Allentown

Last night I read Bernie O'Hare's summary of the U.S. Attorney's case against Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski, and it's pretty damning. The summary is this- if you wanted to do business with the City of Allentown, you had to fund Pawlowski's political operation. Nothing less would do, and several larger scale vendors and contractors had to also be large scale donors to survive.

I believe Pawlowski is entitled to his day in court, and so i've largely stayed quiet to this point on this matter. If the case against him is to be believed, Pawlowski recklessly endangered his political career and the re-development of his city by essentially thumbing his nose at even the most basic "stay out of jail" rules governing fundraising and city contracts. The cases laid out against Mike Fleck, Ramzi Haddad, Mary Ellen Koval, and other city employees painted Pawlowski in such a startling light that you kind of find it amazing that this man was able to make it to a Mayor's office in a city of about 120,000 people. He almost reads like a cartoon character with his behavior.

Ed Pawlowski is a fellow Democratic state committeeman. Mike Fleck was a fellow political operative. Allentown is a city here in my local area. This whole case is rather alarming to me. I wasn't a big supporter of them over the years, but I still feel a bit shocked at what transpired, because I really didn't think they were crooks like this. It appears that I didn't think right.

Ed Pawlowski should resign. Whether he gets it or not, most of the public has determined he isn't innocent, and has lost faith in his government. Whether he is ultimately found guilty or not, so many close associates have now plead guilty that his administration is tainted by the stain of them. Even if he is found not guilty in the end, he has no way of restoring the public faith in him. He is no longer a net positive for Allentown. I do realize that for income and leverage reasons, Pawlowski will not resign. He needs the checks, and he knows that the longer he can stay in office, the better chance of a deal he has, but that doesn't make it any better that he stays. Whatever good will he has at this point is being shot.

The FBI is not helping Allentown by dragging this out either. Allentown can't move forward with their Mayor under this cloud of suspicion. While they seem to be building a larger conspiracy case against other major actors as well, the FBI does work for the public, and every day that this man is allowed to stay in office is a day lost for the city. I do hope that they will move on an indictment sooner than later, in this case.

Ultimately this is a story of greed- Pawlowski wanted to move up immediately and Fleck wanted every last dollar, and other people wanted to be their friends because they were important. Everyone got wrapped up in themselves a bit much, and now people have to go to jail. A city that was finally moving in a positive direction has to sit in paralysis, and wait for the looming embarrassment of their Mayor going to jail. Everybody loses. All for a few bucks to change hands. This is the kind of crap that gives politics a bad name.