On his Facebook page, Thiel delivers this sermonette: "The people we surround ourselves with either raise or lower our standards. They either help us to become the-best-version-of-ourselves or encourage us to become lesser versions of ourselves. We become like our friends."
So has Thiel become like Fleck, a drinking buddy, Ruchlewicz and Fed Ed? Call him Fed Ed Lite or Pawlowski 2.0. But there are too many similarities between these two to ignore.
He even has a bunch of kool-aid followers, just like Fed Ed.
"Praying that God's will be done," says one cheerleader.
Amazingly, he does have support on City Council. Candida Affa, who hosted the kickoff for Citizens for a Better Allentown at her bar, will vote for him. So will Courtney Robinson. He does everything lobbyist Jenn Mann tells him to do and is the person who asked Dan McCarthy to manufacture a flawed legal opinion about the eligibility of other candidates. A third vote for Thiel will come from Roger MacLean, unless he decides he wants the job himself.
There won't be a fourth. Nor should there be.
34 comments:
Bernie if it’s not Thiel who will be appointed in your opinion?
His mancrush is O'Connell because he thinks Allentown city government is a school district.
12:50, the most likely appointees are Ray O’Connell, Roger MacLean or Nat Hyman. I have been told Ray has four votes but this is politics and, more specifically, this is Allentown.
Bernie, very good informative article. You forgot that Thiel donated to the Friends of Ed Pawlowski on 6/1/11 [$150] and 10/3/13 [$250]. You are right, he took money from the Citizens for a better Allentown [Pawlowski, Scheweyer & Schlossberg] and was the very questionable recipient of the Allentown camera system from "Fed Ed". With the camera deal he worked very close with Roger MacLean who had a very large debt service to his ex-wives and six [6] children.
Allentown cannot afford another Pawlowski in the making, and to think this guy is the answer to the problems, the citizens of Allentown have to be nuts. Of course, they voted an indicted mayor back in as mayor. That alone shows that the basic citizens of Allentown lack common sense, moral turpitude and intelligence!
Allentown government is never going to be fixed. It will continue its steady decline. A city is its people. Allentown has nearly cornered the market on sleazy scumbags who are happy in their cesspool. The pig has lipstick. But it's still a pig.
O'connel was with the schools of allentown for over 30 years --look at the results
Why is it so hard for Allentown City Council to do the right thing?
Thiel is too connected with the same cabal that was run by Pawlowski and Mann. They were all willing to turn a blind eye to Pawlowski and what he was doing while it helped them (and until the FBI showed up). In addition, Thiel has personally benefited from lucrative deals with the city. Thiel is not what Allentown needs.
Council also shouldn't be picking someone from their own ranks. Even if you don't think there's a clear prohibition in the Charter, it's wrong and results in the back-room deals and subversion of democracy that we witnessed in November. So that rules out Maclean and O'Connell.
I don't have the list of everyone who has applied, but Allentown City Hall needs change. If Council votes for any of those three, they might as well vote for Pawlowski.
Thiel has other MAJOR problems. He started 2 Christian "non-profits". The problem is he collected money and paid himself a big salary (just like Sam Bennett) but never did anything charitable with the money and NEVER REGISTERED EITHER WITH THE STATE! He also never did any of the state annual filings. That is fraud. In addition, he listed one of the "non-profits" as his employer on a bank application and is now being investigated for bank fraud. He's like a one of those kids who collects money for cancer and then keeps it! Can Jenn Mann have that much sway over the members of City Council for them to overlook all of Thiel's issues and put another crook in office??! If they do, then Allentown is doomed!
El Gringo + Schlossturd + Mannimal = many of Allentown's problems.
How is it a public servant, i.e. Jen Mann, can afford a house in Allentown's prestigious rose garden area? Family money? Political scum. Limosine liberals. They care about their pockets only. Get a real job.
Here are the facts:
Thiel's company CSI got a no bid contract for the camera systems in Allentown from Fed Ed
Thiel's company contributed considerable money to Fed Ed's campaign
Fed Ed's Pac contributed to Thiel when he ran for school board
Thiel is on the FBI tapes discussing all of this with Fed Ed
Thief took a "leave of absence" from his job to run for Mayor, because he didn't want the voters finding out about his company's ties to Fed Ed
Much of Thiel's campaign contributions came from CSI
His campaign fund paid people at CSI to do work for his campaign.
He now works for CSI as a "consultant" so that he can still be considered for Mayor
Is this really who we want as our next Mayor? Is this really who will turn the page of corruption and self dealing from Fed Ed?
Shouldn't city council be obligated to reflect the will of the voters who elected them? Thiel ran for mayor and came in third in the primary. I believe he also ran twice for city council and lost. So how can city council then give our city's highest position to a person who the voters rejected 3 times? I don't get it.
Thiel is a joke.
Ed and his city councils and hired attorneys, underlings and committee people have made the place a real “shithole”, to use the term of art.
It’s a bottomless pit of corruption, incompetence, and stupidity in motion, slo-motion.
Who would entertain the thought of this grinning hack a Mayor for longer than 30 seconds?
Mann is the not so hidden puppeteer.
Watch her pull the strings.
Watch her puppets dangle and dance.
What a sad, sorry, pathetic state of affairs.
What a lost community.
New day my ass.
Mann's mob includes Pete "the Gringo" Schweyer, Mike "Darth Voter" Schlossberg, Geoff Brace and Courtney Robinson are made members. I would put Thiel and Dan McCarthy in there as associates. She is an extremely powerful presence, not just in Allentown, but the entire LV. My disdain for her stems from the fact that she's always been in this for herself, and was lucky to be in a gerrymandered district whose voters never questioned her.
" He started 2 Christian "non-profits". The problem is he collected money and paid himself a big salary (just like Sam Bennett) but never did anything charitable with the money and NEVER REGISTERED EITHER WITH THE STATE! He also never did any of the state annual filings."
Please provide the names of these nonprofits and tell us how you know this.
"Council also shouldn't be picking someone from their own ranks. Even if you don't think there's a clear prohibition in the Charter, it's wrong and results in the back-room deals and subversion of democracy that we witnessed in November. So that rules out Maclean and O'Connell."
This concerns appointing an elected official to a vacancy among elected officials. There is nothing wrong or improper about it. The fact is that both Ray and MacLean have experience dealing with city issues. I see no reason why it would lead to back room deals or the subversion of democracy. I also think both of these gentleman have a great deal of personal integrity. I would agree Nat Hyman is an excellent choice who has none of these difficulties. He would be my second choice after Ray bc he is smart, energetic and innovative. But I don't think he'd get a single vote among Council members.
"O'connel was with the schools of allentown for over 30 years --look at the results"
By that ridiculous logic, you would have to condemn a lot of good people who gave their heart and soul to Allentown schools and really care. That includes a basketball coach who drives kids home after practice and helps them to keep their grades up. That includes people who have scraped money together to help out students who need coats or a home. The main reason Allentown schools have deteriorated is bc it educates students who live in homes that are transitional bc of jobs and poor neighborhoods. As the schools go, so goes the City. Ray gets that. You don't.
Bernie O'Hare said:
"This concerns appointing an elected official to a vacancy among elected officials. There is nothing wrong or improper about it. The fact is that both Ray and MacLean have experience dealing with city issues. I see no reason why it would lead to back room deals or the subversion of democracy."
Except that it just happened. You had a councilman run a write-in campaign to take the choice of who would be the next Mayor out of the hands of the voters and put it in the hands of his cronies on Council. That was the plan, and that's what has occurred. The only part of the act still to occur is the actual appointment.
That's why I think the provision is in the Charter - so that Council members won't have a personal stake in gaming the system.
We can disagree about how we want to interpret that provision in the Charter, but it doesn't make it (what some on Council are trying to do) right.
Now more than ever, we need a Council that can look beyond their own self interests and put the interests of the city first. Sadly, I don't know if this group has that in them.
"...both Ray and MacLean have experience dealing with city issues."
But they were both either oblivious or kept quiet about what was going on in City Hall.
Maclean I can forgive since I don't think he was there as long and wasn't Council President until recently.
But O'Connell WAS the Council President while Pawlowski was selling off City Hall. There is no way that Ray can claim that he didn't know what was going on and at the same time claim he has the skill set to lead the City.
He's never going to be able to clean up the crap in City Hall if he wasn't even able to see the elephant (that was dropping it) in the room.
if ray gets in nepotism will be big...
Ray has owned hos failure to see what was going on. MacLean was not on City Council but was a police chief and probably should have seen the red flags, too. If failure to pick upon Fed Ed is disqualifying, nearly every Dem would be disqualified. Michael Donovan got wise, but passed away. Neither Ray, Hyman nor MacLean was ever part of the inner circle. Thiel was.
how about nepotism?
What on earth do you mean? Do you even know what the word “nepotism” means? Aside from his son, who was hired by FedEd, I can think of no O’Connell relation who has or wants a job in the city. That’s just nonsense.
Another Top Cop jumps ship.
Allentown is a in a death spiral that the Rileyville Potemkin Village can’t hide.
bernie wants allentown to have a mayor who lost not one but two elections for mayor who is part of the allentown cesspool the guy who helped elect fed ed just so he could be appointed'
4:20, Ray O'Connell considered an appointment Plan B, which is where many of you have reached the wrong conclusion. He was always in the race to win it. I heard that directly from him after hearing that he was trying to throw the race. That claim is utterly false.
Let’s not forget that D. Hendricks got his son a City job back when he was still Pawlowski’s BFF.
7:38 PM, are you drinking again? No one cares!
where is Paul Harvey when we need him! There are so many elephants in this city that are NEVER addressed.
Bernie I wish McClure would have offered you a job as I think you would straighten out a few offices in that courthouse and got them back on track.
What the city needs is a Director of First Impressions
Yup in Parks when there were clearly better qualified candidates
allentown schools are failing because of poor leadership-- yes a tough situation but good leadership would overcome the bad situation not make excuses- yes there is good people in the schools despite the extremely poor leadership over the last 40 years --yes I mean the school board and the administrators THEY ARE THE SO CALLED LEADERS WHO MAKE THE DECISIONS--WHAT THEY REALLY ARE ARE POLITICIANS WHO SCREW UP MOST THINGS..
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