Though he can now take baths in other people's money, Fed Ed had a meeting with school officials on Wednesday and told them they have to start bearing the cost of school crossing guards, something that most cities do without hesitation.
Fed Ed, who had no problem paying $1.4 million to developer Abe Atiyeh for land the City does not need, somehow kept a straight face as he told school officials the City is unable to afford the $8.75-9.75 per hour paid to school crossing guards.
What about your "rising tide lifts all boats" argument in support of the NIZ, Fed Ed?
Pawlowski told school officials he's in a deep hole this budget season, and has spent all the water and sewer money. He wanted them to agree to take it over right then and there. Believe it or not, these administrators allowed Fed Ed to bully them and offered to kick in $100,000, even though they have no idea how much money they'll be getting from the state. Not only did Pawlowski reject this offer, but he doubled down and threatened to pull all school resource officers unless they agreed to his demands right then and there.
Allentown School District representatives left. "This Mayor is trying to balance his budget on the safety of our children," complained School Board President Robert Smith. "He needs to resign. Shame on him for trying to blackmail the school district."
Updated 11 am: Blogger Michael Molovinsky has his own perspective and is reporting a $9 million budget gap in Allentown.
46 comments:
What the hell… I don't know what to say about this one. Every time you think you set a new standard, he goes and sets another one.
The Banker
Obama promised the rising tides to lift all boats.
What happened to those shovel ready jobs?
School officials need to stop being cupcakes and suck it up.
Obama, mmm, mmm, mmm.
I don't think the rich are paying their fair share.
Allentown's business owners need to pay more taxes.
Then Allentown's disadvantaged children will finally have a fair shot.
You make a lot of accusations without naming sources. Without those sources your post is pure speculation. Robert is demanding the resignation of a person who has not been charged with a crime, if and when that he is charged, then the discussion about resignation is pertinent. Robert is obviously not a fan of innocent before proven guilty.
You just named one of my sources, so you know this is not speculation. Smith was there, and unlike you, is responsible for his words.
And how many jobs bills were proposed by the GOP House and Senate??? Zero! How many attempted repeals of the ACA, knowing a veto would occur if their pipe dream went through? Hmmmmm
Geissinger for Congress! Why are you not covering the biggest story in Northampton County.
It is a shame Mike Fleck is not here to straighten all of this out. In the past all it would have taken were a few well placed political contributions.
The mayor always talked about the City doing more for education in Allentown. Of the City and the School District forming a partnership to do the job. I suspect that he would have loved bringing the running of the schools in Allentown under his auspice like Philadelphia.
But in any case here is a piece from the Allentown Office of Mike Moore in regard to the hiring of School crossing guards .....CROSSING GUARDS SOUGHT
The City of Allentown is hiring crossing guards for the 2015-2016 school year that begins September 8.
Applicants must be at least 18 years of age and must pass a criminal and child abuse background check in accordance with Pennsylvania Act 153 of 2014. Successful candidates will earn $8.50-$9.50 per hour.
Why isn't this clown indicted by the Feds yet?
Rather ironic a mayor in his position bully's the school board. Shows what people think of ASD. it is known as an easy mark in the legal community as well. They don't litigate anything and the lawsuits only increase in number and demands. If they are under such financial duress how is it they can magically find close to $20,000,000 in their accounting system that no one knew about. This is claimed by administrators who brag of multiple decades of education experience. ASD needs a new administration, a new solicitor, a new auditor, as well as a principled board that will stand up to the administration. Then perhaps bully's will stop stepping on their neck. If you can't manage the money how do you manage education of the students? Wake up Allentown.
Try calling the school administration building. Try reaching anyone there.
For me, the greater irony is that Pawlowski's shaking down the school district for money to make sure our kids are safe going to/from school, while the taxpayers absorb millions in police overtime to make sure people feel safe going to the arena.
Talk about warped priorities!
They can't haul him off to jail quick enough, as far as I'm concerned.
Also, I believe that Pawlowski originally touted the resource officers as a way to reduce crime, stating that their presence would head off problems from students before they reached the neighborhoods.
The bigger story is how the hell did he blow through all the money from the water lease already? Something's not right there.
Maybe the FBI should investigate that mess as well.
7:24,
Does the ASD need to find a new auditor to confirm your anonymous slanders against the district? That's not what they do, they instead stake their professional credibility on the quality of their work and by reporting the truth.
Repeating old canards anonymously speaks to your credibility rather than the ASD's.
Scott Armstrong
Good Report, I missed this one in the Morning Democrat. This is why the Citizens for a Better (worse?) Allentown that Pawlowski is fronting for School Board need to be identified as such and voted out. Rubber stampers and puppets with political ambitions (i.e. Charlie Theil) will do whatever Pawlowski tells them to do.
7:58 -
Good point, those candidates are still out there and running for School Board, even though Pawlowski and Fleck's involvement have been scrubbed to the greatest extent possible. The same with City Council and controller candidates.
Another Fleck creation exists in Lehigh County advocating for a slate of commissioner candidates. Pawlowski and Fleck's involvement has been similarly scrubbed, although the involvement of two state representatives and the County Executive still remains public. I don't believe it's a good idea for state reps to try to install local rubber-stamps, and having the city's chief executive pick his own council members certainly hasn't worked out too well for Allentown.
In all those cases it's a power grab, and the voters need to be reminded about it as often as possible as we approach Election Day. All candidates in any way related to it need to be defeated.
There is a severe shortage of crossing guards. If you drive around Allentown, you will see police officers having to do the work of crossing guards at many corners, because not enough guards were hired. The City could save money by hiring cheap crossing guards, instead of having to pay police overtime to do their work.
Thanks to FedEd for rejecting the district's offer of $100,000. Had that been accepted, the School District should have been skewered for offering it (maybe they still should be).
The District shouldn't pay one cent to the city for crossing guards, as the district's responsibility for the kids stops at the end of school property.
If Ed wants to pull the resource officers, let him. I believe he's the one that sold them as a solution to problems in the neighborhood and a way to actually REDUCE police costs by having officers head off problems before they started. He's had them in place for a very long time. If he was wrong about that, he should be held accountable for another poor decision.
So I guess now that it's harder for Ed to shake down city vendors, he's back to shaking down the school district.
What's he planning next? Shaking down kids for their lunch money? Maybe he'll install super-magnets on those hand-held stop signs the crossing guards use so he can make that happen.
A previous commenter was correct when he wrote that every time you think Pawlowski's bottomed out, he stoops to a new low.
Trump said it just yesterday "stupid people".
where did all of the sewer lease money go? And in who's pocket?
"Geissinger for Congress! Why are you not covering the biggest story in Northampton County."
It was very crowded. I intendedto go, but skipped bc my sciatica was really bad on Tuesday.
9:00,You can make your point without being vulgar.
"The bigger story is how the hell did he blow through all the money from the water lease already? Something's not right there."
I don't think he did. I think he was just saying that to the school officials.
It's nice to see Ed's back in the saddle again.
"Pawlowski told school officials he's in a deep hole this budget season, and has spent all the water and sewer money."
Mayor Pawlowski's "deep hole" is profoundly deeper than any municipal funding challenges.
Alan Jennings has started a movement to unionize the crossing guard for a $15 $$$ living wage and the city is running scared.
This administration has perfected the art of the shakedown.
They do it reflexively.
You ask why people won't use their names?
Here's the law. The city can make the school district pay half the cost, but cannot force the school to pay all of the cost or to take over hiring of the crossing guards.
"(a) Upon request of the board of school directors of the school district in which a city is located, the city council may appoint school crossing guards who shall have the duty of controlling and directing traffic at or near schools. They shall serve at the pleasure of the city council, except as noted in subsection (b). The compensation of the school crossing guards, if any, shall be fixed by the city council and shall be jointly paid by the city council and the board of school directors, in a ratio to be determined by the city council and board of school directors. If the city council and board of school directors are unable to determine the ratio of compensation of the school crossing guards to be paid by the council and the board, each shall pay one-half of the compensation of the school crossing guards.
(b) A city council may enact an ordinance allowing a board of school directors to assume the hiring and oversight of the school crossing guards. Before city council may enact such an ordinance, the board of directors of the school district shall adopt a resolution requesting the authority to assume the hiring and oversight of the school crossing guards."
Allentowns City Hall----open for business!
It is my understand this hairball of a law was only recently coughed up by Harrisburg.
Scott Armstrong
11:25 - Can you cite the source?
11:08, I use my name. So do Michael Molovinsky, Scott Armstrong, Dennis Pearson, Bob Smith, Robert Trotner, Rich Fegley and others. Those living or who have businesses in Allentown take a bigger risk than I, and have great personal integrity. Those of you who hide behind a veil of anonymity can do so for many legitimate reasons, so long as you are not attacking others. But I have less respect for you than I do for those who are willing to take responsibility.
Bernie -
I don't think that Pawlowski would falsely say that he's got a $9 million dollar budget hole.
While I don't trust him a bit, it goes against his own self-serving narrative that he's some sort of financial genius that's rescued the city from a terrible financial situation. Now it would seem that all he's done is kick the can down the road and make city residents (and their kids) pay three times as much in the form of higher water and sewer rates because of his asinine water & sewer deal. This would explain why he was so desperate to get out of town by becoming Governor or Senator.
While he's likely going to prison because of the FBI, he might still be the lucky one. He won't be here to pay for his screw-ups. That honor will fall on the taxpayers.
FYI - Tim Ryan, part-time publisher of The Morning Call, leaving for the LA Times.
Not that it matters who is the publisher anymore.
"But I have less respect for you than I do for those who are willing to take responsibility."
I'm not who you were responding to, but it's not necessarily about being unwilling to take responsibility. I would LOVE to sign my name to comments but I work for the Courts in Northampton County. So while my job has nothing to do with any of this and I live and pay taxes in Lehigh County, I'm unfortunately unable to publically express my opinion for fear of being fired. I like discussing politics, but I like my job too.
Bernie, regarding the $$ from the water/sewer lease, I recall seeing an accounting of what was transferred into the pension fund ($170MM) but I never saw any plan for the remaining proceeds. There was a plan floated to pay down outstanding bonds as well ($30MM) but over time.
So I think the question on what happened to the rest of the $$ is valid. Could Allentown have blown it? Unfortunately they could have.
The Banker
I saw Fed Ed and Abe having lunch earlier and can only imagine what they are concocting, more charter schools?
12:33, I understand your point.
Banker, I believe Fed Ed was just saying that to get the school to go along with him.
WOW The City burned all the money from the water and sewer deal.
Time to Kick his A.. out of office, he did enough damage.
I think everyone will truly understand how big this thing really was
and all the trouble he caused the people of Allentown.
What about all the education tax credits businesses are providing to the ASD approved by PA DCED? Was that money sucked away by Building 21? How was the ASD RACP grant spent? An awful lot of State money going to Building 21.
In fairness, the school districts are a pain in the ass. If they got rid of all the "administrative" overpaid positions they could pay for twice as many crossing guards. The school districts already tax people to death for their bloated payrolls. Why should a municipality foot the bill fro their crossing guards.
Stop making up jobs at top dollar and give the taxpayers a break.
Crossing guards are to students who walk, as bus drivers are to students who bus in.
That's as far as my thinking goes on this one.
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