ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A simmering rift threatened to boil over Wednesday night as Allentown's City Council president silenced its independent controller.
Officials from Mayor Matt Tuerk’s administration in July asked council to consider a slew of budget amendments to upgrade and change job titles for some employees.
The measure — Bill 64 — was proposed to make city departments more efficient and classify positions to be more in line with employees' actual job duties, according to officials.
Finance Director Bina Patel told council that city employees’ titles and wages are not competitive with the job market.
Those employees could likely find better-paying jobs, which would see the city lose valuable institutional knowledge and expertise, Patel said.
Council members asked Controller Jeff Glazier to audit the proposal to determine its overall financial impact and report back to them at a later meeting.
“Ms. Mota, council asked me to report on this bill; I agreed. I am reporting on this bill.”Controller Jeff Glazier
But they tabled the bill two weeks later — without hearing from Glazier — after Councilman Ed Zucal said any budget amendments should be discussed during budget season, which starts in mid-October.
Glazier on Wednesday night tried to deliver his report to council during the three-minute section dedicated to the controller, but President Cynthia Mota quickly and repeatedly ruled him “out of order.”
Mota told Glazier to wait until council reconsiders Bill 64 to share his findings.
“Ms. Mota, council asked me to report on this bill; I agreed,” Glazier said. “I am reporting on this bill.”
'This is out of order'
Glazier told council members he worked for 10 hours to compile the report, which cost about $1,000 when accounting for the salaries of city employees who helped him.
Mota again told Glazier he had to wait because the bill was tabled.
“That’s alright; you still need to hear the report,” Glazier said.
“No, we don’t,” Zucal said, backing up Mota.
“You asked me for the report. All I’m doing is reporting to you, Ms. Mota.”Allentown Controller Jeff Glazier
“You asked me for the report," Glazier said with his arms stretched to his sides seemingly in disbelief. "All I’m doing is reporting to you, Ms. Mota.”
Mota hit her gavel several times and again told Glazier he was “out of order.”
“This is not on the agenda,” she said. “You cannot speak on this yet.”
Glazier challenged the council president’s authority to overrule the controller, an independently elected official.
“This is out of order,” Mota said again.
“Ma’am, respectfully, I disagree with you,” Glazier said. “I understand you don’t want to hear it, but that doesn’t mean that it’s out of order.”
“This is out of order,” Mota again said. “Do you have anything else you’d like to report?”
“No,” Glazier said. “I just thought the public should get their thousand dollars’ worth of time that I spent” on the report.
After a tense few minutes, Councilwoman Candida Affa asked a lawyer to settle the dispute over whether Glazier could deliver his report.
An assistant city solicitor told Mota that council's rules allow her to shut down the controller’s report. So she did.
Affa later in the meeting tried to revive Bill 64, saying she would “like to hear the report from our controller.”
Councilman Santo Napoli supported that move, but no other colleagues joined them, with the measure failing by a 5-2 vote.
'Didn't want to deal with it'
Speaking to LehighValleyNews.com after Wednesday’s meeting, Glazier said he had a “spirited back-and-forth” with Mota over his report on Bill 64 because he wanted members to hear its results and how much “time and money from the public was spent on it.”
All of the proposed job-title changes and upgrades included in Bill 64 “could be done for no cost” in 2024 and 2025, Glazier said, with costs covered by eliminating positions and combining responsibilities.
“My colleagues all knew prior to the meeting that there was no financial impact. They were aware of it, and yet they still don't want the report to become public.”Controller Jeff Glazier
Glazier called out council for lacking consistency when considering budgetary amendments outside budget season in recent months.
Members last month approved budgetary amendments to fund a new position — chief maintenance supervisor — in the city Parks and Recreation Department.
The cost of that position is covered by internal transfers in the city’s 2024 budget, but it will cost $27,000 more next year, Glazier said.
“They said yes — they didn't even think about it,” Glazier told LehighValleyNews.com on Wednesday. “This omnibus personnel bill would have been paid for for two years, and they didn't want to deal with it.”
'Mind-boggling'
Some council members’ recent insistence on only dealing with budget items during the official budgeting process ignores that the city is a “dynamic” entity,” Glazier said.
“I don't know how council picks and chooses what changes they want to make and what changes they don't,” he said. “I'm not always sure what their calculus is.”
Council members were fully aware by Wednesday’s vote of Glazier’s findings that showed the changes proposed in Bill 64 would be cost-neutral through 2025, according to Napoli.
“I’ve never used that word (mind-boggling) as much as I have in the last six months."Santo Napoli, Allentown City Council vice president
Members got an electronic copy of Glazier’s report on Monday, and the report was available Wednesday night on the tablets members use during meetings, he said.
“My colleagues all knew prior to the meeting that there was no financial impact,” Napoli said. “They were aware of it, and yet they still don't want the report to become public.”
Council’s decision to ignore Glazier’s report and keep the bill tabled was “mind-boggling,” Napoli said.
“I’ve never used that word as much as I have in the last six months,” he said.
“I'm really having trouble because this was an opportunity — at no cost to taxpayers — to be more efficient and deliver city services to our residents.
"And we, as a body, are saying we are not interested.”
'We're all political, really'
Napoli said he is starting to see “a pattern of obstruction” by some of his colleagues, who have pushed council to get “involved in things that aren’t part of our job.”
He said some showed their “hypocrisy” by tabling Bill 64 — despite it having no financial impact — after voting in July to pursue litigation against the mayor.
Tuerk has questioned some council members’ motives for hiring a lawyer to potentially sue him. Two seem to be considering Tuerk when he runs for re-election next year.
Tuerk has yet to officially announce his re-election campaign, but he told LehighValleyNews.com in February “there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind” that he will seek a second term in 2025.
“If the controller is seen as a political animal, doing things for specific ends, then I've lost; then nobody trusts the numbers.”Controller Jeff Glazier
On Aug. 11, Tuerk said on Instagram he also was updating campaign photos for the @mattformayor25 account, which lists him as a "political candidate" for mayor.
No other candidates have announced their intention to challenge Tuerk, but Zucal has discussed a potential campaign with residents.
He’s repeatedly refused to answer questions from LehighValleyNews.com about a potential mayoral run. But he’s also refused to confirm he’s not interested in the mayor's job.
And Mota in May told Univision host Jorge Ramos that she would “love” to be Allentown's mayor one day.
“We're all political, really, because we run for office,” he said. “But they’re more political than I am.”
“My currency has to be that I do a good job so that I can be trusted,” Glazier said. “If the controller is seen as a political animal, doing things for specific ends, then I've lost; then nobody trusts the numbers.”
