Why shouldn't the cost be shared? Yes the officer protects "monroeville's" children, but when he/she spends the entire day at the school instead of out patrolling our homes and businesses are ever-so-slightly less safe due to the confinement of an officer to one particular location. Additionally, those who don't have children at the High School are paying an officer to watch other people's children instead of keeping our homes and businesses safe. I think it's only fair for Gateway to reimburse the Municipality for sequestering Municipal resources.

When a patrolman is stationed at the mall one could say that that officer is the most efficient use of law enforcement dollars based on the sheer number of shoppers and businesses in that small patrol area. Additonally the Mall generates significant revenue for the Municipality. With these facts in mind you would think that the mall should get free police patrol but they don't, they reimburse Monroeville completely.

If the mall reimburses Monroeville completely Gateway's 50% reimbursement is a steal. Couple that with the fact that Gateway's budget is twice Monroeville's or that Gateway's real estate millage is nearly 9 times that of Monroeville. The school district is the one with the deep pockets.

In the end, either way its taxpayer money, you are paying for 100% either way.

I've been following the School Board for quite some time now. This new School Board AND our Council have become one in the same. They lack a total regard for the citizens and taxpayers of Gateway and Monroeville as was evident at the meeting to establish the MDA and the secret meeting the School Board got caught trying to have.

The addition of a school safety officer was a back room deal that was struck between the Boro and a former School Board member all under the guise of safety for our children. The schools had 3 officers. though not there 24-7, were in our schools with the DARE program as well as other subjects. Since the police officer is now in our schools I haven't heard much about the DARE program. The officer for our schools travels between schools daily. If there is an incident at the high school and he's at the junior high he still needs to drive to the high school just as any officer on duty by the Boro would have to do. Any incident that requires police involvement is dispatched by the police department. Also if there is an incident anywhere in the Boro, he has an obligation to respond which would take him away from the schools. Does he visit Pitcairn Elementary School? If he does, why doesn't Pitcairn put up some money as well? If he doesn't then we should get a break from Monroeville.

Don't even bring up the Mall. The Mall is a for profit business and should pay their way for additional services. The Mall is not supported by taxpayer money. When you add up the total necessity and duty of the officer then the Boro should be responsible for the total compensation.

The School Board seems to think they have a well of money. They don't. They are attempting to spend money for their political friends. Just look at the make up of the School Board and you can figure it out. How else do you keep you major contributor contributing than give him more money to do something that is a no win situation. If filing these appeals was such a good idea then why didn't they do it to the residents in 2005 which seems to be the starting point for the new solicitor. Then again, why didn't the new solicitor file appeals in 2005 when he was the Boro solicitor? Why wasn't it a good idea for him back then when he had a better chance of winning? He had the right as a solicitor for the Boro to file the appeals on behalf of the Boro.

What it boils down to is the corruption of the major political party in Monroeville and our elected officials. As mentioned by someone else, we need to get our heads out of the sand and get rid of these people from running our Boro and School District. We need a clean sweep.

Just recently I was able to view the exposed "secret meeting". I wish I was able to attend but I didn't find out until it was over. Who do they think they are? They want to spend money they don't have for money they can't get. They want to give money away to the solicitor to do what a judge ruled can't be done. Do they think they have more power than a judge?

They are trying to say it's not fair for the senior citizens of the District. This is just political smoke and mirrors and "VOTE FOR ME" political rhetoric. They didn't seem to care last year or the year before that or the year before that. Now they care for the lining of their contributor's pockets.

If you haven't had a chance to see the meeting you should. Watch toward the end when they vote to table their sneaky resolution. When Board president, Magill was asked for his vote he paused and looked at Board Member Wilson for his input. Mr. Wilson nodded his head, yes, to table so that's what Mr. Magill did. When it came time for Board Member Rawson to vote, she paused and looked at Mr. Magill and didn't vote yes until she got the nod.

I seem to recall that Mr. Magill had mentioned about how he thought properties were assessed and a voice in the audience wanted to clarify how that was done. Mr Magill wouldn't let him at that point and said he would have a chance at the end to do so. I would think that if decisions were to be made then correct information should be presented. Apparently that wasn't Mr. Magill's intentions. He didn't want to be corrected or have other members know the facts.

After the vote there was discussion from the audience about what had transpired. I can only assume that the person that wanted to clarify Mr. Magill's ignorance of the assessment process was Mr. Goppman. He presented his information in a way that, I, as a person having no idea of the process, could easily understand. As a point of fact, Mr. Magill was wrong.

What really got my ire was when Board Memeber Rawson said she was on a fixed income and complained about the taxes and Mr. Goppman stated he was on a fixed income as well because he gets the same paycheck every two weeks at which time Mr. Magill uttered (not knowing that his microphone could pick it up) "Which is more than you should be paid." WHO DOES MR. MAGILL THINK HE IS? I applaud Mr. Goppman for remaining calm and continuing to give us the FACTS.

It's a shame that we, the voters, were not informed about the actual character of the people we elected to represent our interests. They are uninformed (probably don't want to know the facts if it doesn't benefit them), coniving, can't think on their own, self serving and rude.

As a side note, Mr. Dice is going after those properties that were purchased at 40 percent more than the assessed value because as he said it would be harder for the homeowner to fight. The recent purchase of his daughter's home was 39.5 percent higher than the assessed value. She's not on the list. I wonder why.

We need to stop what they're doing. We need to stop the lining of the solicitor's pockets. We need to be at the School Board Meeting on March 17 at 7:00 pm. Tell your friends and neighbors.

In response to “Not-politically-connected”, you’re right, what was I thinking, the Borough doesn’t have much on their plate…just a couple insignificant tasks like 20 square miles and 30 thousand people to protect with 5 fire departments and a police department, hundreds of miles of roads and sewers and like 20 parks to maintain, and probably close to 7 buildings as well as what feels like 50 traffic lights. Yeah, I’m pretty sure they have to pay union staff too, why would it be silly to compare the two? The school district educates the kids, but the Borough is basically responsible for preventing anarchy.

That’s neither here nor there, I just want people to see both sides, my issue is that few question the school district and their use of tax dollars. Everyone scrutinizes the Borough to the n-th degree, which is OK, but you’re missing the big picture. I hear people blame “the Borough” for their high taxes, but they must not look at the facts that it’s the school district that most of your taxes go to, and very few people scrutinize what they do with that money. I watch these Council meetings and people arguing ad nauseum about Council taking a $75 stipend increase out of the change jar while ignoring Gateway cleaning out the safe.

To stay on the subject the school district has a much bigger pocketbook than the Borough with which to pay a police officer for the school, so it should be no problem to share. But really if you want to demand fiscal responsibility from taxpayer funded institutions you should apply that pressure to them all, ideally weighted more heavily to the one’s who take the biggest bite out your budget.

"What are you thinking" - of course both have a lot on their plate. That is why we shouldn't be electing people with high school educations to school board or council. We could easily pay for the officer out of the legal fees that either entity pays. I believe the Municipality paid over $300K alone according to the budget (I don't know how much the school board pays). Perhaps a more savy council and board would not have to rely so much on legal assistance if we upped the qualifications. Unfortunately we lost two of our best in the last few months. Unfortunately, it became a battle of egos rather than a case of what is best for Monroeville. I agree both the school and the municipality are significant entities. Maybe the school puts the officer up for bid, they could use county sheriffs or perhaps off duty police from any municipality. As you indicated, we are paying more and getting less - I don't see any end to that trend. But what do you expect when you have volunteers running these things.

I notice that Mr. Dice smiles a lot when he attends meetings; some may think this is because he is jolly or friendly or even becuase he is happy. I believe he is actually laughing AT all of us: he receives nearly $1,000,000 (combined) from the three entities he represents in Monroeville: the Municipal Council, the School Board and the Monroeville Water Authority. He just keeps smling! He's happy in Monroeville, he is making $30,000 for every man, woman and child that lives in the muncipality. Seems to me if we cut his rate we cold afford many more police officers. Dice law; in service to whom?

Before you spew figures about Mr. Dice's compensation lets note that $1 million divided by 30K residents equals $33 per resident, not $30,000. I'm not weighing in on whether a million is reasonable, but don't try to mislead and incense people by misrepresenting the facts. Furthermore, are you sure your $1 million figure is factual, or for that matter have you checked to see what other authorities, districts, and municipalities our size pay their solicitors? He may well be overpaid but its just as possible that he is not, if you contend he is and want to sling mud you should present real evidence that the case is so. Just because you think it's too much means nothing if the pay is in line with the "going rate".

Ok "janeq" and "ilovemonroeville", your points of 3/13 are what I like to see, intelligent conversation based on facts. You both make good points that seem to support that we are indeed overpaying, however, I think comparing the workload for Pitcairn to Monroeville's is apples to oranges. Plum is more up the alley, but I don't think they have as much on their plate as Monroeville. I'd like to see what maybe West Mifflin, Ross Twp, Cranberry, Mt. Lebanon, and Moon pay, I guess they are similar in size and composition to Monroeville and encompass all ends of the County. I think in retrospect I should have used "devil's advocate" as my login, that more adequately describes my intent.