Allentown City Council votes to sue mayor to stop ‘obstruction’ of investigation | Lehigh Valley Regional News

ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Allentown City Council voted 6-1 Wednesday to expend up to $20,000 to hire counsel to take legal action against Mayor Matt Tuerk to enforce an agreement and stop what it describes as obstruction of an investigation into the administration.

Council Vice President Santo Napoli cast the dissenting vote, citing a concern about the taxpayers footing the bill for the investigation.

On June 5, council voted to hire a former FBI investigator Scott Curtis to investigate alleged discrimination at city hall.

Curtis previously worked for the FBI to conduct the pay-to-play investigation that resulted in a jail sentence for then-Mayor Ed Pawlowski.

But since that time, Tuerk notified council that he declared the contract with Curtis to be void because he believes City Council did not follow the procurement law properly when hiring Curtis for $300,000.

Tuerk claimed that the request-for-proposal process, normally used to hire outside services, was ignored.

Tuerk did not attend the council meeting on Wednesday night.

Last year, council adopted an ordinance to authorize an investigation for the purpose of examining procedures related to hiring, terminations and discipline of employees.

That action was an outcome of public comments by members of the city’s NAACP branch, alleging discrimination and harassment against city employees.

Councilmember Ed Zucal said on Wednesday that he wanted it made clear to the public that the investigation is ongoing and has not stopped because of Tuerk’s action.

“Mr. Curtis has indicated that his interest is in the city’s interest and the employees’ interest,” Zucal said. “He will deal with getting his money at a later date.”

Napoli said he was never satisfied with the process that was followed.

“I know we all agreed. We wanted this investigating to continue, included me,” Napoli said. “I did raise concerns with. Obviously, I wasn’t happy with our process. I think it set a bad precedent.”

“I just really worry about the taxpayer,” Napoli said. “I mean, we spent $300,000 in a way where I think they deserve better.

“And I’m going to continue staying on the side of the taxpayer,” he continued. “I just believe that $20,000 is not near enough, and it’s going to be more. I’m just calling it right now.”

Meanwhile, most of the six other councilmembers who voted “yes” to sue the mayor said they don’t want to go to court, but at this point, they feel there’s no other option.

“I don’t want to go to court,” Councilmember Ce-Ce Gerlach said. “But we’ve got to go to court because we said we were doing an investigation. There’s been some serious allegations made. We’ve got to investigate those.”

“The fact of the matter is I don’t really want to go to court,” Council President Cynthia Mota said. “Because I am concerned about the taxpayers, you know, they don’t deserve this. But the reality is there’s some allegations that we did something wrong. And we did not. We followed our rules, our charter.”

“I do not wish for us to go to court,” Councilmember Daryl Hendricks said. “However, we are left without an option. We don’t have an option.”

Hendricks added that he still has hope the mayor and City Council can work together to move forward the investigation process without going before a judge.

Councilmember Candida Affa said she found it confusing that when council hired Curtis, representatives of the administration said the they were in favor of the investigation.

“And now there’s a roadblock, and I, like all of my colleagues, feel the same way; nobody wants to go to court,” Affa said. “I don’t even like the headlines. All of that is just a black eye on the city of Allentown.”

“I apologize to you guys (taxpayers) that we have to take this to court because we don’t want to spend the taxpayer’s money,” she said.

City resident Patrick Palmer criticized Tuerk for not showing up to Wednesday’s meeting.

“I was going to make some statements, but somebody didn’t show up, so I guess I can’t make those so that I don’t look like a coward,” Palmer said. “This was voted on in front of someone, and then they took it upon themselves afterwards to start making this a situation.”

“This is something where it goes to the point of if you have nothing to hide, why are you fighting it?” he continued.

“So, this isn’t on you guys if this ends up going to court,” he added. “The onus isn’t on you; the onus is on the individual who wasn’t even here to defend himself. So really think about it, and make sure that you do everything in your power to make sure that this investigation continues.”

Palmer went on to say that council owes it to the taxpayers to continue with legal action because of the individuals who worked for the city who had to file discrimination cases.

Barbara Redmond, representing the Allentown NAACP, said the issue has gone on too long and that council needs to allow the investigation to continue.

“We need to move forward with this and stop playing games,” Redmond said. “If the administration is doing their job and they didn’t get involved in any kind of discrimination or anything like that, then there’s nothing (for them) to worry about. Move the investigation on.”

The mayor’s office responded to Wednesday’s vote in a statement to 69 News that said the matter does not have to go to court. There is another option on the table, the office said, and it is asking City Council to “start the process over and do it the right way.”