Special note: Due to the upcoming primaries, BtB will appear in May as a special double edition. We will then be taking June off, and return in July with the second half of this year’s BtB.
Craig Grella to Run Unopposed in Primary – To Face Bob Fischer for Open Ward 4 Seat
By Jason Margolis
For Grella, this election is as much about decision-making processes as the decisions themselves. As Commissioner, Grella plans to use his technology background to make the MTL government more transparent and responsive to the community as they work through important community issues.
Grella believes that the MTL Commission needs to do an overall better job of communicating with the public. He commented, “They do this when they make a decision, but they need to do a better job of communicating not just the decision but the thought process leading up to the decision. They need to do this more often and more open.” Specific areas Grella is targeting for improvement includes more letters to the public, more open forums, and improvements in a “website that needs to be much better … it is outdated, and needs to be more open and accessible.”
While Grella has recently worked with technology in the non-profit community, the Pennsylvania State Democratic party, as well as volunteering for the ACLU, he is now ready to serve the MTL community he has lived in for 5 years. With his children now here in the MTL community, Grella said he “will be best be able to have a say in and impact local policies through the commission.” Additionally, sitting commissioner Dave Brumfield is not running again. Grella described Brumfield as “relatively popular and has done a pretty good job” and that he would not have challenged him in the primary.
Grella on the Issues
On the issue of deer management, Grella says he has “No issue with lethal control of deer,” although at the same time he believes that “As a commission, we can do a better job of exhausting non-lethal options.” Nevertheless, Grella has “no problem with the way the commission has voted so far.” At the same time, Grella is open to a change in policy if the data is there to support it. He said, “We need more measurement and analytics in place to understand what is working and what is not. DVCs are going up, we need to know more. If it isn’t working, we need to pivot. We should not just stand on ceremony.”
As for taxes, Grella compared MTL to his experiences on Long Island, saying, “In Suffolk County, we had more taxes. And we get more here in MTL in terms of services and school district.” Grella said that when considering issues like taxes, you must weigh: risk vs. reward and benefit to the community vs. cost. “Some services you have to pay for,” he added. In regards to the highly controversial MTL Newcomers Tax, Grella said that “The Commission needs to be clear when they are going to re-assess, and the real estate agents need to be clear that a sale can trigger a reassessment. And it should be in the documents. Also, people need to understand what their rights are. The Commission needs to tell people how to appeal, and assist them.”
On the issue of artificial turf, Grella said, “I probably would have voted for it – I was an athlete myself.” He sees the investment in artificial turf as similar to the investment in Mt. Lebanon High School. He added, “We have to do some things like that to maintain [MTL’s] stand-out status.”
As for PAYT, Grella said that while he is “not completely against it,” he has many concerns. These included that it “doesn’t pay except for a small subset of people in MTL,” and that without the collective bargaining MTL can have with other municipalities, there can be astronomical increases for individual residents down the road. “I have lived in areas where this happened,” Grella added.
The Bigger Picture
As Commissioner, Grella is looking to increase communication – with the individual resident and with the entire community. As for individual residents, Grella said that “A Commissioner must get back to the resident no matter what, even with a past history.” More broadly, Grella said he “would love to see a community forum – an on line community forum that is moderated by the commission. With community input, and partnership with community leaders.”
Grella added, “We need more interaction between the community and the commission – and not just at the meetings. But not for bitching – to move things forward, with break out groups. To build coalitions, which is not happening, but it should … We’d find we are not so different, but right now we are very polarized.”
Emphasizing that most of the issues the community faces are not partisan issues, Grella said he believes that “Even though we live in an increasingly partisan world, we have to be able to separate that when we come to make sure our communities are safe and economically viable.”