Dolan Does Some Damage Control

After resigning from her Executive Director position at the Illick's Mill, under a cloud of suspicion based upon her own mismanagement and conflicts of interest, Bethlehem City Council member Karen Dolan is doing a bit of damage control. She has told The Express Times' Lynn Olanoff that she's merely trying to save her poor little nonprofit from the vicious world of politics. Of course, I'm in the center of this dark world, as Dolan paints it in version #694 of what has happened.

Here's my response.

This has nothing to do with politics. This has everything to do with expecting elected officials to be loyal to the people instead of whoever pays their salary. The organization has been hurt, not by stories on my blog, but by Dolan's own unethical behavior and mismanagement of the nonprofit.

This is a woman who has told several stories now about what is going on. Let's deal with facts. 1) She failed to file nonprofit tax returns for three years in a row. 2) Her nonprofit status was revoked for at least a year. 3) Her vote on last year's budget was in violation of the Ethics Act because she voted on a matter in which she had a direct financial interest as a paid Executive Director. 4) She continued raising money after her nonprofit status was revoked and gave a misleading interview to The Express Times, falsely claiming to be a nonprofit. 5. She violated the Ethics Act again as recently as last Friday, when she threatened the Mayor concerning a new lease. "I will do everything I can to prevent this lease from going to Council."

Incidentally, her threat to the Mayor, in addition to being a conflict of interest under the Ethics Act, is also an example of exactly how she plays politics.

I find it totally incredible that City officials would send her a letter in 2010 about her unpaid $127,000 debt, threatening to suspend services, and then say nothing more about the situation. That is just unbelievable. She obviously had conversations. What were those conversations? Did the Mayor let her off the hook? If so, why? Who made the decision to write off the debt? Who made the decision to begin supplying her free heating oil? Why was that decision made? Why did she suddenly start advocating for wage hikes in Parks?

The best thing Dolan could do for the public now is to resign. She has abused her office. The people of Bethlehem deserve better than someone who plays petty games to advance causes in which she has an interest.

Updated 9:45 pm: In the Express Times story,  Dolan claims that it makes no difference whether booze is permitted in City parks, as she advocated at a recent meeting, because the Illick's Mill has a liquor license.
Reader Hank_Hill, however, has discovered the license is listed as "inactive" by the state liquor control board. Nonprofits can obtain a "special occasion permit", which is what Illick's Mill has, but it can only be used six times per year. According to the Illick's Mill webpage, it hosts 20 weddings and 100 other social events a year. It would seem that, even if the license were active, the number of weddings hosted are more than what the law allows.

Oopsie.