters, Posti said. But commission President Dan Miller said last week the commissioners wouldn't join the meetings unless they were open."

How can Mr. Peterson justify saying members of a committee composed entirely of elected officials "lack any power to make ... recommendations?"
Clearly elected officials make recommendations all the time. It is their job. Does Mr. Peterson think he has more power than the school directors, so as long as he is present, the "Cones of Silence" are OK?What is worse, he overstepped his bounds and offered legal advice to the municipality. What other legal advice does Mr. Peterson give the municipality during closed-door meetings?
Is he saying current administrations are allowed to do something prohibited now, just because it was permitted in the past? 

"School district Solicitor Thomas Peterson said Sunshine laws did not apply

because the joint steering committee didn't represent a quorum for either the

municipality or the school district, and it lacked any actual power to make

legislation or recommendations. Since past administrations did not have to

make the committee meetings public, they didn't, he said."

"No meetings have been scheduled while the two sides work out the issue."

Mr. Santoni reported no meetings have been scheduled, even
though the meetings have occurred since he published his article.

From http://danmillerward5.com/joint-steering-meetings-with-school-board DMB 05-MAR-2011, http://bloglebo.blogspot.com/2011/03/will-school-board-choose-secrecy-or.html B-L 06-MAR-2011:
Why is Ms. Posti, who represents the school board as president,
conducting private Joint Steering committee meetings with
Mr. Brumfield after the commission voted not to participate in them?

From http://lebocitizens.blogspot.com/2011/03/update-on-joint-steering-committee.html LCB 09-MAR-2011:

"Upon hearing the Solicitor’s opinion in executive session, the

Commission decided unanimously to rescind our offer to participate

in private joint steering meetings and instead extended an offer for

public meetings to begin asap. Four Commissioners were present

at that time of this unanimous decision." - quote from Dan Miller's blog

Why did the Commission approve the Joint Steering committee meetings after the same Commission voted not to participate?

David Huston
 

"Commissioners DeIuliis and Brumfield are on board to represent the Commission once the School Board agrees to public Joint Steering Committee meetings."

> From: bvankirk@mtlebanon.org
> To: David Huston
> CC: dbrumfield@mtlebanon.org; Commission@mtlebanon.org
> Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:02:23 -0400
> Subject: Re: Your quotes in the trib
>
> David
> As I told you at the mtg last nite I didn't receive your original email.
> Thank you for your comments. They are always appreciated.
> Please clarify what you mean in your last sentence about the "private
> joint steering committee meetings". Don't know what you mean.
> Bonnie
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Aug 22, 2011, at 11:46 PM, "David Huston" wrote:
>
> > This is the email that did not get a response from anyone.
> >
> > From: David Huston
> > To: dbrumfield@mtlebanon.org
> > CC: commission@mtlebanon.org
> > Subject: Your quotes in the trib
> > Date: Thu, 18 Aug 2011 13:33:49 +0000
> >
> > Mr. Brumfield,
> > Regarding McNeilly park, your quote "The time was eight years ago"
> > does not factor in the previous Commission's vote against a bond to
> > improve the McNeilly park grading. You were not on the commission
> > then, yet you have the audacity to second-guess their decision now.
> >
> > Your other quote "The people who are the most hurt by a tax increase
> > are the same ones who would benefit most from increasing the values
> > of their homes."
> > is an insult to your constituents.
> > Are you guaranteeing my property value will increase after you decide
> > to increase my taxes and squander public money leveling a
> > public property with hilly terrain and a pool of standing water?
> >
> > In reality, the people who are most hurt by a tax increase are the
> > same ones who moved into Mt. Lebanon years ago, thinking they could afford the cost
> > of living based on the taxes at the time. Please explain why you think
> > we should pay tax increases that will exceed the rate of inflation.
> >
> > Please demonstrate, showing the arithmetic, that no money currently
> > used to fund storm sewer maintenance will be used for other purposes
> > after the rain tax is implemented.
> > I want to see the numbers.
> >
> > Please stop conducting private Joint Steering meetings against the Commission's wishes.
> >
> > David Huston