What is the MLAO?

The Mt. Lebanon Accountability Organization is a group of citizens working together to increase public participation in the local government of Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania. The MLAO is non-political and has no official relationship with the municipal government or school board. Any Mt. Lebanon resident is welcome to join.

How are you going to increase public participation?

By removing the wall of confusion that stands between the public and the local government. In particular, we want to make it easy for citizens to understand proposed policies — what those policies mean and how they will affect our community. We also want to make it easy to understand how those policies are made. That way, residents will know what’s being decided and how to get involved.

How are you going to make local government easy to understand?

By doing the hard work of clarifying confusing processes and complicated proposals. We will eliminate clutter, provide context, and summarize. We will issue reports, create graphs, map processes, and publish our findings.

Why should we trust the MLAO?

You shouldn’t — at least, not at first. We don’t expect you to give us your trust just because we claim to be doing good things. No, we expect you to judge our work on its merits and measure its quality using your own experience and understanding. So, we will fact-check our information, cite our sources, show our work, and welcome your criticism — and your participation. Because our goal is to clarify, to expose the meaning that underlies confusing proposals and processes, if our work isn’t honest and accurate, we have failed. So, yes, we want your trust, but we intend to gain it by earning it.

Why do we citizens need to make local government understandable? Shouldn’t our elected representatives be doing this for us already?

You could make that case, but let’s be practical. We already ask our representatives to do lots of tedious, thankless work on our behalf. And they do it. Maybe not as well as we would like, but probably about as well as we can reasonably expect. Asking our representatives to take on even more work, then, isn’t likely to be a good way of getting things done. So, if we want to clarify the workings of local government, we’ll have to do it ourselves.

Who is the MLAO?

The MLAO is me, Tom Moertel, and anyone who wants to join me. If you’re a resident of Mt. Lebanon and interested in following facts and clarifying the confusing, you’re welcome to join. See below about joining the MLAO.

What do you mean by “non-normative” research?

In economics, there are two kinds of statements: positive statements, which are statements about what things are, and normative statements, which are statements about what things should be. Positive statements are all about facts and likely facts and, therefore, are true or false without regard to the values or preferences of the person considering them. Normative statements are all about what is (or is not) desirable and, therefore, depend very much on personal values and preferences.

Because the MLAO cannot represent every resident’s values and preferences, we restrict the scope of our research to positive findings. In this way, our research will be useful to everyone. Instead of using the term positive, however, we will use non-normative to describe our findings; this convention makes clear that we are concerned with the positive-versus-normative distinction and not the positive-versus-negative distinction, which also arises in policy analysis.

If I join the MLAO, does the requirement that my work be non-normative mean that I can’t have an opinion on matters of local government?

Not at all. As a citizen, you are free to have and to voice whatever opinions you want. If you want to claim that a government policy is desirable or undesirable, you are free to do so. You are even free to use the MLAO’s research to support your claim. What you cannot do, however, is claim that the MLAO endorses your personal values or preferences. The MLAO does not endorse values or preferences. You are also prohibited from contributing work to the MLAO that makes claims about values or preferences. Work for the MLAO must regard matters of fact or likely fact, not of values or preferences.

Can you give me an example of work that meets the MLAO’s standard of being non-normative and work that does not?

Sure. Let’s say that you have been following the planning of a (hypothetical) municipal policy to establish a Mt. Lebanon Space Program and that you think the policy is shaping up to be harmful to our community. To persuade other members of our community to come out against the policy, you would need to do two things. First, you would need to explain what the policy means and what its likely implications would be: what the Space Program would cost, what it would deliver in jobs, what effects it would have on noise levels, air quality, the parks, housing prices, and so forth. Second, you would need to argue that those implications would, if realized, represent a harm to our community: that the Space Program would cost too much, deliver too little, destroy the charm of our neighborhoods, and so on. The first part — an explanation of facts or likely facts-to-be — would be non-normative and thus a welcome contribution to the MLAO’s ongoing research. The second part — an attempt to persuade — would not be eligible for contribution because it represents your personal values and preferences. The MLAO does not endorse values or preferences.

Why should I join the MLAO?

You should join because you will be doing something useful and important for your community. You’ll also make friends, learn interesting things, and enjoy yourself. Serving your community is rewarding and often fun!

Why shouldn’t I join the MLAO?

If you think the public should be less involved in government affairs, or if you have a personal interest that might get in the way of serving the interests of the community as a whole, the MLAO probably isn’t your cup of tea. Also, if you’re more interested in politics or complaining about government than in getting things done, you should pass on the MLAO and look for other forms of community involvement.

If I join, what can I do to help?

We need people to attend public meetings, take notes, write summaries, review public records, compile databases, analyze financials, update web sites, map out planning processes, fact-check everything, and generally figure out what things mean and how things work. If you can contribute a little or a lot, join us! Together, we’ll figure out how to put your talents to good use for our community.

How do I join the MLAO?

It’s easy: send email to tom@mlao.org and ask to join. Please include the following information in your request:

• your name
• your address (you must be a resident of Mt. Lebanon)
• your preferred contact information
• a short description of how you would like to help

That’s it!