Meetings/2009-09-12

A number of residents met at Aldo Coffee at 1 PM to talk about our community and, in particular, what we can do to make it easier for residents to get involved in local government. We actually had more people show up than I had expected. (We eventually claimed 3 tables.) It was a fun bunch, and for about 3 hours we enjoyed great coffee, talked about our ideas, and started to form a plan to do something to improve our community.

During the meeting I explained my proposal to form a non-political citizens’ organization that could serve as a community resource. The organization would do the work of clarifying, summarizing, and organizing the information produced by our local government so that residents (and policymakers) would have a one-stop, easy-to-use, reliable resource for understanding important community issues.

Toward that goal, I am setting up a web site to serve as the home for this new resource: the Mt. Lebanon Accountability Organization.

In the end, most attendees thought it was an idea worth pursuing and volunteered their support and assistance, but opinions varied on whether this organization — or anything, for that matter — could be an effective vehicle for government reform. In any case, everybody thought it was worth a shot.

If you’re reading this and interested in joining us — all are welcome — please read About the MLAO and send me an email (my address is in the document).

Finally, I’d like to thank all the people who took time out of their Saturday afternoon to attend the meeting or drop by: Thanks!

—Tom Moertel