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Nazareth, Pa., United States

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Hey Allentown, Ever Hear of This Little Thing Called the Due Process Clause?

Last I heard, the Constitution's due process clause applies even to home rule municipalities like Allentown. Even Republicans are protected. Seriously. But a post at Allentown Commentator from Robert E. Smith, Jr., an unsuccessful candidate for Allentown city council, makes me wonder if there's a different constitution in the Queen City. Here's what Smith says (slightly edited).

"The North End Republican Club was invaded by a construction company ordered by the city inspector to take down a piece of metal from roof. WE the club, manager, president were never called or told about this. We don't even know if there really was a piece of metal to be taken down. There was metal in back that was taken down for safety reasons on my watch. I never was told about that one by city.The city can now just send a construction company over to a business and perform unauthorized work without contacting the owners. I HOPE this is not more Republican bashing, or giving work to mayor's campaign contributors. I have been president the last three years. We pay our taxes on time, try to keep this landmark going, and to be not even called or contacted in some way is unfair. I take this personally, and will be asking the mayor to fire the city inspector for violating property rights of an American business. What is happening to this city? What is the motivation of hurting businesses, not communicating, is this some kind of scam?"

Maybe those damn Republicans were secretly planning a yard sale. The city's contractor, incidentally, is Cityline Construction. Located at 822 W. Hamilton in Allentown's KOZ zone, it's exempt from most taxes. Its president, Tom Williams, has dumped $7,000 in Mayor Pawlowski's campaign coffers since 2006.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey isn't Tom Williams from the boonies of Hellertown or somewhere lile that? I suppose it's OK to be an outsider living in the boonies if you are writing checks.

Anonymous said...

I happened to hear past of this while listening to my police scanner. The officer asked com center to try and contavt "personnel" from the establishment to come and remedy the problem. The dispatcher told the officer thet they had 4 contact numbers that dated back to 1998. I did not hear anything after this. The problem was legit. Quit your whining. This has NOTHING to do with politics.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Quit your whining. This has NOTHING to do with politics.

No, it really doesn't. The subject of this post is not really politics, but the due porcess clause. You should read it sometime. It applies, even in A-town.

You don't take someone's property without notice and an opportunity to be heard. In the case of an emergency, I understand, but Mr. Smith assures me of three things: (1) There was no emergency at his club, which he took over a few years ago. (2) Nobody from the city contacted him. (3) No police officer walked in the club to inform them there was a problem.

Anonymous said...

Also most of Special Ed's $$$came from Republicans. I doubt if he would go after them. He helps them make so much.