Feb 6, 2023

Raining Money On Promise Neighborhoods

Hasshan Batts won the lottery when he started the local Promise Neighborhoods. The politically correct are always looking for a cause to support, and combating gun violence is the current fashion. Years ago, Alan Jennings was in the right place at the right time, with combating poverty, now it's Batts' turn. After Pawlowski's departure, Cynthia Mota nominated Batts for mayor, without revealing that she worked for him. That was a story that this blog broke, but it was appropriated by the Morning Call, without attribution. Local virtue signalers started flocking around Batts, adding credence to his self promotion.

Just in the last couple weeks alone, he has received $Millions of $dollars... Fed money from Susan Wild, state money from Governor Shapiro and local money from Lehigh Valley Health Network. Corporate America, and LVHN is corporate, love enhancing their profile by making community contributions. The Allentown School District has partnered with Batts to operate a food pantry.

Some of the people who know the local Promise organization best are starting to protest. The commotion at last week's city council meeting touched on that irony. Some of the people arguing at the meeting were Promise workers. These same people are supposed to be conciliators.

Activist Jessica Lee Ortiz was largely responsible for the huge turnout shown in the photo above. While the Morning Call decided not to report on the meeting, LehighValleyNews.Com covered the controversy. 

Mayor Tuerk told the crowd that's he working with an organization of mayors for gun control. That won't help Allentown anytime this century. Likewise, neither will Promise Neighborhoods.  An excellent suggestion was to allow police to moonlight as security in private clubs... that was a common practice many years ago in Allentown. 

photocredit:Jay Bradley/LehighValleyNews.com

17 comments:

  1. Like so much else in our earlier nation, the enforcement and justice systems in America have been made confusing and corrupted. Special interest groups have our politicians and their operatives running scared and unwilling to condemn and address various misbehaviors and system abuses.
    I would think most police officers would pass on a chance to earn extra bucks after hours trying to keep the peace. In some circumstances, they would find themselves in a risky, no-win predicament. Damned if they do, and damned if they don’t.

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  2. Hope they have a provision that requires itemized reporting and use of the money with actual proof. If not that money will go directly to batts vacations, cars, homes and God knows what. Sad they will do business with an unproven organization who shares the same people in the same photos and videos all the time. It’s obvious this is Batts knew hustle. Scare government and corporations into giving PN money or else we will make a lot of noise. Just pay him and keep him quiet is probably what’s happenings

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  3. “An excellent suggestion was to allow police to moonlight as security in private clubs... that was a common practice many years ago in Allentown.”

    Hold on a second. Wasn’t that part of the problem that caused the police pension mess?

    I seem to remember that senior officers were able to boost their pay (and thus their pensions) by loading up on overtime. I believe at least part of that was done through “off-duty” work that still has to be paid through the city’s payroll system.

    I’d want to understand all that better before we possibly repeat a historically bad decision.

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  4. anon@6:41: Official on duty overtime certainly was abused to pad the pensions before retirement. However, I was referring to off duty private moonlighting, which is not overtime, or on the city's dime in anyway. The officers were allowed to wear their uniform and gun.

    to all anonymous commenters: specific allegations of wrong doing must be signed by verifiable name

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    1. But that was the problem. It was deemed that if in uniform (and maybe if not), they were Allentown police officers. The city could collect reimbursement for their services, but they couldn’t be private contractors in the true sense of the word.

      So any pay earned and any hours worked went through the city’s payroll system. And if the officers did anything wrong (excessive force, etc) the city was liable for it.

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  5. Police moonlighting and allowed to wear their badge and gun. Yeah...no. Do not believe club owner's should have police splitting their loyalty between making a buck and doing their official duty. Been there, seen that, doesn't work.

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  6. With so much lying going on in the government and major news media these days it has become impossible to know with certainty if everything Mr. Batts (and others heading-up various groups) does is on the up and up.

    Much like the recent Chinese ballon incident, the uproar over the integrity of our elections process, the Covid matter, etc., it’s pretty much pointless to claim something took place, or is real, simply because you heard a third party say it or you found it in print.. Our nation is in a bad way now. Maybe not, but that’s MY view.

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  7. I suppose my little boy world of Allentown growing up in the 1960s has changed consideribly now i've reached the curmudgeon part of my life. I remember men like Batts were in Philadelphia back then doing their hustles in Overbrook and Kensington. Now that Allentown is a big grown up city, we have our own. America......

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  8. And now the dearest council women Natalie Santos is a proud member of the board for Promise Neighborhood.

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    1. Santo Napoli is on the board and Natalie Santos is employed by Promise neighborhoods to be accurate

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    2. Santo Napoli is not nor has never been connected to Promise Neighborhood.

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  9. No one questions the additional assailants of Faces. Tuerk announced on several occasions the city partnership. I wonder if that deal was negotiated in the Dominican? Faces is a for profit making millions of the non-profit sector.

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  10. I’m sorry to read that Wild is in on this. Mr. Batts, and anyone else who insists on using the prefix Dr. when they mean Phd., outside of academia, is a phony. In the age of George Santos and overblown resumes it’s up to the public to be vigilant, and check, and double check credentials. As they say, people get in trouble when they start believing their own PR. Most leaders of 501c3 organizations get in trouble when they start taking advantage.

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  11. Again, all the politicians who are making these foolish and corrupt choices have been elected and re-elected by the voters of Allentown. Their single criterion for candidate selection is that they are of the same political party as them. Stupid is was stupid does and the result is we all pay dearly. get a clue voters or the abuses will continue and the city will continue to decline.

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    Replies
    1. I think it important to add this to Scott’s advice to Allentown citizens, “Don’t look to the Morning Call for explanation or guidance.”

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  12. The way our election system is running, I ask myself were they "elected" or "selected"? In my short time at the polls, I saw 2 questionable instances happen... if I witnessed 2, how many other instances of questionable actions occurred??? It may have been fine, but it may not have been....

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