P-G: Mt. Lebanon commission names liaison

To maintain a direct line of communication between governing bodies, Mt. Lebanon municipal leaders have appointed one of their own as school board liaison and will soon name two representatives to follow.

New Commissioner Kristen Linfante will serve as the liaison to the school district and will be responsible for staying informed on its actions, including attending meetings whenever possible.

"I personally think it's something that should have happened a long, long time ago," she said.

Read the full article:

• www.post-gazette.com/pg/12026/1205979-55-0.stm (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Trib: New voices seek spots on Mt. Lebanon commission

Turnover on the Mt. Lebanon Board of Commissioners has been high in the past few years, and this year's election could result in relative newcomers leading the board once again.

Three of five seats on the commission are up for re-election, and only one commissioner who has served a full term, Ward 3 representative Joe DeIuliis, is running again. In Ward 5, Dan Miller is not seeking re-election to a second term and in Ward 1, first-term commissioner D. Raja is running for county executive instead.

Read the full article:

• www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_735394.html (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Letter: Getting the facts straight about tomorrow's town hall

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

Hello friends,

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.

The roadblocks are of the school district’s own doing since the project design does not comply with our municipal law.

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.
http://www.thealmanac.net/ALM/Story/08-25-2010-letter-Mt--Lebanon-Linfante

Please read the Post-Gazette article rather than the suggested opinion piece.

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 venue

True, 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

Town Hall Meeting Questioned

NOTE: The following letter to the editor appeared in today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

I am writing about a private "town hall meeting" that Mt. Lebanon Commissioner Matt Kluck has scheduled at the municipal building on Saturday. Since when are town hall meetings private? The exclusive invitation describes "a panel discussion relative to our current economic situation." It says: "Our goal is to make important information available to the general public inspiring attendees to accept a call to action."

If the intent is to "make information available to the general public," why isn't the general public invited? I was not invited. Why? Is it my political views? My support of the high school renovation?

Is Mr. Kluck's intent to make the meeting appear to be promoted by the municipality? It also will be videotaped and available via the Internet. Rumors say it might appear on our local TV channel. What might a viewer surmise if he sees Mr. Kluck in the commissioners' chambers speaking to a roomful of people? They would likely interpret this staged setting as a real town hall meeting!

KRISTEN LINFANTE
Mt. Lebanon

Read more: www.post-gazette.com/pg/10238/1082701-55.stm

Mt. Lebanon Community Gets Loud In The Blogosphere

Forget gossip over the back fence: These days in Mt. Lebanon, community bloggers are the town criers.

Commissioners Dan Miller and D. Raja have blogs. So do school members Josephine Posti and James Fraasch. The high school's technology director Christopher Stengel has his own blog, and residents Joe Polk, Tom Moertel, Kristen Linfante and Elaine Labalme also run blogs that discuss community developments and events.

Read more: www.post-gazette.com/pg/10063/1039995-55.stm

Real Lebo

I'd like to welcome fellow Mt. Lebanon residents Elaine Labalme and Kristen Linfante to the Lebo blogosphere with the launch of their web site "Real Lebo" this past Tuesday.

Their site description, "RealLebo.com -- A blog about what's really happening in Mt. Lebanon, PA.", is interesting considering that it is the same description that Mike and I used for this blog for years except for the "really" that has been added. Not "really" sure (pun intended) what that's supposed to mean, but I'll make sure to follow their blog and see what they post!