Reading City Hall returned to business as usual Monday, 72 hours after FBI agents searched a number of offices, including that of the mayor.
Mayor Vaughn Spencer was in Florida at the time of the raid Friday, returning home later in the day. He was not in his office when a 69 News crew stopped by Monday morning.
Agents also searched the mayor’s home in the 1200 block of Douglass Street.
The FBI confirmed the searches, but a spokeswoman declined to say what the agents were looking for or the nature of the agency’s investigation.
City Auditor David Cituk, showing a 69 News crew all the empty drawers in his office on Monday, said agents took all city contracts from the start of 2012 through 2015.
Reading’s solicitor, Charles Younger, said agents also seized original files from his office and that of the mayor.
Linda Kelleher, the city clerk, said the FBI was seeking documents and contracts containing the names of Michael Fleck and Sam Ruchelwicz, both of whom worked on Spencer’s 2011 campaign for mayor.
Spencer and Younger both told 69 News on Friday that the city is fully cooperating with the investigation.
“This is pretty much like what’s going on in Allentown,” said Spencer, referring to the FBI’s search of three offices inside Allentown City Hall, including that of Mayor Ed Pawlowski, on July 2.
At the time, Fleck was leading Pawlowski’s campaign for U.S. Senate, which the Allentown mayor later suspended, saying he wanted to “fully focus on assisting in the federal investigation of Allentown.”
Fleck has since closed his consulting firm, H Street Strategies, and a team of movers carried boxes out of his house last Wednesday.