About Me

My photo
Nazareth, Pa., United States

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Pay-to-Play Making Bethlehem Inroads

Just before Independence Day, federal agents descended upon Allentown City Hall with a search warrant and subpoena for information concerning numerous contracts with entities that just happened to be campaign contributors to Mayor Edwin Pawlowski. Just a week later, the same thing happened in Reading. Since that time, Reading's then City Council President, Francis Acosta, and prominent Lehigh Valley entrepreneur Ramzi Haddad have both pleaded guilty to public corruption in what appears to be a major investigation into illegal pay-to-play. Could the same thing happen in Bethlehem? Are special interests like the CRIZ and Martin Tower developers buying elections? An analysis of campaign finance reports filed in Bethlehem from 2013 to present indicate that crony capitalism, in which business interests and politicians co-opt each other, is making serious inroads.

Bethlehem Mayor Bob Donchez recently imposed a gift ban on all city employees to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. But roughly $1 out of every $3 contributed to his campaign, or 33%, comes from unions, developers, engineers and others who have a vested interest in the Bethlehem's CRIZ, TIF or other City-sponsored projects.

CRIZ participants Dennis Benner (Greenway Park), Lew Ronca and Norton Herrick (Martin Tower), J.G. Petrucci (Third St), Jeff Trainer (Sands Convention Center, Mike Perrucci (3rd St) and Majestic Realty's Ed Roski (LVIP) are all contributors. Is it coincidence that they, as one other developer puts it, "are controlling the cards and not letting anyone else at the table?"  

Their influence only begins with Donchez. It also extends to his political rival and opponent in the 2013 Mayoral race, City Council President J.William Reynolds. His finance reports show that 28% of his election funding comes from the same vested interests.

When major contributions from Ronca and Herrick were called into question at a recent City Council meeting concerning zoning changes at the Martin Tower site, Reynolds called on Donchez, who accepts the same kind of contributions himself, to vouch for his integrity.

A similar pattern exists among incumbent Council members Mike Recchiuti (36%), Bryan Callahan (31%, as well as incoming Council member Shawn Martell (25%).

Recchiuti defends the practice. "I am proud of the support I have received," he has stated. He insists that contributions from Martin Tower interests only make up 13% of his total fundraising. "As a City Councilman, I have always put the interests of the entire City of Bethlehem first, and will continue to do so for the remainder of my term."

But there's another group of Council members who are much more sensitive to accepting money from developers and related business interests that depend on government favoritism to succeed. Eric Evans (12%) and Adam Waldron (3%).have much smaller contributions from these special interests.

In January, they will be joined by two Council members who believe that putting the City's interests first should rule out accepting money from developers and engineers who are looking for CRIZ or NIZ tax breaks. Olga Negron and Michael Colon, elected from the Lehigh Valley's growing Latino community, relied on grass roots support and family instead of crony capitalists. While Negron has stated that she supports the CRIZ, "we do not want to provide a license for [developers] to destroy our city’s historic treasures or diminish the character of our charming neighborhoods." She is apparently referring to the Martin Tower development, one of the CRIZ projects.

Neither Negron nor Colon take office until January. Council is scheduled to vote on changes to Martin Tower zoning before then to make it more "flexible" and allow more retail. Historic downtown and South side merchants have spoken forcefully against this proposal. The decision will be made by a 7-person Council, two of whom were appointed. Three of these Council members indicated before a word was spoken at public hearings that they support rezoning at Martin Tower. Reynolds went so far as to interfere with a Planning Commission review in July.

According to Common Cause, Pennsylvania is one of only 11 states that impose no limits on campaign contributions. In 1992, then Governor Bob Casey called on the state legislature to "liberate the electoral process from the tyranny of the campaign dollar." Instead, individual campaigns in local races are often in excess of what can be contributed to someone running for the United States Senate.

Since there's no urgency to Martin Tower and three new Council members will take office in January, it makes sense to table this rezoning when Bethlehem City Council convenes this evening. Wait for seven people who were actually elected. But Recchiuti is unwilling to wait for the next Council. "I plan on doing my job until my term expires," he insisted. "I do not believe I would be serving those who voted for me by deferring tough decisions to the next council. I also believe it would be inherently unfair for this council to leave those tough decisions for the future inexperienced council members to make so early in their term."

My analysis of the campaign expenses of Mayor Bob Donchez and City Council is located here.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is why those campaign reports need to be on line. If Lehigh County can do it , certainly Northampton can.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Bethlehem posts its finance reports.

Anonymous said...

Bernie. Your figures are off. I believe donchez is closer to 50% once you consider Boyle is building 3rd street and and the lobbyist who rep companies who benefit.

Bernie O'Hare said...

I purposely kept the figures low by not including contributions from most law firms, most of whom are almost certainly connected to these developers. I did include Boyle. I did not include John Gallagher, a Harrisburg attorney who plays Santa Claus to nearly everyone. I did not include contributions to John Callahan, who was running for County office, but did include his contribution to his brother bc his own campaign warchest was full of contributions from these developers and their associates. I also included contributions from the trade unions.

Anonymous said...

Bernie,

have you reached out to new member Martell for comment? what is his take on this?

Anonymous said...

I'm starting to think that the Allentown FBI investigation is a mix between the Milton Street investigation and the Luke Ravenstahl investigation. In the Milton Street case it was he who got in trouble and not the Mayor. I would consider Mike Fleck the Milton Street in this case. The FBI also investigated Luke Ravenstahl, former Pittsburgh mayor, for years, chasing him out of office however they never charged him with a crime.
FBI just keeps adding names to a list........REALLY?

Robert Trotner said...

Tge FBI and the grand jury will move when the time is ripe. It may surprise people to know that the FBI is vigourously pursuing pay to play cases all over the country for the first time in our history. I believe what is going on now is extended discussions between DOJ and prospective defendants to see who will cut a deal and who will be left standing when the music stops. I think the mayor will have resigned by December 31 because that's when Haddad will plead guilty and his sentence will largely be determined by how much incriminating evidence on Pawlowski and others he can supply by that date.

Maggie Mae Mason said...

so it appears that Dudley do right donchez could be on the take. Based on the lack of results of his asleep at the wheel so called administration he's not earning his keep. What significant progress has been made in the city since 1 January 2014? How many full I time jobs have been secured? Oh, wait some fortunate folk have gotten smoke detectors.

The donors should ask for their money back and the citizens should demand action.

Anonymous said...

Bernie,
There is no listed amounts for the opposing side? How much money was donated to the candidates from the merchants on Main St. (The Apollo Grill owners, The Hotel Bethlehem Owners etc. ) and how much money did the merchants of Main St. (The Apollo Grill owners, The Hotel Bethlehem Owners. etc.) make off of functions at their businesses? I know for a fact that Haines held a fundraiser for Donchez at the Hotel B that made tens of thousands of dollars!!!! To be fair, Let the light shine on both sides of the argument!

Anonymous said...

" I did not include John Gallagher, a Harrisburg attorney who plays Santa Claus to nearly everyone."

He has nothing to do with the CRIZ. He is the PUC attorney for the City.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Thanks. He sure seems insecure.

Bernie O'Hare said...

"have you reached out to new member Martell for comment? what is his take on this?"

I have not. His campaign expense reports speak volumes to me. Had I resided in Bethlehem, i would have voted for him, but I am very unimpressed by the way he raises money. My guess us that he supports the rezoning at Martin Tower. Money speaks.

Bernie O'Hare said...

7:44, Keep telling yourself that. There are already two criminal informations.

Bernie O'Hare said...

"There is no listed amounts for the opposing side? How much money was donated to the candidates from the merchants on Main St. (The Apollo Grill owners, The Hotel Bethlehem Owners etc. ) and how much money did the merchants of Main St. (The Apollo Grill owners, The Hotel Bethlehem Owners. etc.) make off of functions at their businesses? I know for a fact that Haines held a fundraiser for Donchez at the Hotel B that made tens of thousands of dollars!!!! To be fair, Let the light shine on both sides of the argument!"

Practically no money is donated by the merchants. $100 here and there from one or two. Of course the merchants make money from events hosted at their venues. They are in business. That is why it is called business. Trying to make this kind of argument is really dishonest if you havelooked at those expense reports.

Anonymous said...

"I think the mayor will have resigned by December 31 because that's when Haddad will plead guilty and his sentence will largely be determined by how much incriminating evidence on Pawlowski and others he can supply by that date."

Someone I talked to recently who is in the Mayor's inner circle, says he expects a guilty plea to a lesser charge and a resignation done in a way that is being orchestrated to allow Council President Ray O'Connell to become Mayor.

Anonymous said...

Ray is perfect.
A MOR nice guy who won't rock the boat .....not even a little bit.

Anonymous said...

Alan Jennings stated on TV that none of this would be a problem if all the Lehigh Valley municipalities shared their wealth with the cities. He claimed that small minded suburbanites are creating this mess.

Bernie O'Hare said...

That's a "we v. them" mindset. It is that kind of thinking that leads to most of the prejudices that exist today. Alan is better than this. Pawlowski is not.

Anonymous said...

Without pay to play laws defining exactly what is permissible and what is not, makes pay to play activities ambiguous.

Lets say a developer says to an elected official, if you vote approval of this ordinance I will contribute X dollars to your campaign, politician agrees and votes for the ordinance - definitely Pay to Play.

Now said developer gives money to an elected official, maybe talks about the bright future the community has and hopes to be part of it. An ordinance comes up that is favorable to that developer and the elected official votes in the interests of the developer - not Pay to Play.

Why would a developer give the money in the second case? The elected official may have shown support for the type of issues in the past that would have positively affected his type of business. Is this pay to play? Absolutely not. Just because the elected will generally side with a developer does not make that person in the developer's backpocket, that person may genuinely believe that development is the best course for the community.

We have a system where money is needed to win elections. If we want to have no question of the ethics of our electeds we have to publicly finance elections. Until then it is the system we have to live with.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Not necessarily. You can limit contributions like 39 other states/