Jul 27, 2015

The Ethics Behind Allentown's Revitalization

This weekend The Morning Call had a fine exposé by Scott Kraus on a victory party for the mayor's last election to that office, in January of 2014.  J.B. Reilly contributed fifteen of the twenty thousand dollars raised for the event. Apparently, not all the bills were paid, and not all the money was accounted for.
"If those funds were not used properly, I am upset." J.B.
I doubt that J.B. is upset enough to have lost any sleep this weekend. He was not accused of any wrongdoing. In our era of politics, spending $20 thousand on a party for Eddy doesn't seem improper.  In our era of political correctness, any left over money was supposed to go to the poor people, under Alan Jennings' umbrella organization;  Cake Crumbs For The Poor.  Why wouldn't someone contribute $15k  for Mayor Ed, after all, we're having a $Billion Dollar Revitalization, which J.B.will own.

What really was the big deal about Mayor For Life's third election victory? Mayor for life, a molovinsky on allentown coined phrase, is now being replaced by Pawlowski-Gate,  copyright pending. In the real world, which isn't funded by diverted taxdollars going to private owners, $20,000 would pay for a lot of baby formula and diapers. In the last few years, Allentown, in it's jubilation about the renaissance, has had too much money and not enough values or ethics.

12 comments:

  1. From what I read, Allentown hasn't had enough repayment of the arena debt to the state. I believe there has been NONE. This, on the most expensive small arena ever built on a cost-per-seat basis.

    Add to this new, burgeoning state tax revenue deficit, the transfer of normal municipal tax revenues from throughout the city from their original purpose into private building construction cost payments. Next, the reality of virtually NO new tax revenues having been generated for Pennsylvania, it's easy to see Allentown's new glory is happening at ENORMOUS expense to individual citizen taxpayers all across the Commonwealth.

    So, let's also question the performance and ethics of our state legislators. What were they thinking in times like these? Something needs to change, and soon!

    Fred Windish

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  2. fred@6:21, our state legislators don't think, or even have that much ability to think, if inclined. it's almost a job for life, with straight partisan voting. the reilly/niz bill, submitted by pat browne, is a crime against the state taxpayers. the real victims are the residents of the small towns, like hamburg or danielsville, who never get anything for their state tax dollars.

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  3. Mr. Kraus did a fine job on the Sunday Morning Call piece.
    Lisa Pawlowskis involvement does not bode well for the "First Lady", as she likes to be called.
    Ed's refrain, "she is not a crook", did not rise to the level of an unimpeachable defense.

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  4. @7:03, i do not see the refrain "she is not a crook" in kraus's article. this blog post is not about the pawlowski's, ed or lisa. it is not about j.b. reilly, it is about the distorted values, ethics and priorities that the niz obscene windfall has visited upon allentown.

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  5. Who signed off on the inaugural celebration funds, and was there no connection to Riley?

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  6. Will JB & Company be successful in installing Charlie Thiel as the next mayor?
    This is not a rhetorical question.

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  7. @7:50, i don't know, or care. future comments, especially anonymous ones, which pertain to such details or innuendo most likely will not appear. again, the entire NIZ is intoxicated with funds which essentially have no accountability; all legal, thanks to the NIZ legislation, rubber stamped by state representatives, whose primary concern is being re-elected in two or four years.

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  8. With all due respect MM, I SUSPECT that not quite all the NIZ activities have met the hurdles of legality.
    I suspect we will find out soon enough.

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  9. One wonders exactly how the boy Represenatives are affected by this.
    Nether of them seem to possess quite the unmitigated shamelessness their puppetmaster Po Po displays.
    Maybe it's a Chicago thing, but then again Schlossberg is 100$% Jersey.
    One can only hope that when the Mayor leaves for his minimum security bit, the boys face a primary challenger or a Republican that can wack their bum bums.
    We'll probably have a better idea after the Grand Jury has time to do its work.

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  10. @12:13, it's my hunch that NIZ activity itself, i.e. reilly's buildings, etc, will not be directly involved in the investigation. however, i personally feel that although legal, it's a crime against the taxpayers. i suspect the fbi is investigating other city contracts, that may have occurred because of changes required to accommodate the NIZ

    @5:15, until the new district map was challenged, my neighborhood was going to be part of the 132nd, schlossberg's district; that was what motivated me to consider running

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  11. Who is owed this money.Is it the same fellow Who owns the Americus

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  12. @11:00, yes, the same fellow owns the palace.

    this blog prefers that comments are not a question, which require a reply from another commenter, or blog administrator. back and forth between commenters will never be published.

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