In late June, Allentown City Council unanimously confirmed a guy in a suit with white socks as its new Human Relations Director. Prior to that, Mayor Matt Tuerk effusively praised the guy in a suit wirth white socks. Nominee Nadeem Eli Shahzad sounded more like a bullshit artist than a personnel professional. He never lasted very long in any one job, and as Council member Candida Affa herself observed, he has so many jobs on the side that he's stretched himself very thin. I predicted he'd be gone before long, and sure enough, he's been either fired or resigned, depending on who you choose to believe.
Shahzad has threatened litigation in both federal and state court. As a former HR Director, he should know that he serves at the pleasure of the Mayor. He is at will, and has no right to remain employed. He could even be fired for wearing a suit with white socks, which is what I would do.
Tuerk obviously blew this pick and Allentown City Council should have seen the bullshit burgers he was slinging.
The City should train someone from within who actually lives locally.
28 comments:
In the previous article, you mentioned he was involved in litigation with a former employer. Is he suing that employer, too? Perhaps he is a man who enjoys lawsuits that are likely settled in an effort to make the litigant go away. Nice gig if you can get it, I guess.
This clown is dealing out the race and religion cards to make a quick buck via an EEOC lawsuit. Tuerk's judgement reeked with this appointment. He tried to check all the diversity boxes and got kicked in the ass.
Bernie,
I think Mr. White Socks has some credibility. Pair your story with the Morning Call's, which are both great. Then listen to his phone conversation that WFMZ aired on their website. He made a lot of sense. He poked a lot of holes and gave some noise that should at least be pondered. Wonder where the truth is between these two sides?
The story reeks of backroom government reality.
You reported a while back that Council was considering a No Confidence vote against the hapless Tuerk. Any news since?
What on Earth does any of this have to do with Puerto Rico?
You can't make this up!! Mr. White Guilt Mayor hires an terrible HT Director with a questionable past work record because hiring a brown, immigrant Muslim will make him feel good about himself....then the fired HR Director claims he was fired for being a brown, immigrant Muslim. Wouldn't it be fun to see the list of forced out employees and the amounts of severance pay they received to go away. Only in the three ring circus that is Allentown City Hall could you have a ridiculous outcome like this one. If you are a non-resident you can sit back and enjoy the fun, but Allentown residents are paying very high local property/EIT tax for embarrassing and incompetent government and its not very funny to them
This is what happens when you fill positions based on race, instead of by finding the most qualified person available, regardless of race.
City Hall owes it to its residents to fill every position with the most qualified candidate, not some predetermined racial quotas.
This is a shakedown, pure and simple. The city needs to fight this and countersue.
Until the city starts fighting back against these bogus charges of racism, it is inviting more people who are looking for a payout to do the same.
And if it continues to fill positions based on race, it also invites lawsuits for unfair hiring practices.
You mean the WFMZ interview where he admitted he resigned? Not exactly helping his case here, are you?
I don't have a problem with the white socks. I once testified in Court (CPS caseworker) during the summer and wore no socks. It was a look I was rocking in my 20's. My supervisor told me not to do it in Court again, so I didn't.
But man, this guy has so many gripes and knows everything about the inter-workings of City Hall in less than 2 months? C'mon.
Sure, I have my share of gripes with C&Y, but that's after a 20+ year career. On the flip side, I also understand, admire and empathize with the hard work that all My coworkers did and still do.
As that same supervisor told me back then too, she said, "You're a B player, not an A player". I was pissed at her comment and clapped back, "That's harsh. I want to be an A player!".
She then explained, "You don't understand. "A" players don't last. You'll "B" here when they're here, and you'll "B" here when they're gone". That comment always stuck to me.
Shahzad is obviously an "A" player.
The racists I knew as a kid, regularly made fun of black and Hispanic males who were stereotyped for white socks worn with dress pants and dress shoes. White guys who wore white socks for sports, never wore them without sneakers/tennis shoes, lest they be called a sp*c or the n-word. This post is a not-so-subtle racist aggression.
Tuerk is making O'Connell look like Fiorello Laguardia! Tuerk is the worst Mayor in the history of Allentown! He gets nothing done and everyone hates him. The police hate him too. All here cares about is going to Puerto Rico and Washington and cutting ribbons. He has no clue how to run anything.
Bernie,
So glad you are writing about this. What a strange story, especially since he was the
director of the one dept. that deals with employee issues. What happened?
Qualified or not, after listening to claims by Shawzad on the news about former city employees being paid off to sign NDAs, if confirmed, I am interested in the legality of making these payoffs without consent of city council. If true, where do these payments stand under the Sunshine Law?
It's true that non-union employees in Allentown are at-will, so they can be fired for any or no reason. BUT they still have the right to file a suit if they feel they were fired for discriminatory reasons under provisions of EEO.
Bernie:
Based upon you other articles about how difficult the Tuerk administration has made construction and development, it is obvious that he is incompetent and over his head in this job.
Based upon personal experience, I tend to believe this guy. Despite his poor employment record and despite his alleged lack of experience I do think that Mayor Tuerk deserves some blame in this situation. He has long been known to fly off the handle and confront people when it suits his ulterior motives. Perhaps in his attempt to check all the diversity boxes, he should also look at actual qualifications. That being said it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see when something is wrong in the way the city conducts business.
This is completely off topic, but could you report on the status of the former Martin Tower property? Just drove by there and it is eyesore! A jungle of weeds. City ordinances come down on residential property owners who let grass grow over 6". And yet this commercial property looks like it should the set for a prehistoric movie! What is the delay in its development?
"It's true that non-union employees in Allentown are at-will, so they can be fired for any or no reason. BUT they still have the right to file a suit if they feel they were fired for discriminatory reasons under provisions of EEO."
True, but he can be fired for wearing white socks with his suits. And let me guess. Tuerk, who raises the flag of every country 18 times a week, goes to Latin countries on his vacations so he can understand the culture, issues news releases in 13 languages and is obsessed with diversity and inclusion, is a closet racist. Goof luck with that!
The real problem is that Tuerk failed to check this guy out and was snowed by the obvious bullshit. City Council gets an F too, for failing to provide oversight. I understand they were anxious to get someone in there, but they need to look more cautiously at these appointments.
"The racists I knew as a kid, regularly made fun of black and Hispanic males who were stereotyped for white socks worn with dress pants and dress shoes. White guys who wore white socks for sports, never wore them without sneakers/tennis shoes, lest they be called a sp*c or the n-word. This post is a not-so-subtle racist aggression."
Lol. The persons I knew as a kid who wore suits with white socks were Frank Rizzo and Jimmy Hoffa.
If you think that was a short tenure, Lehigh County hired a HR director without running a background check. He was gone in about 2 weeks.
1:13- Who was that? When was that? What would the background check have revealed?
Correction- for prior post at 1:13, it was the risk manager position, not HR.
And where did white socks get Rizzo and Hoffa? That’s right dead! And they even tore Rizzo’s white-sock-wearing statue down.
For God’s sake people, can’t we all agree that in the modern world white socks and suits just don’t belong together? This seems like something that should unite us all!
;)
Hired without a background check? That seems like a tremendous HR failure.
Did the Lehigh County HR director get fired for failing to run a background check on a high-level hire?
If so, there’s a position open in Allentown…
Bring Back Pawlowski and Fleck!
Risk manager at the nursing home? Ironic risk manager position and no background check
White socks and a suit are wrong, but don't say anything about dudes wearing dresses. That would be wrong. Hypocrite.
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