ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2013 Allentown City Council voted during a special meeting Wednesday night to appoint Frank Kane as managing director at an annual salary of $131,977.<\/p>\n
Kane is no stranger to the city, as he has worked as a Lehigh County employee since 2008 when he was first hired as chief of staff.<\/p>\n
He then assumed the position of director of human services in 2012 and has been the director of community and economic development since 2013.<\/p>\n
The appointment is a new chapter for the city, as it has been operating without the position for several years.<\/p>\n
The city charter requires the mayor to nominate someone for the position.<\/p>\n
Mayor Matt Tuerk said he has considered the matter often over the past four years.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the course of the past four years, I’ve spoken with many of you about what we need in a position like a managing director,\u201d Tuerk said. \u201cAnd I’ve gotten lots of different opinions, and I’ve had lots of different ideas myself and have considered lots of different candidates. And every time when I was engaged in that discussion, the person that I was thinking about was Frank.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tuerk noted that he did approach the new Lehigh County Executive Joshua Siegel with the idea.<\/p>\n
Tuerk said having Kane as managing director will be a benefit to both the city and the county.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI chose him because this is somebody who fundamentally understands what it means to serve in local government,\u201d Tuerk said.\u00a0\u201cHis time at the county has given him a pretty amazing education in how to do public service, and I’m really excited to bring him here to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tuerk said there are many good people who work for the city, but no one can bring the experience like Kane will be able to do.<\/p>\n
Tuerk said he knows Kane will develop a strong connection between the city administration and City Council.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou probably haven’t heard much out of the Lehigh County commissioners, in part because of the job that I think Frank has done to engage and work and develop a relationship between commissioners and the administration,\u201d Tuerk said. \u201cAnd I think that’s one of the things that he’s going to bring to this role. I think that his work is going to help us get to the next level at the city of Allentown.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kane also addressed council before the vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look forward to joining this team of dedicated public servants,\u201d Kane said. \u201cWe have City Council and a mayor who put the city’s interests ahead of their own at every decision. That’s not always the case in local governments, and it’s refreshing to see, and it’s something I’m happy to be a part of. And we have a capable and talented management team who execute well in their mission.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kane indirectly touched on the tensions that have existed at times between the council and the mayor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that my presence here will create a level of focus, of transparency and of accountability that appears to have not been the norm in recent years,\u201d Kane said. \u201cI\u2019m hopeful that I can serve as a conduit for information and the way it flows between council, the mayor’s office and between the department heads, as we set out to govern responsibly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI plan to work very hard to keep Allentown in the newspaper for good things,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
All councilmembers supported Kane\u2019s appointment and had positive things to say about him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like how warm I felt with him, and I believe this is going to be just another step to make our council even better than it is right now,\u201d said Councilmember Candida Affa.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Jeremy Binder said he was pleased to see the position being filled.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring my whole campaigning process, the recurring theme that came up often times was a lack of that role,\u201d Binder said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tuerk said Kane\u2019s salary will be funded this year through savings from some position vacancies and that the administration may be looking at some reorganization within the departments moving forward.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Cynthia Mota also said she is excited that the city will finally have a managing director.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has an amazing r\u00e9sum\u00e9, and he’s also a people person and a great communicator,\u201d Mota said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kane\u2019s appointment is effective March 30.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2013 Allentown City Council voted during a special meeting Wednesday night to appoint Frank Kane as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,2748,121,120,14935,14934,33794,65151,39642,16075,433,67920,2459],"class_list":["post-148704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-city-council","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-candida-affa","tag-cynthia-mota","tag-director-of-community-and-economic-development","tag-frank-kane","tag-jeremy-binder","tag-joshua-siegel","tag-lehigh-county","tag-managing-director","tag-matt-tuerk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}