From an article in today's Morning Call, one might think that there is a brand new day at Allentown City Hall, just blossoming with integrity and good intentions. Compared to Pawlowski's reign, to the new city beat reporter, it might seem that way... I know better... While there are two newer faces on council, everyone else, including the mayor, were part of the old establishment.
When Ray O'Connell was appointed mayor last term, he invited me in to his office at city hall, to hear my recommendations for the park system. Here we are two years later, and my last phone call was never returned, and he dropped me as a facebook friend. My blog posts about an east side woman being harassed by code, as a personal favor to a supervisor's friend, offended O'Connell. While O'Connell is ethically miles above the former mayor, he never dismantled the goon squad that Pawlowski spend years weaponizing.
As an old political blogger, I know everyone on council. There is nobody I haven't sat down with, or had a one on one conversation with over the years. Although I like them all as people, Allentown doesn't need another complimenter. This old blogger will continue scrutinizing city hall as always, I don't need facebook friends anyway.
"While O'Connell is ethically miles above the former mayor..."
ReplyDeleteYou are very kind.
O'Connell was happily on the Pawlowski bandwagon for a decade, even defending him in the immediate aftermath of the FBI raid on City Hall. Until then, he blindly voted for whatever the Mayor put in front of him (tax hikes, water leases, trash-to-energy schemes, etc). For his loyalty, O'Connell was rewarded with the Mayor's political endorsement and was the beneficiary of the Pawlowski election machine.
In 2017, O'Connell ran a spoiler campaign for mayor as a write-in, in order to:
a) Guarantee a Pawlowski win;
b) Keep a candidate of the Jewish faith from winning the Mayor's seat; or
c) Protect the status quo in City Hall.
As you mention, he hasn't dismantled any of Pawlowski's goon squads, and seems quite content with letting them continue to run the show.
I'm not sure any of that put's him (ethically) an INCH above the former Mayor, unless you consider the lack of a formal court conviction to be the deciding factor.
Which reminds me of the old saying about ethics - something along the lines that ethics are what you do when people aren't watching.
Luckily for O'Connell, in Allentown very few actually watch.