Dec 15, 2021

Allentown's Managing Director Position Superfluous


In 1996 when the current city charter (home rule) was approved, Allentown had decided against a manager, choosing instead to stay with the strong mayor system.  However, when Ed Pawlowski assumed office in January of 2006, he appointed a managing director anyway,  even though the position had never existed before in city hall. City Council at the time erroneously approved the redundant position.  I might point out that the particular director ended up being indicted by the FBI on his second round in that position.

When Leonard Lightner complained the other day that he was picking up the slack for the currently unfilled position, someone with more institutional memory might have informed him that at best he was just performing the duties originally intended for his Community Development position. 

I commend city council for putting the position on hold for now. I suggest that both council and Matt Tuerk reference the charter, so that they might become more familiar with which positions are actually mandated. Furthermore, I suggest that all discretionary positions be phased out, so that the police department can be expanded even beyond current recommendations. Perceptions of public safety and livability are quickly eroding.

postcard showing the new city hall in 1962

4 comments:

  1. Then get rid of the full time mayor position. Just twenty years ago Bill Heydt ran the city from the mayors' office and kept his insurance business going. He wasn't superman, he was merely doing what all mayors had done. One more question, did the city, or its governance improve once we hired a managing director? Case closed!

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  2. Is there evidence that the city has had any level of management whatsoever over the past 15 years? Unfortunate for many lifelong city employees having to exist in a hopeless environment just collecting paychecks looking forward to retirement. Remnants of the pawlowski regime still firmly entrenched assuring an indelible mark on the city for generations to come. How did so many people just stand back and watch this happen to our once great city.

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  3. Leon Musk, "The government is simply the biggest corporation, with the monopoly on violence." Terrorizing not only the employees yet the public too all in the name of economic development when fact remains it's all just a real estate criminal act using public monies allocated as grants.

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