Preserve Monroeville's Home Rule Charter. Vote NO on all five ballot questions and One More thing!

Hello, and Happy November,
Preserve Monroeville's Home Rule Charter. 
Vote NO on all five ballot questions on Tuesday, November 6. 2018! Why?

Our understanding is that there has been a committee in Monroeville working on the Home Rule Charter. For now, Sustainable Monroeville endorses leaving the Home Rule Charter intact so the citizens of Monroeville are able to stand up for protecting its citizens.

Join us tomorrow evening, Monday, November 5, 2018 from 7:00 to 8:30 PM at the Monroeville Public Library in the downstairs program room to discuss what's written below and to get an update on what's going on with fracking IN and AROUND Monroeville, PA right NOW! 

Feel free to share widely to those who will ACT on Tuesday! If you know anyone who lives in the state of PA, encourage them to spend a few hours at the polls Tuesday to get folks to sign petitions from the Better Path Coalition to preserve Article 1 Section 27 of the state of PA's Constitution which assures us citizens of PA clean air and fresh water. Note: Details for this initiative are at the BOTTOM of this e-mail including a link to the petition!

Even if you've never done work with petitions, please step out of your comfort zone, take a clip board and a stack of petitions with you Tuesday to the polls and for the rest of your day Tuesday. You will be happy you did!

This has been a wild week in Pittsburgh, PA. From the darkness emerges the light. Yet, it's important to get involved in order to watch the positive unfolding. Here's a few simple ways to get involved this Tuesday and it goes just a bit beyond voting if you have the courage to step just a tad outside of your comfort zone. If you need courage to do this and a bit of healing of your spirit, let us know *sustainablemonroeville@gmail.com, and we'll be happy to send encouragement in a variety of ways!! :)

The bottom line from our perspective is vote NO on all five ballot questions at the polls on Tuesday. We MUST keep Monroeville's Home Rule Charter intact at this time! Another bottom line is to read what's way down at the bottom of this e-mail, print out and take some petitions and a clip board for people to sign the petition to preserve Article 1 Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution which ensures clean air and fresh water for the citizens of the Commonwealth of PA. We've GOT this!

Blessings, Peace, and Namasté to all of my friends and relations! Elisa Beck :)

From Lois Drumheller: "The bottom line is this... If we don't pay attention to the subtle changes in local government, it won't be easy to locally get the government we want - especially when it comes to public input, fair elections... you know what I mean. So.... anyone to comment at this point? Thanks for listening. I intend to show the ballot questions, and compare/contrast them with the current HRC.

Question 1, according to Monroeville's municipal website is recommended to be "yes" vote, which contradicts the "no" recommendation we heard at the last council meeting from at least 2 members of council. When you examine what an elected tax collector's duties are, it's clear that they shall NOT include collection of what's known as "511 taxes" (business privilege, mercantile, local service taxes). The way it's already set by HRC, the tax office employees are continue their work on 511 taxes. Those employees report directly to the municipal manager, who should be responsible for how those are collected. It makes sense to leave the HRC alone and allow the manager to administrate, which is in line with what that position does with the financial manager in budget planning and implementation.

Question 2, is also recommended on Mrv's website to be "yes", but if you read the HRC, all contracts or purchases > $4,000 may be increased by Council to the extend of the maximum permitted from time to time. Why change something that has method to be adjusted under current rules? Every provision currently allows the bidding process to be fair.

Question 3 is also recommended to be Y, which is another reason to ask, "why?" Council has power to investigate hearings and subpoena power. Why is it necessary to change for the sake of being able to do it out of state, as each state has it own provisions. Give us a reason. I see none, and I don't take it for granted to fix something that is not broken.

Question 4 is also recommend to be Y, but uses no reasoning to remove a section that aligns with the state constitution as defined by the Local Government Commission, which DOES allow under the PA Constitution the exclusive grounds for removal of an official. So, why strike down the paragraph that aligns with this and just refer to section 2109 of the HRC, which is nebulous in what is intended for removal from or forfeiture of office of elected officials. The municipality's explanation of this in my view is disingenuous. "Infamous crimes" are those that include forgery, perjury, embezzlement of public monies. That makes me more than suspicious.

Question 5 on Recall is another one recommended for Y, but I ask again, "Why?" When officials commit malfeasance, misfeasance or violation of the oath of office, they should be called out on it. True, it's almost impossible to recall an elected official, but it is legal. It takes 2/3 of the state legislature under the Senate to follow through, and true, people have to be pretty pissed off to even coordinate a petition to start this process off. But, IT'S OUR PROCESS.  I say this, as surely many other people say this. We need to take note of Home Rule seriously!  Why take a process away that may account for these violations? Why shouldn't we remind locally officials to act in accordance to the law? They should operate in accordance to law. It's time we all took our own little civics course, got a copy of the Home Rule Charter (it used to cost $3.00) and bring it to every meeting we attend. Yes, the public has a right to refer to this document, which means, READ IT. Remember... An elected group of citizens studied the conditions we should be governed by locally. They were elected by referendum, not by the closed door process we saw a few years ago. In 1974, this was a decision by everyone in Monroeville to study the conditions to open up government, not restrict it! Before then, things were a little too restricted under borough code. They went through an OPEN process that resulted in the HRC being developed. It's time we remembered that, and WHY this group of people, some who are still alive (thank you, Mary Lou Span) and they did us all a favor of having the vision to determine what was right LOCALLY, BY LAW. It's our constitution!  Realize this.... Since last year, we are looking at referendums that haven't even seen a ray of sunshine in the process of their development. Never let something become MORE restrictive. ALWAYS keep the public aware of how the people we elect are using the rules. NEVER make the implementation of those rules restrictive by introducing legislation to limit our ability to hold them responsible."

Please vote NO on all five ballot questions! Thanks Lois Drumheller for letting us know why!

On another note, The Better Path Coalition is planning to kick off 2019 with a HUGE event celebrating Article 1, Section 27 of the PA Constitution. As a founding member of the coalition, we're working with our partners to plan an amazing day of action on Sunday, 1/27 and a delivery of this petition to every office in the capitol on Monday, 1/28 (with some very special help). We want whoever wins the election in November and whoever returns to Harrisburg to uphold the amendment, which happens to be the strongest of its kind in the country. We want elected officials who will lead on climate, take aggressive action against pollution, and prevent new sources of pollution from entering PA.

We'll be at the polls on November 6th with paper copies of this petition we'll be asking voters to sign as they leave. We're looking for volunteers across the state to spend an hour or two (or more) gathering signatures. If you'd like to take part, please register here! http://bit. ly/petitionatthepolls 

That's why I signed a petition to Gubernatorial and Legislative Winners of 2018 PA Midterm Election, which says:

"You will serve during the period climate scientists agree is the last chance we have to act if we are to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. You will also be charged with taking on threats to our water, air, and environment that have harmed our communities and natural resources, in some cases, for years.

Pennsylvania’s constitution contains the strongest environmental rights amendment in the country. Article 1, Section 27 says “The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.”

We call on every newly-elected official and every elected official who returns to Harrisburg in 2019 to fulfill their Constitutional obligation to uphold Article 1, Section 27 by taking aggressive action to address the urgent environmental and climate challenges that confront us and establishing policies that prevent new sources of pollution from entering the Commonwealth.

Will you sign the petition, too? Click here to add your name: 

https://petitions.moveon.org/p/e_9lP_pRs5 

Thanks! 

One more thing y'all:
Subject: Uphold PA's Environmental Rights Amendment & Act on Climate

Hi,

I signed a petition to Gubernatorial and Legislative Winners of 2018 PA Midterm Election.

Will you sign this petition? Click here:

https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/uphold-pas-environmental-1?source=s.em.cp&r_hash=JDTRJIEU

Thanks!

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