Former Allentown, Pennsylvania, Mayor Ed Pawlowski's sentencing on federal corruption charges has been rescheduled to Sept. 5.
Judge Juan Sánchez of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Allentown granted defense attorney Jack McMahon's request for a 60-day extension of the Wednesday sentencing date.
A jury on March 1 A jury on March 1
Pawlowski, 52, a Chicago native and a former candidate for Pennsylvania governor, resigned on March 9, ending a 12-year reign in which corruption ultimately eclipsed large-scale economic development as his legacy. He said he resigned “in the best interests of the city.”
Ray O’Connell, former Allentown City Council president and a former school administrator in the city, is filling out Pawlowski's term, which runs through 2019. The council on March 29 elected O'Connell, who had been interim mayor after Pawlowski resigned, by a 4-3 margin after 12 rounds of voting.
Pawlowski's initiatives included two deals that considered together, won The Bond Buyer’s Northeast Deal of the Year award in 2013.
The Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone Development Authority sold $224.4 million in bonds to finance the construction of a downtown business district, centered around an 8,500-seat arena, the PPL Center. To help fund a large unfunded pension liability, Allentown leased its water and sewer system to the quasi-public Lehigh County Authority, which sold $308 million of bonds to finance the transaction.
The parties' sentencing memoranda are due Aug. 22, according to court documents,
