ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The long-brewing fight between Allentown’s top officials is set to play out in court after Allentown City Council this month sued Mayor Matt Tuerk.
Council accuses Tuerk of trying to prevent and obstruct its investigation into claims of racism and discrimination by and against city employees.
City Finance Director Bina Patel is also named as a defendant in the civil suit filed Friday in Lehigh County Court.
Council in June allocated $20,000 for legal counsel “to pursue any and all equitable and legal remedies against the mayor” for what the body called “obstruction” of its investigation.
Members the next month hired Brown McGarry Nimeroff Attorneys, with Mary Kay Brown serving as the firm’s lead attorney for council’s litigation.
She is paid $350 an hour for her work, while associates who help her on the case are paid $225 an hour.
Paralegals involved with the case make $150 under the terms of the engagement letter council approved this summer.
'Throwing good money after bad'
Council authorized the investigation in October and six months later allocated $300,000 for the investigation.
In early June, members hired former FBI special agent Scott Curtis to run that probe. Curtis led the FBI‘s investigation into former Mayor Ed Pawlowski's pay-to-play contracting practices.
“It’s the definition of throwing good money after bad money."Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk
Tuerk said council’s contract with Curtis was “defective” and “void” — and told members he would not honor it — because the body went outside the city’s procurement process to hire Curtis.
Taxpayers could now be on the hook for hundreds of thousands in legal fees for council’s litigation against the mayor.
And they’ll also foot the bill for Tuerk to defend his administration in court.
“It’s the definition of throwing good money after bad money,” he told LehighValleyNews.com in July.
Tuerk issued a statement Tuesday that again challenged council to restart the hiring process.
“I fully support a third-party assessment of our administrative practices to efficiently conduct government business," Tuerk said. "My administration and I are ready to work together with City Council to move forward with an assessment that follows the proper procedures ensuring a fair, transparent and open process.”
Councilwoman rues vote
Council Vice President Santo Napoli on Tuesday told LehighValleyNews.com he doesn’t “even know what’s going on” with the lawsuit.
He said his colleagues have left him out of all discussions about it after the was the lone vote against hiring Curtis.
“I’m actually OK with that,” he said.
“I think what they’re doing is an enormous waste of tax money," Napoli said.
“Taxpayers should be up in arms over this."Councilwoman Candida Affa
Councilwoman Candida Affa on Tuesday said she regrets her vote to approve the investigation.
“It was a wrong vote on my part,” she said.
Calls for an investigation started last summer when the NAACP’s Allentown branch published a letter detailing numerous allegations of workplace discrimination and racism against city employees of color.
Affa said she supported the investigation because she hoped it would determine whether city officials were allowing that behavior to happen.
But the furor surrounding the investigation “has gotten so out of hand, and this is costing taxpayers so much money,” Affa said Tuesday.
“Taxpayers should be up in arms over this."
'Just work with him'
Affa said she recently did “a lot of soul-searching” about her role as a councilwoman and now wants “to stay completely out of it.”
She called the situation between council and the mayor a “debacle.”
“I want nothing to do with" the lawsuit, she told LehighValleyNews.com. "I believe it’s wrong. I don’t believe we should be suing the mayor.”
“If it weren't political, we could figure something out."Councilwoman Candida Affa
Affa said she hopes council “could come to some kind of settlement" with the mayor and avoid a drawn-out court battle.
But she said she worries political and personal differences between Tuerk and some of her colleagues make that unlikely.
“If it weren't political, we could figure something out,” she said. “We could come to the table and we could figure something out.”
Ed Zucal, the council member who's pushed hardest for the investigation, has talked about a potential campaign with residents but refused to answer questions from LehighValleyNews.com about a mayoral run.
And City Council President Cynthia Mota in May told Univision host Jorge Ramos that she would “love” to be Allentown's mayor one day.
Tuerk in July said he thinks political aspirations are feeding into the growing rift between him and council.
“We need to stop trying to … cut him down at the knees and just work with him,” Affa said.
Council President Cynthia Mota and members Ed Zucal, Ce-Ce Gerlach and Natalie Santos did not respond Tuesday to LehighValleyNews.com.
