Category: Election

Mayoral candidate Dana Grubb: respect foresight of past city leaders on architectural conservation

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Dana Grubb for Mayor

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Candidate Grubb at New St. and the Greenway:

  • symbolic epicenter for preservation v. development issues
  • can find the poster children here for out-of-scale development
  • make no mistake, we need development to grow our tax base
  • current developers and city leaders need to respect the vision of past leaders in establishing the historic district
  • canyon-like feel of massive structures has negatively impacted spirit of this multi-cultural arts district
  • no campaign donations from Bethlehem major developers so development proposals stand on their own merit
  • no payback for donations
  • able to judge projects objectively

Let’s believe in a better Bethlehem.

Candidates Reynolds and Wilhelm on walking, biking, traffic (Reynolds Town Hall, April 7)

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Reynolds Virtual Town Hall April 7

Candidate Reynolds:

  • we have a car culture in the City
  • streets designed for cars
  • will take a look at that systemically
  • Rt 378 being redone, so speeding will be looked at then

Candidate Wilhelm:

  • lived in Cambridge for many years, a city that promotes walkability, bikeability, and public transportation
  • pleasure to be able to walk to work
  • for the pedestrian bridge
  • must create proper infrastructure for walkers, sustainability, people without cars
  • must educate drivers too, safety issue

Mayoral candidate Grubb “is quite possibly the most ethical person I have ever met”

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Bill Scheirer is a charter member of the Bethlehem Gadfly pantheon, with probably 20 years service behind and at the Town Hall podium. We miss seeing him throughout the long duration of this damn pandemic.

Gadfly:

I support Dana Grubb for Mayor of Bethlehem, which is in danger of losing its special quality, because of developments that overwhelm neighborhoods by being too big and/or too tall. Mr. Grubb is more sensitive to this danger. He is not accepting campaign contributions from major developers. Dana was a member of a committee of citizens that crafted a 30-page ethics ordinance that was introduced into the city council by Councilmembers Negron and Colon. It was never acted on by the council, not even to pass certain parts. Mr. Grubb’s opponent preferred two rather innocuous ordinances passed by council. One authorized training on the quite weak state ethics law. The other was a gift ban that didn’t go much beyond existing law. Left untouched were all other considerations, such as campaign contributions, which can create an apparent conflict of interest. Unlike his opponent, Mr. Grubb has specific plans including reintroducing a comprehensive ethics ordinance to increase public confidence that elected officials are transparent and ethical. I have known Dana for 18 years. He is quite possibly the most ethical person I have ever met, and I am 83 years old.

Bill

Representative McNeill endorses candidate Reynolds for mayor

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“It is my privilege to represent the people of West Bethlehem in Harrisburg and at home. It is a responsibility I do not take lightly, which is why I am happy to endorse Willie Reynolds as your next mayor.

I look forward to working with him to ensure policies and resources that benefit all of Bethlehem through the pandemic recovery and beyond. Please join me in supporting Willie Reynolds for Mayor on May 18th.”
State Rep. Jeanne McNeill

Mayoral candidates Grubb and Reynolds on the $34m coronavirus relief money

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selections from Christina Tatu, “Q&A with Bethlehem’s Democratic candidates for mayor.” Morning Call, April 22, 2021.

Q. Bethlehem stands to receive nearly $34 million in federal coronavirus relief money. How do you think the city should spend that money?

Grubb: First and foremost, funding should be allocated to get all eligible Bethlehem residents vaccinated. Second, funding should be used to provide assistance to both businesses and their employees, both of who have been negatively impacted by the pandemic. Third, nonprofit organizations that struggled to support the neediest in our community during COVID should receive assistance that allows them to continue their mission and service. Fourth, funding should be allocated to the provision of safe affordable housing. Finally, environmental and public infrastructure such as air quality improvement measures, streets, parks and existing public facilities that need maintenance should be funded, particularly since use of outside spaces has increased exponentially during the pandemic.

Reynolds: The past year has been extraordinarily difficult for everyone in our community. We need to work with Northampton and Lehigh counties to make sure that everyone in our city benefits from the federal money in both the short and long term. The relief bill was designed to help our families, small businesses and nonprofits that suffered during the pandemic. One initiative that I have proposed is a community recovery fund that will provide financial assistance to the organizations in our city that define who we are. Neighborhood farmers markets, arts and cultural groups, youth recreation associations. They need to be financially supported to guarantee they continue their vital work in our city. Many of these organizations were not able to operate over the past year and our city suffered financially and emotionally. The community recovery fund will be designed to help them bounce back and make them more vibrant and successful post-pandemic.

“Trust in Mr. Reynolds is misplaced”

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Barbara Diamond enjoys retirement as Lehigh University Director of Foundation Relations by engaging in various activities and organizations hopefully for the betterment of the community. Her particular interests at the moment are preventing gun violence, local government ethics reform, and Bethlehem Democratic Committee work.

Dear Gadfly:

Regarding Councilwoman Negron’s post of April 26th on the status of the ethics ordinance, I would like to make the following points:

Ms. Negron more than anyone deserves credit for launching the effort to pass a comprehensive ethics ordinance. It was her impassioned remarks at the special meeting of December 8, 2015, on the Martin Tower rezoning ordinance in which she cited numerous instances of questionable behavior by the administration and council and declared her intention, when she was sworn in a month later, to pass an anti-pay-to=play law. I recommend that anyone who wants to understand why people question Mr. Reynolds’ commitment to ethics reform in Bethlehem go to the city council archives and read the minutes of that meeting, especially the public comments not only by Ms. Negron (pg.13) but also Bruce Haines (pg. 11 & 19), Breena Holland (pg.21), Bill Scheirer (pg. 13), and Dana Grubb (pg. 14).

Although there had been several previous council meetings on the rezoning, the meeting on December 8, 2015, was significant because of documents that had been obtained and published in November through a Right to Know request by Bernie O’Hare. The documents revealed extensive developer influence in drafting the ordinance that would effectively rezone the Martin Tower site to allow for massive commercial development. The documents verified significant misrepresentations by the Donchez administration and Councilman Reynolds, who was City Council President at that time. Mr. Reynolds repeatedly insisted to the public that the developers were not involved, that the ordinance was being brought forward by the administration, and, therefore, that no plan for the Martin Tower site was available for public review.

The public asked Mr. Reynolds and another council member who also received generous campaign donations from the developers multiple times to recuse themselves and questioned the propriety of their voting on a zoning ordinance that would so obviously benefit a developer who had given them significant campaign contributions. Instead of acknowledging the public’s concerns, Mr. Reynolds responded that “the idea that there is a conflict here and that anyone can attack the integrity of the member of council is ridiculous. It is also insulting” (October 6, 2015 Minutes pg.27). The Right to Know documents revealed that at the very time Mr. Reynolds was scolding the public for challenging his integrity, the developer of the Martin Tower site, Lewis Ronca, was in the hallway texting to DCED director, Alicia Karner, that he needed to leave before reporters spotted him; his texts expressed his chagrin that the 2 hour 15 minute presentation by Planning Director, Darlene Heller, had not caused more people who patiently awaited their turn to speak to leave the meeting. In addition, the documents revealed that Ronca’s assistant, Duane Wagner, provided talking points to Ms. Heller to use when engaging the public, including the myth that the current ordinance allows up to 425,000 sq. ft for retail (Lehigh Valley Ramblings, November 24, 2015).

Many of the people who spoke in opposition not only to the rezoning but also to the revelations of public officials’ cozy relationship with the developers and the dishonest way those relationships were presented to the public went on to form the grassroots effort in 2016 to support Councilwoman Negron’s aim to pass an ethics ordinance. I recently listened to the audio of Mr. Reynolds’ response to the ethics ordinance at the council meeting (May 17, 2017) in which he stated that he was angry about the ordinance, mischaracterized it in multiple ways, and described public comment on it as ridiculous and insulting. In fact, Councilwoman Van Wirt mentioned numerous times that it was the disrespect Mr. Reynolds displayed for Ms. Negron and the good faith effort of members of the community that inspired her to run for office. I will also note the maneuver by Mr. Reynolds in his effort to sabotage the ordinance of having DA Morganelli speak in opposition. Morganelli made over 20 false and misleading statements, which could not be rebutted because his remarks were allowed after Courtesy of the Floor.

Councilwoman Negron’s recent post to Gadfly asks us to have faith that Councilman/Mayoral candidate Reynolds is now in favor of an ethics ordinance. It is now 2021, Mr. Reynolds was president (2014-18) and a wielder of significant power on council for these past 6 years. If he was truly in favor of an effective ethics ordinance (not the ineffectual, piecemeal training and gift bans they passed, which were mere window dressing), he would have helped Ms. Negron try to fix the ordinance she proposed or wrote his own ordinance relevant to city contracts, which he expressed an interest in while chastising her efforts way back in 2015. I note also that Councilwoman Negron is speaking for Mr. Reynolds. Her effort to take blame for Reynolds’ bad behavior does not undo my own observation since 2015 of Mr. Reynolds’ bias toward special interests like developers.

In view of the above, I believe trust in Mr. Reynolds is misplaced.

Barbara

Mayoral candidates Reynolds and Grubb on affordable housing

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selections from Christina Tatu, “Q&A with Bethlehem’s Democratic candidates for mayor.” Morning Call, April 22, 2021.

Q. What do you think the city can do to address the issue of affordable housing?

Grubb: As a real estate photographer and secretary-treasurer for the affordable housing nonprofit Housing Opportunity Movement, I know this is a difficult task. I recently wrote the guidelines for HOM’s closing assistance program, where qualified first-time homebuyers can receive up to $12,000 toward their closing costs. The city will need to consider other assistance like this as well as zoning changes to encourage low-to-moderate-income home ownership, and more development of affordable housing. Bethlehem could also allocate some federal COVID relief funds, and consider the use of federal infrastructure funding, which President Joe Biden is proposing, to address the affordable housing need. In addition, funding assistance from already established federally funded CDBG and HOME programs to nonprofits such as Habitat for Humanity must continue. Addressing the many issues with affordable housing won’t be easy, but a multifaceted approach will make a successful start.

Reynolds: Housing is the single biggest expenditure for almost every family in Bethlehem. During the past year, I have worked with Councilwoman Grace Crampsie Smith, the mayor’s administration, our nonprofit sector and our community to create policy recommendations and proposals to tackle the issue of affordable housing for our most vulnerable citizens. We need to start by making our Affordable Housing Task Force a permanent, regularly meeting body. We are also creating an Affordable Housing Trust Fund to leverage public dollars with private investment to tackle the issue. As new development occurs in the coming years, we also must insist that it is assisting our mission to develop more affordable housing. Finally, we need to focus on the other monthly financial pressures that squeeze our families. We have always been a city where everyone could afford to live and we need to continue to be that kind of community.

Candidates Reynolds and Crampsie Smith on Northside Broad St. (Reynolds Town Hall April 7)

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Reynolds Virtual Town Hall April 7

Candidate Reynolds:

  • key to Northside downtown is what happens to Broad St.
  • eyesore and problem even before pandemic
  • how to expand energy up Broad St to the neighborhoods?
  • absolute priority for me
  • seeing movement on the Boyd site

Candidate Crampsie Smith:

  • Broad St. is hidden gem
  • looking into what can do about buildings uncared for by developers
  • other places fine developers
  • reconstruction of Walnut St. garage will help too
  • incentives for inclusionary/affordable housing

Candidate Reynolds:

  • businesses want more people living downtown
  • got to be housing component there
  • chicken and egg: work on businesses and housing at same time
  • need people living, working, playing there
  • Northside 2027
  • make it an enjoyable walk downtown

Mayoral candidates Grubb and Reynolds on the most pressing issue facing the City

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selections from Christina Tatu, “Q&A with Bethlehem’s Democratic candidates for mayor.” Morning Call, April 22, 2021.

Q. What do you think is the most pressing issue facing the city and how would you address it?

Grubb: Gentrification. It is becoming more and more difficult for longtime and lower income residents to remain a part of the community. Addressing affordable housing is the first step to rectifying this. If a diverse population can’t afford to rent or own a home in Bethlehem, its character will suffer as a result. Diversity is a strength, and losing that strength will negatively impact the pool of qualified people to fill employment opportunities in the city.

Reynolds: The pandemic has upended our community in many ways and we need to emerge as a stronger, fairer and more vibrant city. Families, small businesses, nonprofits and our institutions have all made incredible sacrifices during the past year. We need to assist our residents most affected by the pandemic as well as invest in building a more resilient community.

Our response must be directed towards both short-term relief and longer-term planning in Bethlehem. We must continue to attract jobs and new investment to our city. Private economic investment in our community is needed to fund our basic city services and keep taxes as low as possible. Every job that is created in our community makes it easier for City Hall to continue to deliver high quality public safety services, pave our streets and invest in our neighborhoods.

Two interesting things about candidate Reynolds and the CAP

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Breena Holland is an Associate Professor at Lehigh University in the Department of Political Science and the Environmental Initiative. She is a past director of Lehigh University’s South Side Initiative.

ref: The Mayoral candidates April 6 at LV4ALL:  the environment and Martin Tower

Gadfly,

I note two interesting things about WR’s response. First, he is taking a lot of credit for doing his job, which is to respond to the significant citizen interest in a climate action plan (CAP). While he deserves some credit for helping to get money for other people to write the CAP, it is a bit self-aggrandizing for him to claim that HE is the developer of it. He’s the public face of a citizen effort, and as a consequence of that, he is benefiting from significant political support coming from the environmental community in Bethlehem that this public role assured him. Of course, we don’t actually have any concrete action on climate change after many years of planning and talking and support building, so whether he will be successful in getting anything significant done on climate remains to be seen. Second, as a quasi-governmental advisory council without a partisan political affiliation, I’m shocked that Mr. Reynolds would publicly proclaim the support of members of the EAC that he voted to appoint. It’s fine for appointed officials to support political candidates as private citizens, but for Reynolds to affiliate his candidacy with the support of people he approved for public positions smacks of impropriety. It undermines the legitimacy of the EAC because it gives the appearance that he approved the appointment of people because he already knew he could later claim their support in a political campaign. This is precisely why we need the Ethics Ordinance that Reynolds so effectively torpedoed.

Breena

Mayoral candidate Dana Grubb: the City must have “a comprehensive code of ethics”

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Dana Grubb for Mayor

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Candidate Grubb at City Hall:

  • worked 27 years in various capacities in the Department of Community and Economic Development
  • critical for the City to have a comprehensive code of ethics
  • proposed several years ago but rejected by several Council members including opponent Reynolds
  • need transparency, honesty, integrity in a system built on checks and balances
  • must deflect solicitations for special favors
  • no campaign donations from Bethlehem major developers (deep pockets)
  • also no endorsements from City and elected officials (you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours)
  • will act solely in best interest of residents

Let’s believe in a better Bethlehem.

The Mayoral candidates April 6 at LV4ALL: the environment and Martin Tower

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“How would you balance environmental protection concerns such as those brought up by the Environmental Action Committee with rezoning and development in Bethlehem into such things as Martin Tower?

Candidate Grubb:

  • The EAC made recommendations when Martin Tower was before Council
  • such as impact on Monocacy Creek, pollution
  • they weren’t listened to
  • developers given carte blance
  • which opponent Reynolds supported
  • with so much impermeable surface you can’t ignore the environmental impact
  • you gotta play hardball with developers
  • has experience doing that
  • gotta let them know the environment is important to the residents
  • would take a hard stance with developers

Candidate Reynolds:

  • Administration not Council brought forward the re-zoning proposal
  • Council created compromise that reduced the amount of retail by 75%
  • compromise balance commercial, residential, and retail
  • redevelopment is a balance of those three in a sustainable way
  • nobody’s talking about the Climate Action Plan I developed and that is just going to be released
  • EAC has been 100% supportive of CAP
  • members are supporting my campaign
  • roadmap to sustainability that touches every project including Martin Tower

On the subject of hardball and negative campaigning

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Candidate Grubb’s hardball mailer created quite a buzz, a buzz about negative campaigning. Now we have the Reynolds hardballer as well. Apoplexy abounds.

Here below we have Councilwoman Negron giving candidate Reynolds some space on the topic of his involvement with the ethics ordinance and Barbara Diamond defending candidate Grubb against the charge of negative campaigning.

Further comments on either side welcome and invited.

ref: Hardball (Grubb)
ref: Candidate Grubb critics don’t respond to the facts
ref: Hardball (Reynolds)

Gadfly,

Dr. Van Wirt and I continued the conversation to bring back our Ethic ordinance and Dr. Van Wirt did her due diligence and approached councilman Reynolds who said he would support the Ethics Ordinance. I think it took him a while, but he now understands our points and the problems of not having a single, comprehensive ordinance. There is a lot of work that we do behind the scenes that takes a lot of time, and we don’t bring the work to the public eye until it is totally ready. Councilman Colon and I met with a group of citizens for an entire year to create our Ethics Ordinance. I made a big mistake (because I didn’t know any better), and I didn’t present the ordinance to our council solicitor. He would have revised and better prepared it to follow the format typically used when presenting an ordinance. Once presented, he did change it, but that’s when I realized I should have done that first, and he could have helped me make additional  changes before presenting it to full council. That’s what Dr. Van Wirt was and is working on since 2019. The Pandemic forced her to stop that process. It has being a tough year for everyone, but for a frontline doctor, one can only imagine. Council will bring the Ethics ordinance back, councilman Reynolds is in full support that we do so, and will support the ordinance as well! People don’t know what they don’t know; however, I really wish my and Dr. Van Wirt’s opinions would be taken more seriously and with more respect. We are the ones fighting the good fight right in the trenches!

Olga Negron April 26

———–

Dear Gadfly,

In your Hardball post of April 25th, Mayoral Candidate Willie Reynolds and Councilwoman Crampsie-Smith accuse Mayoral Candidate Dana Grubb of negative campaigning in response to a campaign mailer that lists actions Mr. Reynolds has taken. It is legitimate to challenge your opponent on his record. Mr. Reynolds could have used the opportunity to refute what was listed on the mailer or provide some context or defense. It is revealing that he does neither of those things. He doesn’t address the facts on the mailer at all. Instead he denigrates Mr. Grubb by characterizing him as someone who is not proud of where Bethlehem is going and Ms. Crampsie-Smith characterizes him as acting with malevolence. To my mind, these personal attacks actually are negative campaigning.

Now behold the Reynolds campaign mailer that arrived in the mail today. This was most likely in production when Reynolds and Crampsie-Smith were complaining about Dana’s negative campaigning. This piece is exceedingly misleading insinuating that Dana is like Trump and by leaving out important information, which Dana explains in Gadfly’s March 11 post. Dana was assaulted by a coworker resulting in a broken nose; he did not retaliate. The coworker was someone Dana had reported to the Director of a Human Resources and the City Solicitor for unethical and potentially illegal behavior. Although both participants had to leave city government, Dana was approached by and assisted the FBI for 2 years with information about possible corruption in Bethlehem’s city government and development community.

It seems obvious that candidate Reynolds would rather attack his opponent with distortions than defend his own record. Voters want and deserve to know specifically what candidates who have held public office or served in city hall have actually done and how those actions have moved the city forward or point toward future decision-making.

Barbara Diamond April 30

Hardball (2)

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received today from the Friends of J. William Reynolds

 

The print is hard to read:

Suspended official told not to work at home — Morning Call — November 12, 2004 — page B3

Bethlehem officials have ordered Dana Grubb, one of the managers involved in a Nov. 4 fight at City Hall to stop taking files and documemts home and performing work-related duties while he is suspended with pay.

City to post police guard at meetings** After Nov. — Morning Call — January 18, 2005 – page B1

For years, Dana Grubb attended Bethlehem Health Board meetings as a deputy director of community development, but if he wants to attend another one, it will be under guard of a police officer.

The city is taking action in response to concerns raised by Health Director Judy Maloney, who was in her office Nov. 2 when just outside it Grubb and Harvey Joseph, the city’s former environmental health director, got into a fistfight. Both men were later forced to retire.

Grubb was the city grants administrator and deputy director of community development among other roles. He retired from the city in 2004 after he and Harvey Joseph, who was the environmental health director, got into a fistfight in City Hall. Then-Mayor John Callahan told them they could retire or be fired.

Mayoral candidate Grubb on the 2004 City Hall fight

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Mayoral candidate Grubb’s response on the topic of a City Hall fight given at the North West/Kaywin Block Watch meeting April 26 at the Church of the Manger.

————–

In 2003, I received phone calls that a city employee who reported to me was taking bribes. I immediately went to the HR director and she called the assistant city solicitor into the meeting. I was told later that a criminal investigation was started.
The city was transitioning at that time from the Delgrosso administration to the Callahan administration, so the outgoing solicitor met with me, told me how he thought it should be pursued by the incoming administration, and outlined how he felt I should proceed. I don’t know if the person under investigation was aware of any of this, but I suspect he may have been, because my immediate supervisor, the DCED director, was his cousin.
When the new administration came in, I followed the advice I had been given. I felt that Bethlehem residents deserved to have something like this resolved because they deserved better; plus, it did not reflect well on city government.
The morning of the episode in question, I went up to the health bureau on an unrelated matter. When I arrived there the employee who was going to hit me in the face was seated in the reception area. He kept interfering with my interaction with the health bureau secretary, which did not involve him at all, and I finally told him to mind his own business.
At this point, that individual got up from his chair and came across the health bureau office, and got into my face/space. I sensed that he was going to get physical, and felt threatened. I reached out to move him out of my space by putting my hands on his shoulders and applying pressure. As I did that, he swung over my extended hands and arms as I was moving him back, and his fist connected with my nose.
I then grabbed him by the shoulders to hold onto him because he was swinging wildly, and even biting and scratching at me: I needed both to de-fuse the situation and defend myself. I ended up with scratch marks on my neck in addition to a fractured nose.
The entire encounter lasted about 15 seconds until a couple or three other co-workers pulled us apart. My right hand came off his left shoulder but he continued to attack getting within inches of biting me. I his left shoulder again, but a second or two later, the other workers had got my assailant under control.
I left the health bureau office and went back downstairs to my office to let my secretary know I was heading up to HR to report the incident, which I did.
It was at the advice of the HR director that I went to the hospital to be examined.
I never swung or hit my assailant, and he has admitted that to others.
Months before this occurred, I had reported a MC journalist to my superior because a number of us had noticed that he seemed to be under the influence of alcohol whenever he came to city hall: the odor of alcohol was easily detectable on him. I threatened to go Editor-in-Chief Susan Hunt if the matter wasn’t addressed. The MC was made aware of the situation, and it is entirely possible that my name became known to the reporter. He was later terminated by the MC after Councilwoman Jean Belinski complained to the paper about him misrepresenting her statements in his coverage of Council meetings. When my episode happened, he was still with the MC and wrote the articles about it, which were not only not factual, but sensationalized.

Reprinted from March 11: Mayoral candidate Grubb explains 2004 incident

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This post first appeared in The Gadfly March 11, 2021.

————

Dana Grubb is a candidate for mayor of our city.

Dear Gadfly,

I’ve been hesitant to dive into the details and drag others into the issue, but after learning that a Republican candidate has announced for Mayor of Bethlehem, one who was involved in a confrontation in another state in the past himself, and that parallels are now being drawn by some groups between his incident and an incident in my own past, it is time for me to clear the air. I was not present for whatever happened to the Republican candidate and therefore cannot comment on it.

In 2004, I was acting on some citizen complaints about a coworker of mine who was accused of unethical and potentially illegal behavior. As an administrator to whom these complaints were directed, I had a responsibility to report them to both the Director of Human Resources and the City Solicitor. I did. The city government was transitioning into the new Callahan administration, and follow up on these complaints was either ignored or covered up. However, I felt such serious allegations needed to be pursued in order to discover the truth: the citizens of Bethlehem deserve no less. Outgoing City Solicitor Joseph ‘Jay’ Leeson had also advised me to continue.

Later in 2004, I was assaulted and punched in the face by this coworker, which resulted in my nose being fractured. I never retaliated, and the incident was over within seconds. Actions taken by others who witnessed all or part of the incident had nothing to do with the incident itself; comments about other workers being afraid and locking themselves in their offices to escape involvement were no doubt prompted by witnessing something that never should have happened in City Hall, but in which I was not the instigator—and in fact was the person who was assaulted.

My coworker and I were both held accountable and retired from city service.

Newspaper accounts in the Lehigh Valley regarding this matter were skewed and sensationalized by a City Hall beat reporter. I had previously brought complaints about him, which I had received, to the attention of my superior who handled it with the reporter. He stopped the behavior that had engendered the complaints, but apparently remained irate about my intervention, and therefore took this opportunity to have his revenge.

Others with absolutely no understanding or knowledge of this back story are attempting to drag my name through the mud by bringing up this incident, to benefit the Mayoral candidate of their choice. None of them were present the morning of the incident between me and my coworker, nor did they work in city hall. In answering queries I’ve had about this occurrence, I have always said that we were both held accountable, have learned from the experience, and have moved on. My resolve to institute a zero-tolerance policy for intimidation and bullying has only been strengthened by what I learned from this experience. As someone who was attacked for acting on principle, I have a better understanding of the various ways bullying and intimidation may be accomplished, as well as a better understanding of a victim’s situation.

After this incident and my retirement, I was approached by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to be an informant and provide as much information and knowledge about possible corruption in Bethlehem city government and the development community in general. I did that for over two years.  I recently learned that the investigation into the Allentown Mayor’s conviction on pay-to-play charges had provided evidence that the same thing had been happening in Bethlehem.

I did not, do not, and will not accept unethical or illegal behavior from anyone involved in Bethlehem’s governance. People who know me and have worked with me are aware of that, and many have endorsed my candidacy for Mayor because they are certain that I will stand by my principles, even if it makes me unpopular in certain sectors. My integrity is not for sale to anyone and that may be why those engaged in such behaviors are so eager to point the finger at me. If people applauded those who stand up against wrong doing in any form, it would help to foster a much needed culture of ethics in city government.

Dana

The Mayoral candidates April 6 at LV4ALL: question to Reynolds on contributions from developers

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“Willie, you have accepted a $4000 donation and a $2000 donation from folk related to developers. Can you explain this and assure the people that it would not be a conflict of interest for you when discussing developments within the City?”

Candidate Reynolds:

  • I can tell you one of the things I want to start with is if you look at 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, I literally raised zero dollars.
  • For a while my opponents here were talking about contributions I received 9, 10, 11 years ago.
  • They dropped talking about that, it was a decade ago, because they realized it didn’t sound as good.
  • I can also tell you that in politics I’ve learned that at some point you need to raise money.
  • And everybody remembers campaigns where my opponents sent out campaign mailers when I was 19 years old with my backwards hats on.
  • Those campaigns were run by a lot of the people currently making comments in the chat box and by my opponent right here.
  • But I can tell you that I’m proud of every vote that I ever made.
  • And a lot of the conversation here is about the fact that people are frustrated that Bethlehem is moving forward.
  • There’s a lot of hypocrisy here, and I can tell you that we need investment in our city.
  • And I think if you take a look at the economic development projects that have occurred in Bethlehem over the past 25 years, it is what has allowed Bethlehem to build back an economy that was struggling after Bethlehem Steel went down.
  • So I am very proud of my voting record.
  • In the last several years you’re going to look at the fact that, in the last 4-5 years I didn’t raise a dollar.
  • The best that my opponent has as far as a vision is complaining about something that happened in 2011.
  • I would say look at my colleagues, and if you take a look at Dr. Van Wirt and Councilman Colon and Counvilwoman Negron, they are all supporters of mine.
  • And they are also people my opponent went to for support and they said no because of his negativity and his vision.
  • So I am proud of who is supporting my campaign.
  • I am proud that we have support in the community, and I look forward to serving the residents.

 

Moderator to Grubb:

  • I’ll give you a 30-second rebuttal.

Candidate Grubb:

  • Just one point, I did not go to any elected officials looking for endorsements, at all.

Candidate Reynolds:

  • That’s a lie. But I’m going to let that go.

The Mayoral candidates April 6 at LV4All; the 2017 ethics ordinance

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“As mayor of Bethlehem, would you support an ethics ordinance in our City similar to the one in 2017? And why or why did you not support that ordinance in 2017?

Candidate Reynolds:

  • 2017 ethics ordinance was about 50 pages long
  • advice of lawyers and D.A. was to break it up in pieces
  • passed two sections: ethics training and no gifts ban
  • always open to look at new things to strengthen the ordinnce
  • Councilpersons Colon and Negron proposed the ordinance in 2017
  • they felt the important parts were passed
  • they support his candidacy
  • open to whatever proposals come forward
  • must take it piece by piece
  • the advice in 2017 was that 50 pages was too long
  • best to break it up into pieces

Candidate Grubb:

  • would support the 2017 ethics ordinance
  • lot of lessons to be learned from what happened in Allentown
  • and with martin Tower
  • conflicts of Councilmen with sizeable contributions from developers
  • length of ordinance doesn’t matter
  • content is the key
  • Council dropped ball
  • two small pieces approved
  • nothing’s happened since
  • Reynolds has had a chance since 2017 to act but hasn’t
  • if elected, will resubmit a comprehensive ethics ordinance

Mayoral candidate Dana Grubb: “Economic development projects must stand on their own merit”

Latest in a series of posts on candidates for election

Dana Grubb for Mayor

click here for video

Candidate Grubb at SteelStacks:

I am not accepting contributions from the 7 or 8 largest developers in Bethlehem. Economic development projects must stand on their own merit, not the size of a campaign check.

In 1999 I was one of the City administrators that negotiated tax-increment financing and the HUD section 108 loan which allowed many of the improvements you see over here today to happen. If you elect me Mayor in May, I will take the same negotiating skills into economic development projects today where we preserve history and development fits in our city.

Let’s believe in a better Bethlehem.

Gadfly mayoral forum #7: The State of the City

Latest in a series of posts on the Gadfly Forum

The Mayoral candidate comparison chart

The prompt:

The Mayor delivered the annual State of the City address April 16.

For this Forum response, Gadfly asked the candidates to think of the state of the city, the Mayor’s state of the city address, the content of that address, criticism of or additions to the address, the way in which that address is given, focusing more resident attention on it, and options or supplements to it.

Big open range again for the candidates to roam in.

Listen to Gadfly’s full prompt here.

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Dana Grubb

The Mayor’s delivery of a “state of the city” speech, currently done at a Chamber of Commerce sponsored business meeting, presents some opportunities for improvement. Attendees must pay in order to be at the meeting and hear the speech, which limits who may attend. I have reservations about that. My sense has been that, when it comes to this address, the general public doesn’t receive the same focus as a paying audience. That is problematic.

My preference would be for the Mayor to deliver their address via local media, perhaps on our local PBS 39 station, so that anyone who is interested can tune in. Additionally, the speech could be live streamed on the city’s website and archived so that even more people could hear what the Mayor has to say.

As for this year’s address by Mayor Donchez, it struck an even tone concerning the challenges of the past year by acknowledging a number of them. The Mayor credited partners and recognized opportunities. He listed accomplishments, which sends a positive vibe, much like cheerleaders who encourage the team on the field.

During the pandemic, the City’s Health Bureau — who reported to me when I was the Deputy Director of Community Development — excelled and deserved the special mention they received this year. Support from other city departments which helped deliver the vaccine was also recognized, as it should have been.

But some aspects of the speech seemed stale, and of questionable value: old points were regurgitated, and past accomplishments were praised again.

Make no mistake about it: challenges remain in our city. Gentrification, out of scale development, a preponderance of “upscale” rental housing over owner-occupied housing, lack of affordable housing, poor city facility maintenance especially in parks, the question of ingrained racism and equal treatment under the law, and opportunities for our diverse population are all issues that were ignored by Mayor Donchez in his “state of the city” speech. They should not have been, if presenting a complete picture of the “state of the city” was the aim of the speech. While it is nice to hear about the character and charm of the city, its many amenities and achievements, it is necessary to also hear about the tests being faced by the city, its residents, and its government. These demands must be faced unflinchingly if Bethlehem is going to move forward and become better: ignoring challenges does not make them go away.

It might be better to hear from residents as well as government about the “state of the city” if we really want a thorough account. Residents’ perspectives would likely be more realistic and not as one-sided or sugar-coated, providing a sharper focus for the direction in which the city needs to move.

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J. William Reynolds

Ed, The “State of the City” hits at one of the basic functions of government – how do we communicate and engage with our residents?  It isn’t a one-off event

but rather a 365-day-a-year effort to interact with the people of our city. When I launched the Connecting Bethlehem initiative two years ago, the idea was to measure citizen satisfaction AND engagement with our current communication channels.  While many people are satisfied with the current communication measures that the city uses (and our revamped website and service app are substantial improvements), there were two takeaways in particular that are important for this conversation.

  • Residents want a centralized place to get information pertaining to Bethlehem
  • A not insignificant percentage of residents do not have internet access, so their ability to engage and interact with the City is limited.

As Mayor, I would look to revamp the ways in which the City shares information. Think about it as a 365-day “State of the City.” During my campaign, I have been using some of these tools to communicate and interact with residents about what I have focused on during my time on City Council and our ideas for building coalitions in Bethlehem to create change and implement new initiatives.

  • Study and implement a plan to achieve 100 percent high-speed internet access in the city. We need to use COVID Relief Funds (which is specifically allowable in the legislation) to conduct a study to understand the depth of the issue as well as potential long-term solutions. These efforts should include a coalition of the Bethlehem Area School District, community members, and non-profit organizations
  • Hold virtual town halls to interact with people who are unable to come into City Hall or come to City Council meetings
  • Make “The Bethlehem Corner” a weekly opportunity to talk about city issues, have city employees talk about leaf collection, snow removal, etc., and have on community members to talk about important topics in Bethlehem
  • Have these conversations in the community whenever possible. It is vitally important to meet people where they live, work, and play. City Hall should be the last place where we have these conversations

This last point gets to the crux of your post. There is nothing wrong with speaking about the state of the city to a group of business and community leaders. That, however, can only be one strategy for talking about where as a city and where we are going. Our Climate Action Plan, Northside 2027, and Community Engagement Initiative have also been designed to increase the ability of residents and community service providers to be involved in creating change as it relates to their view of the “state of the city.” It can’t be a one-way conversation from City Hall to the community. Everyone’s perspective on our community is important and City Hall must utilize every tool that it has to gather and present more comprehensive pictures on the current and future state of our city.

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Residents are welcome to fashion reflections on candidate comments, sending them to ejg1@lehigh.edu. On Gadfly we seek the good conversation that builds community, so please be courteous at all times. Gadfly retains the right to abridge and to edit your reflections and to decline posts that are repetitive or that contain personal attacks. Gadfly will publish resident reflections on the week’s Forum at noon on Friday.

City Council candidates on the pandemic

Latest in a series of posts on candidates for election

Bethlehem City Democrat Committee
City Council candidate forum April 12

Council candidates: Callahan, Crampsie Smith, Kwiatek, Leon, Wilhelm

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“The pandemic has had a huge impact on all of our citizens and businesses over the last year. What do you see as the biggest priority for City Council to help get our city back on a forward track?”

Grace Crampsie Smith

 

“Continue to fight the virus . . . . small businesses . . . Department of Health . . . homelessness . . . housing.”

 

 

Rachel Leon

 

 

“We have to really start adjusting to climate change.”

 

 

Kiera Wilhelm

 

“A vaccine equity initiative . . . multi-lingual  programs to educate folks about the vaccine . . . mortgages and rent relief . . . schools . . . small businesses . . . make funding easy to get.”

 

 

Bryan Callahan

 

“We have to be very careful about what we are doing with our tax rate.”

 

 

Hillary Kwiatek

 

“We need to look at this problem not just from one community but the many communities that make up our city.”

 

to be continued . . .