Former federal prosecutor Robert Goldman, who represented Allentown briefly in responding to a recent federal subpoena, will be submitting no legal bill for his services, according to informed sources. Since he is representing a former Reading City Council President who has just pleaded guilty to bribery in connection with a similar probe in Reading, that's probably a good thing.
The Reading and Allentown probes are closely related. The subpoenas aimed at both cities make use of the same names. Goldman nevertheless represented of the targets of that investigation while simultaneously representing one of the cities being probed.
This is an ethical lapse, no matter haw hard he tries to justify it. And he already had at least a perceived conflict of interest because he was representing Allentown and someone who is suing Allentown.
Today's one-liner: "The shortest way to the distinguishing excellence of any writer is through his hostile critics." Richard LeGallienne
Local Government TV
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Friday, August 07, 2015
42 comments:
You own views are appreciated, especially if they differ from mine. But remember, commenting is a privilege, not a right. I will delete personal attacks or off-topic remarks at my discretion. Comments that play into the tribalism that has consumed this nation will be declined. So will comments alleging voter fraud unless backed up by concrete evidence. If you attack someone personally, I expect you to identify yourself. I will delete criticisms of my comment policy, vulgarities, cut-and-paste jobs from other sources and any suggestion of violence towards anyone. I will also delete sweeping generalizations about mainstream parties or ideologies, i.e. identity politics. My decisions on these matters are made on a case by case basis, and may be affected by my mood that day, my access to the blog at the time the comment was made or other information that isn’t readily apparent.
Bernie;
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to say thank you for no articles on Penn Pump. ET appears to have that market cornered. No wonder why they keep downsizing and cutting staff.
@3:00
ReplyDeleteI thought it was just me with the perception that they are milking that situation dry. Polls, parking on the grass, garbage updates, swimming in the creek, crowd estimates, a bus arriving, race baiting, ad nauseum. If a cricket farts in that park, they'll write a story about it. If they put as much effort into Fed Ed and Allentown, people might actually consider them a newspaper.
The sleaze meter never stops ticking!!!!!
ReplyDelete(The City of Allentown solicitor couldn't put this together? She's dirty or incompetent---you choose.)
While I understand the potential ethical conflict here, he at least had the decency to conflict himself off the presumably lucrative Allentown work & to not bill the city.
ReplyDeleteBOH pulled his cover or he'd still be in town,
ReplyDeletewho the fuck you kidding?
Edwin got all the advice he needed for the time being.
The Allentown Solicitor has been walking a fine line here,She's been solicitor only a few months and had no idea what She was getting into.She's between a rock and a hard place.If She's smart She stop the bleeding and resign
ReplyDeleteI sell the odor of rotting meat.
ReplyDeleteWild is straight out of the PawPo/Fleck stable.
ReplyDeleteShe knows exactly what she bought into.
Not everyone is fooled by her act,
@6:45,
ReplyDeleteYes, but why did he take the job in the first place?
^ Team Pawlowski needed immediate advice on how to minimize the bleeding.
ReplyDeleteSteps were taken that could take months and months off a guy's sentence.
This is sensitive stuff. One needs expert council.
Ms. Wildman was appointed City Solicitor in January.The Pay to Play was completely operational by the time She took office.By the time the Feds searched Her office I am sure She suddenly became aware of how nefarious the Pay to Play was and She needed to get immediate legal council and hired Mr. Goodman with City Councils consent to get some degree of control over it.
ReplyDelete^ BINGO!!!
ReplyDeleteOh please. She showed her true colors defending the arsenic laden swamp land deal. She should have admitted there was a problem, now she's part of the problem. It's time to clean house and rid the city of the pay to players. What a bunch of smug scumbags...the whole lot. I hope they get the fed prison tour soon.
ReplyDeleteObstruction
ReplyDeleteWhat some of you want to do is condemn someone simply because of her job title. I will not condemn someone simply bc she is a Solicitor or contributed to Pawlowski. I will not condemn others who support Pawlowski or the NIZ.
ReplyDeleteAs I have said many times, people of good will can have different views. I hate the NIZ. But I respect and even like some people who consider the NIZ a good thing.
I believe Pawlowski is a bad Mayor and have long thought a culture of corruption exists in Allentown But I don't hate him, as some people think. In fact, I think he has done some things well. He has been an effective advocate for his city, is a hard worker and I give him a great deal of credit for his quick response to the UGI disaster a few years ago. But simultaneously, he is a crony capitalist who subordinates the best interests of the people to his own. He fails to understand the fundamental "of the people, by the people and for the people" concept so eloquently uttered by our Poet President in his Gettysburg Address. I believe there is evidence of criminality in the way he handled that Atiyeh deal, and the feds will certainly be looking at that and other transactions about which we know nothing.
This by no means is an indication that everyone who works for the City is part of some evil or wicked conspiracy, or that everyone whose name appears on the FBI subpoena list is dirty. In fact, my guess is that most of them are completely innocent.
In Wild's case, she was NOT the City's lawyer while most of this mess was happening. She has defended the Atiyeh deal, but is not the lawyer who advised the City to go ahead with it. She was not here. I also doubt she could know that Goldman was simultaneously representing the City and Readings City Council President, which was a pretty low thing for him to do.
Unlike most Pawlowski puppets, Wild actually responded to me and is trying very hard to be accountable. I believe her decision to hire outside counsel was a good one. If Goldman was representing one of the players, even in Reading, he should have told Wild. He put her in a bad position. That is not her fault.
Had Wild been Solicitor during the Atiyeh deal, LCA lease and many of the other numerous questionable transactions by Pawlowski, I could see the disdain. But I suspect some of this is an attempt to slam her because of her party (she is a very active Democrat).
Let's be fair. Let us not be like Pawlowski himself or many of his supporters, who vilify others who speak out.
Jeanette Eichenwald does have a legitimate criticism of Wild, focused on legal advice. She believes the Solicitor should provide advice on City issues to any Council member who requests it. Wild believes that Council as a body should request the opinion. I would side with Eichenwald on this matter, though the real problem there is that City Council should have its own solicitor.
Good comments, Bernie. Just because someone has involvement in Allentown City Government does not automatically mean they are an integral part of a vast evil conspiracy. After all, the FBI's list of key people included very few city officials. That list was apparently put together after several months of Fleck wearing a wiretap.
ReplyDeleteSorry bernie, but the land deal stinks and not fessing up to it looks bad. I'm sure she is a nice woman but i feel she is hurting her reputation defending a junk deal. And, council members who remain mum need to go as well.
ReplyDeleteI agree the land deal stinks to high heaven. I am the person who disclosed it. But Wild played no role in that land deal. She was not Solicitor then. Now she is defending the City's interest in that, and is doing her job. She might personally agree with you, but is ethically obligated to represent the interests of the City. She has made clear she will not defend officials on any potential criminal issue. I'd just caution you against being quick to condemn everyone involved here.
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying she had anything to do with or was employeed when this pay to play took place. Im not sure a solicitors job is to cover up some pay to play. She is paid by the taxpayers of Allentown and works for the people to be honest not covering certain members of city government. I was just commenting how bad she looked defending this junk deal..not her personally. She's probably a very nice person . It's too bad her career could suffer
ReplyDeleteA lawyer shall not counsel a client to engage, or assist a client, in conduct that the lawyer knows is criminal or fraudulent, but a lawyer may discuss the legal consequences of any proposed course of conduct with a client and may counsel or assist a client to make a good faith effort to determine the validity, scope, meaning or application of the law.
ReplyDeletePay to play is just part of it.
ReplyDeleteThere was retribution,both petty and large.
Every job opening filled by a political consideration---every policy disagreement an indication of disloyalty.
Vindictiveness, always vindictiveness.
Many of the best people at every level left in years two and three.
No policy disagreements allowed, you're either with him or against him 100%.
Hostile visits from a thuggish Code Dept.
Paybacks....always paybacks.
It was never about policy, always about politics.
If that wasn't bad enough, beneath it was always a smug sanctimoniousness of a," I'm better than thou Christianity."
A very very toxic state of affairs. Anybody even close to the seat of power knows all this.
Of course he wasn't all bad, most people get that, but your friends, and mine, Mr. OHare who were in on the NIZ, they ALL KNEW, and they looked the other way.
ReplyDeleteWhat exactly is their culpability?
THEY ALL KNEW, that most certainly includes Butz and Riely.
Bernie, you said you "give him a great deal of credit for his quick response to the UGI disaster a few years ago."
ReplyDeleteThat was all a sham.
UGI had been claiming they were detecting for leaks every year since the gross tower gas explosion in 94.
Pawlowski made a big point of making sure the city was not liable. It was a leak in someones basement that caused it and the fact UGI looks for gas leaks every year proves it was not a gas leak. When work crews found a giant break in the cast iron pipe in the street the city put out information saying that it was broken in the explosion and could not have been cracked like that before or UGI would have found it in their 'regular' inspections.
Never had I seen UGI dig up the street and replace a broken pipe. Never had I seen their gas sniffing trucks around before the explosion on 13th st. Starting the next spring they were everywhere, digging up the ground, replacing pipes of putting rubber liners in them.
There have been more deaths then I care to think about in Allentown from gas explosions, in every case the building owner was found liable.
Just one more of Pawlowski's cover ups. Not all of them were on his watch but the worst one was, the one that killed enough people at once to force UGI to start fixing things they should have been fixing in the early 90's.
~Elijah
P.S. I am trying to force myself to use google+ more so you guys get that link as well. feel free to find me there and agree with or vehemently argue with me there as well. I've slept under a few bridges I can deal with a few trolls.
Ed always liked to be the smartest guy in the room. After two, three, years he almost always was. His Evangelical buddies always reminded him Jesus was in his corner as well.
ReplyDeleteThe results are playing out for the whole world to see.
Elijah, be careful what you ask for.
ReplyDelete"I can deal with a few trolls."
ReplyDeleteBernie is finishing up opening a can of whoop ass on someone who chose to troll him. I hope she sleeps uneasy after the way she's treated him. Her just desserts continue to be served up as we speak. Yummy - crow.
Thanks Bernie. May we live in interesting times.
ReplyDeleteI realize that does not link to my google+ it goes to an even less used blog page. go ahead and troll me there, I like to put myself out there and speak my mind, come at me bro.
Here is my Google+ to go with it.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/100682044384323055855/posts
~Elijah LoPinto
P.S. Bernie, Any thoughts on my Pawlowski UGI comment?
ReplyDelete~Elijah LoPinto
Those were a revelation. I would need to research to know whether I agree.
ReplyDeleteBernie - the Wildman issue opens up a very old concern about a flaw in Allentown government -why doesn't Council have an independent legal counsel -they share the same solicitor and legal office appointed and controlled by the mayor. Baucsh and Hershman raised this issue in 2003-2004. How can council get an independent review when the Solicitor is also a rubber stamp of the mayor?
ReplyDeleteThe same issue exists on the LC BOC. Both Allentown City's Council and LC's Board need their own Solicitor.
ReplyDeleteHow about the 10th and Gordon sinkhole. The state said a water main in the street brook causing the sinkhole and so they were not liable, Pawlowski said that a sinkhole formed and broke the water main o they were not liable. Everyone agrees that the issues started in the street but Pawlowski helped those who lost their homes by renting them hotel rooms for 5 days.
ReplyDeleteI say again that Pawlowski is one of the worst thing to ever happen to this city. I can not think of one good thing he has done that has not had a darker side to it as well.
~Elijah LoPinto
Several years ago John Karoly represented Allentown City Council.
ReplyDeleteMr. E you are a bastion of hope in the town where democracy is dead, if you decide to run in the next election please contact Unity PAC for any assistance you need. Jim Gregory is done with Bethlehem and has always like Allentown, he is also a man who eschews labels and loves to fight against the grain.
ReplyDeleteUnity PAC Foot soldier
Good to see the MC story featuring Musty Muller from Lehigh County. In the Fed Ed explosion he often slips under the radar. There are folks who have known for some time what he is all about. The Lehigh County Democrats sold out over their fear of Ott. Why do you think this lifelong Country Club Republican became a Democrat? Scott Ott, please homeboy.
ReplyDeleteThe guy is a pension padding clown. How is the new corvette, Tommy. The Lehigh County Commissioners better take a good look at he and his inner circle before they get caught up in the same nonsense as Allentown.
People who stood up and questioned him disappeared. Check the guy out.
$15,762 for an Inaugural Party for the country club cronies. Boy, just think of how many patients that would have fed at Cedarbrook.
ReplyDeleteYour comments are OT. Continue and I delete.
ReplyDeleteBernie I think everyone appreciates your Fed Ed stories. You have written a great deal about him and a few others. The thing is you seem to ignore certain parties and contributors. The Executive is one you have a blind spot over for whatever reason. It is known you think his wife is nice and he is a Cunningham creation but he is also part of this entire Fleck enterprises money deal.
ReplyDeleteWill you be doing a story based on the latest MC story?
Look, I do not do stories based on what The Morning Call or any other paper is doing. Nor do I take instructions from anonymous commenters who vey possibly have an agenda other than an interest in good government. This is now the third OT comment attempting to hijack this blog.If you feel so strongly about this, start a blog of your own. I do not write stories in which i have nothing to add. This is the final word. Stick to the topic or be deleted.
ReplyDeletehttp://readingeagle.com/news/article/piecing-together-the-fbi-investigation-in-reading-and-allentown
ReplyDeleteArticle from today's reading paper about the campaign contributions, etc.
Well CACLV got a modest windfall from the mayors party, and the grassroots community people at CUNA got the bums rush.
ReplyDeleteIt pays to be a regular at the mayors political insiders
poker game.
CACLV could be counted on to deliver for FED
ReplyDeleteED, from the Water Deal to the NIZ, a high visibility organization with a bully pulpit already to support the next shady deal and shout down any opposition from the unwashed masses.
I can remember when Emma T. said their Executive Director thinks he's Allentowns own
Jesus Christ---and you could look that up.
I feel it Pontius Pilot act coming on.
Maybe CACLV's vocal frontman will discover children and change his life like the mayors former booster from Emmaus,