No-confidence vote against Pennsylvania approved amid corruption probe

[January 21, 2016]  By David DeKok
 
 HARRISBURG, Pa. (Reuters) - The city council of Allentown, Pennsylvania, voted unanimously on Wednesday to approve a resolution expressing "no confidence" in Mayor Ed Pawlowski and urging him to resign as an FBI corruption investigation swirls around city hall.

The move followed guilty pleas by three members of Pawlowski’s administration to federal charges stemming from what prosecutors say was a pay-to-play scheme benefiting the mayor, who has held the top job in Pennsylvania's third-largest city for 10 years.

However, the vote by all seven members of the Allentown City Council is non-binding, meaning that they cannot force Pawlowski from office.

"No, he doesn’t have to resign,” City Councilman Julio Guridy said before the meeting. "He can stay there until they arrest him."

Pawlowski did not attend the meeting but a spokesman has previously said he did not intend to resign.
 

“It is disappointing that the City Council has chosen to be politically opportunistic rather than do the job they have been elected to do,” Pawlowski's attorney, Mark Schamel, said in a statement issued after the vote. "The mayor has not been charged with anything. It is a political stunt."

Schamel said Pawlowski remained committed to serving the city as mayor and urged the public to be patient with the judicial process.

Removing an elected official in Pennsylvania is relatively difficult unless that official is convicted of a serious crime. Only the state legislature can remove a mayor through impeachment.

Allentown residents spoke on both sides of the issue.

“Crime is down everywhere in Allentown except in one place, city hall, where we are," businessman Chris Cocca said, calling the resolution "the right thing to do."

Antiques dealer Paul Fuhrman said the council was making a mistake: “This is some kind of vendetta.”

Dale Wiles, a former assistant city solicitor, pleaded guilty in December to withholding documents from the FBI. Gary Strathearn, the former finance director, and Mary Ellen Koval, the former city controller, pleaded guilty this month to fraud charges. All three are awaiting sentencing.

Court papers identify the purported master of the scheme as "Public Official #3." The city council resolution says Pawlowski is the only city official who fits the description.

Pawlowski needed campaign funds in 2014 for an abortive run for governor, and in 2015 for an announced bid for the U.S. Senate that ended when the FBI raided city hall on July 2, 2015.

(Additional reporting by Frank McGurty; Editing by Dan Whitcomb)

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