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Pawlowski Delivers State of the City Address

01/05/2018
Pawlowski Delivers State of the City Address

Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski touted his administration’s accomplishments during his 40-minute 2018 State of the City address this morning before a sold out crowd of more than 125 members of the Allentown Chamber of Commerce and Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce at Miller Symphony Hall’s Rodale Room.

“Allentown is alive, vibrant and growing,” said Pawlowski, who Monday began his fourth consecutive term as mayor of Pennsylvania’s third largest city.

The mayor trumpeted statistics like the city’s maximum 100 point score in the 2017 Municipality Equality Index (MEI) from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the $37 million investment in police services and more mundane figures like removing 395 tons of leaves off city streets and repairing nearly 10,400 potholes.

Pawlowski said, “A city is complex, composed of many parts all of which must work together if the entire machinery is to function correctly.” He elaborated on the successes of those component parts in the city’s finance, public works, public safety, parks and recreation and community and economic development departments.

The 2018 city budget holds the line on the property tax rate for the 13th consecutive year.

Pawlowski also introduced a pair of 2018 planned initiatives.

Pawlowski promised to stand up and take to court “predatory landlords who neglect their obligations to the city, who undermine our neighborhoods and who take advantage of individuals who rent from them.”

He also said he would propose a new initiative based on the City of Milwaukee’s Residents Preference Program. “This new certification initiative will be designed to promote the use of city residents as part of a contractor’s or developer's workforce on certain city-funded construction and private development projects. Contractors bidding on public works projects and development projects financed with public tax dollars will be required to hire a percentage of certified city residents to work on those projects.”

The mayor said he will be asking ANIZDA to implement this same requirement for all NIZ funded projects as well.

The Chamber event is the first in what is usually a series of invitations for a mayoral address from service clubs in the city. The state of the city report is a requirement of the city charter.

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