posted by Tom Moertel at 8:09 PM /
Recently on Blog-Lebo, we posted about a town-hall meeting scheduled for Saturday, 28 August, 2010 (tomorrow). We also posted about Kristen Linfante's letter questioning that meeting. Now Charlotte Stephenson, one of the meeting's organizers, writes in to rebut some claims being made about the meeting in an ongoing email campaign. —Tom
Getting the facts straight about tomorrow's town hall
To all folks who are participating in the circulation of the following e-mail, please do the right thing and circulate a correction. In what follows, I present quotations from the original e-mail followed by my corrections in italics. —Charlotte Stephenson
Charlotte Stephenson
Mt. Lebanon
Getting the facts straight about tomorrow's town hall
To all folks who are participating in the circulation of the following e-mail, please do the right thing and circulate a correction. In what follows, I present quotations from the original e-mail followed by my corrections in italics. —Charlotte Stephenson
Hello friends,The roadblocks are of the school district’s own doing since the project design does not comply with our municipal law.
I'm not sure if you are aware of what is going on in our community, but contrary to popular belief, there are many road blocks being put up to prevent our school renovation from moving forward.
This is a critical time for our community. Those in favor of the high school renovation project need to pull together to show their support before it is too late. We cannot afford to let another ten years go by while our school continues to fall apart and our neighbors continue to move south. Tomorrow there is a "town hall" meeting scheduled at the municipal building. I put town hall in quotes because this meeting has been offered as an invitation only event to those apparently opposed to the current plan.This meeting is not about the high school project and the invitees are not against the current high school project. In fact, some attendees are proponents of the current project. Anyone can have a meeting and invite whomever they want, unless they violate Sunshine Law and that is not happening here.
Please see this week's Almanac editorial for details.Please read the Post-Gazette article rather than the suggested opinion piece.
http://www.thealmanac.net/ALM/Story/08-25-2010-letter-Mt--Lebanon-Linfante
A group of concerned residents of Mt. Lebanon are joining together to get the message out that we are not going to tolerate backhanded strategies to promote propaganda in our community.This is a private meeting intended to provide a forum for discussion about our local economy.
If you are in favor of moving forward with the school renovation project, please gather at the municipal building tomorrow at 9 AM. Even if you are not sure where you stand on the renovation project, please help us get the message across that public meetings,This is a private, not public, meeting.
with public officials,Most are not public officials and those who are, are not officially representing their correlating agencies.
held in a closed door venueTrue, the meeting room does indeed have a door.
will not be tolerated in this community.Please refer to our first amendment right to assemble and discuss issues which are of importance to us. The right to freedom of association is recognized as a human right, a political freedom, and a civil liberty. I would hope this right is not only tolerated, but supported!
We need as many people, of all ages, to rally in support of this cause. Please help us get the word out to as many neighbors and friends as possible!If you are going to encourage a protest, give people the facts so they can decide if protesting our first amendment rights is really what they want to protest against. The rumor mill is in full gear and participants may end up feeling embarrassed for raising a fuss about something that does not exist.
The meeting is scheduled for 9:30 but we are meeting at 9:00 to make sure that we go over proper conduct for our gathering. Bring signs saying, "Save our School" or "Dig Now" or "Whose town is it?" or "Don't be Fooled, Build our School". Kids are encouraged to come.Please, teach your children well and do not encourage them to be manipulated by uninformed adults and fictional causes.
Charlotte Stephenson
Mt. Lebanon
Labels: charlotte stephenson, kristen linfante, letter to the editor, town hall meeting
14 Comments:
I support the high school project (just not at the $113 million level), but I wouldn't want my kids to be within 5 feet of the author of that email.
Unfortunately I think choice of titling this event a "town hall meeting" is a mistake on 2 fronts: 1) it does make folks who were not invited "say hmmm" and ruffles feathers; and, 2) it opens the organizers (who may want to accomplish something of value) to claims of trying to stack the audience of like kinds whether they've done this or not. The first factor is exaccerbated by the fact we have high emotions/high tensions already in the community on certain issues. The second factor is important because the name selection risks moving the focus off the substantive planned discussion toward the hub-bub now caused by the "invite only" "town hall."
"By invitation only" "town halls" have been held by national level politicians of both parties. A quick web search reflects regardless of who it was (Rep or Dem) the "invite only" coupled with "town hall" is usually met with various criticisms of agenda building, stacking the deck, pre-planned questions, etc..
In this regard it may not just be mere semantics.
Marjie Crist [not invited but not ruffled either]
1. "Private town hall" is an oxymoron.
2. When someone feels the need to do this my first reaction is "What are they afraid of?"
3. Private organizations are permitted to rent the council chambers, so I have no beef with that. But then the meeting should not be broadcast on the public TV channel. That is an attempt to give an official imprimatur to private views, e.g., propaganda. I have a serious problem with that. The video should be posted on a private website. If this video goes on Mt. Lebanon's channel I will insist they broadcast videos of my own production and of any other taxpayer.
4. This event alienates me from the positions the organizers are promoting. As someone who agrees with parts of both sides of this debate, I am offended by this type of "you're either with us or you're against us" attitude. As important as the school issue is, it's even more important to be free from the deleterious effects of polarization and absolutism.
I was invited unexpectedly (but gratefully) by a friend only very recently.
After attending, I think it's truly unfortunate that the intent or the content may be misunderstood.
One of the most important takeaways for me was that, as a matter of public information dissemination, it worked on some level. Based on the audience's questions, there were a number of people in attendance who felt unaware or insufficiently informed on a number of topics, such as:
* the impact of PSERS
* the renewed teacher contract
* the pension funding level for the municipality
* current trends and perceptions among prospective new homebuyers
* the millage structure as pertains to both the HS renovation and PSERS
* and several others.
Furthermore, towards the end of the session, it was widely agreed upon that future such meetings should be held, held in a larger forum, and opened to greater attendance by all interested parties, because the point is to stimulate public understanding and debate.
Which, in my opinion, it did. My understanding is that the proceedings were held in the commission chambers to take advantage of the video recording facilities, so I encourage everyone interested to watch the meeting for themselves when it is published.
Just curious, how many folks who feel offended, left out etc actually attend regular Commission meetings? I'm sure some do, but many don't. How many of today's protestors have ever invited their Commissioner for a cup of coffee?
The fact is, the forum made available to a few today is available every month to all of us. Actually its available to each of us every day. If you have questions or a complaint (or perhaps an idea) send an email to your Commish. Buy him a cup of coffee. If they reject your invitation, then you can complain about being left out.
I agree with you Dave. And it was very disturbing to me to see a large number of school age children carrying signs (obviously made by adults) parading in front of the municipal building entrance protesting the meeting and Matt Kluck....the children obviously had been misled about the broadly stated purpose and intent of the meeting....to use children in this way is despicable; yet, is glaring testimony as to the levels some people and parents will succumb to.
The Police had to block a southbound lane of Washington Rd. in order to prevent a potential pedestrian/vehicular accident. How sad .
Bill Lewis
And now we have yet another Mt. Lebanon headline proclaiming about 100 residents face off, I guess the only thing missing is the pitchforks and real drama particularly since some civil discussion appears to have happened on the sidewalk.
We've had so much press recently and not all of it shining a positive light on the township. We are living in some of the worst economic times in generations and budgets are stretched to the max, and yet the high school is in terrible shape and our award winning district is losing ground. The one asset we have long had is we are a township of smart creative people. The only problem is these minds refuse to truly meet. Either you are in this corner or that corner, for or against, and heels are dug in. Perhaps the next forum should be: Loosen Those Heels, Come Out of Your Corner, Hug or At Least Shake Hands With Your Opponent, Offer The Best Your Mind Can Give and Let's Find Peace, Love, Happiness, and Common Ground.
We're in a state of stagnation when it comes to addressing the big issues. We can't reach agreement on something like the highschool a situation further harmed by ditzy moves such as creating a plan that doesn't pass zoning board muster. Some want to sit on the pot. Some want the town to shit or get off the pot. Some are middle ground (I'll call them sitting and wanting but constipated). Public debate goes on and on and on. Yet, the team and its advisors who are in charge of the pot do things like forgetting to make sure the plumbing plan for the pot would pass code causing all but the shit or get off crowd to lose confidence. Hell, the friggin' pot is now in litigation! What's embarassing is we are a town full of overly educated capable people. To the rest of the world outside "the bubble" we must look like that old joke. How many Mt. Lebanonites does it take to change a light bulb?
In 44 years of loving all this town is about, I fear we are at risk of losing what makes this town a special place (be it schools or municipal services) all because we can't seem to harness our best asset(s): our collective intelligence and problem solving capabilities.
@Matt C. WIlson:
there is already a forum for that. It's called a Commission meeting. If this was the subject of the "private" meeting with a Commissioner, it sounds as if it bordered on a Sunshine Act violation. But judging from the photos, Matt Kluck is getting the "chaos" he wanted when he campaigned.
Ann McDougall
@Ann McDougall:
One of the things Matt Kluck said at the town hall was that people don't come to the commission meetings. That was the point of sending invitations: when people have tickets in their hands, they show up.
On August 28, 2010 at 7:06 AM Dave Franklin said, "I support the high school project (just not at the $113 million level), but I wouldn't want my kids to be within 5 feet of the author of that email."
Honestly Mr. Franklin, I wouldn't want my kids (if I had any kids) within 5 feet of anyone who pledges a contribution and does not deliver the funds.
Ann,
I respectfully disagree. Matt specifically wanted today's meeting to be an opportunity to understand the views, concerns, questions, and ideas of the audience in attendance.
To that end, no Commission meeting I know of (or that Matt knew of, from one comment he made at the beginning) would serve.
I agree with Dave Franklin that attendance today (or protesting such) is insufficient - open communication both with our neighbors and our municipal government is key. Attending future meetings and remaining informed and involved is something everyone who participated (in whatever way) should strive to do. We need to let our governing bodies hear our opinions.
But it was nice for a change to at least see them soliciting us for ideas since so many of us don't do the same.
Mr. Kendrick, as you've already admitted, you don't know me. You've also let us all know that you have 5 or 6 degrees so you're obviously pretty smart. Taking these facts into consideration, you should stop assuming things about me and stop getting your information from the likes of Mr. Ewing. In some fantasy created by Mr. Ewing, he's attached my name to some $8 million athletic promise. I don't know anything about it, let alone was I the driving force behind it. I've never promised any some of money to anyone for anything as it relates to athletic fields. I'm sure Mr. Ewing will site to some meeting at which such an amount or some promise was made, but I wasn't there. Sorry to disappoint you.
Oops, "sum" of money.
To set the record straight, minutes from the Design Team Meeting on September 21, 2009 PDF document page 32 as recorded by Celli-Flynn Brennan Architects and Planners state in item #4: “Dan Remely indicated that the athletic boosters believe that they can raise $8-Million to build an athletic fieldhouse of some kind and while that has not yet materialized the stadium building can be a part of that effort.” However, I do not know who specifically the “athletic booster fundraisers” referred to are in this case. The only thing I do know is that there does not appear to be a fundraising account with $8 Milion dollars in it at this point. – Charlotte Stephenson
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