Throw The Bums Out of Plum
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If we all Holler loud enough, even a deaf man will hear us!
Many of us have become very concerned about the manner in which Plum has become controlled by individuals through nepotism (who ya know)as well as heavy handed strong arm tacticts. It would be in the best interest of Plum Borough if serious talks emerged about a whole new group of unrelated individuals willing to transform Plum into the community it could be, but is not.
For openers, we need to challenge the district into electing a new Magistrate who is not controlled by the grips of of a few powersoaked individuals. Remember the whole debacle over the actions of some badcops in the Plum Police Department and all the ruckus, embarrassment, and money they have caused taxpayers. Wasn't that enough for us, as concerned individuals, to rise up and take back our town. Hopefully the citizens of Plum, (and I speak for many like minded individuals), who feel cheated by a disrespecting body of power running rampant over the interests of the good citizens of Plum. It is time to Throw The Bums Out, but be selective of who the bums are. Bring in new blood, with judicial know how. This town is not little Italy.
The news has reported that Federally indicted officer Ryan Schneiderlochner, has been given his job back? He was defended by top notch reknowned Pittsburgh arttorneys whose extremely expensive defense was not paid for by Schneiderlochner. Additionally, it was purported by one of Schneiderlochner's attorneys that he would likely sue Plum Borough for damages as well.
The officer who was fired by former Chief Payne as well as Plum Council, found guilty of 13 violations of police department policies, not only has been rehired, but expects taxpayers to pay for damages as he sues Plum Borough for additional punitive damages on top of his fully reinstated time off salary of over $56,000 a year. He is a liability and his actions are clearly unacceptable!
There are enough good men out there that we do not need police officers who engage in this kind of behavior. An officer so disrespectful to the borough (Plum) that rehired him back, that he is going to sue for damages in addition to his back pay, which has already been paid.
Again, he was paid for all the time he was on bail and under house arrest by the FBI for witness tampering!!! So he did not work as an officer but was paid in full for his time off and he still intends to sue Plum Borough. He was charged with videotaping a Monroeville Police officer and his girlfriend on company time at 2:30 am in a Plum police cruiser, outside his assigned area, and was being paid overtime for it. He did this to use it to keep witnesses from testifying against fellow police officers who were being investigated by the FBI for many violations of law.I don't think it takes a brain surgeon to figure out he was engaged in low quality behavior as well as certainly violating laws. He was found by Plum Council to be in violation of 13 counts of police misconduct.
Most jurors would be intimidated by the retaliation factor of a badcop that had the nerve to sit in front of your home in a police cruiser filming you at 2:30 am.Who would feel safe reigning in a guilty verdict against these kinds of badcops sadcops.
How much influence does officer Schneiderlochner possess that he can command his job back and then sue taxpayers of Plum for his pain and suffering. What about the pain and suffering he caused for the people he was videotaping. Any leader in this community that makes excuses for this type of behavior needs to be replaced as well as have people videotape them in private residences and see what kind of pain it causes them.
It is time that good citizens step forward. Let's get behind the council members who fired officer Schneiderlochner and elect additional members who feel his firing was a good first step in cleaning up the badcops and politicians of this town.
A new magistrate would be a great place to start anew, a person with legal experience, such as an experienced civil rights attorney. No more judges that are unable to do anything other than agree with police officers whether they are honest or not. The community is hungry for good management and smart honest people. Please start to Blog about new and fresh ideas and urge new people to seek offices in Plum. Plum has become an embarrassing nationwide laughing stock because of the DUI task force commercials on television as well as the many cops who continuously run Road Warrior Tactics to instigate unlawful, without probable cause, traffic stops, in an effort to raise money or find drunk drivers. The time is right for helpful and caring leaders to emerge in Plum. Anyone that runs will likely be the new magistrate, because the town is ready for the timely "changing of the guard".
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I agree with the spirit of your post. I do not know enough yet to determine if I agree with all the particulars. Is there a group forming with the goal of achieving a changing of the guard? I would be interested in joinging!
I am just curious to the criteria of how new teachers and coaches are hired??? I had heard of many accounts to were new coaches and teachers were brought into the district when Plum had already had suitable replacements.
For the 2006-2007 school year, a mysterious Social Studies job opened up at the high school. The man who was hired for the position was interviewed in shorts and a t-shirt. The reason he did not have a formal interview was because they didn't post the job. If you don't know, there is an aide at the high school who has that certification who is more than qualified for the job. That person has been an aide for over 3 years!!! I guess that the aide just didn't have the right connections.
Plum High School had advertised for a head basketball coach for the 2007-2008 school year. The assistant basketball coach had been with the team for 8 seasons. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to assume that he would be the logical choice. This man is also a teacher in the High School. For some odd reason, the school district decided to hire from outside the building. Weird!! I guess you have to be related to the Mayor to coach basketball in this district.
For the 2007-2008 school district, Plum advertised for a Health and Physical Education teacher. This position was for two of the elementary schools. During the 2006-2007 school year, they hired a long-term substitute teacher to fill in for this position from November to June. This teacher was also a football coach and a baseball coach for the district. This teacher did an outstanding job both in the classroom and on the playing field. The only thing this teacher needed to do was to be best friends with the principals son to get the job. Unfortunately, thats what it takes to get the Health and Physical Education position in Plum.
I do not understand why the district continues to hire the "friends of the program" and not people who are already qualified in the system. These are just three cases that I know of. I am sure than through the years, there has been many more cases just like these.
Maybe ya'll are new to Plum, but in case you don't know it, Plum is based on a feudal land ownership type of system.
The old guard is in throws of its' final days.
Still many of the old names remain and curry favor in the borough.
Can't coach? It doesn't matter........ your names starts with an "R", you must be qualified.
Can't teach? Doesn't matter....... the road Plum High school sits on is named after your grandfather.
Bloodlines run deep in this town, but times are a changin' and with the infusion of new blood, the "old names" will slowly disappear!
If most Plum resident's knew of the underhanded conduct of the old timer's in the police department they'd demand indictment's. (For those old cops thank goodness for statutes of limitations.)
We youngster's in Plum back in the 70's and 80's knew alot more about our town and our law enforcer's but to be sure no one took us serious and as long as things were relativley quiet the older folk took that as a sign all was well.
Rumor had it back in the day more cocaine and heroin were funneled thru Plum, and "allegedly" with the blessing's and protection of local law enforcement. Cannot personally verify, but would not doubt it.
Remember..... we're talking farm town back then with a farmer's mentality.
Never forget alot of those famrer's and alot of that mentality remains no matter how many top notch football fields you erect or new resident's flee to your neck of the woods.
"Can't coach? It doesn't matter........ your names starts with an "R", you must be qualified"
My guess is that you were never an athlete in life. A coach can only do so much with the cards that he is dealt. You want to know the problem with plum football? It has nothing to do with the coaches. When the biggest kids in school are carrying tubas instead of playing football, that is your problem. You put coach rometo at gateway, penn hills, woodland hills, the man would be just as successful as their present coaches. You give the man talent to work with, he gives you success (winning a wpial championship, beating the number one team in the nation, etc.) When our line averages 185lbs and goes up against lines averaging 250lbs, what do you expect to happen? You can only coach a player up so much. Championship teams, and winning programs are so because of the talent they have. Move us from AAAA to AAA and see success. Look at franklin regional, once they moved to AAA they were able to win consistently and with a few division 1 players won a state championship. You cant judge a coach soley on his wins and losses.
Don't get me wrong, if you have a team loaded with talent and they consistently fail then there is something wrong with coaching but you need the athletes to play. In 2005 the majority of the best athletes in the school were on the soccer team and they went and won a wpial championship
hey mr wpial champ you say that plums problem is that all the big kids are holding tubas, right? well whos fault is that? Shouldnt the coaches encourage the biggest kids in the school to come out for the team. Granted bill depew and pete raspanti ran the program into the ground by not developing the line and making the biggest kids quit in jr. high, But i think the real problem is chris stewart not bill rometo. chris stewart discourages kids to come out for the team by calling them fat and lazy when they do not show up. Kids need encouragement. Mainly rometos fault for keeping that overweight stewart on the staff. but before you say someone else doesnt know much about sports........think about what your saying and ask yourself, do I know anything about sports?
I don't see how it is rometo's fault that they want to play in the band. When I know first hand he had talked to those kind of kids while I was in school. They never played a sport their whole life. Sports wasn't their thing. So how can you make a kid do something he isn't interested in. My point was that the reason we do not succeed is because our lines are very small. We have always had skilled players at rb, wr, qb, cb, but you win in the trenches and we don't have the big guys anymore.
Regarding stewart, its called being tough. If a kid doesn't show up to practice or training then he is lazy. Why in this world do we have to sugar coat everything to make people feel good. Tell them how it is. You are lazy if you just dont come to practice for no reason.
I do know a lot about sports. I know what it takes to be successful. I didn't win a wpial championship sitting around being lazy. Its called hard work. Something most kids don't know.
I agree with you on everything you said.
How can a kid be disciplined and be good at sports if when they don't show up, all they get is an "Oh, that's okay!" They ARE lazy for skipping practice.
Also, a kid shouldn't have to play football if he doesn't want to. If he wants to play in the band, LET HIM! That's his thing. Why should the community make the child's decision for him?!
I don't even know how to start this off. Yes, some may say that the tenure of the current coach is long overdue, but I have to agree that you can only do so much with the cards you are dealt. The varsity football program is a product of the entire system. The true blame needs to be placed at the junior high level and lower. This is when a child can take interest in a sport. Just because a student isn't the biggest kid when in eighth grade, doesn't mean that he or she isn't going to be six foot- 225 lbs in the next three years. The junior high team always seemed to favor the players that came up through the midget program. Yes, they may know the game a little better, but they should if they have been playing that long. You already have the attention of these students since they have stuck with football for so long. The population that you want to address is that of the non midgets, the ones that never played organized football. Keep these kids interested in football in some manner, not just by sitting them on the bench to watch the more experienced players. I would bet that you would be able to find a direct correlation between the record of the junior high team and the record of the varsity team 3 years following. Coach Rometo does what he can with what he is given. A change would make people happy, but necessarily may not result in any winning records. And about Chris Stewart, he is doing what needs to be done. Football (or any other sport) is all about discipline. If you are too nice, you will be walked all over and not be taken seriously.