"A gift to this District"

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

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

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

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

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

A Portion of Cochran Road Closed

Cochran Road in Mt. Lebanon Closed For Fire

Former School Board president's PA Cyber connections prompts federal inquiry

Joe Rodella, former Mt. Lebanon school board president in 2008, is on the board of PA Cyber. His company, RoData, Inc., sold the school teleconferencing equipment for the facility. According to the Post Gazette's PA Cyber connections prompt federal inquiry, RoData's

president is Joseph Rodella who reported having a 40 percent interest in the firm on his financial disclosures filed with PA Cyber: Mt. Rodella was a PA Cyber board member from 2008 to 2011. 

The company did $4 million in work for PA Cyber from 2005 through this year.

I was not involved with the school district politics in 2008, but I understand Joe Rodella was president of our school board. That was also the year that YSA was let off the hook for their Joint Maintenance Agreement commitment.

The article continues with:

Using Costars is legal, Mr. Weiss said, but buying from RoData while Mr. Rodella was on the board "could not happen in a regular school district," he said. "Clearly, this is a problem, I think, under the Ethics Act."
The state Ethics Act bars public officials, including charter school board members, from using their offices to financially benefit themselves, immediate family or businesses with which they are associated.

Again, since I don't know Mr. Rodella, I did search his name on this blog and there were seven posts associated with him.  

Very sad news

Mt. Lebanon just lost a good guy.  Joe Wertheim passed away this evening. Joe was very active in the community. In November, Joe was one of the four write in candidates for school board. He was on the board of the Mt. Lebanon Library. The following is from Cynthia Richey:

I'm so sorry to let you know that Joe just died. The liver cancer was just too much.

He was a remarkable person: kind, generous, and with the biggest heart and a great spirit. He loved the library and all the Friends' activities, especially the Book Cellar. It's so very sad that his life was cut short. He still had so much to give the community. He had been the Friends' treasurer for many years before joining the library board about 13 years ago. He served 2 terms, and was President of the Library board. He then volunteered to be the Friends' President, which he was until the time of his death. A couple of years ago, he was appointed to theLibrary board again to fill an unexpired term, and had just been reappointed in April to another three-year term.

He will be sorely missed by many-- most of all our library family. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Elaine and son Ben.
I'll let you know when I hear about arrangements.
Cindy

Cynthia K. Richey, Director
Mt. Lebanon Public Library
16 Castle Shannon Blvd.
Pittsburgh, PA  15228-2252
412-531-1912 x211
direct: 412-942-0922
richeyc@einetwork.net
www.mtlebanonlibrary.org

School Board Agenda Part 4...Joint "Field" Agreement

There is too much going on with the August 13 agenda to have it all in one post, so I thought I would break it up into parts. Here's Part 4....Joint "Field" Agreement.

Joint Field Agreement Revision and Extension with Municipality and YSA – The Municipality and the YSA have been in discussion with the District concerning revision of the current agreement to account for fewer fields in play as a result of the construction at the high school. Also in discussion is the possible extension of the Joint Field Agreement for a six month period through the end of this calendar year recognizing that there are fewer fields for the youth sport groups to use. The proposed changes will be reviewed with the Board at the meeting.

First of all, it is the Joint Maintenance Agreement, not Joint Field Agreement. Extending the agreement for a six month period, as I interpret it, means extending the expired contract six more months. I am confused by their logic. If there are fewer fields for the youth sports groups to use, why are we extending it? And what about that minor detail called the $30,000 fee?

School Board Agenda Part 3...Considering an Act 93 agreement

There is too much going on with the August 13 agenda to have it all in one post, so I thought I would break it up into parts. Here's Part 3...Considering an Act 93 agreement.

Act 93 Administrative Agreement – The Board will be asked to consider an Act 93 agreement with the District’s administrators.

How many times are we going to see this? Wasn't this voted on previously? Was a 6.9% increase for Jan Klein not enough? Wasn't this agreement Josephine Posti's and Elaine Cappucci's baby?

School Board Agenda Part 2...Saving 2%

There is too much going on with the August 13 agenda to have it all in one post, so I thought I would break it up into parts. Here's Part 2...Saving 2%.

Treasurer’s Report – The treasurer’s report for the month of July reflects cash transactions which are quite typical for this time of year. The large collection of real estate taxes in July is due to residents paying bills to take advantage of the discount period saving 2% on their tax bills. About 87% of our residents take advantage of this payment option. July is also the first month utilizing our new bank accounts which is reflected in a number of accounts with zero balances. The new accounts are working as intended. The superintendent recommends approval of this report.

OK, maybe not worthy of a post, but since there was some discussion about spreading out the tax payments, I thought it was interesting that 87% of us take advantage of the discount period in order to save 2% on our taxes.

School Board Agenda Part 1...Change Order #002

There is too much going on with the August 13 agenda to have it all in one post, so I thought I would break it up into parts. Here's Part 1. Change Order #002

High School Project Change Order #GC-002: RESOLVED, That the Board approves Change Order #GC-002 dated July 24, 2012, to Nello Construction in the amount of $82,360.57 for the installation of Geofoam along the north and east perimeter walls in Building H in substantially the form presented.

We need to look up the amount of the first change order, so that we can keep a running total.

More on Commissioner Kelly Fraasch's plan

With Kelly Fraasch's presentation just a few days away, the Trib ran this article Official seeks support for rec spending.  Go to http://www.kellyfraasch.com/2012/08/01/recreation-in-mt-lebanon/ to read more about her comprehensive plan which was posted on August 1.

LeboALERT: School opens August 27

From:	LeboALERT <noreply@mtlebanon.org>
To:	EGillen476 <EGillen476@aol.com>
Subject:	LeboALERT: School opens August ...
Date:	Wed, Aug 8, 2012 12:03 pm

This is an important notice from LeboALERT.  

School opens August 27. For an update on traffic patterns around the high school construction site, visit www.lebomag.com or www.mtlsd.org.

Only problem is that there is nothing on the Mt. Lebanon School District website. Susan Morgans wrote a nice article about traffic patterns here at lebomag.com.  This proves that we really don't need two public information officers. 

Here we go again with School District Assessment Appeals UPDATED

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Judges rule to cap Mt. Lebanon police pension plan

In July 2006, thirteen Mt. Lebanon retired police officers and several active police officers went to their pension plan administrator over a grievance with the COLA cap, but the administrator denied the petition. It then went to the Commissioners, and then to the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, and finally to Commonwealth Court.

Commonwealth Court ruled the Mt. Lebanon police union's interpretation of COLA benefits violate Act 205, the Municipal Pension Plan Funding Standard and Recovery Act.

According to Judge Jubelirer, Mt. Lebanon's actuary, G. Herbert Loomis, testified that his cost estimate was based on a 15 percent COLA cap and that an analysis of a 90 percent COLA cap would have significantly increased the projected financial impact of the plan modification.

This ruling will save the municipality thousands of dollars a year.

Court disallows higher benefit for Mt. Lebanon police retirees

Lebo has a new swimming coach

According to The Almanac, Mt. Lebanon has a new swimming coach. Breaking up hard to do for swimming guru Donati (Saved in Google Docs). Tom Donati left Upper St. Clair to coach the high school teams as well as direct the Mt. Lebanon Aqua Club.

"Because he lives only a stone's throw away from the high school, Donati doesn't dread working in the community in which he resides. He wants to give back, he says. He wants to see the program return to the days when the Blue Devils dominated the waters, winning 12 WPIAL titles, nine for the boys and three for the girls."

Pittsburgh's first ReuseFest

Pittsburgh's first Reuse Festival will take place on Saturday, August 11, 2012 from 10 AM - 2 PM at the South Side Works. This event offers the public an opportunity to redirect their useful, but unwanted items to nine local organizations that can put them to new purpose. There is no fee to donate. Donors may simply drive up, complete a basic form and direct their items to the appropriate organization. There will be an information and activity section to the event if you are interested in learning more about
the various projects. More information is available at http://www.zerowastepgh.org/reuse

The organizations include: Global Links, Construction Junction, Off the Floor, Pittsburgh Center For Creative Reuse, Goodwill, FreeRide, Pittsburgh Tote Bag Project, and the Animal Rescue League. and the Pennsylvania Resources Council.

Animal Rescue League http://www.animalrescue.org; - Canned fruit or vegetables and shelled nuts except peanuts (for wildlife center), Blankets (both shelter and wildlife center), Dog and cat crates or carriers

Construction Junction http://www.constructionjunction.org; – Useable building materials including Windows, Doors, Tile, Ceiling Fans and more.

Free Ride http://freeridepgh.org; - Bikes, Bike Parts, and Tools in working order-(especially screw drivers, wrenches and allen keys).

Goodwill http://www.goodwillswpa.org; – Gently used Clothing, Shoes, Houseware Items, Books, and Sporting Goods

Global Links http://www.globallinks.org; - Scrubs (gently-used, men’s/women’s), Nebulizers, Wheelchairs, Hearing Aids, Canes, Crutches, Walkers (folding), Shower Benches

Off the Floor http://offthefloorpittsburgh.org; – Kitchen Tables and Chairs, Dressers, End Tables, Bed Frames and Cribs.

Pittsburgh Center For Creative Reuse http://www.pccr.org; - Art and Craft supplies, School and office supplies, Artwork, Corks, and Fabric

Pittsburgh Tote Bag Project http://tote4pgh.com; - Tote bags, Backpacks, Messenger bags, Softsided briefcases, and gym bags (in new or in gently used condition), Conference "swag" of any type in new condition, and luggage

The event takes place at the surface lot near the intersection of 26 and Sydney at the South Side Works. Volunteers will be on hand to direct traffic. If you wish to park and visit the information area, please use the nearby parking garages or street parking as no vehicles can be left unattended in the donation area.

Please note that this is not a chemical collection or recycling event. If you have question about the items you'd like to donate, please call 412-488-7490 ext. 236.
Pgh Freecycle Mods

Putting things into perspective

While we have been discussing floating a $5 million bond for repairs for our pool, parks, tennis, golf course, ball fields and ice rink in the municipality, today's Pittsburgh Business Times named our high school project in their latest list.

Largest Active Pittsburgh-Area Construction Projects

(ranked by total project cost)

1. ATI Allegheny Ludlum rolling mill     $1,160,000,000    High-tech hot strip mill
2. U.S. Steel Clairton upgrades                   $250,000,000    Rebuild C Battery at Clairton plant
3. Turnpike roadway, bridge reconstruction $113,201,000 Rebuild 6.87 mile stretch of PA Turnpike
4. Penn American system upgrades             $101,000,000 Upgrades to Hays Mine, Beck's Run, other system facilities
5. Charleroi Locks & Dam expansion         $96,500,000  Upgrade/expansion of locks
6. Turnpike reconstruction, bridge work     $91,304,000 Roadway and bridge reconstruction
7. Mt. Lebanon High School addition/renovation $87,000,000 Additions/renovation to senior high school
8. Freeport Bridge and ramps                   $62,900,000 Relocation and replacement of existing bridge
9. Penn Hills Senior High School            $60,000,000 Construction of new high school
10. McKeesport Area Sewage project       $55,716,000 Renovations to multiple treatment plants, pump stations, sewer lines
11. South Chestnut Ridge turbine project   $50,000,000 23 two-megawatt turbines
12. Masontown Bridge renovation/reconstruction $49,824,095 Replace existing two-lane bridge with four-lane structure
13. Squirrel Hill Tunnel rehabilitation    $49,495,000 Update to electrical, lighting, control, ventilation and structural repairs
14. Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic high School   $49,000,000 Construction of new high school
15. University of Pittsburgh freshman residence hall $45,000,000 Construction of 11-story freshman dormitory
16. River Vue Apartments                    $40,000,000 Convert 16-story bldg. into 218-unit apartment complex
17. Penn Hills Elementary School          $38,666,656 Construction of new elementary school 
18. Connellsville Senior High School work    $37,883,800 Additions/renovations to high school  building
19. Slippery Rock University Student Union Building   $37,000,000 Construction/renovation of student union building
20. Alcosan Main Pump Station upgrade       $36,709,500 Upgrade to Alcosan plant