"Some of you may remember that my agency, now called Community Action Lehigh Valley, busted a mortgage fraud conspiracy that preyed on low-income Hispanics in downtown Allentown. We put a few guys in jail."The targets of Jennings' campaign at the time supposedly participated in what was called predatory lending. Certain mortgage companies were giving mortgages to people with poor credit at a higher rate. I believe that it remains standard procedure for car loans and credit cards. Our enlightened, like Jennings, now focus on affordable housing, making low-income permanent tenants.
Jennings take great pride in jailing those mortgage brokers. One of the people he sent to jail was married to a Hispanic woman, and was well appreciated for his work at a local mission. Meanwhile, Jennings continues to campaign for Ed Pawlowski's release, whose criminal behavior cost every Allentown taxpayer more money on every contract he rigged during his reign.
I'm convinced, from reading your blog and others, that this guy is one of the biggest crooks in the Lehigh Valley.
ReplyDeleteIt would not be a stretch to say that Pat B. was regularly saving the occasional life as he assisted in rebuilding others in his work helping people deal with acute substance abuse. That job was low wage, low status, and high pressure.
ReplyDeleteIn the Morning Call Jennings called the man a “scum bag”.
Actually two men were sentenced to jail, and while the organization that employed Alan Jennings at the time - he is no longer working there - played a role in that prosecution and conviction, neither Jennings, nor the organization that he refers to as his, was responsible for putting people in jail. One is left to wonder why Mr. Jennings is no longer working for his old employer as well as the reason for the name change of the organization.
ReplyDeleteWhoever is currently the director certainly is maintaining a considerably lower public profile, for better or worse, an interesting shift in direction.
I respectfully disagree. It was always about Mr. Jennings.
DeleteAlways.
Where would Allentown possibly be today without him?
Without Jennings, Allentown would be stuck back in those boring middle class days. During his height, no less than three social agencies sponsored people to "move in" money, a program that brought thousands of hard core never want to work people to Allentown.
DeleteA hugely significant, and either forgotten or otherwise unmentioned, part of the story is the trickle, then steady stream, of IV drug users and their families who came from the NYC METRO area for prolonged stays at Hogar Crea.
DeleteAlan is a legend in his own mind, as well as to a legion of dedicated followers, as such he has always viewed himself as the rough equivalent of a U.S. Senator.
Deleteanon@1:41: I have no reason to think of Jennings as dishonest, but he is certainly judgmental.
ReplyDeleteanon@2:37: In my mind, Pawlowski hurt many more people than the mortgage broker. How Jennings could prosecute one and defend the other is the basis for this post.
anon@4:21: Jennings retired because of a health issue. The organization, IMO, always made poverty a business.
Some public people are driven by the desire to make money, others by the need for the power of political office. Alan Jennings remains driven by the need for publicity and adulation.
DeleteThose of us following the issue of government and NGO waste and fraud closely now recognize how deep a problem that was, and still is. It spread down from Federal to Local non-profits. The USAID audit is just the tip of the iceberg.
ReplyDeleteIt seems, those who now object and scream the loudest, from Federal to Local, were most likely the one’s with their hands in OUR cookie jar.
Yes, the "community reinvestment act" forced banks to lend to unqualified debtors, then accused the bank of predatory lending and often fines or other punishment, it was the cause of the 2008 debt crash, which was then blamed on the banks, when in fact it was the government's interference in the good practices of responsible lenders.
ReplyDeleteRay N - That may very well be the most under-reported story of the 21st Century. Both progressives and "traditional" Republicans with no backbone share the blame for that. It appears a lot of bankers got the blame for doing what Congress told them to do.
DeleteThat was no so much a today problem... one of my best friends I graduated with in '70 worked as a loan manager for the old American Bank... he was called on the carpet for... wait for it... NOT having made any BAD loans... his instructions were to make more lenient loans... if you don't have few failed loans, you're not making enough loans!!! This was in the middle to late '70s...
DeleteIsn't the reason that people with poor credit recieve loans (if at all) at higher interest rates is because they have a history of not repaying them?
ReplyDeleteOn the surface it may appear that Jennings's championing of the criminal Pawlowski is paradoxical. But when you look at it, it starts to get more clear: they certainly think alike, both showed symptoms of the Don Quixote complex, both approached their jobs from a similar point of view and they were great poker buddies during Pawlowski's crime reign.
ReplyDeleteAll of that and more, however, is not enough to justify the irrationality of Jennings continuing to defend Pawlowski after what he did to Allentown and many Allentonians. Jennings's defense of Pawlowski may in fact be his way of defending himself.