Question to Reynolds: Last week Bethlehem Latinos celebrated a project that explores the Latin roots in the Lehigh Valley. Their influence here is undeniable. Thirty percent of the population identify as Hispanic according to the census. How has your administration served this population?

“We all have different stories,” Reynolds said. “The story of Latinos in Bethlehem has not been told as much as it should be. Our doors are open to everybody. How do you reach out to people? One of the things that we are most proud of sister city of Patillas in Puerto Rico. We put together senior leaders throughout the Lehigh Valley, with people who grew up here, people that worked in Bethlehem Steel and said, how do we create something permanent that can reflect both the heritage of the Latino community, but also work into the future making sure that sure that there is economic opportunities, educational opportunities, and small business opportunities. We’re always thinking it’s not just about what are you doing for me or what are you doing for the person who has been here for seven years, it’s how you open that access. We spend a more time in every neighborhood. I don’t spend a lot of time in City Hall. I’m going out meeting people in churches, in Boy Scout groups, Girl Scout groups and in schools and that’s really where you are able to go out and have these conversations about what people are looking for.”

Question to Crampsie-Smith: How would your administration ensure that Latinos are represented in your cabinet and be served by your government?

“We are fortunate to have our first DEI coordinator in Miss Santoro and she does a great job making sure that everyone feels welcome in this community,” Crampsie-Smith said. “I have worked many years as a school counselor. Most of my students were immigrants and refugees. Most of them were Hispanic. So that’s always been a priority. I’ve always been sensitive so I will do all that I can to make sure my staff is well represented by the Hispanic community and by people of color.”

“Hiring Miss Santoro was one of the best decisions and easiest decisions I ever made,” Reynolds said. “And one of the first decisions I made was to reorganize the mayor’s office into what it is now with the Director Equity and Inclusion right next to mine. And Janine [Santoro] has been leading in a lot of ways. We have opened the doors and listened to the community. How do we deliver more things in dual language? How do we make ourselves more accessible? How do we increase the amount of trust that people have within City Hall in communities that have not traditionally trusted the government?”

Question for Crampsie-Smith: A community center is being proposed for South Bethlehem operating at $2 million annually. No one questions the need for this. But $15 million projected to build this center sounds low. Upper Macungie is building one for three times that. Are the users of this facility expected to shoulder the cost? And who is going to pay for this?

“I’ve always been a proponent of this,” Crampsie-Smith said. “In my work, especially as a school counselor in Easton, I see the difference in my students whereby they can go to a community center or join a gang. So I think a community center is very vital to a community. Money is certainly an issue, especially with what is happening at the federal level, but I did go to meeting on the community center, and I think we are going to do a capital campaign, and I think that’s the way we to do it. Raise as much money as you can privately and with grants and with government so that we don’t burden our residents with the cost of the center.”

Question for Reynolds: Will city taxpayers and [fundraisers and grants] pay for this new facility?

“I appreciate the councilwoman’s support on this because when we [presented] the plan, she voted against it on city council. So I’m appreciative that she has come around to what the value is. The $15 million price tag is one that we are also working with. We put together a development committee to help find where those dollars within the private sector and also public funding. But our next step is to do feasibility study as who those operators might be. To look at where is the sustainable revenue that we might be about to bring in to operate this. This is not going to be targeted toward people like me. It is targeted for the use of South Bethlehem. It’s not something that we want people to pay exorbitant prices for. It’s a community hub where services are offered; where people come together. Where there’s a third place for students, for young people and adults. We’ve had more excitement around this community center… and we’re not Upper Macungie. We’re not trying to build a gilded Taj Mahal for $50 million dollars. We’re trying to build someplace where people can go to after school that they don’t have right now in the City of Bethlehem.”

Crampsie-Smith responded: “It’s not that I voted against the community center. I voted against having another consultant to study this community center. I believe in looking at our resources locally. We have many people in the community. We could do a local task force to decide what to do as far as building a community center. I’m all about only using taxpayer money for direct services. Only using consultants as necessary.”

Question to Reynolds: Lehigh University continues to expand into South Bethlehem neighborhoods. In 2023 the university outbid the city for three churches and the St. John”s Wendish lot on East Fourth Street. For years critics have accused the city of giving Lehigh University everything it wants. Is Bethlehem paying the price for that today?

Reynolds said the relationship with Lehigh University has improved. He cited an ambassador program and said Lehigh had offered a church property as a site for the proposed community center. `

`He said the trust between the university and the city has improved despite past problems. He said the president of Lehigh has been a “great partner.”

Crampsie-Smith responded by saying she has talked with people at Lehigh about the issue of using the housing stock in South Bethlehem as student housing. She suggested that the university bring students back into university-owned housing. “By doing that, it will open up more housing on the Southside,” she said.

The moderators then announced a change in format which allowed the opponents to ask each other questions.

Crampsie-Smith who is chair of the finance committee, questioned Reynold about invoices not being received in a timely manner and issues with late payments. “This is very concerning in light of the fact our ex-budget and finance director, Mark Sivak, embezzled city money while you were mayor.” She said Reynolds was dismissive of overseeing finances when policies and procedures exist.” She claimed Reynolds was dismissive of City Council because he had missed six out of eight city council meetings.

“If you ask Mr. Evans [City of Bethlehem’s business administrator] and Mr. Yasso [City of Bethlehem’s controller] they will tell you they are always working to efficient processes,” Reynolds said. “There is not a problem within city hall.”

As to not being at all city council meetings, Reynold said he was frequently busy meeting other obligations and occasionally in meetings that conflicted with council meetings.

“Can I get an answer to the questions on finances?” Crampsie-Smith said.

“The late fees you are talking about I don’t know about,” Reynolds said. “That is not something that I am aware of.”

“I have met with Mr. Evans and Mr. Yasso on several occasions because you have refused to deal with it,” Crampsie-Smith continued.

“I would disagree with that characterization,” Reynolds replied.

Reynolds then got a chance to ask questions of Crampsie-Smith. “If you lose in the primary, are you going to support me for mayor?” asked the incumbent major.

“No,” Crampsie-Smith said, “and I would not support nor endorse the other opponent.”

Crampsie-Smith asked the next question. “Housing is obviously the number one issue within the city. Your administration has taken six years to complete a housing study.” She recounted a story about Reynolds evicting a tenant from a rental house he and his wife owned. “How can residents trust you on this vital issue?”

Reynolds said he has sold the rental house. “It is a nonissue going forward.”

He quickly moved on to address Crampsie-Smith’s question about his record on housing.

“We have helped hundreds through our housing rehab program. We have helped hundreds of people through healthy homes [program]. We’ve helped people buy their first home. The most effective strategy is keeping people in their homes. It is not building new units because they take time ... and tens of millions of dollars. We have leveraged the money we have put into housing.” He cited the remake of the Pembrook neighborhood and others as examples of his success with housing.

Reynolds then addressed Crampsie-Smith, saying that her quick answer about not supporting him if he wins the primary was inappropriate when Democrats need to stick together in the era of Trump. “In the next three weeks, can we expect more Republican negativity from you and your allies to keep burning down the city’s success story and the Democratic Party in Bethlehem?”

“I don’t know what you are talking about regarding Republican negativity,” Crampsie-Smith said. “As I said, although your family has painted me as a fake Democrat, I am not a Republican and never will be. My campaign has been positive. If anyone is going negative, it is certainly not me.

“As far as endorsing you, how can I endorse you when I don’t feel like I have trust in you as the mayor which is exactly why I’m running against you. I never thought of running for mayor, but the reason I’m running for mayor is because I have had so many people and entities over the past few years ask me to run because they can’t get ahold of you, you’re not accessible, they are not happy with what is happening within our city. That’s why I’m running.”

Moderator Tom Shortell then shifted to another format with the panel asking questions of each candidate.

Question to Crampsie-Smith. A new Walnut Street parking lot is being built two blocks from the World Heritage Site and Main Street was just recognized as the best in the country. It will have 250 spaces fewer than the old one. Where is everyone going to park?

“I voted against the Walnut Street garage,” Crampsie-Smith said, “not because I didn’t think it needed to be demolished, but I didn’t like the fact that it’s going to be much smaller garage and it’s going to be higher which ran against the HARB [Historical Architecture Review Board] recommendation.” She said that was when Bethlehem was being considered as a World Heritage Site. “At that point I said, ‘What are we going to do about parking?’”

She said she also objected to the parking garage because it now will have apartments which will probably not be affordable, plus it will increase problems for those with disabilities by having to walk farther to get to Main Street.

Question to Reynolds. Is the Walnut Street parking garage going to meet the city’s needs as more and more people come downtown?

“I think we can say things are going pretty well downtown,” Reynolds responded. “We don’t have a parking supply problem. We have a parking directional problem. We have short-term parking in the streets. That’s what the businesses want. We have long-term parking in the garage. Building an extra 200 [parking] spaces was going to cost us $20 million dollars.” He said that is money better spent on other things the city needs.”

Question to Reynolds. What are your plans to address homelessness in Bethlehem and who would you reach out to for help?

“In the short-term, we are working with our community connections and coalitions of nonprofit partners,” Reynolds said. “Over the long-term, we are working with the private Bethlehem Emergency Shelter which has a lease with Christ UCC to find a way to build a permanent year-round shelter.”

Question for Crampsie-Smith: Balancing temporary housing plans with long-term solutions. Do you have an action plan?

“The number one cause of homelessness is affordable housing,” Crampsie-Smith said. “We need a permanent shelter. We need a multisystem approach. We need to work more the Human Services Department of Northampton County.”

“We need to assess what the people [living outside in tents[ need,” she continued. “Do they need mental health services? Addiction [services]? Do they need housing; do they need jobs? Cars? What do they need? It’s a multidimensional systemic approach that we need to take.”

Question to Crampsie-Smith: Bethlehem plans to end serious injuries and deaths to drivers, pedestrians and other road users. How can you realistically achieve this goal given the infrastructure needs and driving record of many [drivers].

“We were very fortunate under the Biden Administration to have the infrastructure bill,” Crampsie-Smith said. “There were a lot of dollars available to do things we had planned. Unfortunately, all that is up in the air right now. It’s in disarray right now. We don’t know if we are going to have the federal funding to do that. But if we do, there are many ways to do that. We are fortunate we have the Coalition for Alternative Transportation. A lot of it is going to be about education and awareness and enforcement, especially toward reckless drivers.”

Question to Reynolds: How can the city realistically achieve the goals in Vision Zero?

“We have a great future as far as creating a more walkable and bikeable future.” Reynolds said. “We have a great future starting with our CAT (Coalition for Alternative Transportation) plan, the Vision Zero Plan, the climate action plan, and also the infrastructure dollars. We are going to get those Broad Street dollars.” He said the city would get a complete street plan and bike master plan. He said the Broad Street corridor would be more friendly for families, small business, bike lanes.

“That’s going to raise the bar throughout the city, and other neighbors are going to say, ‘We want that too.’”

“There are streets in Bethlehem that are very safe, but there are some that are not. Because of the financial strength of the city, we have the resources going forward to make that a reality. This about the 750 lane miles of streets in Bethlehem, making them safe for your kids to walk to school.”

Question to Reynolds: Even a fender bender on 378 on the Hill-to-Hill Bridge causes severe backups and traffic headaches. The plan to upgrade and add lanes begins next year and will last four years. It sounds like a traffic nightmare. How will your administration respond?

“It’s going to be about communication and making sure we are talking to PennDOT day in and day out making sure that we are able to stage the construction, that we are able to get through at the appropriate times,” Reynolds said. “There is never an easy time to work on a hundred-million-dollar bridge, but we are going to continue working with PennDOT to minimize that as much as we can for people going to St. Luke’s.”

He said part of the solution is reducing car trips. Not giving up cars, but making travel in Bethlehem more efficient.

Question to Crampsie-Smith: How would you alleviate the traffic headaches caused by the Hill-to-Hill [Bridge] project?

“Certainly, there is going to be some back up. One lane will be open at all times,” Crampsie-Smith said. “We are going to have to do the best we can to alleviate traffic. One thing we need to do it try to improve our public transportation. For some reason, there is this mindset that people don’t want to use public transportation in the Lehigh Valley, but we need to get over that. It’s a great service. It’s safe; it’s clean. There is no reason why we are not using it more.”

Question to Crampsie-Smith: Where will residents go during the planned Pembrook public housing reconstruction and what assurances can you make that the net result is more units for people who currently meet the income guidelines?

“I am not involved with that,” Crampsie-Smith said. “I was not appointed to the committee so I really don’t know what the plan is for that. We’re not at that point. Nothing has been presented to the council. So we’re not saying here we go, this where the other people are going to go. I do not know.”

Question to Reynolds: Can you pledge that more people will benefit from the Pembrook rebuild?

“Yes,” Reynolds said. “We were awarded a $500,000 federal grant to be able to launch this two-year building process that the councilwoman voted against as far as the process was concerned. We were awarded that $500,000 grant because of our housing study. The federal government looked at this and said, “These people know what they’re doing.” That’s the only way you get the 30 or 40 or 50 million dollars is to get the planning grant. We couldn’t be more excited about where that project is going.”

Question to Reynolds: Bethlehem boasts one of the lowest crime rates in Pennsylvania, and it’s getting better. How do you plan to maintain this success as federal resources dry up?

“We are the safest city in Pennsylvania,” Reynolds said. “One of the things that we do is not just be reactive. I always say, ‘Count to 10 and call the police.’ Number one is educational investment; number two is recreation; number three is mental health services. We are constantly finding was to invest in our community. We are also working on responding to police calls that maybe don’t require a police response. Going forward, you’re absolutely right. And this is what this conversation should be about. It’s how are we mobilizing to make sure we are not losing state and federal funding that is really important in keeping our community safe.”

Question to Crampsie-Smith: On the city’s crime fighting efforts, how do you maintain them as expenses rise and more people come to town?

“One of the problems we have, which a national problem, is maintaining our complement of police officers,” Crampsie-Smith said. “We are very fortunate because we have a great police chief and great police department.”

She cited a study that cast doubt on the methodology used in the report from which she said Mayor Reynolds got his statistics and saying that the source site is a means to boost security systems and market them for Amazon.

“While we are certainly low in many crimes, we have gone up in crime in the last few years. As our tourism increases and the number of people living here increases, we are just going to have support our police and get them up to complement [full staffing levels]. I’m a strong supporter of our police department, our firefighters, and all of our emergency responders and I will continue to be.”

Reynolds countered, “If you look at the Pennsylvania Police Database, we have the lowest crime rate per thousand people in any category of the top 25 or 30 cities as far as population.”

To end the evening, the candidates were invited to give closing statement. Reynold’s started.

“I started tonight by talking about the successful formula we have in the city of Bethlehem, Get as many people as possible with the same goals in the same room.”

He said he has kept his promises which he said was rare. He credited residents as contributing to the level of trust in the city needed to solve community problems. He said the next four years are going to be better than the last four. He promised more investment in parks, public safety and to create more housing opportunities.

“We are going to continue to convince you that what’s going on in Washington and other places, that’s not what we’re about in Bethlehem. We’ve taken every attack we could over the last 20 or 30 years, and we’ve come out stronger, and we’ve come out together. I want to say thank you and I hope I can earn your support and it’s going to be a great next four years.”

Crampsie-Smith’s closed the evening by thanking everyone for coming out.

“I want to be mayor because I want apply skill and knowledge to assure that the needs of our community are met most consistently as well as ensure that what makes Bethlehem special is preserved while developing our city in a smart, pragmatic approach.

“This is important now that we are a World Heritage site and named the best main street in America. In the book “The Power Code,” researchers show that some people are about power over while others are about power to. Throughout my life, and especially my life, I have always been about power to and empowering people from my constituents to my clients to my students.

“As your mayor, I will empower our residents to not only make their voices heard but actually listened to. I will empower my staff and all of those with whom I collaborate to give their valuable input. After all, it’s your city, too. Thank you and I look forward to serving you as Bethlehem’s first female mayor.”