Below you will find a very interesting email exchange that highlights the culture of curruption brought about by Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski's "pay to play" campaign fundraising.Item 1 - an email from Chris Nagle. Who's he? Some hotshot with hedge fund-of-funds manager Mezzacappa Management LLC, New York. He was having a devil of a time getting all the approvals needed for an inground pool at his Allentown home. Poor Chris.
So where did he go for help? Instead of approaching Pawlowski, he went to a real power broker - Tim Holt - the VP of Air Products. "Anyway, anything you can do to help would be greatly appreciated. Please let me know if you need anything from me - papers, etc. - to forward."
Item 2 - an email from Tim Holt to Allentown's managing director, Francis X. Dougherty, dated 9/21/07. Holt and Dougherty had apparently spoken earlier that day, and Holt was following up.
From: Holt,Timothy J.[SMTP:*****@AIRPRODUCTS.COM]
Sent: Friday, September 21, 2007 2:57:44 PM
To: Dougherty, Francis
Subject: FW: Pool
Auto forwarded by a Rule
"Fran as discussed today. If you can look into this, I know Chris would really appreciate it. I am sure everyone in the city is very busy with multiple demands on their time. Thanks. Hope you have a great weekend. Chris's address is XXX Spring**** Court Allentown Pa 18104. If you need to reach Chris please contact him at 610 398 **** at his home. Tim"
Item 3 - is the kicker, an email from Dougherty to one of his underlings, demanding action because it means money from Air Products down the road.
-----Original Message-----
From: ***@sprint.blackberry.net [mailto:***@sprint.blackberry.net]
Sent: Friday, September 21, 2007 3:02 PM
To: *****
Subject: Fw: Pool
"This is a favor for tim holt. Our action on tim's behalf means money from air products later. Have jennie investigate with rich asap and see what you or I can do. Thanks"
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
Right around this time, Air Products pledged $50,000 to Allentown for a police department study. But that gives Air Products no right to expect the special treatment shown.
Do I think Dougherty needs to explain this city favor to me? Nah, he should explain it to a DA as part of his exit interview from city employment. Allentown should bend no rules for anyone, even the president of Air Products. But Pawlowski has set a "pay to play" atmosphere, which will only hurt that city's government.
35 comments:
I don't know if this is bribery or not, but it sure doesn't smell right.
Great scoop, Bernie!
Bern,
granted, I'm half asleep right now and the coffeee's not done, but show me the illegality? I see impropriety, but not much worse.
Wow! The degree of improper conduct is appalling! I always figured this kind of stuff went on at City Hall. Excellent work of exposing the corruption inside the Pawlowski Adminstration. How can regular citizens trust Allentown government?
I would agree with an earlier comment. While what the Managing Director did was a little "bone headed" - particularly laying the whole thing out in e-mail and very awkwardly stating that it would mean more money for the City from Air Products - I don't think it rises to the level of illegality. The e-mail from Tim Holt was innocent enough, he was just looking for a "favor." It was when Dougherty implied that the "favor" would somehow mean money for the City from a corporate patron that it got a little sticky. The two questions you have to ask yourself are why put in an e-mail? - dumb - and why did he even have to discuss Air Products' potential for contributions as a reason to look into a permit application and see if something can be done to expedite it? - happens every day.
It was clumsy and stupid, but not illegal.
Shouldn't residents of the 1/2 million dollar and up McMansions living on the same street as Judges and Doctors, etc..expect a higher level of service than regular residents?
Shouldn't the City Inspector get smacked on the hand with a ruler for treating the very influential and important resident the same as ordinary citizens?
Is this the City of Allentown now being run like some kind of a third world country?
I'm half asleep right now and the coffeee's not done, but show me the illegality? I see impropriety, but not much worse.
Whether it's illegal or just an impropriety is not my call. That should be determined by a DA, who should explore the realtionship between A-town city officials and donors. Clearly, doing special favors for a city patron is a slap across the faces of other citizens who the mayor won't even see. Dougherty's email certainly implies some soprt of quid pro quo, and under the right set of circumstances, that is bribery. I agree Holt's email is seemingly innocent.
Now we have a city with officials who clearly are showing favoritism to certain businesses. That is a culture of corruption. Will city inspectors wink at code violations if that person is connected?
I can't believe Dougherty is so stupid as to put something like this in writing.
BernO,
Love today's quote. Nice work.
Thank you, Mrs. Dottie. We should be reluctant to accept any argument that we are to judge pope, king or Allentown Mayor unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they do no wrong. If there is any presumption, it should always be against holders of power.
Amazing how many anonymous commenters are seeing the "getting caught" here as the only infraction. Oh yeah, they should have been discussing this pay to play maneuver in a quiet booth at Melt or Blue or Lehigh Country Club beyond the prying eyes of pesky plebians and bloggers. That would have been much better.
Amazing how many anonymous commenters are seeing the "getting caught" here as the only infraction.
Actually, the fact that Dougherty reduced this to writing betrays alarming hubris. It may or may not be illegal. It is certainly inappropriate.
"alarming hubris"
... well-said ...
So what was the pool issue?
Where did these emails come from?
Hayshaker,
The A-town hedge funds dude wanted to put a pool in his backyard and was getting red tape from A-town officials over silly little things like zoning and whether its location interfered with an easement.
Obviously, the emails come from the persons who emailed them. If you're asking me how I came into possession, I stood outside city hall and they blew out the window.
I will gladly release my source to a DA, but not to A-town city officials.
I didn't expect you to release your source. I was just curious if their email records were open in some way. Better be careful, those email records could disappear.
I think I'm pretty safe on that question, but won't elaborate.
Is there any connection to Charles Versaggi, a former director in Air Products now on-loan as a consultant to the City of Allentown? Is that a compensatory position? I think there is a sign above the elevator in City Hall, or maybe it was at the zoning counter. Or is it just that any big succesfull company is bound to have many contacts with its surrounding municipalities.
Versaggi, as I understand things, is on loan from Air Products. So what? That's no excuse for special treatment to Air Products pals.
Allentown is not a branch of the Lehigh Valley Partnership. Whether it is PPL, Butz or Air Products, they are not supposed to be running the show in a democracy.
Whether it is PPL, Butz or Air Products, they are not supposed to be running the show in a democracy.
Tell that to your buddy Charlie Dent. His two largest contributors for 2004, 2006 and 2008? That's right, folks. Air Products and PPL. #3 is Lutron.
Hayshaker,
That's a valid criticism. I don't like the tentacles that the LVP uses to snare local, state and federally elected officials. I believe Pawlowski is little more than a puppet. He exists to make life better for them, not the people who actually live in A-town. The Dougherty email makes that clear.
On a federal level, there are many controls that simply don't exist on a local or state level. And because so much money is involved in a federal or statewide race, the large contributions assume less significance than they do in smaller races.
But I don't like the combined influence of the LVP on LV politicians, whether it is with Dent, Bennett or Pawlowski. I have long advocated clean election laws. I won't condemn a candidate, whether it is Rendell or Dent, for using the system. Until the system changes, it's a matter of necessity in larger races.
I do condemn a glaring connection such as what we see here.
This is blogging at its best.
And because so much money is involved in a federal or statewide race, the large contributions assume less significance than they do in smaller races.
It works both ways though. The voluminous amounts of money in pork masks any small concessions made to individual companies and industries.
You missed my point, is the appointment of certain Air Products executives as consultants to Allentown, an example as paypack for campaign contributions. I dont know the money trail. Does it go to that far a personal level?
Anon 6:17,
I did miss your point. I have no reason to believe that is so. The consultant is actually being loaned to the city by Air Products at Air Products' expense. But it gives the city someone whose primary allegiance is to his corporate sponsor.
What amazes me is that the infrastructure of city hall is such that these communications can easily become public knowledge and blog fodder.
Either it is really "loosey goosey" or an employee of the city, I assume, really hates someone.
But then, maybe I am too presumptuous and they are that arrogant, they feel beyond reproach?
Interesting stuff - thanks.
This is on;y a problem with CERTAIN Pol's even though all of them do it. BO, doesn't notice the one's he likes.
Anon 6:37,
Not this again! PLEASE, stop torturing the rest of us with your grudge against Bernie O'Hare. We, the readers, never did anything to you to deserve it. We are here to read about the topics posted, not about your dislike of the host blogger.
To, "Oh for Pete's Sake"
Sorry, Mr. Stoffa
"What amazes me is that the infrastructure of city hall is such that these communications can easily become public knowledge and blog fodder.
Either it is really "loosey goosey" or an employee of the city, I assume, really hates someone.
But then, maybe I am too presumptuous and they are that arrogant, they feel beyond reproach?
Interesting stuff - thanks."
Why does this happen? Here's how: This type of political "interference" creates poor morale among a dedicated work force trying to do their jobs. The inspector who cited the conflict with the easement should have been commended for caring enough to do his or her job properly. Instead the property owner goes over their head and uses political leverage to get what they want. It's not a case of "loosey goosey" or an "employee who hates someone", its good, competent employees (like Eric Weiss and Betsy Levin) getting understandably frustrated and fed up with the ever present culture of political BS in Pawlowski's City Hall who leak this kind of information.
If I'm not mistaken, Charlie V. was on loan for the last 6 months of his Air Products career (which ended sometime in early 2008). He is now a retiree and therefore on his own with whatever he continues to do with his life. He's a bright fella and no doubt made some valuable contributions to his work in Allentown.
(former Air Products employee and current retiree myself)
WhetherVain, Yeah, but you were an involuntary retiree.
To Anonymous 8:44 PM
While I don't disagree with your assessment that it's indicative of a pattern of corruption, you have your other facts COMPLETELY wrong.
Let me dissect (your comments are enclosed in quotation marks):
"This type of political "interference" creates poor morale among a dedicated work force trying to do their jobs.
The inspector who cited the conflict with the easement should have been commended for caring enough to do his or her job properly."
Perhaps, if that were the case. But, it's not. So, no, sorry, absolutley wrong.
There was no inspector involved. This situation arose because an incompetent bureaucrat failed to do his job the first time around. People get encroachments into easements all the time and there is a very specific process to follow. The point here was that it required some thought, foresight,and follow-up - all uncommon and perhaps close to unknown virtues in the ranks of Allentown's engineering staff. Rather than attack the problem, the bureaucrat who is responsible allowed a bad situation to deteriorate by not alerting anyone to the fact that the deal had reached a point where he needed help. Rather, he let it languish in the solicitor's office for months. Instead, lawyers wrote letters, contacts were exercised, and ultimately, someone who could influence the outcome got involved. You can't blame people for trying to do that - and besides that, this is an example of failed customer service within the ranks of City employees. To have left the guy out there and have never notified him or let him know what was happening was plain ignorant.
This got bogged down by bureacratic bullshit when it shouldn't have taken more than six to eight weeks to solve. So don't start with a faulty premise as if you understand what's going on. The bureacrats let it go so long it got a lawyer's complaint and a boost from the very ham-handed bully disguised as the Managing Director.
"It's not a case of "loosey goosey" or an "employee who hates someone", its good, competent employees (like Eric Weiss and Betsy Levin) getting understandably frustrated and fed up with the ever present culture of political BS in Pawlowski's City Hall who leak this kind of information."
This is faulty logic if it's used to support your argument as expressed above. I think I've offered enough that your predicate is invalid.
The real question is this:
How many examples are there that further illustrate what is clearly a culture of heavy handedness, corruption, customer disservice, and bureaucratic overload. Well, I guess you'll have to stay tuned to O'Hare's blog.
silly rabbit,
Ipersonally know of a certian code officer closing his car door on a 63yr. womans leg and being he didn't care about the city.
it all goes back to math... the guys running the show now can't do simple addition and subtraction.. considering they have been calling the budgets balanced for years yet nearly all depts are losing money and making up the difference with borrowed dollars.. then creating a video for youtube saying he's balanced the budget every year??? dumb mistakes are bound to happen... poor moody bible.. this can't look good for them.
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