FC: Judge Kistler rules against trustees in PSAA suit - link
- Thread starter mn78psu83
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Gee. Who came up with the title?
Judge Smacks Down Trustee Lawsuit Against Alumni Assocation
by Michael Martin Garrett on May 07, 2015
The four Penn State trustees who took the university alumni association to court are down for the count.
In a ruling filed this week, Centre County President Judge Thomas Kistler ruled against the alumni-elected trustees who sued to get their names on the ballot for the Penn State Alumni Association's governing body. The trustees -- Anthony Lubrano, Alice Pope, Ted Brown and William Oldsey -- alleged the PSAA purposefully withheld information about the nomination process before wrongly denying them ballot access.
But Kistler disagrees. As he points out, the PSAA's bylaws and the guidelines for getting one's name on the alumni council ballot were available on the PSAA website at all times during this dispute.
"Petitioner's ignorance of the [bylaws] cannot provide the basis for a cause of action against the PSAA," Kistler writes. [ story continues... http://www.statecollege.com/news/lo...ee-lawsuit-against-alumni-assocation,1463898/ ]
Judge Smacks Down Trustee Lawsuit Against Alumni Assocation
by Michael Martin Garrett on May 07, 2015
The four Penn State trustees who took the university alumni association to court are down for the count.
In a ruling filed this week, Centre County President Judge Thomas Kistler ruled against the alumni-elected trustees who sued to get their names on the ballot for the Penn State Alumni Association's governing body. The trustees -- Anthony Lubrano, Alice Pope, Ted Brown and William Oldsey -- alleged the PSAA purposefully withheld information about the nomination process before wrongly denying them ballot access.
But Kistler disagrees. As he points out, the PSAA's bylaws and the guidelines for getting one's name on the alumni council ballot were available on the PSAA website at all times during this dispute.
"Petitioner's ignorance of the [bylaws] cannot provide the basis for a cause of action against the PSAA," Kistler writes. [ story continues... http://www.statecollege.com/news/lo...ee-lawsuit-against-alumni-assocation,1463898/ ]
The problem is that the Bylaws do allow the Nominating Committee to exercise discretion if an applicant did not get petition signatures. The PSAA's dishonesty is illustrated, however, by its attempt to keep two successful petition candidates off the ballot.
The key here - IMHO - of this action was to illustrate the incredible hypocrisy of the "leadership" of Penn State. Essentially:
- Mandating that a member of Group A (the PSUAA) be GIVEN A SEAT on Group B (the PSU BOT)
while, at the same time
- Refusing to allow a member of Group B to even be CONSIDERED AS A CANDIDATE to be elected to Group A
And citing as support their determination that it would be a conflict of interest for an individual to be on both Group A and Group B. I know....unreal, right?
The inanity of this should have been evident to anyone with a pulse. Unfortunately, for the most part, the Scoundrels were able to control the media narrative, and this basic dysfunction never became the "story".
I assume the Trustees did what they could to stress that issue, but - for whatever reasons - it just never became a significant part of the story.
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The secondary issue here - IMHO - are the recent actions by the "leaders" of the PSU AA to just re-write the rules, making the AA even less of a representative body of the Alumni (if it indeed could have gotten any worse than it already was). One can hope - but I am not overly optimistic - that these actions will continue to be brought to the attention of PSU's Alumni base, and THEY will act by telling the AA to go pound sand.....and terminate any financial support of this organization that time and again works in direct opposition to the best interests of the folks it claims to serve.
EVERY local PSU AA chapter should be getting the word out. I know the "leaders" of each chapter (for the most part) will not......many of them are lackeys and stooges who enjoy the ability to boot-lick their masters.....But, we do know that at least some of those local leaders ARE engaged (and enraged) - and we can hope that many of the rank-and-file members will join them in putting their shoulders to the wheel.
The Centre County judicial system is a complete dumpster fire right now (the DA, judges, and county commissioners all suing each other, etc.). It's ridiculous to think they can even adjudicate cases with all this baggage hanging over the entire CC judicial system. I guess we now know which side Judge Kistler is on, he's probably buddies with the OG BOT or gets political contributions, etc. from them....who the hell knows with CC. It's a disaster.
Cruising Route 66
Well-Known Member
The outcome of this petition and the one for delaying the trustee election were predictable. These petitions were precipitated by nothing more than a few people with massive egos getting their noses bent out of shape for not being able to get their way.
And kudo's to Barron for condemning the dissident's for these actions and their threats for more of the same. The growing number of failures for abiding by the Board’s expectations of membership will sooner or later lead to their ouster under the Board's eponymous rule which was designed with one of the dissident members in mind.
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Since when do people get to refer to their bosses as "dissidents"??
Barron should have kept his mouth shut. All he did was enrage the entire alumni base (except for the ones who havent been paying any attention to whats been going on at PSU the past 3-4 yrs).
1999/2000 Kistler asked me to scalp tickets for him. Told me he'd take care of me if I did. Michigan game I sold a bunch for him and then got tagged by undercovers. He didn't get the case moved to his court and I got a huge fine. A few years ago he had tickets for a big game and told me to sell them (not remembering me). I held them up and said $2 for the pair. Sold in less than 5 seconds. He said "I thought you'd do better than that." I said well you owe me about $375, jackass. Remember 1999?" He doesn't give a damn about anyone but himself.
If they are dissidents, they are in good company. Solzhenitsyn was a dissident, after all.
I would agree with your statement. I've known Tom most of our lives and his brother John. One thing I will never forget is Toms fumble against Central Catholic of Pittsburgh that sealed our loss and broke our 36 game win streak. We was about as good a tight end as he is a judge.
funny, I was thinking of Dostoevsky being lined up for execution for being a dissident . . . odd how some people of a certain pedigree find that term an insult . . .
I'd still like to know what happened with the other unnamed 6 people who were denied nomination.
Kistler's decision is unfortunately correct. The Association's bylaws are public. If you want to participate in an election, you should at least read what the rules are to get nominated - even if the Association basically misled/lied to then about the process.
I wish they'd have properly gone through the petition process, as I suspect this could've gotten a lot uglier and would've drawn attention to Council's usurping of the membership's democratic process.
Kistler's decision is unfortunately correct. The Association's bylaws are public. If you want to participate in an election, you should at least read what the rules are to get nominated - even if the Association basically misled/lied to then about the process.
I wish they'd have properly gone through the petition process, as I suspect this could've gotten a lot uglier and would've drawn attention to Council's usurping of the membership's democratic process.
Kistler has been elected twice to ten year terms (1997, 2007). His seat is up for election in 2017. Guys like this usually never lose, but I have a feeling with the shenanigans that have been going on in the Bellefonte Courthouse none of the sitting judges are safe in the next election. I wonder if one or more might even voluntarily move back to private practice.
