Allentown's Hanky Panky Going On For Some Time

On December 19, 2013 I did a repost of an earlier article I'd done (on 03/08/2012) entitled Allentown's Waste To Energy Foolishness Part 1. There's no point going over everything I said again. If people are interested they can read it for themselves.

However in light of the recent questions surrounding the present investigation concerning Allentown contracts there's a few things I'd like to go back over.

If you will take a read of that prior post you will find someone who felt left out and commented on this very blog after his appeals to city council went largely unheard.


On February 14, 2012 'The Morning Call' reported, A bidder for Allentown's waste-to-energy plant says his company was overlooked The most salient points were.. (1) "Julio Guridy said the city's actions are not unusual — the administration usually only presents a single alternative to the council. "When the administration gets many different proposals, they're responsible for determining which one is the best for the city," he said"

(2) "Eichenwald questions whether CBES Global was given a fair shot. "Why was that other company not given an opportunity? Maybe because they didn't make any political contributions to the mayor," Eichenwald said.

Attorney Marcel Groen, the company's chief negotiator and a Montgomery County Democratic Party chairman, is a friend and political supporter of Pawlowski. Groen's law firm Fox Rothschild, which donated $6,500 to the mayor's campaign last year, has gotten more than $300,000 of work from the city in recent years."
In a earlier November 4, 2011 article in 'The Morning Call it was reported, "The plan dates to at least 2009, when Mayor Ed Pawlowski joined Delta Thermo principals, including friend and political supporter Marcel Groen, an attorney and Montgomery County Democratic Party chairman who has been the company's chief negotiator, to announce the project."

Now here's where things begin to get interesting. On November 10, 2014 'The Morning Call' further reported, "Groen is the attorney and a member of the executive board for Delta Thermo Energy...

One councilman has questioned whether Groen's presence gives the company an advantage during negotiations with the city, given Groen's personal and political relationships with Pawlowski and the fact that the city has paid his law firm more than $350,000 in legal fees since 2006 for work unrelated to the waste-to-energy project."

(That councilman was Michael Donovan)

Jarrette Renshaw further reported, "To help secure the federal funding, Delta Thermo hired KSA Consulting and paid the firm $22,250 to lobby Specter and other Washington, D.C., lawmakers, records show. The same lobbying firm was part of an investigation into earmarks secured by the late Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha."

As you might recall the late U.S. Representative "Was targeted by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington as one of the 20 most corrupt members of Congress." Even though he was never convicted "The FBI suspected that former Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) and lobbyists close to him were running a scheme to funnel earmarks to sham companies and nonprofits to benefit the lawmaker’s friends and former staffers." He died on February 8, 2010.


COMMENTARYSo ok here's the bottom line. I'm not accusing nor implying anything illegal was going on. That's for the Grand Jury & FBI to decide. What I am saying is this looks like a 'conflict of interests' amongst a whole bunch of players at the very least. Although the waste to energy plans fell through, these are the kind of things that trigger these kind of federal inquires.

There should be little wonder why we now find the city Allentown under investigation. Perhaps all this will be cleared up. Either way this whole mess could have been avoided if Allentown's dealings were dealt with in a far fairer and open way when these questions were raised. The WTE was only one aspect of what may or not be part of the current investigation. Nobody knows.

The important point is, lots of people questioned things both here in social media and in the papers for quite sometime. Not just myself. It's a damn shame it had to come to this.

If anyone has further interests in my previous extensive postings on this see..
Part 2
Part 3