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.

Is This the Best We Can Get?

Ted Cruz visited Allentown yesterday. Not that I like any of them, but you'd think that front-runner Donald Trump or less-knuckledragger John Kasich would visit the third largest city in the state. With under 96 hours to go, neither of them, or Democrats Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders have been to the Queen City. Lyin' Ted is the best we can get.

For perspective, both Bill and Hillary Clinton have been to Scranton or it's suburbs, as has Bernie Sanders. Chelsea Clinton has even made the visit. Obviously they have all been in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and Harrisburg, Erie, and Johnstown are getting some love too. Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton are all getting forgotten. Reading is being left off the docket. Even Scranton's neighbor, Wilkes-Barre, is like a forgotten place. This is not like 2008 much at all.

I do get it. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are actually the most important places in the state for a statewide primary. I get that Harrisburg is our capitol. Past that, i'm sort of lost. Allentown is a considerably bigger city than Scranton. It's residents better fit our party's demographic. Lehigh County and Northampton County are both bigger than Lackawanna County. Luzerne County is much bigger than Lackawanna. Now, if I were a Presidential candidate, I would visit Lackawanna, with it's rich history of electing statewide Democrats, and reputation for strong organizational politics. This isn't an either/or thing.

I'd just make sure I visited Allentown or it's neighbors.

"Fed Ed" and Dancing on Graves

Ed Pawlowski is toast. Done. Finished. It's over. I'm telling you that because at this point, whether he takes a quick fall and is out of sight and mind, or slowly bleeds a political death, Pawlowski is finished as a statewide player, done as Allentown Mayor soon, and is not coming back in any kind of political office. No Governor. No Senator. No Congressman. No County Executive. Not even a comeback someday as a city councilman. He's politically impotent, and isn't a threat to his enemies at this point. Whether he has to leave office before the 2017 mayoral election, or is removed by the electorate, he won't get another term. I'm saying all of this while acknowledging to you that the man is innocent until proven guilty, and that is one of the most important rights that we all have as citizens. I'll even acknowledge that there are some people who still like him, or things he did as Mayor of Allentown, and are pulling for him. Even if Pawlowski is cleared someday of everything, he's not going to come back. There's no good reason to pull for him, from the political standpoint.

So, with all of that said, i'm kind of curious to now see people come out of every hole and crack in Allentown and the Lehigh Valley to make sure they get to take their best crack at Pawlowski. Allentown Council will hold a meaningless, wasteful vote to ask him to step down. Some will call on the Democratic Party to engage in some "CYA," and call on Ed to go away. To be clear, no one on Allentown Council or in the Democratic Party should want Ed to stay. Also to be clear though, all of these gestures are after the fact, and won't change the reality of what happened in Allentown. All of this is simply piling on after the fact.

By no means am I defending Pawlowski. By no means am I saying that the Democratic Party shouldn't want this guy gone. In fact, one may re-call that I have tangled with Pawlowski's operation before, to the point that I once was awakened by a 5:30 am voicemail rant from his top political aide for being supportive of Kim Velez, so I never was on the ship, so to speak. Even so, I'm not handing out too much "moral credit" for piling on now, dancing on the grave of someone who is politically dead (and most likely legally dead), is not a profile in courage. I'm not going to join in that. I hope he's gone soon. I hope he doesn't show up at Democratic State Committee. I hope this whole thing is over soon, and justice is done. I don't need any brownie points for dancing on the guy's grave.

So, with all of that, here's the straight shot of what seems to be happening. The vice is tightening. City Hall is being cleaned out by federal prosecutors, one indictment at a time. I have it on pretty good second hand authority that the Mayor declined a plea deal last week that would have put him in jail for significant jail time. He's not going to resign early, both because he believes he's innocent, and he needs the paychecks. Quibbling over a resignation that isn't going to happen is silly. An indictment, most people I talk to say, is coming soon. So, there's that.

Like I said, I'd politically like the guy to go away. I hope the Feds move diligently to do justice. I hope anybody who violated the law goes to jail fast. My past experience with this team isn't that positive, so I won't feel much sympathy here. You're just not going to read a lot of me trying to score local political points on something that is already a damn shame.

Sad Allentown Saga Nearing it's End?

Allentown City Controller Mary Ellen Koval did not take her oath of office for a new term last week. She's reportedly going to plead guilty in connection with the corruption case sweeping Allentown. From the Morning Call:

Koval delivered a resignation letter addressed to Pawlowski and the members of council to the city clerk's office around 3 p.m. Her resignation was effective Tuesday, according to the letter.

"I feel that my resignation is in the best interest of the city of Allentown and its residents," she wrote.

Koval did not return a call or text seeking comment.

Eric Dowdle, a criminal defense attorney representing Koval, confirmed her resignation but said it was "too early" to comment further.

"She has not been charged," Dowdle said. "She hasn't pled guilty at this point."

The controller's office, a repository for city contracts and a financial watchdog by design, was among several City Hall offices searched during the July raid. The suite of offices that houses the mayor and his top staff was also searched.

Federal agents seized computers, cellphones and other devices and served a subpoena for thousands of documents related to city contracts with more than two dozen people and businesses. 

Everyone who knows Mary Ellen Koval seems shocked. One would think that this case potentially reaching her means the case is getting close to coming full circle. The only offices left to reach would be the Mayor's and council's at this point, on the government side, and the contractors themselves on the outside. I don't believe the Mayor wishes to plead guilty, so there is the chance this could drag on. I'm not sure the Feds are going to wish to let it drag on forever though.

I continue to hold that this is amongst the saddest things I've seen in my time in politics. Allentown finally had direction and a chance to get better. The government was playing a positive role in re-development. Now that's soiled by public corruption. Everyone loses in this scenario. There are no winners.

Some Thoughts on Allentown

I've mostly stayed out of writing about the FBI probe into Allentown City Hall and Mayor Ed Pawlowski. It's not that I'm disinterested, or don't think it's a very big deal- it is. I've mostly wanted to listen, and hear what others have to say on the matter. I've also wanted to see how it played out, and to get a sense of where this case was going. I think I've now seen enough to voice more of an opinion.

I'm very torn, emotionally speaking, in how I feel about the entire situation. Corruption is corruption, it is bad. Everyone knows that you can't trade contracts for donations, or you go to jail. On the other side of that, despite personal traits that can rub some people the wrong way, Mayor Pawlowski's tenure in Allentown has had some positive highlights. I love the progress in the downtown, obviously lead by the arena. So while I am fine with the feds throwing the book at public corruption, I am just a bit sad to see such good work tainted by such bad behavior. Mayor Pawlowski could have had a great legacy as Mayor, and now his legacy will be forever tainted by even the accusation of bad behavior.

That's how I feel emotionally, but here's what my brain says- this was just flat out stupid. Everyone knows that you can't engage in "quid pro quo" governance, and that appears to have been  happening. You can't rig bids, and you can't force contractors to give donations. It is increasingly appearing as though that is what went on. When you have the city's finance director and it's assistant solicitor pleading guilty, and city contractors awaiting sentencing for their bribes, you realize the case doesn't stop there. It defies logic to believe that all the underlings are pleading guilty and heading to jail, but the boss isn't. Not only do I think we'll see larger heads roll in this case, I think the punishments will be painful.

I don't think it will be quick though. The Mayor is not going to resign from office early, no matter how much screaming and yelling is directed at him. It's not in his personal interest to do so. I don't think the U.S. Attorney's office will be able to build a case and charge him quickly either, no matter how badly the public wants that. I think it's actually 50/50 that the Mayor finishes his term in office, with the only way he doesn't being he is forced out.

I have no idea when or exactly how this will end. Public corruption is complicated, and very difficult to prosecute. My hope is that everyone who committed illegal acts is convicted and goes to jail. I have great trust in the current Justice Department that they can do that well. Hopefully for Allentown's sake, whatever comes next is productive, but not tainted by the hint of corruption.