A challenge from a state senator to three new members Allentown’s mayor wants to appoint to the city’s unique tax subsidy district has ground the process to a halt.
The Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone Development Authority was ready to seat the new members on Wednesday. However, after a half-hour executive session behind closed doors, ANIZDA Chair Seymour Traub abruptly adjourned the meeting without any votes being taken on any of the four agenda items.
The new members — Paul Anthony, Carmen Dancsecs and Holly Edinger — will have to wait. What will happen next is anybody’s guess.
ANIZDA members received a letter earlier Wednesday from state Sen. Jarrett Coleman, who objected to the appointments from Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk. City Council approved them at its June 17 meeting.
“The authority has to follow its own bylaws,” Coleman said in an interview before the meeting. “We may have to go to court if it approves any type of financing. There could be repercussions about the validity if the board violates its own bylaws.”
In the letter addressed to Traub, Coleman said the new members, who would vote on funding for projects, need to be approved by all parties.
“In particular, the Senators and representatives have collectively not concurred in the appointments being presented to the Board, and such disapproval was communicated as required on June 15, 2026, to Mr. Traub and Mayor Tuerk,” the letter said. “Despite this disapproval, the Mayor, in violation of the process set forth in the Bylaws, submitted his member Selections to the Council and Authority for action.”
A spokesperson for Tuerk said the mayor had no comment.
ANIZDA Solicitor Paul Frank said he isn’t sure what will happen next. He received Coleman’s letter shortly before the meeting. ANIZDA Executive Director Steve Bamford said he had just received it, too.
“Obviously, there’s a lot to digest,” Frank said. “The position we take is that we have no say in how the board is appointed. The bylaws were an attempt to encourage cooperation amongst the politicians in making those appointments, but underlying it all is the enabling act for the authority, and the home rule charter, and those supersede our bylaws. At least we believe as such.”
Coleman tried to address changes to the ANIZDA board in Senate Bill 367 that was introduced in 2025 and co-sponsored by Sen Nick Miller, D-Lehigh. It passed unanimously, but stalled in a House committee.
The bill would establish a new board and process for selecting members: three appointed by the mayor, one by each of the three state representatives representing Allentown, and one by each of the two state senators, with a third selected by the senators jointly. The members will have staggered but fixed terms.
Miller said he wasn’t opposed to the new members, but said the process “needs to be improved.”
“That’s because there are so many vacancies and expired terms on the board,” said Miller, who is introducing his own ANIZDA reform bill.
Morning Call reporter Evan Jones can be reached at ejones@mcall.com.