Allentown hires former FBI investigator von Pawlowski to investigate City Hall

Scott Curtis speaks at Penn State-Lehigh Valley. Curtis, a retired FBI special agent formerly based in the Allentown field office, discussed two high-profile cases, including that of former Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski, during a campus presentation on Tuesday, November 8, 2022

The Allentown City Council voted 6-1 on Wednesday to appoint former FBI agent Scott Curtis, who led the investigation into former Mayor Ed Pawlowski’s “pay-to-play” schemes, to investigate alleged workplace discrimination at City Hall.

The vote was 6-1, with Council Vice President Santo Napoli the lone dissenting vote. Supporters of Curtis’ hiring said he was best suited to conduct the investigation because of his previous experience in Allentown. A council committee consisting of members Ed Zucal, Ce-Ce Gerlach and Daryl Hendricks selected Curtis’ firm, FLEO Investigations LLC, over two other applicants.

“We were completely objective in evaluating the applicants and, in my opinion, the selected provider was the most qualified of all,” said Hendricks.

Napoli said he opposed the hiring because he believed the city council did not follow proper legal procedures.

The city issued a “request for proposals” on December 13, 2023, seeking firms to hire to conduct the study. However, the city council did not follow the city’s established guidelines for awarding city contracts, which would have included a formal evaluation process and predefined questions.

Instead, the City Council committee asked each company a series of its own questions and voted on the lease without following the specific guidelines of the city’s constitution.

“In my opinion, the main thing that was missing from this legislation was process and transparency. Those were the two things I didn’t see,” Napoli said.

Zucal said the City Council developed and followed its own process for hiring Curtis because the city charter allows the council to conduct independent investigations but does not explicitly state how an independent investigator should be selected.

Curtis is a retired FBI special agent best known for his role in investigating Pawlowski’s public corruption. From 2013 to 2018, Curtis led an FBI investigation into alleged pay-to-play schemes at Allentown City Hall. This involved intercepting electronic communications between city officials, wiretapping co-conspirators who secretly recorded conversations, and searching City Hall and Pawlowski’s home. The investigation uncovered evidence that Allentown officials manipulated the procurement process to favor firms that supported Pawlowski’s campaign for U.S. Senate.

FLEO Investigations’ website describes the company as specializing in investigating “complex and sensitive cases involving fraud, corruption, harassment, discrimination or other crimes and misconduct.” According to Pennsylvania business records, FLEO was founded in August.

The planned internal investigation, which the City Council approved last year, will address allegations of discrimination and racism among city employees.

The City Council approved its first investigation into workplace issues last year, prompted by an open letter from the Allentown NAACP detailing some of the allegations. Among other things, it claimed that office managers had verbally attacked black and brown employees and that some police officers had been subjected to racial slurs by their colleagues. The letter specifically accused Mayor Matt Tuerk and other city leaders of ignoring and failing to address reported complaints. Tuerk responded by saying that discrimination would not be tolerated in Allentown.

The city council allocated a budget of $300,000 for the investigation, and Zucal estimated it would take about six months.

This story will be updated.