Joe Kelly, Bethlehem's New DCED Czar

It's official. Assistant City Solicitor Joe Kelly is now Bethlehem's Director of Community and Economic Development. His appointment by Mayor John Callahan was unanimously approved by City Council during their January 4 meeting. "I've grown to trust him over the last seven years," explained Mayor Callahan. "He's hardworking, capable and I have great confidence in his ability to do the job."

Dave DiGiacinto, perhaps Callahan's harshest critic on City Council, echoed the Mayor's endorsement. After interviewing Kelly three times and speaking to other employees, DiGiacinto stressed that Kelly has already had some experience in economic development issues over his seven years as an Assistant City Solicitor. He added that the Mayor "has first dibs on picking his direct support, so to speak."

Karen Dolan voiced some concerns over the $89,868 salary. That amount was budgeted for Kelly's predecessor, Tony Hanna, who served as DCED Director over the last eleven years. Noting a "disparity in experience" between Kelly and Hanna, Dolan will introduce a resolution to reduce Kelly's salary by ten per cent.

Callahan, however, explained that he prefers to pay all department heads approximately the same salary. "We worked hard to get the department heads' salaries level." Callahan also pointed to Kelly's law degree, seven years of experience, and the $30,000 pay cut Kelly took when he first started working for the City.

If Kelly needs any pointers, Tony Hanna will only be a stone's throw away, as the new Executive Director of the Bethlehem Redevelopment Authority.

Kelly's position as Assistant City Solicitor will be filled by Christopher Cooper, a lawyer who had been working for the City as a paralegal. Cooper resides in Ambler, which bothered some Council members, but they still unanimously confirmed his appointment.

DCED Rejects Allentown Bondslayers

In a nineteen page Order and Opinion, The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development has rejected all but one count of a citizen challenge to a $35 million bond refinancing plan proposed by Allentown.

The claim that still survives, is focused on the useful lives of the projects being refunded. Under the The Local Government Unit Debt Act, a local government financing a new city hall or other project must be able to pay that debt while they are still being used. Their useful lives must outlast the time it takes to repay the bonds. The city's own bond ordinance indicates that the useful life of some projects, funded in 2003, is only between between five and twenty years. But rather than sustain the complaint, the DCED has given Allentown an opportunity to furnish any documentary evidence to show that the useful lives of these projects will outlast the debt repayment.

Mayor Pawlowski tells Morning Call reporter Paul Muschick that the necessary information has already been sent.

The fat lady may not be singing, but I hear her warming up.