The council meeting was exactly what should have been expected-Council disagreeing with themselves, Frank trying to justify the mayor's expenses without knowing if his own data is correct or even fact based, the mayor absent (probably booking his next trip), and of course Napoli nervously trying to figure out how to squash the bill and discussion.
I would have to give Mota an 8/10, Affa an 8/10, and Binder a solid “meh.” Napoli easily receives a 1/10.
The resolution was introduced to audit all of the mayor’s travel expenses. What was lost here tonight is that the mayor is not above any rules just because of his position. In fact, he should be following the rules to the letter since he is responsible for their implementation and execution. The weak justification that Frank Kane tried to use to justify the mayor's travels is that it represents a small portion of the city budget. Almost like saying "so what?!? Who cares?" Sorry, a mismanaged penny is still mismanaged public funds and officials should be held accountable. Second, he stated the mayor is "boring" and only bought a candy bar and that the money was within the budget. The question isn't whether there is money in the budget. The question is what is the city getting for this trip?
Why does the mayor continue to tap dance around his travels. Where are the travel reports?
Here’s my take on Managing Director Frank Kane’s defense:
Frank kicked things off by bragging about the mayor’s heavy social media presence and how he spends his days doing community outreach through his online activities.
He even claimed that if you buy a house in the city, the mayor personally knocks on your door to welcome you. (If he knocked on mine, I’d sic the dog on him).
496 homes were sold in April 2026 and he was out of Allentown for 2 weeks. I doubt he knocked on all doors...most likely only registered Democrats, if any. Please correct me- if you recently moved to Allentown and the Mayor knocked on your door to personally welcome you, add a comment below.
Frank tried to tie all this travel to the mayor’s “outreach,” but traveling has nothing to do with getting tattoos or running marathons in other cities.
He told people not to believe everything in the “blogosphere” (pretty sure he meant AllentownTruth).
Frank admitted the mayor only spent about $5,000 on travel in 2022, but he refused to give numbers for 2023, 2024, 2025, or this year.
Again, he wasn't sure of his own data.
He highlighted the mayor meeting Buttigieg (grabbing him by the lapels and what sounded like just may have kissed him to get a grant) and attending the Conference of Mayors, where he gets to be in a room with “real mayors.”
Frank insisted all this travel brings in tens of millions in grants for the city. Yet when pressed, he couldn’t point to any specific new ideas the mayor has brought back and actually implemented. If the mayor is single-handedly pulling in that kind of money, why are we still seeing tax increases? The connection feels unprovable.
Why doesn’t the mayor go to auditors’ conferences instead? Those are probably free.
Although I highly doubt the Spain trip cost zero dollars to the city. Not saying that the mayor hasn't attended conferences for free, but I do not think Bloomberg paid for all attendees at its recent global conference in Madrid. Frank claims it was free - we shall see when the receipts are finally found and verified.
Frank seemed very defensive about the idea of an outside firm doing a proper audit and that leads me to be suspicious of his intentions.
Bottom line: The mayor rarely reports back on what he actually accomplishes on these trips. It’s mostly nonsense.
Frank’s numbers sounded wildly inflated. If the mayor was truly bringing back millions thanks to his travel and networking, he’d be bragging about it nonstop. If we know anything about Matt Tuerk it is that he loves to see himself on camera and truly loves to brag about his favorite subject -- himself.
Council seems to be behind on this legislation. It is 2026 and they are only now deciding that mayors, council members, and others should have to report what they actually do on taxpayer-funded trips? I bet the policy already exists and no one enforces it. That’s wild.
On a personal note, I gotta say Frank you seriously remind me of a sleezy used car salesman. Not just any salesman, one from New Jersey.
.png)
35 comments:
I never heard so much bullshit come out of someones mouth. Kane and Mayor are going to try and coverup this up. Funny no one on city side ever has any answers. Bunch of losers. Fyi no fucking way the mayor brings millions into the city.
Outstanding reporting...this City Manager guy sounds like a sleazy politician who can't be trusted by the public. If his job is going to be to provide cover and excuses for the Mayors abuses of public funds, I would then question his credentials and qualifications to manage a municipality of 120,000. I'm now interested in what his specific qualifications are and what type of municipal management experience he has to qualify for such an important position at such a high salary. An outside audit is the only way the tax payers can get a report that they can trust on Tuerk's abuse of public funds for personal expenses. I'd be willing to bet that the registration fees for the Madrid junket were paid for by a grant or a stipend, but unless Tuerk paid for his own airfare, lodging and meals, these costs would be incurred by the public which is abuse of public funds.
Allentown, you got suckered once again. As far as I can tell, the City Manager [$135,000 + benefits] has never managed a municipality. He looks like your run of the mill government bureaucrat with political connections who is probably hoping for a second lucrative pension at the expense of the suckers. I hate to ridicule the city, but they just keep losing.
The majority population of Allentown now is either
1. Uninformed, or simply too old to care about mismanagement in this city.
2. Heavily dependent of government-provided free benefits that cover most every basic need they have.
Those in Group 2 above simply go along with poor government officials’ performance and look the other way so as not to jeopardize what free benefits they already have in hand. This group is unconcerned about fiscal responsibility that, in the end, would help every Allentown resident.
Look around America these days. Dozens of cities have similarly destroyed themselves by turning the future over to Group 2 beneficiaries.
Thank you for reporting on this, I have yet to see any coverage of this from our local media. One would think an agenda item to audit of the mayor's extensive travel spending might have sparked interest. Think again. Of course our local media as a long history of ignoring rumors and even evidence of possible abuses and corruption on the part of Allentown's controlling party official's. Through this disregard the media as acted as a facilitator of corruption rather than as a guardian against it. This dynamic explains a lot.
This is like the Curtis Investigation, "we have nothing to hide, but you can't see the results." Kane your a bum.
Just a heads up here.
Yesterday, the Los Angeles, CA City Council voted 14-0 to prohibit all further traffic stops by Los Angeles Police. This is not a joke, look it up.
Tuerk will jump all over this idea!
Good way to save money eliminating unnecessary cabinet level trips !! To many costly trips with nothing to show for it !
Even Josh Siegel didn’t want him. Let that sink in - Matt brought him in to be the slimy used car salesman type who gets to look like a court jester in council.
He actually sat there and said that he knows there is nothing based on his numbers. Then said he doesn’t trust his numbers.
I guess I should give him a little grace because he is new and he couldn’t go to finance because Patel never has answers.
From the WFMZ article today: "Kane said the city benefits from having a proactive mayor who is quite possibly the city’s biggest fan." Tuerk is proactive?? a fan of the City??? No way??? So let's see he gets $100,000 per year salary plus health care and pension benefits for essentially a part time job, he gets a free car of his choice to drive around in 24/7 and he gets paid travel, lodging and meals for junkets all over the US and now Europe.
It makes perfect sense, maybe this city manager is smart after all.
I agree. Frank is full of hot air and will be a yes man for the Mayor. Sickening!
If Bloomberg is paying for the trip, it's even worse. You just don't get to pocket cash and trips as an elected official.
If Bloomberg is paying for it, it still has to be approved by council.
The money also has to be paid to the city; the budget has to be amended by council to accept it; and council also has to amend the budget and approve the expenditure.
If Bloomberg is making payment to Tuerk (or paying for the trip directly) outside of that process, they are buying something (in this case, our mayor).
People go to jail for this kind of thing. You would think that with the recent history at City Hall they'd beware of anything like this.
Council had better act immediately, to both appropriately sanction the Mayor and refer the matter to the District Attorney. Otherwise, they are complicit in the crime and should be charged accordingly when the FBI revisits Allentown.
I hope someone investigates this. Your points are valid. As far as Frank. Maybe he shouldnt speak so much. Someone said there were over 400 houses sold. Frank said the mayor goes to each one and welcomes them. Yea okay. He's away on trips most of the time. I hardly think he spends his whole day going door to door.
Being "good" at social media is like being good at buttering toast. The whole idea behind social media was to put training wheels on the Internet so that the low IQ people could play along. And then these low IQ people use social media as "proof" that they can do marketable skills. Then they run for office and become electeds. Then they live the remainder of their days dreaming up ways to achieve higher and higher elected positions so that they can live even more large off of the taxpayer. They virtue signal by saying they are "serving the public" which is as intellectually dishonest as saying that being good at social media is an actual skill. It's all about the grift.
And speaking of grift. Binder will not say boo about the Mayor's grift if he knows what's good for him. The machine that produced/funded JeremyForAllentown will cancel the meal ticket if he shits on one of the chosen.
What did I say. Napoli signed onto the Resolution but then sent it to a committee where it will die. Therefore, he didn't have to vote against the Mayor.
This city manager is a low IQ flunky just like Tuerk.
For sure. Napoli is a con just like the temporary occupant of the mayor’s office. What is sad is that Binder and Pungo appear to be passing their corruption exams and moving more towards Napoli and Tuerk’s shady ways.
Jeremy's wife is the head of Ripple Communities, I believe her NGO has received city funds and hopes to get more. Can you say "short hairs". Jeremy is de-facto Matt's boy.
If the controller is as sick as has been reported, he should step down. He is just wasting more tax payer dollars. Why should we taxpayers pay for yet another person to do nothing?
I just watched the video from last night. A joke! Kane is a sleaze and Napoli and he were obviously in cahoots. He tried to give Kane the first words violating the order of comments. To me that showed collusion between the council president and the Administration. They wanted to squash the bill immediately and move on. Unfortunately we had to listen to Kane’s 3rd grade research project presentation.
Also, Frank better join “sleaze bag on phonics” or something. He at times said things about the mayor that could be incriminating. What exactly is he doing or promising at these conferences and in exchange for what? Quid Pro Quo took down one mayor and Managing Director in Allentown already.
Don't give the Toothless Twinkle Toes Tuerk any ideas
If honest abe or his readership has an attention span longer than 5 minutes and an average intelligence, and can give up 45 minutes of unbiased listening, there is an interview with the mayor on bloomberg.com that was done in Madrid and Allentown's potential in manufacturing. Tuerk validates why he is out there promoting Allentown.
Thanks Matt
Kane is not able.
No problem, honest abe.
Let me explain to my low IQ readers and myself my unbiased, yet 100% truthful observation of last night once again. I pointed out the city and its rep werent prepared (as always), didnt trust themselves and stated that (opps), they wouldn't give up the numbers and info they had(suspicious). They also gave out false info that the mayor personally goes to every new home owner in the city and welcomes them. (Yea visited over 400 homes???)Funny, I have two friends that bought a home and they both stated Hermano Tuerk never came. Also stated the mayor brings in millions of dollars to the city yet, couldnt substantiate any of that. (Also explain why there was a tax increase if he brings in all this money?) And me and my readers have the low IQ?
9:19 - So you’re claiming that the video promoting manufacturing i. Allentown had to be made in Madrid? That doesn’t pass the smell test.
Low IQ? possibly. But isn’t it amazing even “low IQ” people can clearly see that Matt Tuerk and Frank Kane are frauds and smell their bullshit a hundred miles away?
The controller does more for Allentown than most of the cabinet. Shahda can’t seem to clear streets or repair roads, his basic duties. Kistler is busy stuffing money into pockets of businesses and individuals through administration of grants and favors.
The controller is a far better and HONEST person at his job than these people.
As always I value Freedom of Speech, but Please refrain from making comments at government officials spouses. Family is off limits unless its relative to something being discussed. I understand some of your frustrations but lets be a little tactful.
Who made a comment about a government official’s spouse? The only one I saw was one that mentioned Binder’s wife, and that one shouldn’t be off limits.
When you run a non-profit that accepts government funding, and especially if part of that government funding comes from or is funneled through a municipality where your spouse is an elected official, you don’t get a pass. In fact, you are then a quasi government official yourself and you have an obligation to answer to the public.
There was a very low brow and unprofessional comment about the readers of this blog and their spouse is cheating with Latin men, and then a follow up comment about a spouse being a lesbian, or implying. They were a lesbian. Good on Abe for stopping that kind of evil discourse.
I agree that any comments for public and nonprofit officials should not be censored or removed.
If Kistler is obviously doing this which we know is true why isn't the Controller asking for an audit? Oh that's right Jeff you don't do audits.
The haterz on this blog are cucks, cucks who prefer afro latino BBC from the countries of Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Cuba! Viva carne del Negro!
According to openthebooks.com quite a bit of taxpayer and grant money has been sent to Ripple since 2021. No wonder Jeremy was brought to Council—bought and paid for by Tuerk’s general fund checkbook. Then Tuerk nominated his wife to be on a board? I am sure there is nothing to see there at all.
Post a Comment