Nazareth Mayor To Be Arraigned June 23

Nazareth Mayor Carl Strye, who has waived his preliminary hearing on charges of skimming $8,000 from gambling operations at the Vigilance Hose, is scheduled for arraignment on June 23.There is no doubt that he is going to apply for ARD, a special program for first-time. His resignation as Mayor should be required, especially since he has shown no remorse. He's in Indiana right now on what is at least his fifth trip since the beginning of the year.

Nazareth's Culture of Corruption

Strye at Myrtle Beach in March

Last week, Nazareth Mayor Carl Strye was charged with falsifying records and skimming $8,000 from Nazareth Vigilance Hose Co. when he was President there. This is something he admitted during Grand Jury testimony in January. He's hoping for ARD, a special program for first offenders. But he refuses to resign. Displaying no remorse, he has told reporters that he can still somehow supervise the police department and actually presents himself as a victim. He complains that the whole affair should have been handled "in house instead of at the courthouse." He points to overwhelming support from his Facebook pals. These sycophants include Council members and people like Main Street manager Stephanie Varrone, who has 20,000 reasons to like him. Outside this closed circle, people want Falsify Strye gone.

He's been ordered to stay away from the Vig, where he did his skimming. But for over a year, he's been spending more and more time at the the Holy Family Social Club, ingratiating himself with another social club that has had its share of gambling problems over the years. If you wanted something done, you could meet Falisify Strye there and buy him a few drinks. Want the cops to intervene in a dispute with your neighbor? I know for a fact that he has intervened in several police matters directly as a result of these visits.

He was holding court there as recently as last night.

"Bingo!" he cried as he managed to win.

Strye at Flyers

Now Strye does take care of Holy Family, too. Behind that social club is an alleyway. Beck Street, which extends about three blocks to nowhere. Strye made sure that a nice fresh coat of macadam was laid down last year, even though only one home actually faces this alley In the meantime, driving around the circle is like driving on a washboard.

On New Year's Eve, Falsfy Strye sat at the head table for that club's year-end celebration. He went to every table and handed each a bottle of champagne. "Compliments of the Borough of Nazareth," he'd say

Let's hope that he was just falsifyin', and that the Borough did not actually buy this booze.

I could ask Interim Secretary and Treasurer Glenn Steckman, but I'm hearing he's already flown the coop and is hoping to get picked up by Reading.

I won't run down whether Nazareth bought this booze, but do know there is a culture of corruption.

Since the beginning of this year, Strye has been on thee trips and to a Flyers' game.

"Thanks Reno for the ticket," he said on January 25 when he was at The Flyers' game. In early March, he flew to Kentucky, where he watched his granddaughter play in a volleyball tournament Later in the month, it was a three-day golf tournament at Myrtle Beach that also included Nazareth Public Works Director Bob Reimer. "Thank you Don B. And Joe Mac!" His latest trip, earlier this month, was to Las Vegas. He claimed that was for business.

Falsify Strye seems to regards the entire Borough of Nazareth as one gigantic social club. I'm surprised he hasn't set up poker machines in the circle. Borough Council is right there with him. Last October, they voted unanimously to apply for a $52,900 gaming grant from Monroe County for improvements at the American Legion. That's where Larry Sroudt, a Council member, works as a bartender. That club is routinely hit with gambling violations. In fact, Stoudt was himself placed on ARD for interfering with a state gambling investigation aimed at social clubs. They effectively voted to subsidize an illegal gambling operation with money from Mount Airy Lodge, a legal operation.

There was no attempt to seek money for its police or fire operations.

Speaking of police, "Commissioner" Randy Miller was brought in to make life miserable for cops who are actually interested in enforcing the law evenly. In July, he pushed for and got retired Bethlehem cop Joseph Gross, who acted as his IA guy in Bethlehem. This is the guy who tickets people at Mass, engages in 70 mph chases through borough streets and fails to respond to back up requests when shots are fired. .

In addition to failing to respond as a back up when someone exercised his second amendment rights against hermit crabs, he also failed to respond when Officer Kyle Stout [no relation to Larry Stoudt] encountered a man who was exercising his second amendment right to throw a M-80 at someone's home. Stout was punched in the jaw and forced to use pepper spray to subdue his assailant. Back up Gross didn't show up until Stout was handcuffing the assailant.

Gross tells other cops that he will be Nazareth's next chief when Randy Miller goes to Emmaus, where he expects to take over

In the meantime, Officer Stout is leaving Nazareth for Wilson Borough. Police Officers who know they have to work with Gross call off.

Gross, incidentally, has applied to join Nazareth's social clubs.

This is just some of what I'd call a culture of corruption in Nazareth. This is without looking at the strange relationship between the borough and its money-making ambulance company or its sewer authority. Those are separate stories.

Pawlowski to NBC 10: I Have No Intention of Resigning

After a groundbreaking for the new Butz Corporate Center at 9th and Hamilton yesterday, Allentown Mayor Edwin Pawlowski told NBC-10's Doug Shimell that he has "no intention of resigning," and that "we got great things going on in the City of Allentown. Like a deepening FBI investigation in which his right-hand man, political and business consultant Miked Fleck, wore a wire for 90 days.

An FBI search warrant and subpoena, published in The Morning Call, makes one wonder exactly what these "great things" are. It's pretty clear that a federal grand jury is looking at NIZ contractors who have ties to Pawlowski and other elected officials. The revelation that Mike Fleck was Miked Fleck for 90 days is bound to dampen enthusiasm as long as Mayor Pawlowski remains at the helm. If he really had the regard for the City that he claims to have, he should step aside.

Another reason why Pawlowski and others should be concerned can be summed up in two words - Scott Curtis. He is the FBI agent whose name appears on the federal documents, and that's a bad sign for anyone who thinks this is just a passing shower.

Curtis is a hard-charging mob buster who is reported to have virtually destroyed the Colombo crime family in NYC. Over a decade, he participated in the arrest of over 100 mobsters. Even more interestingly, he flipped about a dozen of them, just as Fleck was obviously flipped.

The FBI has brought their A game.

Source: Flipped Fleck Was Wired For 90 Days

By now, many of you have seen The Morning Call story citing anonymous sources to report that former political consultant Michael Fleck secretly recorded conversations in what increasingly appears to be a pay-to-play investigation. Ironically, I heard a similar story yesterday from a law enforcement source with ties to the Allentown office of the FBI. I was told a few things I don't see in The Morning Call story, and their story reveals a few things I had not heard.

What Morning Call Sources Say

From The Morning Call story, we know that they are relying on anonymous sources (that's plural). I have just one. Their sources say that Fleck recorded meetings with his customers and with Mayor Edwin Pawlowski.

What My Source Says

• Fleck was wired for 90 days.
• He recorded conversations for at least 30 fund raisers and over 100 meetings.
• They have many hours of taped conversation. 
• They know where he is in Georgia, and it's within spitting distance of a field office.

When I first head this story,  my question was whether I could rely on just one source. After discussing it with Michael Molovinsky, I decided to go ahead with it and just make sure you were aware I was relying on just one source. Then the Morning Call story appeared. I realized what is going on. The only reason The Morning Call or I have this story is because the FBI want us to have it.

They are shaking the trees to see if any ripe apples fall.

This also tells me three things about their case. First, it is very much a pay-to-play investigation, and is looking into Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski and Reading Mayor Spencer Vaughn. Second, the FBI insisted that Fleck wear a wire because recordings will corroborate what he says when he testifies. Finally, by using a bad guy to get other bad guys, they are possibly setting up a defense of entrapment for some targets.

The Ruchlewicz connection

I also learned yesterday that in April, feds were visiting neighbors of Sam Ruchlewicz, a Fleck partner at his business consulting firm. His Twitter account states, "Government, Politics, Business -- They all meet with me."

That might be one of his problems.

You see, in addition to acting as a political consultant for candidates seeking elected office, Fleck also acted as a "consultant" for private businesses seeking an inside track with the very people that Fleck would help elect.

Though there is no law barring this practice, Common Cause Pa Exec Director Barry Kauffman warned that it invites mischief.

"What you have to be cautious about, in this case the campaign manager is obviously a very influential person. ... The mayor needs to be cautious the campaign manager doesn't try to influence public policy decisions and serve as a conduit for major businesses who end up being campaign donors."

Fleck told The Morning Call that he keeps his business and political consulting in two different worlds, a point that was confirmed by Mayor Edwin Pawlowski.

But a campaign finance report filed by the Citizens For a Greater Reading PAC.tells a completely different story.

First, it was filed by Ruchlewicz, who was supposed to be in the business, and not political, consulting world.

Second, the $33,260 in contributions include people with no connection to Reading. Why would Sean Kilkenny, who is running for Sheriff in Montgomery County, donate $5,000 to a reading-based PAC? Why would Abe Atiyeh, who had hired Fleck and Ruchlewicz as business consultants, donate $2,000 to a reading PAC?

Third, business consultant Ruchlewicz walked away with $1,200. Fleck's H Street Strategies' take was $10,000, nearly a third of the money contributed.

Major businesses with City and NIZ contracts have been big campaign contributors. J.B. Reilly, Sean Boyle and Abe Atiyeh bankrolled a Pawlowski and Fleck inspired effort to get rid of Mayor Ed Hozza in Allentown,

The business and political consulting obviously merged.

Let's Raise Some Caine About Kane

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane is on a roll. She's lost her third press secretary in a little over a year, as a media frenzy has erupted over her decision to kill on investigation into four state representatives and a district judge who have either been bribed or accepted gifts that never showed up on their statements of financial interest. As she put it herself, “I believe that we have evidence that certain legislators were taking money, and that’s a crime.”

Instead of going after corrupt politicians that she herself believes are criminals, she's attacking investigators with charges of racism (though the lead prosecutor is black) and hurls the sexist card at anyone challenging her decision. The state's highest lawyer has even hired hotshot Richard Sprague to threaten reporters with defamation lawsuits.

It's not working. Philadelphia DA Seth Williams, a fellow Democrat, has ripped into her over her handling of a sting investigation that netted five crooked pols. Tom Wolf, the leading Democratic contender in the Governor's race, has said she was "wrong" to just drop this inquiry.

If Kane is unwilling to prosecute for whatever reason, be it bad or good, the state legislature should. As Will Bunch observes, "The four lawmakers accused of taking money from the so-called lobbyist Tyron Ali need to be investigated by their House colleagues, and, if necessary, expelled. Then lawmakers need to pass the nation's toughest ban on all gifts to elected officials. if they can't do those things, they should ALL be voted out." So for, the good ol' boys in the land of midnight payraises seem unlikely to do anything at all, although the state senate is going through the motions.

In the meantime, Kane's investigation into Corbett's investigation of the Sandusky scandal, has dragged on for 15 months.

A "Progressive" Defense of Public Corruption

NYC Blogger Jonathan Geeting considers himself an expert on ... well ... everything. He particularly loves to see public money thrown at cities (he calls them urban cores) even if it's taken from other cities and old boroughs without any kind of prior notice. I'm not going to get into that debate, but instead want to point to his defense of public corruption, so long as it's "progressive."

It started the other day, when I criticized the nominees to Allentown's NIZ Board, suggesting that a few of them will use their positions to make themselves even richer. Geeting asked, "So what would be an example of something that a person on the ACIDA board could do to enrich themselves that would not also be good for Allentown?"

Incredibly, he actually argues that the use of public power for personal enrichment is justified so long as it also enriches the "urban core."

He follows that up with this question on his own blog, which he calls a "challenge" for NIZ critics. "Can you come up with an example of a development project that would make an individual Board member filthy rich but have no net benefit whatsoever for the city of Allentown?"

Public corruption is never justified even if it might incidentally benefit Allentown, too.

Corruption: The Inevitable Result of Machine Politics

They're crackin' more than coal up in Luzerne and Lackawanna Counties.