Pawlowski's Theft Of Service

If Ed Pawlowski ends up convicted of pay to play in his federal  case remains to be seen.  Since the investigation of his corruption by the FBI began in 2013 or so,  the law has changed.  In a case called McDonnell vs. United States,  the Supreme Court ruled that a specific favor for a specified contribution must be linked and documented.  So,  although I cannot predict the trial's outcome,  I do know that he stole honest services from the taxpayers of Allentown.

From court testimony we learn that most contracts given out in Allentown were decided not by what was best value for the city,  but by which vendor would contribute to Pawlowski's campaigns.  Unfortunately,  the consequences are even worse;  Because Pawlowski was mayor for three full terms,  this corruption impacted almost every department's integrity.

Hopefully, when Pawlowski is finally gone,  Allentown can begin to clean this culture of corruption from city hall.

photo from Morning Call video

Survivors Of The Pawlowski Era

While Celeste Dee's current website heralds her experience as a campaign strategist, there is no mention that she got the experience working for Mike Fleck's H Street Strategies.  H Street promoted Pawlowski and his stable of yes men and women. In light of the Pawlowski trial, and Fleck's guilty plea,  her omission is understandable.  She testified that she was well aware that city vendors were being burped for campaign contributions.

Candida Affa went with Celeste and her spinoff agency; She was perhaps the last member of City Council to cut ties with Pawlowski.  Celeste will be able to survive and prosper in Allentown's Democratic world;  She is treasurer of the local party.

The Pawlowski era and lack of ethics so permeated local politics that there are no players that were not tainted by it.

photo of Celeste Dee in front of Federal Courthouse by WFMZ Channel 69 News

Pawlowski's Defense In Action

Although Molovinsky On Allentown's mission is to provide informed commentary rather than being another reportage site,  I felt it might be useful to witness Pawlowski's famed defense attorney in action.  I observed his cross examination of Matt McTish.  While the prosecutor seemed meek and barely audible,  McMahon was strong and commanding.  He produced an email that McTish sent his lobbyist,  Jennifer Mann, complaining that his contributions to Pawlowski were not being productive.  To use McMahon's words,  there was no bang for McTish's buck, nor quid pro quo established.   He made McTish confirm that contributions to various politicians were a common business expense for his engineering firm.  Furthermore, he revealed that McTish additionally paid Mann $60,000 a year to assist him in securing business, with both government and private sectors.

McMahon had succeeded in taking a prosecution witness and scoring  points for the defense.   When Pawlowski left the courtroom for a recess,  he was clearly pleased with his attorney's performance.

Let me clarify that this snippet involves only one cross examination,  in what will prove to be a long complex trial.

court rendering from earlier in the trial by The Morning Call

Lanta's Snow Hysteria

Yesterday's snow wasn't expected to slow down the earth's rotation.  Never the less,  Lanta put in effect their Snow Emergency Routes.  Standing outside in the cold for a bus isn't the picnic Lanta thinks.  On their website they state that you can access information free of charge on your iPhone.   Nice of them to make the information free,  and of of course we must assume that everybody has an iPhone,  even those low income bus riders.

What would motivate them to implement snow detour routes for less than 2" of snow? Perhaps they have a special position for such decisions,  and he/she feels less useless by declaring the emergency routing.

At the end of the day, or I should say the beginning, it's quite a kick in the teeth to wait for a bus not coming. 

Pushing Pawlowski Back

I grew on Liberator Avenue. Liberator and Catalina Avenues, and Coronado Street, were named for Vultee-Consolidated WW2 planes, and are next to the airport built as part of the war effort. Vultee Street was built to connect the hangers with the Mack 5C plant, which was given over to Vultee-Consolidated for plane part manufacturing during the war. Vultee Street was the runway, and Lehigh Street would be closed off if a plane was landing. Today, this small airport now known as Queen City, has been under relentless threat by Mayor Ed Pawlowski, now a member of the Lehigh Valley Airport Authority. This past Tuesday, fellow board members started pushing back against Pawlowski.

"You're not the mayor of the Lehigh Valley International Airport." board member Frank Kovacs to Pawlowski

The board voted to build a new taxiway, indicating there's not much consensus to sell the airport, which has been Pawlowski's objective. Pawlowski wants to add to Allentown's real estate glut, for a short sighted tax gain. Matt Assad, from The Morning Call, wrote an excellent article explaining the arguments to both sell and keep Queen City. He also provides quotes of the tense discussion between board members and Pawlowski. This blogger is not surprised by Pawlowski's position, but questions Don Cunningham's judgement in appointing him to the Authority.

 reprinted from April of 2012

ADDENDUM FEBRUARY 7, 2018: My pushback against Pawlowski started in 2006. In 2007 when I started this blog, he and his enablers were still being defended as good for Allentown, even by fellow bloggers. This blog is fact based. I have no politicians whom I support. I am loyal only to issues, not elected officials.

Under Pawlowski's Bus

Although it's reprehensible, one can understand Pawlowski's Philadelphia mouthpiece throwing the mayor's former associates under the bus. But apparently that's not enough for Mayor Ed, he reprints that line on facebook himself.

 Now here's the problem, Pawlowki is still mayor of Allentown.

He is in essence telling all city employees that they could also become a sacrificial lamb when needed.  He is apparently more concerned with his reputation on facebook than the operation of the city.  Although   his supporters are limited to the uninformed,  the contrary and the unethical,  and the election is over, he is still more concerned with them than the operation of the city.

Credit city managers and workers for anything being done right in Allentown.  The mayor's office is worse than empty, it's actually working against morale.

Allentown's Lost Innocence

A posting like above appeared on an Allentown facebook discussion group this past weekend.  Forty two people liked the message, among them a newly elected member of the Allentown School Board. I suppose that these people belong to several groups, none of which is good for Allentown. In the first group you have the totally uninformed. They are probably the least destructive grouping, and likely do not even vote. Secondly, you have the contrarians. There will always be people like them,  and they seem to love facebook groups.  The last group is what scares me the most for Allentown. They know that he abused the system, yet still admire him for it. They know that in order to profess his innocence, he is impugning the reputation of his subordinates, who only followed his directions. Although a few of the nine who pleaded guilty are indeed co-conspirators to his plots, most were sucked in by a greedy and ambitious boss.

Although Pawlowski might be found not guilty because the prosecution cannot reach the current burden of proof, he surely is not innocent. Although I do not care about Pawlowski's future, I do hope that those members of the third group come to realize that government shouldn't be about what you can get out of it for yourself. My hope is probably naive. Greed has become part of large urban politics, and Allentown seems to have lost its innocence.

Fly In Allentown's Soup

If I saw a shrink for my frustration about Allentown, I would have to be in therapy all day. If I took sedatives, I wouldn't be able to stand up, instead I run for office and blog. Pawlowski announced his plan to restore the city on Friday; continuously inspect every inanimate object in Allentown. This professional advise came from a former Philadelphia housing guru, of course a fly in the soup is that Philadelphia is the corruption and murder capital of the world. Allentown's Rental Inspection Law failed to upgrade the city; while you end up legitimizing slumlords with certificates of occupation, you cannot legislate pride of ownership. Many local conscientious owners sold out rather than submit to the bureaucracy, increasing the frequency of inspections will again backfire. Although Pawlowski (and Cunningham) campaigned about their grand plans and communication skills, neither even knew the Allentown School System was going to demand reassessment; It's time for the taxpayers and citizens to reassess who they elected.

reprinted from November of 2007

UPDATE FEBRUARY 2, 2018:  Apparently when it comes to corruption, Philadelphia didn't have anything over us after all.  During the course of the trial this week, it was reported that Pawlowski used some Allentown inspectors as his personal goon squad,  rewarding donors and penalizing those that didn't pony up.  A number of years ago several landlords complained on this blog that they were indeed mistreated by the inspection program.  In my limited exposure to inspectors they have been professional.  I'm sure the testimony this week is not pleasant for that department's personnel.  They will however continue doing their job,  and move beyond the stigma of the Pawlowski scandal.