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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Wednesday, December 05, 2018
Why Allentown City Council Video Is Unavailable
The video from Allentown City Council's December 3 budget hearing is unavailable. There's no technical difficulty, but one segment of the meeting is pretty embarrassing. In a blatant violation of the Sunshine Act, Council members Candida Affa and Cynthia Mota huddled in the middle of a vote on whether to reduce the wage hike for nonunion employees from three per cent to two and a half. Assistant Solicitor Frances Fruwirth and Council President Roger MacLean said nothing as Affa and Mota whispered to each other in the middle of a public meeting like little school girls. It was an illegal executive session smack dab in the middle of a public meeting. Then MacLean joined in this chat. Then things got really bizarre.
MacLean pulled his seat back, and the heads of Affa and Mota kept getting lower and lower until it looked as though both of them were giving him oral sex.
"I feel like we're married," MacLean later said to Mota.
They all had a nice laugh. No one seemed to mind that the Sunshine act went out the window. Neither the Solicitor or the reporters covering this - whatever it was - objected.
It starts around 2:05:00 in the video and goes on for a good 90 seconds.
Updated 9:49: Thanks to Lewis Shupe for shooting this video.
37 comments:
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Better meeting than Norhtampton
ReplyDeleteI think MacLean should have lit a cigarette at around 2:07.
ReplyDeleteOne-party town.
ReplyDeleteThe Allentown voters are seemingly satisfied, though, it has to be noted.
Happy tax hikes!
Affa and Mota are the future of Allentown.
ReplyDeleteThis is what rule by one and only one political party looks like.
ReplyDeleteWhatever. Just so long as we get our free stuff, right? Right.
So much for 'good government'.
Pray to Jesus we get our Fed Ed back..... when he gets released we will welcome him like Pilot back in the sacred city.....He will be reformed and meaner and more sneaky then a junk yard dog.
ReplyDeleteWhy is it when I see this video reminds me of a star wars..."You have learned well ( corruption & lack of decorum) well Luke Skywalker.... I can hear "sweet Cheeks" Pawlowski the mayor stating I am your father....
the people of Allentown voted for all these democrats except the mayor who was voted down twice for mayor but his buddies on council put him in old buddy system all democrats do is spend spend spend a lot of waste then they tax and tax some more then they tell the people this is good for them keep voting for the democrats just like the democrat Armstrong all he wants to do is tax and spend no cutting at all a lot of waste in lehigh county.
ReplyDeleteDemocrat one party rule. What do you expect? Get out of Allentown while you can!
ReplyDeleteThe town is a national joke.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree that one-party rule has its problems, what bothers me about this video is the obvious disdain for the public. The Sunshine Act does not permit private huddles, especially in the middle of a vote, during a meeting. The city solicitor who tolerated this law-breaking should be terminated. Also , reporters have an obligation to uphold the Sunshine Act. But no objections. Are they worried they will they no invitation to Jack's Slice? It is an atmosphere in which corruption is inevitable. This ends only if Republicans or Democratic outsiders are elected.
ReplyDeleteAs for one-party rule, the same problem exists in many Republican townships where there is no video.
same council that authorized spending 1.25 million on a 200k demo job.
ReplyDeleteThe voters get what they deserve in this town.
Sorry but the Dems on the city coucil are balanced between Dems and very conservative Dems. Some without a doubt have ultra conservative values and ran as Democrates only because thats the only way they could win. So while it is a one party town conservative values still have a voice.
ReplyDeleteBernie,
ReplyDeleteCorruption is inevitable.
Please explain???
These Council Persons are not conservatives posing as Democrats.As true Democratics they should and will raise property taxes
ReplyDeleteThe explanation is one party rule combined with a solicitor who fails to tell them they are breaking the law and a reporter who fails to object. Corruption is inevitable.
ReplyDeleteDidn't this Council fire the 2 solicitors ?
ReplyDeleteBernie at 12:00pm
ReplyDeleteGOTCHA.
Great scoop. It's sad that Allentown, from its staff to its elected and appointed officials, constantly provides glaring examples of ineptitude, incompetence and bad government over and over. To think that this operation is asking its citizens to pay higher property taxes is deflating. I think you do a good job of also pointing out some of the local governments that are highly accountable to the citizens with competent staffs and good services provided at reasonable tax rates. I
ReplyDeleteThe townships with all Republican elected officials have lots of Democrats who are registered as Republicans to get elected. And none of the townships are investigated by the FBI and if there was any funny stuff going someone would blow the whistle.
ReplyDeleteSay what we will but with the garbage & rainwater fees on top Allentown's city tax is less then half of the school district's. My kids have been out of school for over two decades. For this huge school tax I receive nothing. Not street repair/cleaning/plowing, garbage pickup, police, fire, paramedics, park maintenance, golf course, pool and all the other services this city provides. I think that's pretty damn efficient when you compare the two.
ReplyDeleteConsidering this is the city's first tax increase in 13 years I don't see why all this bellyaching. On the other hand the school district increased theirs nearly every single one of those 13 years. So too every bill I pay went up each and every one of those 13 years Seems this bickering is based on the same old partisan crap.. What the hell did people expect? People had to know sooner or later this would happen no matter who or which party managed to get elected.
Does anyone seriously believe any of them look forward to raises taxes knowing the crap surely will come their way. If any person has a better idea I'm sure city council and the mayor would like to hear it.
1:03, They do. BT was corruption riddled a few years ago. People went to jail.ido not know, however, whether it was one party told thereat that time.
ReplyDelete1:03, They do. BT was corruption riddled a few years ago. People went to jail. Also, to be clear, I have no knowledge that any member of Atown City Council is personally corrupt. But that is the atmosphere.
ReplyDeleteWhen your lawmakers are lawbreakers, you are Allentown. They know the few who vote in city elections are brain-dead lever pullers. There's no real check on their hubris.
ReplyDeleteBernie, could it be that many of the indicted mayor types still infect the entire work force of Allentown pa?
ReplyDeleteI know some of the detractors are some of fed eds deep state operatives still doing there dirty deeds under the current administrations nose as they have helped fed ed cover-ups for many years and know how he and they have operated the criminal enterprise!
ReplyDeleteredd
Julio Guridy was quoted in the MCall article as saying "even the mayor asked us to make cuts". Why would O'Connell propose a budget and then ask City Council to make cuts to it?! There are only 2 possible explanations: 1. He didn't want to look bad to the employees at city hall so he gave them raises and wanted city council to do the dirty work of cutting them or 2. He is clueless and has no idea what he is doing. I think it is both.
ReplyDeleteLVCI: You can institute a tax increase but not 27% !!! And how about cutting expenses? There is not one expense cut in this new budget! My neighbor is a senior who barely gets by. She told me that if her taxes increase 27% she will be forced out of her house by Ray O'Connell!
ReplyDeleteTO LVCI yes cut cut cut especially all the waste we know how goverments waste Allentown is not an exception too many workers and salaries much too high
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to that huge water lease windfall?
ReplyDeleteThere was a clear sexual element to Maclean's actions when the city council women were huddled in front of him and several high ranking city officials can be seen taking photos of it from the front rows. As someone who was there to argue for the human relations position it was beyond comprehension and they should be nervous as this behavior could cost people their jobs.
ReplyDeleteTo LVCI: You seem to think that a tax increase was the only alternative. I want to remind you that O'Connell was prepared to spend $1,250,000 for the demolition of the building on 15th Street. Then Mr. Hyman stepped in, renegotiated the contract and paid only $200,000 for the same job. While it ended up costing the taxpayers nothing because Mr.Hyman paid for it, O'Connell would have overpaid $1,000,000 on just one contract! Imagine how much waste there is throughout all of Allentown's contracts and the whole city government!!
ReplyDeleteIf it wasn’t for Mike Hanlon this collective of clowns could not hold the most basic of meetings.
ReplyDeleteThis town is in troubled waters.
the mayor learned how to tax from his days as an administrator in the Allentown schools he will tax and tax this guy does not care about the fixed income older people of allentown
ReplyDeletesomeone with twitter should send this to a late show or two. That will shine some light on the situation. Its amateur night in Allentown.
ReplyDeleteLCVI: Don't forget that LCA is raising water rates 50% as well, and this is due to yet more ineptitude (Roy Afflerbach's police pension give-away). The one thing that Allentown did better than the suburbs (public sewer and water) and they managed to screw that up and leave residents at the mercy of LCA.
ReplyDeleteWTF was that!
ReplyDelete8:37pm that was only because of the EXPERTS advice told the mayor that was the best design? The design was designed for who and what entities, surely not the citizens of Allentown pa by the public servants exampled expertise?
ReplyDeleteThe criminal enterprise still hard at work to bulk the citizens out of every asset public and private!
redd