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Thursday, March 18, 2010

The Allentown Watchdog Reports

He may have lost his bid for Allentown City Council, but Lou Hershman's interest in Queen City government is as keen as ever. After last night's meeting, he called to tell me what happened.

First, Allentown Attorney and former Lehigh County Comm'r Joseph Maher told City Council that its recently enacted cell phone ban is illegal. He'll represent anyone who is cited free of charge, and will sue the City for damages while he was at it.

He may very well be right, but I should note that Maher was rated "unqualified" by the Lehigh County Bar Association when he ran for judge. He was fired by the Karoly Law Offices in 2007 for failing to file a pleading, and his suit for unemployment compensation was chucked. He also lost out on a civil rights claim after his 2005 arrest for some kind of encounter with his wife. On the bright side, Morning Call sourpuss Paul Carpenter seems to like him.

Second, City Council may be convening a "Special Meeting" to discuss the legality of its decision to raise the annual City Rental Unit Registration/License Fee, from $11 to $75.

I'm sure Allentown City Solicitors will tell their bosses whatever they want to hear.
Update: LVPoliblog attended last night's City Council meeting. In addition, City Council VP Michael Donovan has a report about changes he is proposing to the parking ordinance, as well as an effort he is organizing, to persuade the state to do something about loud mufflers and what he calls "boom boom" cars. God, I didn't think my car was that loud. By the way, Michael, congrats on being granted tenure.
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 18, 2010 at 6:48 AM

    Bernie,

    The Rental Inspections program has been turned into noithing more than a cash cow by Team Pawlowski. The council is clueless on this and everything else.

    What's new?

    Scott Armstrong

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMarch 18, 2010 at 7:01 AM

    What Rental Inspection program.
    Just look at the condition of hundreds of rental units in the city. No way these buildings passed an "upkeep" review.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sandra Walters WeissMarch 18, 2010 at 12:00 PM

    Bernie,
    Scott is entirely right,I lived in an area in Allentown South 11th St. to be exact where I had to pay for the privilege to park and while I was moving the car one morning I was mugged by a couple of crack addicts who obviously watched my daily routine of even though I had PAID the Parking Authority to park you could only be at one of the very few metered places.Absentee slumlords and the de-conversions of single family homes into apartments led to the this fiasco. Now I tried and tried to get the City to come and inspect the apartment due to numerous code violations to no avail.After research I discovered the building had not been inspected since it's purchase in the year 1999.So much for the so called Slumlord list..and with the Parking Authority revenue and this Rental inspection revenue I see the cows not cow!

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousMarch 18, 2010 at 9:31 PM

    “What Rental Inspection program.
    Just look at the condition of hundreds of rental units in the city. No way these buildings passed an "upkeep" review.”

    Sadly you are correct, under Afflerbachach and now Pawlowski there is no more systematic Rental Inspections Program, the one that the voters approved in 1999 and was completely self funding. If Roy and Ed had allowed the program to work the city would be a much better place to call home.

    Scott Armstrong

    ReplyDelete

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