Allentown's Mayor is good for at least one transparency violation a year.Over the last three years, "totally transparent" Edwin Pawlowski has run afoul of campaign finance disclosure laws on three separate occasions. In 2007, Hizzoner actually attempted to get away with using campaign funds to pay a $270 fine for a late report. Then Voting Registrar Stcy Sterner ordered him to pay the fine out of his own pocket. In 2008, he was even more deceptive. He filed a bogus report, falsely claiming his coffers were empty, when he actually raised $101,599. He was ordered to amend that report, too. Last year, he even tried to get away without itemizing an $8,000 election day slush fund. When forced to do so, we learned that he sent twenty-six questionable people, with records for public drunkenness and theft, into your neighborhoods on election day.
Given this history of thumbing his nose at the law when it applies to him, it should come as no great shock that he failed to obtain a permit for the "mancave" he recently built in his basement. Nobody would be any the wiser except that his wife, First Lady Lisa, couldn't stop bragging about it on her Facebook page. The day I dimed him here, an embarrassed Pawlowski quickly got that permit.
I've since learned that, not only did Pawlowski fail to get a permit for his mancave this summer, but he also failed to get one before installing cedar siding along the rear wall of his castle. Or those Anderson windows and doors.
Once again, my source is First Lady Lisa Pawlowski, who tells us all that Stellar Construction, which has contributed between $15-20,000 to Pawlowski's Mayoral campaigns, did the work. Once again, she was blabbing about it on her Facebook page.
On July 22, I asked Allentown officials at City Hall to produce Pawlowski's permits. Though this are public records that actually have to be posted on the property, they insisted I fill out a Right-to-Know request. So I did.
Allentown officials then dragged their feet responding until July 29, the last possible day. They then waited another day to put it in the mail. The reply claims there are no permits for Pawlowski's property, except for one issued in 1984. But it then goes on to include a computer printout, listing ten separate permits for Pawlowski's property, including the one he ran out to get on July 23. I'd like to see that permit.
I've decided to hit Allentown with a second Right-to-Know request, which I will hand-deliver this morning unless City officials agree to turn over the permit that currently is plastered on Pawlowski's front door.
Dear Ms. Fruhwirth,
I am in receipt of your 7/29 reply to my 7/22 request to review the permits issued for the above property, post-marked 7/30.
Incredibly, a routine request for public information that actually has to be posted by the homeowner was ignored beyond the time limits set forth in the Right to Know Law.
What's most troubling to me is the reply you did provide is self-contradictory. You indicate "the City has no records" other than a permit dated March 27, 1984. Yet you include a computer printout showing that there are 9 other permits for this property, including Permit AP66178, dated 7/23/10.
Pursuant to the Right-to-Know Law, I request that you supply me with a copy of that permit at your earliest convenience. I believe your intransigence is the result of a desire to protect the Mayor, who happens to reside at the address in question. That would explain why my Right to Know request was forwarded to him. I remind you that your duty to follow the law should trump your desire to protect the Mayor.
In addition, your computer printout ominously states, "There are additional records for this account." I would like copies of all permits between 1/1/97 and the date of this request.
For purposes of the Right to Know Law, I believe your untimely 7/29 response is an appealable deemed denial, but wish to give you an opportunity to do the right thing before burdening the Open Records Office with this matter.
Thank you.
In the meantime, I thought you all might like to know that First Lady Lisa Pawlowski has killed her Facebook account. May it rest in peace.
8 comments:
Ruh-roh!
As a resident of Allentown, it sickens me to think of the behind the scenes shenanigans being pulled to limit exposure to the Mayor over these extremely ill advised home improvements. My guess is that those other permits were all for jobs done by contributors for ridiculously low sums of money. No wonder politicians have lost the public trust.
Think of the billable hours racked up by Ms. Fruhwirth, all for the purposes of evading the public's right know. They should have produced those Building Permits in five minutes.
Complain, complain.I think it is nice that the mayor is making home improvements and that local companies want to help.
Allentown Democrat Voter
The voices of honorable and decent public sevants have left Allentown years ago. The City is left with a pack of vultures picking at it's remains.Pawlowski with flee too once he has had his fill
Under the PA Uniform Construction Code, siding permits are not required nor are windows and doors so long as the openings are not enlarged and/or new openings made.
I doubt a permit is required for window or door replacements, but it is for cedar siding.
http://www.pacode.com/secure/data/034/chapter403/s403.62.html
http://www.pacode.com/secure/data/034/chapter403/s403.1.html
I'm sure with all of his other responsibilities, the Mayor has memorized the PA Uniform Construction Code. Not. Everyone makes mistakes. In the grand scheme of things, this one is relatively minor.
Yes, the laws that we are expected to follow pertain to hizzoner, too. Pawlowski dropped the ball, but in my opinion, this is much ado about nothing.
Now go did up some real dirt on someone else.
"Now go did up some real dirt on someone else."
Before you dismiss this as much ado about nothing, don't forget two (2) key points;
1. As Community Development Director, Ed Pawlowski supervised the Bureau of Code Enforcement and would definately know about getting a Building Permit. He deliberately avoided the process.
2. The contractor is a campaign donor who receives City contracts, which the Mayor very conveniently caused most to be exempt from the bidding process in a sneaky referendum last year. This is a matter of the public trust. When a public servent uses his public office for a $500 basement fit-out from a campaign donor who gets City contracts, its a big deal.
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