The meeting started with the City Solicitor’s office. I believe the person that presented the budget was the part-time city solicitor, Jack Gross from Gross McGinley. He typically shows to council once a year to present the budget. The solicitor pointed out that they “do more, with less” and need more people but they won’t be asking for any positions this next year. It is quite interesting to me that the Solicitor likes to point out that they bring most cases in-house but that is simply untrue. Most of the hard work is done by outside counsel. We can take a look at any of the new articles from the newspapers or WFMZ reporting and there is always an outside attorney handling cases against the Police, the city administration and the mayor. The city solicitor’s office really doesn’t handle the case workload they claim. This is one department that is overfunded and a waste to the taxpayers. The solicitor’s office could be minimized to a single attorney (who isn’t busy being an attorney for other municipalities and running his own business) and two paralegals.
The solicitor mentioned that Right to Know requests are “growing at an enormous rate,” but the figures given were 1,300 three years ago versus 1,900+ now, about 46%. Another misspoken and misstated figure using the same tactics. They are not growing at an enormous rate.
I found it interesting that it was mentioned that affirmative litigation was something the legal office “has prioritized this year,” then “just can’t be a priority” a minute later. Funny. Use notes and don't wing it next time.
Overall the Solicitor presentation was following the same script that the city administration has given to all Directors this year “doing more with less”, “we were cut by a lot”, “we need more people”, “we need to invest next year in technology and people”.
Onward to the clearly dysfunctional Human Resources Department and the Director clearly illustrated that as well. WOW! The HR Director appeared unfamiliar with key budget details and could not answer several questions from Council. This director looks and acts as absent minded as Belle from Beauty and the Beasts father.
I say with profound embarrassment that this is the person Matt Tuerk chose to be his Human Resources director after 3 years of searching.
The man was lost and had no idea what the hell was going on. His presentation wavered between incoherence and spin. Sadly, he is indicative of all the Directors in the city.
He is asking for $38,000 for training but couldn’t find it in the budget and spent a large amount of time looking for the expenditure. It seemed the two account numbers and the amount being presented was incorrect, but Councilperson Binder seemed to give up asking the question because the HR Director couldn’t answer. Then the Director stated that he didn’t remember writing the narrative section. So, I guess as Director you also don’t review and familiarize yourself with documents going to the council and public? I mean the budget schedule has been available for months and it seemed that he just opened the budget book today. Maybe if he wasn’t always “working from home” he would be able to put more efforts into his duties.
They pivoted to a discussion about DEI. Director Velazquez seemed to not even realize he had a DEI person or that their title changed to People and Culture. He originally started talking as if the position was eliminated and then a squeak from the background saved him and advised that the position changed to People and Culture last year and that they will now be known with the 2027 budget as People and Culture Manager – a manager of program, not people. Excuse me but aren’t DEI/People and Culture personnel interacting with people anymore? Has it become another waste of taxpayer dollars with a fancy title but no tangible or proven results? My sources tell me that the person in this role, though a gifted saleswoman and spinner of the facts, really does nothing for the city. None of her reports to the mayor have resulted in any changes. The training that she was supposed to do was sporadic and mostly have been failures. Another position that should be cut completely!
They briefly discussed a training schedule. Cultural humility training was described as starting, then as “maybe next year.” It seems to me that the HR department, like the Solicitors office, has a lot of talk about “what will be done” but the same bullshit is brought up year after year and council falls for it. Now they need a Learning Management System to provide training to employees because it is “just too much to manage”. Strangely, I remember there being a Training Coordinator in Human Resources. Are they doing anything or also looking crazy and doing nothing?
The director had no evidence or numbers. He talked in circles and was unable to answer or justify anything in his budget. He is giving me classic Charleton and salesman vibes but that could be mistaken for inexperience and incompetence as well. I really hope that council sees the city management as inexperienced and not serving the city well at all.
My favorite moment of the night is when council brought up the Tuition Audit where city employees were being overpaid by the HR department for tuition and they had no controls in place. They were not even following their own policy and procedures. The HR Director claimed that he wasn’t aware of this audit and it was before his time. The controller pointed out that the report was just completed in 2026 and he was the director at the time. Seriously man – memory supplements are readily available as well as good old-fashioned notebooks and pens.
Next up was the Risk Manager presenting the medical costs for the city. Other than a push to get staff promoted and a new position, she didn’t offer much. I don’t quite understand how a new position and a promotion are needed? If it is two-person job requirement, why does one have to be promoted? Keep them both at the same grade --- theoretically the work will be cut in half and a needed promotion for the person currently in the role doesn’t pass the commonsense test. The Risk Manager said they need help with the “paperwork flow” and it requires two people. She seemed unprepared and out of her element trying to talk about the department. The healthcare costs are going up 11% but they only budgeted for 5%...where does she expect to cover the additional 6%? Is there already a plan to ask for $6.5 million more for healthcare next year? She stated employees pay 25% of the premium but finance presented 5-10%, which is it? She also didn’t know the cost per person and that amount has been stated many times in many meetings, including the one where she asked for $6.5 million for healthcare about a month ago! I don’t think she knows what she is doing….seriously.
She confused the hell out of me with the accident claims. They put more money in the budget for driver training? Doesn’t the city already put most employees through driver training? They cover CDL costs, Fire and Police have very stringent training for drivers. Then 20 seconds later she said it was free from the broker. Did she budget for something that is free? The same thing happened with the Stop Loss question. She stated that Stop Loss premium went up “a lot” and then talked about the attachment point amount (the amount the city is responsible for before stop loss kicks in) and obviously confused the two or didn't understand the stop loss insurance works. Jusy another manager that was not prepared or aware of the operations of their department.
And you will see that is a common theme in these budget reviews.
IT was next and I enjoyed this presentation. The director was to the point. Pointed out that the administration cut him and the cuts do not make sense. They cut the InnerGov software move to the cloud putting the city at a disadvantage and no support from the software. Clearly a Bina Patel move. She loves to decide for Directors what they need and what they will be doing each year. I appreciate his candor and direct talks about how the administration is making decisions that are not making sense right now from an IT standpoint. The sad thing is that no one will remember his warnings and will blame him later for not speaking up. An interesting fact, it costs $2200 - $6000 per person to set up a new employee. Each year what that figure is for the budget year. How much has Matt Tuerk cost the city by increasing the workforce and how much has turnover cost the city? I am sure it is an interesting number.
The controllers office can be summed up as the following: We need a part-time to full-time position. Finance didn’t let us put together our own budget and they haphazardly wrote our budget and didn’t let us make any changes. We want our money back. Bina is ridiculous and should know better – READ the HOME RULE CHARTER, Bina!
It was amazing that the Controller read the Charter to all in the room so that there was no question about what she would be adhering to it going forward. How is it that the city has a finance department, but I continually hear that the controller finds uncollected money during an audit? Then when the department is pressed for the failure to collect debt they say “we don’t have enough staff”.
It then turned into a long discussion about nothing with Jackie Moore. I took a run around the block, came back and she was still talking about herself. What a mess – someone should have cut her microphone. She was presenting an end of career review and not a budget. She spent a lot of time self-promoting.
It was also discovered during the presentation that the Controller’s office was left out of meetings and ended up going to a conference to learn how to pull reports in the new system…meanwhile the Finance department had subject matter experts available and Bina left out the Controller on the initial discussions that discussed needs and capabilities. Are we surprised Bina messed up yet again?
They did have issues bringing up all presentations tonight and it was funny to hear the IT director say to an open mic “I know what the problem is but I can’t fix it right now”.
The Mayor’s office…..insert comedy relief now. If you are still reading this post – we saved the best for last. HR, Risk, and the Solicitor’s office were entertaining but the Mayor’s budget, presented by Allentown Mayor Frank Kane was an utter trainwreck.
The mayor’s office has mentioned the same things as “next year” every budget year. How long can they possibly talk about initiatives like strengthening communications, making government more accessible, CRM system (talked about for 5 years), the language access plan to city services and continue to do nothing? It is year after year and they can't even deliver on the providing language options for our diverse staff (hello DEI Manager!) Arabic? Nothing. Vietnamese? Not a chance. Pashto? Not yet. Spanish? Hooked on Phonics level from the mayor because he thinks he can speak Spanish. My guess is that Michaela Boyer was the Project Manager on this one but dropped the ball once again.
Then on to the Manager of Civics of Innovations Dept. There is only one program that is running out of this department and it is $21,000! Seriously? That is the Love Your Block grant and Mayor Frank had no idea what the Love Your Block Initiative was and had to have another person explain. Interestingly, it was not the actual manager, Michaela Boyer from what I am being told. Was she campaigning for Hunter tonight and not able to attend, or was she painting a porch or a mural at La Placita?
Councilman Binder asked a pointed question – why the budget of personnel and non-grant money of $161,000 for a $21,000 grant being presented? Seems like a LOT of overhead. Seems to me like you could add the duties to another mayor staff member and save $161,000 and move that to the shortfalls in IT.
Innovative Prototypes – What are they? Frank doesn’t know. He had no clue, and no one could explain these Mayor Tuerk buzzwords. He said “these are the mayor’s key initiatives” like going out in the neighborhood. Great! You are here presenting the budget on his behalf — shouldn't you know Frank?
The Civic Innovations department is suddenly external, and the DEI/People and Culture is internal and not external. Yet no one told the DEI/People and Culture Manager because she mentioned that she is internal and external just 30 minutes prior. Someone needs to update her or tell Ms. Boyer she is doing someone else’s job. Seems she is doing the Constituent Services Manager and portion of the DEI/People and Culture Manager duties.
Based on the presentation, I did not see any evidence that the position is producing results that justify its cost---not in the least bit.
This is where they wanted to move offline to discuss because it was embarrassing for the mayor’s office. Why don’t we have a public meeting and let the manager explain what accomplishments have occurred in all her positions?
Council’s budget was boring and lean. Quick and to the point with a large savings to the taxpayers. Of course, the FOP DROP suit requires additional money for legal services. If I was council I would welcome this expense because the FOP is stupid to sue the council and not the mayor for jumping the gun and agreeing to and signing an MOU authorizing the DROP by evading and avoiding procedure.
They brought forward legislation to renew the Cable Franchise contract. The attorney mentioned no issues with any of the vendors (RCN, Verizon, and SecTV) and this is standard. Council brought up concerns with the administration and thoughts on how to make it better. Mayor Verizon Frank didn’t know that the agreement hadn’t been renewed for six years. So, the contract is so good that no one even knew it expired? See my critique of the solicitor’s office above. Temu Attorney Rosenberger said that council can't table because it would require discussion with the vendors again. Uhm? Good. Do your job loser!
CED Budget.
Mostly boring and there is a lot of tap dancing. Another straightforward budget with no upgrades and no new positions along with a strict adherence to the ten percent reduction. Don’t worry – Vicky Kistler is very skilled at being evasive and not presenting information correctly. This is the same person who asks for more positions and upgrades after the new year. She has done this every year and presents a sky is falling scenario if they are not promoted or added to the city rolls. She WILL BE BACK!
Then Vicky told “Dan” that he needs to move “up to the mic” and explain a program on community business engagement. He spoke too long and went around in circles and through out all kinds of statistics that meant nothing. The fact that Vicky would order a staff up to the mic and then tell them they have 30 seconds was downright rude, and there is no wonder her staff routinely tells me how horrible of an individual she really is behind the scenes.
Someone was literally hacking up a lung in the background and “Dan” kept talking about nothing.
I think what they are selling in their budget presentation does not align with reality. Vicky tries to paint a picture that they are making large improvements and minimizing citizen wait times and better serving the community, but the community does not see professional inspectors out and about. The wait time for inspections depends on who you are and how important your project is to key personnel and the inspectors are mostly rude. These are easy metrics to track, and I encourage CED to publish a timeliness dashboard similar to the APD Crime Dashboard. It is quite easy and the city has already proven they know how to publish data.
Tonight was the largest budget presentation, and it caused this post to go longer than usual. If you are still here with me or if you skipped to the end to read the summary, let me summarize tonight like this: It was a comedy show that wasn’t trying to be funny and I am sure other cities and towns look at Allentown leaders as circus freaks who are lucky to have the positions they fill. What an absolute embarrassment to watch these leaders tap dance and dance around how they really use our money.
It seems that the administration loves to be its own roadblock and each year they keep saying ‘we are working on better ways but….’. The sad thing is that the bring the same programs and ideas each year to get their budgets with no intention to enact most of what they talk about at these meetings.
Mayor Verizon Frank had a catastrophic meltdown mid-meeting when his lie generator malfunctioned. Luckily, he rebooted but the blue screen of death appeared, and he just babbled incoherently for the remainder of the meeting. I give him more credit than traveling Matt Tuerk who couldn't "show up" for his own budget meeting.
..... Still taking our 12th donut.
3 comments:
Fuck you, Abe.
Classy. Just classy
Its probably someone who was written about in the post. Truth is the truth
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