Some state house members probably knew vaguely about the NIZ and a hockey area, but most certainly had no idea that Allentown Mayor Edwin Pawlowski intended to put it smack dab in center city, or that he intended to brush a number of Korean and Hispanic merchants by the wayside.
Fewer still would know or understand the ambiguous language providing for an EIT tax grab from surrounding municipalities.
Senator Browne's wife Heather? At that time, she was no lobbyist, but was hooked up at a senior living center.
Presbyterian, of course.
Of course, this would all change. Heather would not only register as a lobbyist, but the firm she works for would later pick up three of the biggest NIZ beneficiaries.
But that's no conflict.
Senator Browne would then get himself named to the nominating committee selecting 9 members to its board.
That's no conflict, either.
In the meantime, Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski is spending money like a drunken sailor, spending $26 million at the site before construction even begins.
That's a lot of hockey pucks.
I filed Right-to-Know Law requests with State Senator Pat Browne, State Representative Jennifer Mann and Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski, asking for all email exchanges in 2011 concerning the NIZ, hockey arena, NIZ participants Joe Topper and JB Reilly and lobbying firm Pugliese Associates.
I now have answers from all three of them.
Browne and Mann refuse to produce any email exchanges because their exalted status only requires them to produce "legislative records."
That leaves Pawlowski. His lawyers tell me "the City has no records that are responsive to your request." Incredibly, he is maintaining that during the entire calendar year 2011, he had no email exchanges concerning the arena or NIZ with State Senator Pat Browne, State Rep. Jennifer Mann, J.B. Reilly, Joe Topper or Pugliese Associates.
Maybe not anymore.
28 comments:
And that is why no one respects your requests. You reap what you sow. You sow deletion and deception and that is what you reap.
Everyone knows your game.
IN reading your post and the article in todays Morning Call, Will Pawlowski be around when the first puck drops if cash is involved and Pawlowsi has failed to report. Did you file a RTK as to Flecks Emails. Could you post amount Pawlowski paid Fleck as his spokeperson.
Bernie
Do not stop. Something smells rotten.
Keep investigating. Something is very wrong,
Don't you think a special investigator needs to be brought in?
crooked dem pols are nothing but leeches upon our cities, our states and our nation
What government official denies emails unless the emails are damaging? What happened to open government?
7:12 Brownie = republican. You should have said crooked pols.
Ignore the trolls Bernie. This whole NIZ business stinks to high heaven.
And never mind that the PA General Assembly allows the Right to Know law to exclude their own records, which is even more disgusting.
But this NIZ sure seems to be a smoke-filled back room deal in every way. Figure out what's wrong with it.
Everyone can relax, both Jon Geeting and FDAA have said there's nothing wrong here and that everyone can just stop looking and move on.
I feel better already.
The comment posed by FDAA has crossed the line and had to be deleted.
Owned.
Bernie
Do not stop. Something smells rotten.
Keep investigating. Something is very wrong,
You guys really need a hobby. Or a woman.
"Owned."
No. In addition to the personal attacks at me, she directed a few at others, and without identifying herself or the principals who pay her to rant here and elsewhere.
I have no intention of dropping this. In fact, I have some interesting new details to release son, and am working on a more detailed RTKL request.
Owned by Browne, Mann, and Pawlowski.
Yep. It appears they really showed me, and the rest of us, what they think of the public's right to know.
" cough" B-JOB!
Browne is a true RINO and a classic example of what happens when one gets in bed with Democrats.
Chairman Pawlowski and the Rubber Stamp Council of Apparatchiks are ALL Democrats.
All-knowing, Holier-than-thou, Compassionate and caring Democrats blowing gobs of hard-earned Taxpayer Money, as always.
In other words, just another day at the old office.
If you find yourself a victim of ruthless cheap-shots, Comrade O'Hare ...
... it is actually a genuine as well as valid indication of your goal-scoring talents and is in direct proportion to the threat you are creating for your clearly frustrated opponents.
Ice hockey can be rough at times --- SHAIBU!.
VIKTOR TIKHONOV
Hey Bernie...maybe if you're successful in your efforts, the whole project will be scuttled...I'm sure that those poor, poor Korean and Hispanic merchants – grateful for your intervention - will hire a couple thousand people to replace the lost jobs, and will innovate their businesses to bring the hundreds of millions of dollars of revenues into the city that we'll lose.
How dare these elected officials bring a massive jobs project home?!...vote 'em all out, I say!...let them know that we will stand for nothing less than our tax dollars supporting development only for Philly and Pittsburgh!...if we just keep waiting, and waiting, and waiting, everything will turn around...stay on the prowl, Bernie!...after all, you have the time…put a stake through the heart of this unholy NIZ, and help Allentown get back to the work of a slow, stagnating death.
It's not the project...it's the callous way that it has been done.
It's the clear and obvious lack of respect for those who lost their property, for other governments, and the obvious and naked attempt to personally benefit connected developers, lobbyists and politicians themselves.
and then the condescenscion of ignoring right to know requests and believeing that you should not beheld acountable.
Most people would applaud the eradication of that blcok if done correctly, compassionately and fairly.
Drugs are bad, Anon 2:17.
Even for Hired Shills.
Umkay?
2:17 sounds very upset. She also sounds very much like Future Downtown Arena Attendee, who has caught so much flack over her inane comments that she's changed her profile name at the Morning Call site to "AllentownNativist" or some such bullshit. I had no idea that Scranton was anywhere near Allentown.
Very wrong, Bernie...2:17 is me, a man, and resident of the Valley.
Not upset...in fact, I enjoy your blog and the forum it provides...I am frustrated by the attitude displayed concerning the arena project…I am not suggesting that it is perfect or that those involved should have a “blank check” to do as they please…but here are two politicians from different parties that came together to make this happen…they fought for and grabbed resources - that normally flow East and West - and brought them here…they didn’t just go to HBG to collect a check and not do anything.
For the past 30 years, we in the Valley and Allentown have been fed a steady stream of small “revitalizations” that have never taken hold or made a substantial difference… I believe that this arena will be a game changer…something that a thousand pawn shops and rundown apartment buildings could never provide…people pay lip service to change, but when the time comes, they cower in fear and demand the status quo.
The next step is to finally get all the Stoffa Administration emails from and to the Harrisburg law firm hired to help Bernie sell Gracedale.
How much did taxpayers pay these lawyers who worked with you? Release the emails Mr. Stoffa!
The businesses that were displaced may not have been upscale, but those were private businesses run by folks who weren't on the government's payroll. They provided goods and services currently in demand downtown. Those owners put themselves on the line for their businesses, and worked in a town that very few are willing to invest in on their own dime. They were there for Allentown when almost no one else was.
Had the market forced the closure of those businesses and the placement of something more upscale there, then I'd say great. As it stands now, however, I see a small group of very well connected insiders taking advantage of a very one-sided situation. Couple that with absolutely no evidence that this project will in any way revitalize downtown, and we have a recipe for disaster.
I am shocked that anyone would think this was an ethical and viable way to go about doing business.
" Anonymous said...
...but here are two politicians from different parties that came together to make this happen…they fought for and grabbed resources -...
7:04 PM"
Bernie, over the last couple of years we've disagreed over the importance/value of civility and bipartisanship, usually around budget time.
I submit this arena boondoggle is a prime example of what we can expect when pols go along to get along.
-Clem
Justin Simmons had his hand in this deal, It reminds me of Nixon during the Watergate investigation trying to play the blame game.
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