Allentown Democratic mayoral candidates heatedly debate as May 18 primary draws closer

New York and Philadelphia developers are attracted to Allentown due to its close proximity, O’Connell said when asked about economic development in the downtown.

05/11/2021

Downtown development, housing reform, schools, and safety were some of the topics discussed Thursday in a taping of the Allentown Democratic mayoral primary election debate.

The debate was held at the PPL Center, 701 Hamilton St., for broadcast on WFMZ Channel 69′s “Business Matters” airing at 7 p.m. Monday. It was moderated by Tony Iannelli, president and CEO of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, and taped before an audience.

Allentown mayoral incumbent Ray O’Connell faced off against challengers Matt Tuerk, a longtime city and regional economic development official; Julio Guridy, a city councilman for the past two decades; and Ce-Ce Gerlach, a city councilwoman.

O’Connell, a former city councilman, was appointed interim mayor in March 2018 and elected in November 2019 to serve two more years.

O’Connell replaced predecessor, Ed Pawlowski, who was convicted on nearly 50 corruption charges. Pawlowski currently is serving a 15-year prison sentence at a low-security prison camp in Danbury, Connecticut, since he was sentenced in October 2018.

Iannelli asked each candidate why they want to be mayor.

O’Connell noted his five decades in public service, including 38 years serving the school district and several years on city council. He took over a city that was bankrupt when cash reserves were depleted by Pawlowski, O’Connell said.

“I’m the mayor,” O’Connell said. “I’ve always done right for Allentown ... I will continue to do right for the city of Allentown because we have only started the job. We need four more years of Ray O’Connell to continue the job and then I will turn over the torch.”

Citing a recent Muhlenberg College poll, Tuerk said the majority of those surveyed were unsatisfied in the direction the city is headed. Tuerk credited his background in economic development in helping to lead transformational change.

“We need change now,” he said. “We’ve seen what four years of Mayor O’Connell has delivered.”

Guridy pointed to his two decades of experience in City Hall. He wants to make sure the Latino population, which makes up 53% of the city’s population, is equally represented and all voices are heard, he said.

“The community wants change,” Guridy said. “I have the experience, I can do the job, I’ve been doing it for 20 years.”

Gerlach also brings a decade of governing experience to the table. As soon as she joined city council, Gerlach worked to form the Commission on Homelessness, which is committed to preventing homelessness, ending chronic homelessness, and decreasing situational homelessness. The commission is moving forward in implementing a strategic plan.

“I think coming out of a pandemic, we definitely need someone who has translated the concerns from the community into actual policy. I’ve done that,” Gerlach said. “I did that in one year and three months on city council.”

The winner of the May 18 Democratic primary will face Republican Tim Ramos, who did not face a primary challenger.

Shaking the status quo

All three challengers were quick to attack O’Connell and said it’s time to shake up the status quo.

Asked by the moderator how each would lead a diverse city with many folks compromised in the current economic climate, Tuerk said the next mayor needs to be one for the “entire city.”

“The next mayor of Allentown needs to work to build an inclusive economy,” said Tuerk, who speaks Spanish. “I worked for years in economic development but many of those years were spent in equitable economic development, making sure the resources in our region go to the people who need it most ... The next mayor of Allentown needs to be a mayor for everyone, geographically, demographically, working to give opportunities to our residents.”

Tuerk blasted O’Connell for not being in the streets, engaging with residents and making sure people were informed during the coronavirus pandemic, a summer of civil unrest and during repeated winter snowstorms.

“We need to make sure that the residents of Allentown know what’s happening in our cities,” he said. “Respectively, I can say that Mayor O’Connell was not a presence in the city of Allentown during 2020. It was one of the most significant historic years on record and we didn’t see him out there and I think that’s what we need to show.”

Tuerk said he recommended the city’s administration invest in a text notification and Robocall services to keep residents better informed in times of crisis or uncertainty.

“This is simple,” he said. “Facebook Live is an incredibly effective communications method but it leaves out a lot of our residents so we need to be broader than that. It needs to be some old and some new in terms of traditional means of communication and new forms of communications to keep our residents informed.”

Guridy, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, said he could culturally connect with the Latino population, as well as all residents. He’s represented the city already in meetings with the Greater Lehigh Chamber of Commerce, Hispanic Business Council, Latin Alliance, American Red Cross, Boys & Girls Clubs and scouting organizations.

Guridy also cited O’Connell’s lack of presence, saying city residents don’t even know who the mayor is.

“The mayor was MIA (Missing In Action) during the pandemic. He was MIA during the worst, biggest storm we had in our city, the streets were full of snow,” Guridy said. “People were complaining, calling me. I was actually out there during both times.”

“It’s not being behind a desk all the time. And when I become mayor, I’m going to have an open door policy, I’m going to talk to everybody every single day,” he added.

O’Connell disagreed with the claims, saying the pandemic led to people being forced to stay indoors and wasn’t the time to be “glad-handing.” He held daily meetings with city officials about the issues facing the city.

“We faced COVID, head-on, very strong. We went through the COVID, we said, ‘Mask up,’ get PPE equipment, the whole bit,” O’Connell said, noting 1,100 to 1,200 people later began receiving vaccinations daily at a city clinic.

“You don’t have to be out saying, ‘Hey, I’m the mayor of Allentown, we are going to take care of COVID.’ No, you work, you do your actions to take care of it. And you can do your actions behind the scenes. You don’t have to be out front, shaking hands with everybody. I was there every day, fighting COVID, fighting COVID for the residents of Allentown.”

Gerlach said she only knew those meetings were happening because she sits on council.

“It’s about having a communications plan to let people know that those meetings are happening,” she said. “To let people know that there’s confident leadership and that there’s an awesome team of people that are tackling an incredible crisis. Not just with COVID but the last year of racial reckoning that we had, the year before that in 2019, the number of murders that we had, so it’s always about communication. It’s not glad-handing. It’s just getting out there and telling people what the narrative is before they create their own.”

Economic growth

New York and Philadelphia developers are attracted to Allentown due to its close proximity, O’Connell said when asked about economic development in the downtown.

O’Connell said city officials hold discussions with about five to six developers monthly about projects. The developments, he said, helped to revitalize the downtown and now he’d like to see that same type of revitalization in other city areas, such as with The Waterfront project.

The core of economic development is: assisting entrepreneurs to help them get started and create new jobs for residents and helping existing city businesses expand and create jobs, Tuerk said.

“That’s what we need to focus on,” he said. “The other things, making sure new buildings are constructed to accommodate for and attract new businesses, are important but we need to focus our time and energy on assisting the businesses here in Allentown because they’re the fabric that holds our communities and neighborhoods together and creates good paying jobs for Allentown residents.”

Gerlach argued community development must precede economic development. She also spoke out against “trickle-down” development, referring to tax breaks for downtown projects.

“We must actually invest in the community,” she said. “When I talk about investing in the community, that’s what developers, that’s what companies want. They want a trained workforce, they want a good quality of life. Those are the two areas we need to focus on. Quality of life -- we’re talking schools, we’re talking infrastructure, we’re talking parks, recreational opportunities, parks and arts and cultural opportunities. That’s what will attract businesses. That makes a thriving business community.”

Development is creating thousands of jobs, Guridy said, noting a pair of recent successful projects at Ninth and Hamilton streets. But he said schools performing poorly do not attract new businesses.

Guridy later took aim at both O’Connell, a former Allentown School District administrator, and Gerlach, a former school board member, saying they share some of the blame for the district’s financial woes. Poor schools also lead students to other districts, such as the Parkland School District, or a charter school, he said.

“The school has gone down, the grades have gone down,” he said “We need to bring the school back up.”

O’Connell denied the claims, saying many city schools have received the National Blue Ribbon Schools award.

“He’s in another world,” O’Connell said of Guridy’s claims.

Police reform

Most of the candidates agreed reform was needed -- not defunding -- of the city’s police department.

However, Gerlach said she’d support reallocating some of the police department’s budget to “reimagine public safety.”

“We cannot continue to expect our police officers to be counselors, mental health workers, social workers and law enforcement officers,” she said. “We need to allow them to do their jobs, which is to fight violent crime, and to build those community relations.”

Public safety needs to be re-thought because until the city gets at the structural issues on why crime happens, it’ll continue to have it. Public safety is housing, economic opportunities and recreational opportunities, Gerlach said.

“I don’t think anyone here on this stage would argue -- It is better to house a homeless person than to arrest them,” she added.

O’Connell said the city needs to take another look at 911 calls, some of which do not have any criminal activity associated with the dispatch. Instead, there could be a mental health or drug and alcohol issue. He said the city already has a community intervention specialist, there’s another in the city’s budget, and he’d like Lehigh County to support a third specialist.

Tuerk said every department in the city knows it can do better and the police department tops that list.

“They absolutely understand how to do better,” he said. “They need support in doing that. We should not be defunding our departments ... we need to find ways to support those departments.”

The candidates also touched on improved housing and fiscal policy during the second half of the debate.

Tuerk said better inspections need to be performed on blighted homes.

“You have to be tough on landlords but you also have to establish an inspection policy that makes sure landlords are not going 10 years without being inspected,” he said.

O’Connell said federal stimulus relief funds can help with renovations.

“We’re going to go in and renovate those homes and get those homes back on the tax rolls,” he said. “And get those homes that are blighted into the hands of home ownership of the residents of Allentown.”

O’Connell also defended his reported 27% tax hike in 2018, saying he needed to restore the depleted cash reserves. There will be no tax increase this year, he said.

“I led the city when morale was at the total lowest it could ever be, I brought the morale back,” he said.

Credit: Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. lehighvalleylive.com Published on Posted May 02, 2021