when member Jeff Glazier, who also served as city controller, died in May<\/a>.<\/p>\nDaly has been a project manager and engineer for PPL Electric Utilities since April 2024. That part of his resume raised red flags for council members, who noted that city planners have to review projects, such as data centers, which will need to buy power from PPL.<\/p>\n
\u201cPPL stands to benefit from the construction of data centers,\u201d Councilperson Ce-Ce Gerlach asked. \u201cYou will be deciding on data centers. Do you feel like there is a conflict there?\u201d<\/p>\n
Another matter is Daly\u2019s domestic relationship with Michaela Boyer, who serves as manager of civic innovation in Tuerk\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Tuerk did not reply to The Morning Call.<\/p>\n
After Managing Director Frank Kane gave an explanation of how Daly was picked over five other candidates, and Daly introduced himself, Council Vice President Cynthia Mota gave her concerns about the process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole purpose is to protect the city from nepotism and from favoritism,\u201d Mota said. \u201cNepotism is the practice of giving advantages to close personal associates because of the relationship rather than the merit. In the context of this planning commission appointment, I do have concerns about whether this has been favoritism and if they have influenced the appointment process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kane told council that Daly does not have a personal relationship with Tuerk.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re going to be fair, you\u2019re going to judge the candidates on their merits,\u201d Kane said. \u201cThere is no preferential treatment. It\u2019s a volunteer board. It\u2019s the mayor\u2019s appointment.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an email to The Morning Call, Daly said he welcomes the ethics committee investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cPublic confidence in the integrity of our government is important, and I welcome an independent review of the circumstances surrounding my nomination,\u201d he said. \u201cI applied through the same publicly available process as any other Allentown resident and at no point sought preferential treatment or special consideration. The decision to nominate me was Mayor Tuerk\u2019s, with whom I have no personal relationship.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m confident in how I\u2019ve conducted myself throughout this process and am happy to cooperate with any appropriate review. I believe my qualifications and experience speak for themselves, and my interest in serving this community remains sincere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daly, a 2021 graduate of Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey whose resume includes time as a senior project engineer at Lutron Electronics in Coopersburg, said he was attracted to the position because \u201ccivic engagement has been important to me since I was old enough to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe we all have a responsibility, to the extent we\u2019re able, to stay informed and participate in our government,\u201d Daly said in the email. \u201cI\u2019ve served as the elected Majority Inspector of Elections in Allentown\u2019s 5th Ward for approximately a year, taking time away from work and other obligations to help administer our elections.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I learned of an opening on the Planning Commission in May, I saw an opportunity to expand my involvement in local government while putting my engineering and project-management experience to use for the community. I applied through the City\u2019s publicly available application process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kane was asked to go through the qualifications of the other five candidates.<\/p>\n
He said the applications that were received through the city portal included retail managers, a Salesforce employee, and another engineer, but defended Daly\u2019s engineering background as highly qualified for the board.<\/p>\n
Daly said he consulted with PPL\u2019s disclosure and review process and received approval from the company\u2019s Compliance & Ethics Department.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs part of that process, I am required to recuse myself from matters involving PPL and its affiliate companies or matters that could present a conflict of interest related to my employment with PPL,\u201d he said. \u201cI am fully prepared to do so, including abstaining from discussion and voting, and will refrain from voting if there is any uncertainty about a potential conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daly said he realized that his ties may raise questions about his nomination.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understood that my relationship with a member of the Mayor\u2019s staff could raise questions, and I took that seriously throughout the application process,\u201d he said. \u201cMy decision to apply was entirely my own, and I never sought to use my relationship to influence the appointment. We\u2019ve never attempted to conceal our relationship, nor have we felt the need to publicly advertise our personal lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand why questions are being asked and am comfortable addressing them openly and honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morning Call reporter Evan Jones can be reached at ejones@mcall.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A nomination to the Allentown Planning Commission was tabled by City Council last week, as members were concerned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[119,153,155,154,433,157,182,139,28,432],"class_list":["post-316843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-allentown","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-lehigh-county","tag-lehigh-valley","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316843","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=316843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}