City residents have a surprising number of choices for mayor Nov. 5.

Technically, write-ins count, so anyone can vote for themselves, or friends or family members.

But the only officially registered candidate remaining on the ballot is Democrat Robert Don-chez.

According to his campaign website, Donchez is a Bethlehem native and Liberty HS graduate who later attended Kutztown, Wilkes and DeSales universities.

He was a career educator in the Allentown school district, teaching American Government at William Allen HS for 35 years. Since retiring in 2007, he worked as chief of staff for now-disgraced Rep. Joseph Brennan and currently Rep. Daniel T. McNeill.

He has participated in local election campaigns since the mid-1970s, and has served on numerous community and government boards. He has served on Bethlehem City Council since 1996.

Platform

In a telephone interview Friday, Donchez said his platform has had input from community and business leaders as well as citizens, all of whom he has been meeting with for several months. He said he has been using vacation days from his chief of staff duties to hold campaign meetings. If he wins, he said, his last day with Rep. McNeill will be Nov. 22.

The scope of Donchez' platform notwithstanding, the conversation revolved almost entirely around economic development and its importance to the city.

He said there has been a promising amount of economic development in the past decade, especially in technology industries. He specifically mentioned a number of start-ups and incubator programs that are building on small, strong ideas and successes, and said the challenge is to keep these growing companies in the city.

"We're really making tremendous inroads," he said. "We have to continue to be aggressive."

Other platform issues include aggressive code enforcement for housing to ensure property value safety; regular meetings with citizens and an open-door policy; qualifying Bethlehem for a City Revitalization and Improvement Zone; and exploring zoned trash collection.

Donchez said attorney James Broughal and District Attorney John Morganelli are standing by to activate a transition team to begin choosing department heads and evaluate cost-saving measures within city departments.