The proposed resolution<\/a> was sponsored by Councilmembers Candida Affa, Cynthia Mota, Ce-Ce Gerlach and Napoli.<\/p>\nMota said the resolution was straightforward and calls for a complete accounting of the mayor\u2019s travel expenses, including receipts, records and total costs to taxpayers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile some information may already exist, it is often presented in pieces or without full context,\u201d Mota said.\u00a0\u201cThis resolution ensures a clear and consolidated review. We’ve recognized that travel can be a part of the mayor’s official duties. However, when public funds are used, those expenses must be clearly documented, reasonable and in full compliance with law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mota said City Council has a responsibility to provide oversight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat responsibility requires us to review how taxpayers dollars are spent,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u201cThis is not about accusations; rather, it is about accountability. Transparency is not optional; it is fundamental.”<\/p>\n
Mayor Matt Tuerk did not attend the meeting but Managing Director Frank Kane made a lengthy statement to try and show the economic importance of the mayor\u2019s trips.<\/p>\n
Kane said the city benefits from having a proactive mayor who is quite possibly the city\u2019s biggest fan.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s important for someone in the organization to create and maintain and nurture relationships with potential funding partners in the federal and state government and in the nonprofit sector,\u201d Kane said. \u201cIt’s a foundational component of American democracy that citizens can hold their government accountable as their traditional press morphs into the less traditional blogosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s important that we listen to those voices, too, if some segment of the public has concerns about things relating to the travel of the mayor and the staff in that office,\u201d Kane said.<\/p>\n
He explained, however, that all travel expenses are already audited by the city\u2019s auditor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t know why you would want to pay an independent auditor somewhere between $40,000 to $100,000 to do a forensic audit to, to audit what we already audit,\u201d Kane said. \u201cYou’d be paying the same amount that we paid in travel expenses in the last four years to do the audit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kane was not prepared to share the total expenses for travel for the past four years because he said he needed the city auditor to review the numbers.<\/p>\n
Jeff Glazier, the city auditor, did not attend the meeting because he is on a medical leave.<\/p>\n
Affa said she could not remember a meeting over the past four years where the mayor reported on his travel.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe should be here telling us that every time he goes out of town,\u201d Affa said. \u201cI think the taxpayers want to know, and I think it’s our duty to get the receipts. That’s all we’re asking. We’re not making any accusations. But the only thing I have to say here is he does not report that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councilmembers\u00a0Jeremy Binder and Cristian Pungo said they had problems with the resolution the way it was written.\u201d<\/p>\n
Binder said he does not believe the resolution will give council what it is really seeking.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis audit resolution isn’t going to get us the information we’re actually looking for,\u201d Binder said. \u201cMy concern at the end of this is we’re going to get a report that says pretty much exactly what the controller is saying. It concerns me that we are going to spend more money to duplicate the effort of what the controller is doing. I think we all want the same thing; I just don’t think that this is the language to get us there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pungo said he\u2019s not sure if council has ever asked the mayor for a report after he travels.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I think it’s important for us to make the ask and say, hey, look, if every time the mayor travels, we want to see a report, let’s ask for that,\u201d Pungo said. \u201cThis obviously doesn’t achieve that. I don’t truly see the financial benefit to the city of Allentown on spending thousands to prove what we already know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Napoli said any time council has asked the mayor about to talk about his trips, it has been like pulling teeth.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I don\u2019t understand why,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean he\u2019s doing work out there that’s beneficial to the city and our residents.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Napoli said he wants Glazier and the human resources committee to review the resolution for further input.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2013 Allentown City Council discussed a proposed resolution Wednesday night that would require an audit and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[2748,153,155,154,14935,2750,39641,14934,65151,83001,83002,39642,2459,14932,83003],"class_list":["post-185948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-allentown-city-council","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-candida-affa","tag-ce-ce-gerlach","tag-cristian-pungo","tag-cynthia-mota","tag-frank-kane","tag-independent-auditor","tag-jeff-glazier","tag-jeremy-binder","tag-matt-tuerk","tag-santo-napoli","tag-travel-expenses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185948","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=185948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}