On Tuesday, May 19, 2015, registered Republicans and Democrats will have the opportunity to choose up to five School Board Directors. Additionally, those voters in Wards 1, 3, and 5 will be voting for their candidates to serve as Mt. Lebanon commissioners. Four years ago, Mt. Lebanon voters had more options, with several candidates running for the same seat. The League of Women Voters held a Candidates Forum, prior to the May Primary in 2011, which gave voters an opportunity to learn more about those running for office. For this Primary, registered R's and D's must rely on social media.
The race for School Board Directors includes six candidates for five seats. Those running for School Board have the opportunity to cross file.
Running on both tickets are:
Incumbent Elaine Cappucci
Incumbent Larry Lebowitz
Incumbent Bill Cooper
Hugh Beal
Sarah Olbrich
http://www.leboed.com/
Running on the Republican ticket only:
Matt Kluck
No website for Matt Kluck
For the Commission:
In Ward 1,
Incumbent John Bendel (D)
http://www.votebendel.com/
Dan McNichol (R)
http://votemcnichol.com/
In Ward 3,
Andy Reinhart (D)
http://www.andyreinhart.com/
Steve McLean (R)
No website for Steve McLean
In Ward 5,
Kelly Fraasch (D)
http://www.kellyfraasch.com/
William Hoon (R)
No website for William Hoon
If voters are dissatisfied with the actions of our School Board, this Primary gives registered R's and D's a chance to vote out one incumbent. The General Election in November will give all registered voters an opportunity for change in leadership (the majority) within our Municipality.
31 comments:
Actually the primary only gives Republicans the chance to keep one incumbent off the Republican ticket in the fall. Small point of clarification, but I think it's an important one.
Oh my! You are right! Thank you for pointing that out, 10:00 AM.
Both parties do have an opportunity to write in names and/or we can undervote/plunk.
Elaine
Ms. Fraash's betrayal should not have come as a surprise to you Elaine. http://www.kellyfraasch.com/2015/04/09/gardenlandscape-outreach-planned/ Your readers know who lives by Rockwood Park.
OFF TOPIC for another blog post if you are interested:
USNews World Report HS Rankings are out...
what strikes me is the gap in achievement between advantaged and disadvantaged students.
mt lebanon's is calculated as pretty large (-27.0)
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/pennsylvania/districts/mt-lebanon-school-district/mt-lebanon-high-school-17115/test-scores
11:54 AM, I guess that is what happens when voters are stuck voting in incumbents.
11:47 AM, sigh. As I said, my eyes have been opened. I have no desire to go to tonight's meeting. I get it now. We're to write to our commissioners, only to be ignored. We speak during Citizen Comments and are told to write to our commissioners. Do not say anything negative during Citizen Comments or there will be consequences. Got it?
Elaine
Tonight's meeting? Who is meeting tonight?
The commission meetings - Discussion Session at 6:40 PM and the Commission Business Meeting at 8:00 PM.
Elaine
President John Bendel had asked for a moratorium on discussing deer in Mt. Lebanon for a few months, even though that is a violation of our constitutional rights. It didn't stop the deer killers. They came to the microphone and kept talking about killing deer and how bringing in Sandy Baker was a waste of money. Bill Hoon was the only one from the prodeer side who brought up how he wanted a tax refund from what he paid for killing deer on the grounds that it has caused much grief in his home and that it is against his religion. It has caused me much grief, but I respected Bendel's wishes and never mentioned the word "deer" during citizen comments on April 27, 2015. A lot of good that did me.
Elaine
Whoa. Howie Bendel cannot shut down citizen comments just because the Commission doesn't want to hear those comments.
Elaine - No I don't get it.
Roger D.
Hi Roger,
John Bendel asked us to "reset the dialogue."
Susan Morgans called it a "cooling off" period.
We have double standards here. Remember this post? Come again? "Bendel said the township will begin looking for an interim replacement for Linfante, who is in favor of deer culling."
We are fooling ourselves, Roger. We have no say in our local governments. I am just wasting my time with this blog.
Elaine
Elaine--- You are not wasting your time. You are providing a public service and filling a communications and information void. Say whatever you want to Bendel. It is your constitutional right.
There is an interesting atmosphere developing on this blog and I'm having a hard time deciphering where it will lead the community.
A response was made to a comment made under the "Toxic Turf" post. It read:
"Anonymous said...
6:15:
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.
Ben Franklin"
That's a pretty good response to 6:15's comment, but let's analyze what they mean.
Are they arguing that writing about possible ethics violation and quid pro quo deals aren't worth reading about?
Or are they admonishing anonymous commenters for not getting off their duffs and doing something about the apparent violations?
At first, I thought it was the latter, but then I read Elaine's comment under this latest topic.
She wrote: "11:54 AM, I guess that is what happens when voters are stuck voting in incumbents.
11:47 AM, sigh. As I said, my eyes have been opened. I have no desire to go to tonight's meeting. I get it now. We're to write to our commissioners, only to be ignored. We speak during Citizen Comments and are told to write to our commissioners. Do not say anything negative during Citizen Comments or there will be consequences. Got it? Elaine May 12, 2015 at 12:03 PM"
Interesting to say the least. The Franklin quotes seems to argue for action or at least for written instructions to affect change. Or do they? Perhaps they're arguing for the status quo.
After petitions, protests, taxpayer comments, attempts to form PACs, we still have the same cast of characters, the same over-budget projects and the same runaway spending.
It'd be nice if "Mr. Franklin Qouter" would tell us what would be worth reading and then what we as voters do with those words of wisdom.
Otherwise, Elaine's smartest post may be "we are fooling ourselves, Roger."
...Elaine, whom was Kelly's first choice to reset the dialogue that Bendel asked for. Why only one of the same players that have been manipulating the rules for some time.
We are fooling ourselves!
Who WAS Kelly's first choice?
3:49 assuming Vuono based on: "E. T. GillenApril 27, 2015 at 11:09 PM
No, only Kelly said her top 4. They were Coleen Vuono, Edward Goslin, Raymond Pan, and never mentioned the fourth because he was one of the candidates who was eliminated. There were seven applicants in total. With the two candidates eliminated, there were only five of us considered. " and that the papers reported the decision to seat Vuono was unanimous.
Elaine,
You let anyone post anything in the comments like 11:47. You know damn well what happened with that but you allow someone to post a comment and you let it marinate out there as if you were stabbed in the back.
Then you clearly post comments yourself under "anonymous" as if someone uncovers a pearl of wisdom that you didn't know about.
Your blind hatred of any elected official is really something to behold. How is it that you pissed off every single one of them? And you have the balls to sit back and point at them as if they are always the problem instead of looking in the mirror and realizing what you have become.
"President John Bendel had asked for a moratorium on discussing deer in Mt. Lebanon for a few months..." When/where did he say this? Because, wow, seriously? How about a moratorium on discussing Lyme disease misinformation - or better still, what if the commission got behind distributing some FACTS?? (Apparently more fear-mongering and misguided individuals who have no grasp of the disease took the podium tonight. Kill the ----, oops, don't say it!)
The commission has declined Kelly's proposal to do deer resistant plantings accompanied by educational signage in front of the municipal building as "too political". Yes, you heard that right. What is wrong with this town???
8:53----That's some pretty nasty ammo you are firing at Elaine.
http://www.post-gazette.com/local/south/2015/03/24/Commissioners-lament-divisiveness-of-Mt-Lebanon-deer-culling-debate/stories/201503240130
"After a couple of months of “cooling off” and dealing with other issues, Mt. Lebanon spokeswoman Susan Morgans said last week, commissioners will begin reconsidering deer management, including implementation of a Game Commission requirement that Mt. Lebanon hold some type of deer hunt in the fall.
During its discussion session, the commission identified “improve deer management program” as one of its goals.
Mr. Bendel said the commission “learned a lot” and will assess what it did right and wrong during this cull in the coming months."
Gee, maybe it was the "Official" Public Information Officer Morgans that said there'd be a cooling off on the deer issue while the commission tackled other issues! You'd think she'd be giving us the scoop mindset of the commission.
Thank you, 10:55 PM, for posting that again. I had the links in my 2:08 PM comment, 9:51 PM.
8:53 PM, I understand Kelly could have used your support tonight. Instead you sat at your computer going after me.
Elaine
Correction for @10:55.
You'd think the MTL spokesperson would be giving us the scoop on the mindset of the commission.
Call me crazy but I'd call a cooling off period a moratorium.
Gee, everytime one enters a comment of this or other blogs, they are asked to "prove you're not a robot."
You do this by filling in a CAPTCHA.
Wouldn't it be great if we could create one of those CAPTCHAS for school board and commissioner candidates!
Elaine YOU need to befriend some of our local "homegrown" Hackers. Right now they are sitting on a couple of "documents" that would literally blow up politics as we know it. Lawyers are NOT Tech geniuses!
I can count on you to get those, right, 7:00 PM?
Elaine
How does one contact Dan McNichol? I know some folks that have questions for him, including myself. Thanks!
Just spent some time looking at the candidates websites, or at least those that have one.
First, isn't it funny that a number of these people that are going to lead us through the second decade of the 21st Century have yet to embrace 20th Century technology-- the web and social media.
But even those that do, what do they put up? The typical spiel about themselves. How lucky they are, how much they love Mt. Lebanon, how they want to give back. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Some, incumbents, tout their experience. Is overseeing a high school project that is at least $13 million and climbing over their expectations a plus for you taxpayers? Are you asking for more taxes, more fees?
Then on the commission side an incumbent ask us: "When friends and acquaintances ask if you’re happy living here, what do you say?" He answers his question with: "I am running for re-election to Commissioner because I want your answer to be a resounding YES!"
Really? Why waste computer bytes on such dribble?
I want to know how he'll address those that answered with a no. We just went through a divisive community issue, deer culling, that gained negative national attention.
What is this incumbent going to do to undo the divisiveness and mend Mt. Lebanon's reputation.
Unfortunately, we'll never know because we don't demand to know. 30% or fewer voters will cast their ballot simply because they recognized a name from a lawn sign.
It's a shame we're afraid to ask questions and don't expect more.
Mr. Bendel can prohi it any speaker he wishes,
That statement is incorrect. Citizens comments cannot be contested...EVER!
I don't think we have the same politics, but I thank you for providing the list of candidates. It was really helpful to have it in one place, with links.
The 2015 Primary Election is now history, and the results for Mt. Lebanon are interesting. Here are some preliminary comparisons:
Registered Voters, 2014: 25612
Registered Voters, 2015: 24949
(a loss of 663 voters)
Registered Republicans, 2014: 9611
Registered Republicans, 2015: 9229
(a loss of 382)
Registered Democrats, 2014: 12379
Registered Democrats, 2015: 12123
(a loss of 256)
Registered Independents, 2014: 3622
Registered Independents, 2015: 3597
(a loss of 25)
Percentage of Independent voters to total, 2014: 14.14%
Percentage of Independent voters to total, 2015: 14.42%
(an increase of 0.27%)
These figures are remarkable in that it shows a 2.6% DECREASE in the TOTAL number of registered voters in Mt. Lebanon, with a corresponding loss in all political parties and Independent voters. But Independent voters showed a slight INCREASE in terms of their overall strength.
In terms of voter turnout, 17.36% of Republicans turned out to vote this year, and 22.25% of Democrats did likewise. In 2014 the percentages were 10.04% for the Republicans, and 22.83% for the Democrats. Turnout for Republicans was better this year than last (despite lower numbers), while Democrats saw a slight decline.
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