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| Mike Fleck |
Don't get me wrong. Groen is an expert when it comes to shit. After all, he's not only a lawyer, but a party boss to boot. In fact, if you're a Democrat and want to run statewide, the magic door is inside Groen's Montgomery County office.
Maybe that's why he and Allentown Mayor Edwin Pawlowski are so chummy. After all, King Edwin won't be Mayor forever. King Edwin's campaign manager, failed newspaper boy Mike Fleck, is friendly with Groen, too.
Although Allentown is full of it, Groen is by no means content to sit on a pile of shit. No siree! As I told you earlier this week, he's also involved in one of the outfits interested in a 50-year lease for the City's water and sewer.
According to one informed source, it's already a done deal. Groen is allied with National Development Council, and they'll be getting the deal. The argument will be that, as a nonprofit, this outfit will be committed to keeping rates down. Everyone will make pious speeches, Then they'll all go home to drink Perrier and sit on their Allentown hoppers.
All the hearings and studies are, of course, bullshit. Pawlowski already has the votes he needs to make this happen. His City Council, incidentally, will soon have three appointed, instead of elected, members.
As smelly as all this shit is, hold your noses because it's about to get worse. Pawlowski campaign manager Michael Fleck is also involved in this deal. Now Fleck, who is also a member of Easton City Council, is no City employee. But he's paid by the Mayor, goes on vacations with him, and very obviously is trading on inside information to make himself a wealthy man.
Although Fleck is trying to steer the biz to Groen, his real interest is a
program giving ratepayers the option to purchase insurance for protection against leaking water and sewer pipes. Fleck would get a piece of that pie.
This program, incidentally, was first presented to Mayor Pawlowski over a year ago by a consultant who backed off completely when the City decided to sell or lease its water and sewer. Fleck wants this insurance clause inserted in the agreement of sale, but this consultant tells me you can't "front end" it like that. Another tells me it's actually illegal to force a ratepayer to purchase insurance. It would have to be an option.
Who Fleck is working for is a mystery even to the consultant who first proposed this idea to Allentown.
One thing is certain. Fleck is not working for the people of Allentown. He's in it for himself.
This alone should be a reason for City Council to kill the deal. But democracy is dead in Allentown.
Updated 11:20 AM: Just learned my sources are split over Groen's involvement with DNC. Suffice it to say that whatever group he is with is the one getting the deal. I was told it is the "nonproft," although one of the for-profit companies like Aqua could form a nonprofit venture to make it look good.
Updated 7:00 PM: Fleck Denies Current Involvement! - Mike Fleck called me today to deny that he is involved in any way with any of the companies seeking a 50-year lease with the City's water and sewer. I also learned that Groen definitely is NOT involved with DNC. I am continuing to speak with people, will have a more detailed conversation with Fleck and will have a new post on Monday on this topic.
I'm entitled to my opinion, but not to my own facts. I think I got some of them wrong, and will post again when I am more certain. I apologize for the factual errors, but not for the post. I think it's important that people know who is involved in this matter, behind the curtains. I also am relatively certain that this is a done deal.
Fleck is working on the Callahan slate for Northamton County Council.
ReplyDeleteLet the pipes age and degrade under our homes and streets, claim that sinkholes that swallow houses caused the ruptures that swallow homes instead of the opposite reality and then force us to buy insurance to protect us from this. This stuff is amazing.
ReplyDeletei'm pretty certain you got some stuff wrong on this one...
ReplyDeleteNo this can't be true, everyone knows what a good man Ed is. And council is full of folks who only have the city's interest at heart.
ReplyDeleteAllentown Democrat Voter
The saddest part is many Allentown residents don't realize the "players." Imagine what must go on behind closed doors. Look at the
ReplyDeletedowntown street corners and sidewalks and front yards.
Blogger Bill said...
ReplyDeleteLet the pipes age and degrade under our homes and streets, claim that sinkholes that swallow houses caused the ruptures that swallow homes instead of the opposite reality and then force us to buy insurance to protect us from this. This stuff is amazing.
5:40 AM
So you're saying only private industry can fix all this?
Goes on vacations with him? L:ke what, his secretary?
ReplyDeleteWe know Fleck is shitty. Can we finally acknowledge Panto's shittyness by VERY close association? Sal is as scummy as Fleck. This is fact.
ReplyDeleteWhat we know for sure is that probably all of Allentown is sitting on top of pipes that are CURRENTLY leaking, to some extent. When was the last time we upgraded this infrastructure? Ask the folks who were at 13th and Allen how important intact infrastructure is to the people of Allentown.
ReplyDeleteThe city is obviously trying to move the risk of these pipes off their own books and on to the personal homeowner. No matter how corrupt and lousy that is, folks will NEED to buy this insurance. It would ruin a homeowner's financial life if they were suddenly hit with the bill for replacing this pipework under and around their home. What a scam...but wise folks will play along or move out.
Don't doubt Allentown's older portions of the city have water pipes that are more than 100 years old and worn out but think of the repairs and replacement that could have been done with $200M + if only that had been the focus.
ReplyDeleteMonkey Momma, What insurance? Thank you.
ReplyDeleteBernie -
ReplyDeleteAre we talking about insurance for the city water mains and pipes that run along the street, or are we talking about the pipes on your property that connects to the mains?
If the former, that's just another reason why the city should not lease the water/sewer works, as those repairs are currently handled by the city.
If the latter, can't property owners get this coverage through their existing coverage?
Than there are the lead lines that run from the mains to feed the half streets? Can insurance be bought on prehistorical lines that are bursting because pressure fluctuations are freek act of god. Check the insurance rule perils list.
DeleteThe city is responsible for the pipes up to a connection to the house. The owner is responsible for the pipes into the house.
ReplyDeleteFleck is shady!! But most politicians with limited experience outside government are by nature looking for deals to make money. How else do you explain elected officials with great wealth and never held a nongoverment job?? Oh, I forgot the people like Pelosi and John Kerry who married into money
Any insurance should be an option and the city(or new water owner) should be required to offer competing vendors.
Pittsburgh water authority offered a plan like this. it had some conflict of interest problems and was terminated. No idea if the insurance actually helped anyone.
ReplyDeleteDid you see CNN after the convention speech last night? The reporter interviewed Rendell, and King Eddy was strategically positioning himself in the background. Almost all of the PA delegates had left, but there was King Eddy, manuvering for his background airtime.
ReplyDeletesome clarification. currently property owners are responsible for leaks from their curb-stop to their house, and of course in their house. some centercity rowhouses are six feet from the curb-stop, some more suburban houses have a front lawn of 100 feet or so. it can cost from 1 to 4 thousand dollars to put in a new water service, depending on the distance from the curb to the house. if in fact the water system buyer is already pre-determined, and people are setting up side deals, a yes vote by council makes them complicit in this scheme.
ReplyDeleteThe insurance I meant was what Bernie wrote about in this post: "Although Fleck is trying to steer the biz to Groen, his real interest is a program giving ratepayers the option to purchase insurance for protection against leaking water and sewer pipes. Fleck would get a piece of that pie. "
ReplyDeleteDoesn't sound like you can buy this insurance now. My point was, if Fleck and Friends get their way on this, it probably means the liability for leaking pipes would be shifted to the homeowner. Right? It's a seriously messed up plan for the residents of Allentown. But we know how things work here - just because isn't RIGHT doesn't mean it won't happen. And if this insurance ever does come to fruition, it would be foolish not to buy it.
monkey momma, residents are currently responsible for leaks between the curb and their house. the city is responsible from the curb outward and in the street line itself. if a homeowner should buy such a policy depends on it's cost, some insurance policies are not good value. to me the issue here isn't the pipes, but if there are predetermined deals, and people profiting from insider information.
ReplyDeleteI thought Fleck was in the used car business. When did he start selling insurance?
ReplyDeleteWhen the king allined himself with the local insurance head michel yeager prez of lehigh mutual the underwriter for the whole lehighvalley. There are conflicts of intrest there that run as deep as the hole in Corprate Plazas colapse. Mike brother is parterners with the king cotastrphee fixit.
DeleteWhen Fleck has described his paperboy days as a marketing job. A while back, a reputable Easton contractor with the same name ran an ad in the paper to clearly state his name had been co-opted by a sleazy asshole.
ReplyDeleteFleck makes stuff up all the time. He's Joe Isuzu with dumpster stains on his shirt.
The attempt to tie Fleck to Callahan and to Panto comes from someone even shittier than Fleck, McMud McClure.
ReplyDeleteMonkey Momma, The insurance, which is voluntary, is for what would be the responsibility of the homeowner. It is unclear that Fleck is aware (a) that he has no authority to negotiate on behalf of the principal, (b) that at least one of these principals is no longer interested.
ReplyDelete"i'm pretty certain you got some stuff wrong on this one."
ReplyDeleteWhatever I have wrong will be corrected. What I am certain about are the following: (1) Fleck is involved, and with Groen; (2) Groen is involved; and (3) The outfit associated with Groen is getting the deal.
There is some dispute over the outfit with which Groen is involved. I might have that part wrong, and am working on it.
Oh look!
ReplyDeleteCaptain "Hysterical".
I wonder if MIKE FLECK remembers the good old days his buddy Chairman Pawlowski's transformative $ 179.5 million dollar PALACE OF SPORT was only supposed to cost $ 80.0 million dollars.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say no.
I wonder if the Fleckster remembers this classic piece :
"EXPLAIN IT TO ME : WHY ARE WE FINANCING STADIUMS?"
by Kristina Gostomski
The Morning Call
April 22, 2009
What bothers me more than anything is that people like Fleck blur the lines between someone acting in the interest of what he believes is good government an someone advancing his own interest. In Fleck's case, it is certainly the latter.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteBernie,
Didn't J.B. Reilly donate large ammounts of political donations to Rep. Justin Simmons and other area Legislators?
Yes. I wrote two or three posts about the people to whom he give m,oney. It does include Simmons, Emrick, Pawlowski, Browne and others in harrisburg.
ReplyDeleteThe attempt to tie Fleck to Callahan and to Panto comes from someone even shittier than Fleck, McMud McClure.
ReplyDeleteFleck + Callahan = McClueless
Fleck + Panto (as detailed in this post) = Not McClueless
Get out of the D silo, Bernie. There is another (albeit outnumbered) party that doesn't like Sal Panto Jr., with his Ralph Cramden-like development schemes, his spending and taxing and fee-ing and dis-ingenuousness regarding the violence that continues in his city. You drew the link to Fleck. Some of us think Sal and Fleck and McMud are all bad guys; to be opposed. Panto is Pawlowski with slightly better diction.
O'Hare is a lover of Panto and will always defend him agaisnt the truth. Recently, Bernie was purchased by the Callahan machine for the executive race.
ReplyDeleteSo O'Hare will always deny what everyone knows, that Fleck is in the same bed as Panto and Callahan.
1:47, I understand there is another party. But guess what? You don't win an election without a candidate. Do you know of any good R names out there? I heard Brown, but I don't think he could win. Fred Daugherty is a decent guy who should probably run for County Council. If Cusick runs, and simultaneously runs for Council, he gives Ds an issue. So who is out there?
ReplyDeleteI don't know how that would play if a candidate ran for both county council and county execuitve at the same time.
ReplyDeleteCan you imaqgaine that. Half the guys mentioned could end up running for both.
O'Hare making a mistake and running with half-baked "facts" now there is a new pone.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, caught red handed you fraud.
Bernie is rarely correct, and never in doubt. I love him.
ReplyDeletethe attempts by other to link Panto and Fleck are rediculous. I know that Panto and Fleck work well together on city ocuncil but beyond that I odn't think there is ay link. It is common knowelge that Pawlowski would much rather see Panto run for Executive. His dislike for Callahan is well documented
ReplyDeleteFleck is and always has been part of the Panto Posse!
ReplyDelete12:49 you obviously don't travel with Panto. Other than a few Democratic functions obviously, I have never seen them together.
ReplyDeleteI'm a little confused by your updates, Bernie. You say that Marcel is not associated with DNC, but I believe he is. DNC would be the Democratic National Committee. I think Marcel Groen is a Pennsylvania representative to this committee and thus a super-delegate at the 2012 Democratic National Convention.
ReplyDeleteIt seems you may have your acronyms confused, and may be referring to the National Development Council (NDC). I don't if Groen is associated with this group.
I was referring to the NDC. Sorry for the confusion.
ReplyDelete"Fleck is and always has been part of the Panto Posse!"
ReplyDeleteThat must be why he ran against him. Also, not all that long ago, the two of them had words on this blog. So I think your statement is disinformation.
I sawa Panto at the last County Council meeting. He addressed council on the commuter tax vote. He showed no malice toward any, especially Cusick and McClure who verbally berated him a week before. I saw a seasoned leader give the reasons for his support of the tax and go on to tell them he understood their vote but asled for their assistance with Harrisburg. I read a lot of things on these blogs about him that are not very kind. I realize that he isn't anything like that. I was impressed with his demeanor and his knowlege of the facts. So when people say things like he is a posse with Fleck I realize that they are people that must have a political vendetta. The city of Easton is lucky to have him. Maybe some day we can get him in the county or state.
ReplyDeleteYou can see Panto for yourself online at the last County Council meeting. Watch it, and judge for yourself.
ReplyDeleteAnd another politico posse member looking for a public job is heard froim.
ReplyDeleteOutside of Easton, Panto wouldn't get elected to anything.
George Speros Maniatty "anonymously" attacks Panto here, and a minute later, anonymously attacks Callahan.
ReplyDeleteStop it O'Hare, no other than you and the Panto Posse, beleive Fleck is not part of the Panto machine.
ReplyDeleteBernie, unusually sloppy work on your part.
ReplyDeleteThis is a big deal,hit those sources again and watch out for disinformation.
There is 200 Million or do dollars on the table.
You are correct. I will have a new post tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteYou the man. We're counting on you.
ReplyDeleteReality check folks: this ain't about Fleck or Panto.
ReplyDeleteIt's about selling off Allentown's drinking water,springs and streams to a corporation interested in making a dollar.
This is a BIG F__KING DEAL.