There's a lot riding on the upcoming primary election in Bethlehem.

Mayor William Reynolds and Councilwoman Grace Crampsie Smith face off tonight in a head to head debate.

We'll hear from both candidates as they answer tough questions and share their vision for the future of the city they serve.

From the Univest Public Media Center in South Bethlehem.

Lehigh Valley Public Media presents the Bethlehem mayoral debate for the 2025 primary.

Our moderators will start us off right now.

Good evening, and welcome to the 2025 Bethlehem mayoral debate.

Lehigh Valley Public Media is proud to present this forum on Lehigh Valley News.com.

PBS 39 and 91.3 Wolves are welcome to the Universe Public Media Center at the steel campus in Bethlehem.

I'm Tom Shortell, politics reporter at Lehigh Valley News.com, and I'm Bethlehem reporter Will Oliver.

With the primary election just three weeks away.

Tonight we focus on Bethlehem and its future.

Who will lead the city into the next half of the decade?

And what's their vision for those who live, work and visit here?

That's what we want to learn tonight.

We're grateful to be joined by the two candidates, both Democrats competing in the primary.

There are no Republicans on the ballot, which gives extra weight to what happens in a few weeks.

The winner of the Democratic primary is all but assured of winning the general election in November.

Let's meet the candidates.

So, Jay William Reynolds is the incumbent mayor and his fourth year on the job.

He won the election in 2021 after working as a high school teacher and serving 14 years on Bethlehem City Council.

Grace Crampsie Smith is a city councilwoman first appointed in 2019.

She served six years on council and has worked as a school counselor and service administrator for those with developmental disabilities.

Before we begin, a note, the candidates have not seen the questions.

Journalists from Lehigh Valley Public Media prepared them.

Mr. Reynolds, before the debate, we flipped a coin.

You will lead us off with your opening statement.

You have two minutes.

Thank you.

First of all, I want to thank channel 39 for hosting us here tonight.

At this time when public television is under attack in America.

We are grateful for the role you play in building community and building kindness within our city.

And I can't say thank you enough.

These events tend to be forgettable, and they're not particularly memorable, and they're not particularly memorable because you come here today wanting to hear about a future and a vision, and you leave feeling what you feared about politics, that it's driven by ego and personal grievance.

And over the past four years, between City Hall, City Council, the Bethlehem Area School District, our small business community, we have found ways to reject that.

We have rejected what you don't like about politics.

We understand that here in the city of Bethlehem, we are only as strong as we are together.

And that's why what we have achieved over the past four years that formula is due to you and it's been impressive what we've gotten done.

4000 new jobs, the safest city in Pennsylvania, new parks.

But more than that, that idea that in Bethlehem things are different, that you're part of a community.

And those successes come from a formula that people can't seem to figure out in Washington.

But what we do here in the city of Bethlehem is get as many people in the same room as possible that have the same goal, come up with a plan, and we don't care who gets the credit.

And as we move forward, I need to start by saying thank you.

We're going to talk about a lot of different things today, but more than anything else, I want to say thank you for what you've done.

I've said this many times.

People wake up in Bethlehem.

It's not just about them.

They don't say things are finished.

When they're able to define success for themselves, they want to create success for others.

Our revitalization over the past 30 years has been remarkable.

What we've achieved over the past four years has been impressive, and our next four years are even brighter.

We're going to create more opportunities for small businesses to thrive, more opportunities for families to be successful.

And more than anything else, we're going to remind you that what's going on in Washington, what's going on in so many other places, isn't going on here because of you.

We've gotten to this place together, and I can't wait to talk about where we're going to go over the next four years together.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Reynolds.

Mrs. Smith, two minutes for your opening statement.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr. Deegan.

Will on time, PBS and everyone in the audience here tonight.

I'm running for mayor because Bethlehem deserves a mayor who is accessible, accountable, transparent, and has strong leadership skills.

As noted on my sixth year serving on City Council, I come from a long line of strong Democratic family members, many of whom have been elected officials.

My dad was a police chief.

My mom was a nurse, and my parents and my six older siblings, and instilled in me a songs, a strong sense of civic duty and strong democratic values.

Ever since I was young, all I've wanted to do was serve others.

I feel I'm well qualified and that I've 20 years experience working in three different county governments in the Commonwealth.

I started as an addictions counselor at a prison counselor.

I became an administrator in which I had to implement budgets with limited taxpayer funds for those with mental illness, developmental disabilities, and infants and toddlers needing early intervention services.

I know the importance of fiscal accountability and how to fight for our taxpayers.

I recently tired after 20 years as a school counselor at Easton Area High School.

Given the current status in the federal government, now more than ever, we need a mayor who knows how to tighten the purse strings and prioritize accordingly.

I'm supported by individuals, small businesses, and unions because they know I'm a strong advocate for working individuals and families.

I'm not supported by developers, consultants, big city law firms, or builders.

I will be an accessible mayor and that I will reopen City hall and once a month have the residents come to meet with me.

I also will restructure City Hall so that I have a point person in community outreach, as well as operations management.

Let's not have Bethlem lose that which makes us special or rich history or unique neighborhoods, and most especially the people that comprise our wonderful community.

Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Smith.

So we will begin with each candidate answering a few questions directed specifically to them.

There are no rebuttals in this part of the debate, and you'll have one minute to answer.

Miss Smith.

A review of your campaign.

Social media includes a lot of one of what I might post on my personal accounts.

Family milestones, well wishes, birthday greetings.

When it comes to communicating with constituents on the issues, what's your strategy?

And where's that happening?

Thank you.

Will.

Thank you for that question.

Well, I communicate on a regular basis.

I feel like, I'm out there in the community very often right now.

I've been canvasing.

I've had probably $3,500 so far, and I plan to hit every door of the super voters in the city.

So I'm out there meeting the people.

I try to put some things on social media, but I do try not to put a lot of political things on social media, because I know that for some and many like myself, social media is really meant to be more enjoyed as far as looking at family pictures and not controversial topics like politics.

Thank you, Mr. Reynolds.

The city budget has grown by about $31 million since 2021, mostly because of expenses facilitated by the American Rescue Plan.

Now that that money is mostly run out, what is the future of those programs and services?

Yeah, one of our success stories is the idea that Bethlehem has never had a stronger financial position than we have now.

We have the best bond rating of any, city in Pennsylvania.

We have the lowest earned income tax.

And over the past four years, we've paid off about a third of our debt.

And over the past ten years, we've paid off over $100 million.

One of the great things about the city is that when we got through the closing of Bethlehem Steel, like a lot of places, we had to borrow, but we have basically inverted that debt to revenue ratio, by which we now have more money coming in than we have dead.

We are completely ready for the next five, ten years as far as our growth between our earned income tax, between our natural property tax growth and the job creation, to be able to continue to do the most important thing that we can do, which is keep our promise to our employees.

Our pension fund is over 90% funded.

And if you take a look at the promises that we make to our firefighters and our police officers and our city Hall workers through our five year and ten year financial plan, we are well positioned to be able to maintain that position as the best financial, city in the state of Pennsylvania.

What about, services like human services?

I know there's been a lot of, efforts for housing and things along those lines.

Yeah.

What we've been able to do, too, is be able to leverage the dollars.

So for every dollar that we get in.

And one of the things we did with the American Rescue Plan was both put dollars out the door in the short term to help people, but also think about what those long term capital costs are.

The city used to do a capital borrowing every couple of years.

We haven't done one of those in six years, and we're on pace to not do it for another couple of years.

So then we're able to lower our debt, lower interest payments, and be able to put more money back into our parks, back into our neighborhoods.

But we also have our partnerships with our nonprofits.

If you take a look at our work with Community Action in New Bethany in the Bethlehem Area School District, we're able to leverage these dollars together, that we're providing some services and they're providing some services.

And I can say without a doubt that those relationships have never been stronger.

Thank you.

Mayor.

Miss Crampsie Smith, in addressing affordable housing, you often cite the statute that you champion that requires developers to get to get tax breaks to set aside 10% of their units as affordable.

But the law also enables them to skirt that obligation by paying a fee.

What has been the net result of that legislation, either in actual affordable units built or in revenue payments to the city?

Thank you.

Tom.

The Laura is what you are speaking of.

That's the tax abatement that is available to developers in certain areas.

And it's a ten year tax break for them.

I amended to load a so that every 10th unit must be an affordable unit or fee in lieu initially of 25,000.

I then further amended it to double the fee in lieu to be 52,000.

Much to the chagrin of the current mayor, right now, those who have taken advantage of the load have chosen to do the fee in lieu.

So we have, I believe, between 500 and $700,000 that we've gone through the fee in lieu that is earmarked to use toward affordable housing projects.

Thank you, Mr. Reynolds.

A few weeks ago, notices and homeless encampments along the Lehigh River led some to believe a sweep was imminent.

There is a safety issue here for the people in those encampments and those who use the towpath for recreation.

We'll talk more about shelters in a bit, but what is your administration's policy on the camps and tents along the Lehigh?

One of the things that we're most proud of is that we've expand our Community Connections program, which is an innovative program between our our health department and social workers there and our police department to be able to go meet people where they are, to be able to talk to them, be able to provide different services as far as what housing is available and things like that.

We are not sweeping anybody.

We are not cleaning anybody out.

What we are doing on a daily basis is trying to help people.

We are not in the business of moving problems.

We are in the business of solving problems.

So what we have done has been proactive.

It's like everything else we do.

There's things that you can do today to help people, but there's also long term planning that you're able to do.

So between our Community Connections program, between our work with Lehigh Conference of Churches with New Bethany, with Community Action, we are trying to help people, not just find a place to sleep tonight, but be able to find that stable place that they're going to be able to sleep for the next five, ten, 15 years.

So we're down there every day trying to talk to individuals, trying to help them work through a lot of the issues that they're dealing with, but also maintain a quality of life.

Homelessness is a is not a permanent state for people.

We truly believe that it's a temporary state and it's our responsibility to step up.

We would like other people to step up in the Lehigh Valley.

So it's not just the city of Allentown, the city of Bethlehem, the city of and doing this, but we are doing our part, and we're going to continue to do that part with our coalition that we have built to be able to help people, to be able to get up and and be able to find a safe place to live.

Thank you, Mayor Reynolds.

Councilwoman, you've criticized the Reynolds administration for over relying on paid consultants and studies.

What studies or projects would you end if you were elected?

Thank you.

The reason I criticize the obvious as a consultant, because we spent almost $1 million of consultants, primarily just for housing.

In 2021, we were selected as one of five cities to work with New York University in the Housing Solutions workshop.

We were given ideas and I started a task force, a local task force with developers, developers, Allen Jennings, nonprofits and banks on housing.

NYU recommended we continue that task force.

We developed recommendations on from that task force for free.

The Lehigh Valley Regional Housing Advisory Board also came and presented recommendations to council on how to use the Arpa money for housing for free.

I didn't feel there was a need to hire so many consultants to see what we need to do about housing.

Here we are years later.

We have nothing.

We have no shovel in the ground.

We have no homeless shelter.

What I would have done was rely on the expertise of those in the field of housing.

I worked for two years with people who had been homeless.

I know what we need to do.

In many ways, it's not an easy solution is a multi-step, systemic approach, but we need to work with the local people who are there every day working with these folks.

Mr. Reynolds, you've made housing one of the cornerstones of your first term in office.

But when it comes to affordable housing, there's very little defined.

Almost three and a half years in.

What do you have to show for your efforts?

Well, I think you're a great example.

If you have the time to Google will Oliver and Bethlehem Housing?

Well, you've written probably dozens of articles about our housing successes over the past couple of years, but I'll try to answer this in a minute.

It's that the best affordable housing strategies keep keeping people within their home.

It is much easier and more cost effective to be able to keep people in their home.

Are healthy homes and housing rehab programs have helped almost 200 families over the past couple of years.

We've worked with Community Action to provide, first time homebuyer, classes.

We have first time assistance programs that help with down payments.

We have a tenant advocate with Community Action.

We've also worked with New Bethany to be able to help people to stabilize the rental situation.

With that being said, as I said before, it's not about moving problems, it's about solving problems.

And we don't have enough affordable, attainable housing.

That is permanent.

So we are working on building over 500 units using tax credits.

You don't do 30, 40, 50 million projects overnight.

And you also don't just go to the private sector, go to the state and federal government and say, hey, can you give us $40 million?

You need to be able to come up with a sophisticated plan.

And let me be clear to criticisms of our housing isn't criticisms of me.

It's criticisms of community action of New Bethany, of the Bethel Area School District, of City Hall, all the different city employees.

We had almost 4000 people participate in our housing plan.

So criticizing what we are doing on housing, it's not directed towards me.

It's directed towards all of the coalition of people within this city and the institutions that have been working on housing successfully.

Thank you, Mayor Reynolds.

That concludes our first round.

For the next questions.

You'll both have a minute to answer.

If you want to rebut or add something, you can just signal us so we'll know that you want to respond.

You'll have about 30s for rebuttals.

Will.

Why don't you lead us off?

So, Miss Smith, in 2024, the city raised taxes 2.6% and the sewer rate went up 8%.

A total of about 50 to 60 bucks more for the average residents.

And taxes held steady this year.

Considering what you know right now about city finances, what assurances or insight can you give about what's in store for next year?

Thank you.

Well, well, as you may know, in 2024 I was the only council person that voted against the tax increase.

And the reason was mayor Will Venable started his budget request saying we were in the best financial situation ever.

We had 35 million to spend in Arpa money.

So as a mayor, I would never raise taxes when we're in the best financial shape ever and have 35 million in Arpa money.

Given that we are in a good, solid financial situation.

As I say to all my constituents, if I do not have to raise taxes, I certainly will not.

However, I, I will never lie and say I'll never, ever raise taxes because that is impossible for any politician that says that is just false.

But right now we are in a good financial position.

Like I said, I voted against that tax increase and I will do everything in my power to not have a tax increase.

And Mr. Reynolds, will there need to be a tax increase next year and why or why not?

There will not be.

But I just want to get back to that.

We spent money and it was almost unanimous in city council to hire four new paramedics.

That reduced response times by 20% and has saved lives.

There's a difference between one time revenues and sustainable revenues, and no responsible leader are going to look at people in their public safety departments and say, we have money this year, but we might not have money next year.

The plan from the beginning was to be able to spend those Arpa dollars on one time expenditures.

But when you're talking about public safety, it has to be sustainable.

The reason why Bethlehem is different than everybody else is we don't spend one time revenues on sustainable expenses.

That means breaking promises to your public safety unions.

That means breaking promises to your residents.

There are people in the city that wanted more paramedics, and we hired more paramedics and hired and were able to deliver more technology for our police department going into next year.

Also, I would say we are in the best financial position we've ever been in as far as our bond rating is concerned.

Our earned income tax is the lowest of any city in Pennsylvania.

Our pension fund is over 90% funded.

We have, we're paying off debt at a rapid rate rate.

There's a bunch of different things that you look at when you're determining whether or not your city is in a good financial spot.

I'm going to have to cut you off there.

But, Councilwoman, you want a rebuttal?

Can I be about.

Oh.

Thank you.

My confusion on this issue is this in 2020, we we amend that we, in our budget, got rid of four firefighter positions.

I amended it to keep them on because I am all about public safety.

My father was a police chief and I have three nephews in law enforcement.

However, no one supported me, including Mayor Reynolds at the time.

A council person.

What I don't understand is hiring those EMS positions, which I am all for was great, but raising the base and taxes for one year is not going to cover the sustainable expenses of having those four positions under our employment for 2030 years.

And now see your argument I got when I tried to have the four firefighter positions not removed for the 2020 budget.

Mayor Reynolds real brief has to be like 10s.

The Washington equation is say no and let somebody else figure out the problem.

The councilman had two years to come up with council amendments or budget amendments to come up with a different way to pay for those paramedics, and she didn't even offer an amendment.

Thank you.

Moving on.

Mayor Reynolds.

Studies have found that the average Bethlehem resident can't afford rent, costing much more than about $1,700 a month, and that's well out of the price range for some.

Yet hundreds of new luxury apartments are entering the market for far more than that.

What would you say to residents who question the benefits of these luxury units in an affordable housing crisis?

Affordable housing is a country wide problem.

We have several problems in the city of Bethlehem as far as trying to solve it.

There's not a lot of low hanging fruit.

It's an all of the above strategy.

If you look at the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission's report on housing, we are tens of thousands of units short at every single level.

So we are working on both adding units that are market rate, but also adding units that are deeply affordable and attainable.

What we are also doing though, is trying to help rates cut.

Units come on that are affordable for a teacher making $60,000 a year.

Our problem in the Lehigh Valley is that we do not have enough housing.

So it's an all of the above strategy.

I'm not someone that brings people down here.

So like some of the councilman's ideas about housing are positive ones that help.

This isn't a competition about who's got the best idea about housing.

It's how do we raise this issue with people across the Lehigh Valley to be able to look at like, how do we add more units?

But in the city of Bethlehem, we also have a unique problem where there's not a lot of places to build.

So we we have work to be a market participant, to be able to build affordable, attainable housing.

But we also have to work with the private sector.

And the honest answer is, if you own a piece of property and you want to build something, the government can't say no, that is a we are lying.

If we are trying to pretend that we can tell you what to build.

We just need to understand how all the different pieces go to be able to add more housing.

Councilman, how can the city address the critical housing shortage and help create affordable units?

Thank you.

Well, one of the first things we have to do is we have to preserve the affordable housing that exists now.

For example, two weeks ago, we voted on a development on New Washington, New Garrison and North Street, which entailed tearing, demolishing single family homes.

The provide 15 units of affordable rentals at this time.

It was approved.

I voted against it.

Now that means there's going to be 15 to 30 people out on the street.

God knows where because those affordable rentals are gone and we're going to have 70 apartment built apartment units built on that land, and most likely they're not going to be affordable.

I've worked with the developers.

I sat down with those developers.

I asked them, can we do affordable?

Can we do more owner occupy, which we desperately need in this city?

87% of our development in the last seven years has been rental properties only.

We need more owner occupied.

Thank you.

Miss Crampsie Smith, this one's for you.

This is a primary election, and both of you are seeking the Democratic Party nomination.

Many pundits say the Democrats have lost their way and lean so far left that they're out of touch.

How do you describe your Democratic ideology?

Progressive.

Liberal.

Blue dog.

What kind of democrat are you?

Thank you.

Well, I think I'm a mixed match when it comes to what kind of Democrat I am.

I think unlike JFK in some ways and FDR in other ways, fiscally, I'm very pragmatic.

I grew up as a free lunch student.

We had nine people living in a three bedroom home, one bathroom, one bum, one toilet and one bathtub.

Not even a shower.

We were very poor many times.

I've been poor throughout my life, so I'm very fiscally pragmatic, especially when it comes to spending taxpayer money.

Socially, I am much more progressive again.

I worked 40 years in serving others in addictions, mental health, developmental disabilities, and counseling.

I wouldn't have done that unless I care about others and I'm progressive socially.

Mayor Reynolds, how would you describe your ideology as a Democrat?

The party's got to be the people that help.

People don't feel like we're helping people.

I'm an honest Democrat and one of the things that we've done is we've brought positivity to City Hall.

We've brought coalition building.

People get way too invested in left, right and middle and so on and so forth.

People want to know what your plan is to be able to help people out.

Are you going to build parks?

Are you going to support public safety?

Are you going to make your streets safer?

What is it that you're going to do to be able to mobilize people away from the negativity that dominates in 2025?

And that's about getting out there and finding ways to make people believe we don't have residents in the city of Bethlehem.

We have believers.

And because of that, people show up and people want to be a part of success as a party.

We've gotten way, way, way too far into arguing about what what what our label is and away from.

How do you help people?

I like to say that you could pick the solution, or you could pick the process, but you can't pick both.

We need to be the party that delivers on the solutions.

Mr. Reynolds, once again, did you have a rebuttal about that?

I just want to say, because I know with this campaign I'm being accused of being a fake then.

And I want to clarify that, some within my opponent's campaign have been saying that.

And I want to say that I have been a strong Democrat all my life.

As I said before, many of my family members had been elected official.

So I really take that, I really take offense at being called a fake dem.

I mean, I can go back as to my grandmother's, cousin was a governor in Montana.

My my grandfather was a, a cabinet level member.

And in Pennsylvania, my brother was a 30 year county comptroller.

My other brother was a, a council person.

My other better ran for Congress for anyone to dare say that I am a fake dem.

That's very, very upsetting.

Thank you mayor.

And again, briefly.

Yeah.

I just want to say, like, I certainly have not called you a fake Democrat.

I don't know anybody that's called anybody a fake Democrat.

The Democrats I know are thinking about how do we respond to Donald Trump and how do we get things done, not how do we name call or it's not eighth grade?

It.

That's that's not what I'm about.

And that's not how we've created all this progress in the city.

Mr. Reynolds, last week in this space, Bethlehem Latinos celebrated a project that explores their Latin roots in the Lehigh Valley.

Their influence here is undeniable.

30% of the city's population identifies as Hispanic, according to the census.

How has your administration served this population?

Absolutely.

One of the things that we've done from the beginning is just reiterate the fact there's not one Bethlehem story.

We all have different stories.

The count the council councilwoman has got a story.

I have a story.

All of us have a story.

The story of the Latino community in the city of Bethlehem has not been told as much as it should be.

And growing up with, people that I don't think had the same access to opportunities that we did from day one.

It's not something we've done last week or last year.

From day one, we had to center that idea that our doors are open to everybody.

So how do we reach out to people?

One of the things that we're most proud of is that we went and we have established the first sister city in Puerto Rico with Pythias.

We put together Latino leaders from throughout the Lehigh Valley, throughout the city of Bethlehem, people that grew up here whose grandparents came to work 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 there's economic opportunities and educational opportunities and small business opportunities.

So as we have gone forward, we're always thinking it's not just about what are you doing for me or what are you doing about the person that's been here for seven years?

It's how do you open that access?

So we've spent more time in in every neighborhood.

I don't spend a lot of time in City Hall because I'm going out and I'm meeting with people with churches and girl and Boy Scout groups and Girl Scout groups and in schools.

And that's really where you're able to go out and have these conversations about what people are looking for.

Thank you.

And Miss Crampsie Smith.

How would your administration ensure that Latinos are represented in your cabinet and be served by their government?

Thank you.

Well, what I also wanted to note is, I think that we're very fortunate that we have our first Dei coordinator in this Santoro.

And she does a great job, making sure that everyone feels welcome in this community.

I have worked, many years, especially in my years as a school counselor.

Most of my students were immigrants and refugees.

Most of them were Hispanic.

So that's always a priority, a priority to me.

I've always been sensitive, so I will do all I can to make sure that my staff is well represented by the Spanish, by the Spanish community and people of color.

Mayor Reynolds, you guys respond.

Yeah, I just want to thank the councilwoman for the compliment.

Hiring the center is one of these decisions I ever made, and one of the first decisions I ever made was to reorganize the mayor's office into what it currently stands as now, with the director of equity inclusion in the office right next to mine.

And Jeanine has the councilwoman, thankfully pointed out, has been leading in a lot of ways as far as our efforts are concerned.

But more than anything else, she's opened the door and listened about what we need as a 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 traditionally not trusted, trusted the government or trusted city hall?

So that's something that we're extremely proud of.

All right, Miss Crampsie Smith, a fundraising committee is being established for a proposed South Bethlehem Community Center operating at $2 million annually.

No one questions the need for this, but the $15 million projected to build a new center sounds low.

Upper Macungie is building one for three times that.

Are the users of this facility.

Expect it to shoulder the costs.

And who's going to pay for this?

Thank you.

Well, I've always been a proponent of a community center because in my work, especially as a school counselor in Easton, we are the kids.

They're very fortunate because they have three different community centers that they can go to.

And I see the difference in my students whereby they can go into the community center or they can go join a gang.

So I think community center is very vital to the community.

Money is certainly an issue, especially given what's happening at the federal level.

But I did go to the meeting.

If you are in the community center and we are going to do a capital campaign, and I think that's the way we need to, we need to do we need to try to raise as much money as we can privately and with grants.

And from the government for this so that we don't we don't burden our residents with the with the cost of the center.

And Mr. Reynolds, we'll wide taxpayers and community centers, community center users pay for this new facility.

Is there anything you want to say?

First, I just want to start with I appreciate the councilman, support for the community center, because when we originally the plan that has helped to lead to some of the fundraising, she voted against on city council.

So I am appreciative of the fact that she's come around to what the value is here.

The $15 million price tag is one that we are also working with.

We put together a development committee led by Tony DeRay, who's read, who's raised tens of millions of dollars, the United Way, and also Darren Hilliard, South Bethlehem Zone to be able to help to put put that to find where those dollars are in the private sector and with also public funding.

But our next step there is to be able to do a feasibility study as far as who the potential operator could be, so they can come in and take a look at, like, where are the sustainable revenue that we're able to be able to bring in to operate this?

This is not going to be something that is that is targeted towards people like me.

It is targeted for the youth of South Bethlehem.

It is not something that we want people to have to pay exorbitant prices for.

And it's also not as simple or stereotypical as between like go to a community center or join a gang is a community hub where services offered, where people come together, where there's a third place for students, for young people and adults.

And I got to tell you, we have had more excitement around this potential for a community center.

And we're not out from a country.

We're not trying to build a Taj Mahal for 50 or $60 million.

We're trying to build some place that people have a chance to go to after school that they don't have right now in the city of Bethlehem.

Thank you.

Councilwoman, you want to respond?

Yeah.

I want to clarify.

It's not that I voted against the community center.

I believe I voted against another consultant to study doing a community center.

And again, 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 with.

As far as building a community center.

The whole time I worked in government, I'm all about using taxpayer money for the direct services, only using consultants as necessary.

I know we could talk about this a little more, but we do need to move on to our next question.

Mayor Reynolds, we'll start with you.

Lehigh University continues to expand in the South Bethlehem neighborhoods.

In 2023, the university outbid the city for three churches in the Saint John's windage lot along East fourth Street.

For years, critics accused the city of giving Lehigh everything at once.

Is Bethlehem paying the price for that?

Today?

Our relationship with Lehigh goes back a long way.

And I mean, the tension with Lehigh goes back to 1865, when university first came here.

But our relationship with Lehigh has improved.

They are a great supporter of the South Bethlehem ambassadors.

And as far as, Wendy's church, they actually came forward after they saw our feasibility study and said, would you like the church to be a place where you're able to put the community center?

So we really appreciate that.

We're constantly talking to them about what it means to be a good neighbor, and also how they're able to continue to support all of the great things going on in the city of Bethlehem.

Lehigh has made a lot of mistakes 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 years ago.

What we are doing now, and there's a lot of distrust there.

What we're doing now is building back up that relationship.

And I said the same thing to Lehigh that I say to every institution, this is give and take.

You bring a lot to the city of Bethlehem, but also utilize a lot of services.

And president has been a great partner over the past couple of years in trying to work with us.

They're helping us with our housing.

As far as through, some of their engineering students and architecture students.

So as we move forward, it's like any other relationship.

It's what can you bring to the table and what are our needs and what are your needs and how do we work together?

Lehigh is not going anywhere, so it's not going to be combative going forward.

It's how do we work together to create shared goals for everybody?

Councilwoman?

Yes?

Can I just stay?

As an alumni of Lehigh, I am grateful for all they've done.

But I have met with Lehigh many times.

And what I have said is one thing, one thing I think they could do to help the South Side is to bring the students more back into university owned housing.

As a school counselor, I went to many colleges and universities where they are doing exactly that one.

They have more control over the students too.

It really helps to improve community relationships.

My daughters went to some of the best universities in this country, and they lived in university housing all four years.

I think by doing that, it will open up some more housing for the community on the south side.

Thank you.

Councilwoman.

We continue the 2025 Bethlehem mayoral primary debate hosted an organized by Lehigh Valley Public Media.

This program is being streamed on PBS 30 Nine's YouTube channel and our website, Lehigh Valley News.com.

It's also being simulcast on a radio station.

91.3 We Are.

Remember, the primary election is Tuesday, May 20th.

The deadline to register to vote in the primary is Monday, May 5th.

Residents can vote in person on on Election Day or by mail.

The last day to apply for a mail in ballot is Tuesday, May 13th.

All right candidates.

So we're going to switch it up.

Switch things up a bit now and allow you to ask the questions.

So taking turns you will ask your opponent two questions and they'll have one minute to respond.

Mrs. Crampsie Smith, you'll start.

Okay.

Thank you.

As chair of the Finance Committee, it has come to my attention that there is an issue within the city whereby invoices are not being received in a timely manner, resulting in late payment fees.

I was alerted because you refused to deal with this issue.

This is very concerning, especially in light of the fact that our Finance and Budget Director, Moore Cvac, embezzled city moneys while you were mayor.

I'd like to know why you're so dismissive of overseeing the finances.

Own order and policy and procedures exist the same way you dismissive and light in attending six of the last 38 City Council meetings.

So, first of all, our financial services works under Mr. Evans.

And I think if you asked Mr. Jaso, our city comptroller, about this, he would tell you that they're always working together to try to create more efficient processes.

But like, there is not a problem with within City Hall.

The second thing I would say is like I am out 5 or 6 nights a week and different city council meetings, I11 time I was at, the vote tech meeting trying to advocate for the new vo tech building.

There was another time I was at the Beth Amor Education Foundation.

My entire administration is at city council meetings.

They come there to be able to answer every single question, every single day.

I'm in different places throughout the city, so it is something I take pride in.

Is the idea that we're there both to answer those questions, be able to help people with whatever it might be.

But also, I'm representing the city I've missed for World Heritage meetings.

There's all sorts of different things that the mayor does on a on on a Tuesday night that might not make him be able to come to all of those meetings.

Thank you.

Can I get an answer to the question regarding finances, though, because I don't think I have an answer.

So as I said, like there's nothing that I'm being dismissive about if you talk to Mr. Jaso, the comptroller, if you talk to, what we have going on in financial services, we have, you know, whatever late fees you're talking about, I don't know about.

They don't appear in any audit.

They don't appear in any, any, any audit that we've had as far as the city is concerned.

So like that is not something that I am aware of.

Well, if I can clarify spoke I've met with Mr. Jaso and Mr. Evans numerous times regarding this because you've refused to deal with it.

Okay.

And I would just disagree.

I would disagree with that characterization.

Moving on.

Mayor Reynolds, your first question for the council.

Yeah.

If an opponent on the other side emerges between now in November through a writing campaign or whatever it might be, if you lose the primary, are you going to endorse and support me for mayor?

No.

And I would not support nor endorse the other opponent.

Thank you.

Mr. Crampsie Smith, your second and final question for Mayor Reynolds.

Okay.

Thank you.

Housing is obviously the number one issue within this city.

Your administration has hasn't completed one project because it took years for your hire consultants to complete a housing study.

In addition to this, you owned the rental property at 34 West Elizabeth Avenue.

The ceiling fell in on the bathroom.

The tenants claim that you you told them to use a basement toilet even though the tenant has a physical disability.

They also work without heat for six weeks during the winter months.

You would go on to evict these this family.

Given your lack of effectiveness on housing as a mayor as well as a landlord.

How can residents trust you on this vital issue?

So let me start with the idea that my wife and I owned one property other than our principal property that we sold.

Now, about six months ago, so we had tenants, we had good tenants, we had tenants that weren't as great.

But if you take a look and one of the problems here is often like you tell, try to tell two sentences in a story.

That's much longer than that.

But that is a non-issue going forward.

And we only own our, our individual private home.

Also, it's not like we haven't done anything on housing.

As I said before, we have helped hundreds of families through our housing rehab program.

We have to help hundreds of families through healthy homes.

We have helped people buy their first home.

We help people with rental assistance through New Bethany.

The most effective housing strategies keep keeping people within their home.

It's not trying to build new units because they take time, but we are also trying to do that.

But those projects take tens of millions of dollars, and what we've done is leverage the money we have put into housing to be able to to, acquire those grants and we're very excited about those two projects, Gateway and Fourth and the remake of the Pembroke neighborhood.

All right, Mr. Reynolds, your second and final question for the council.

Yeah, I would just start by saying, I think it really reveals a lot of of of the councilman's motivations here that in this era of Donald Trump and Democrats sticking together, that it was a very quick no, that she would even consider supporting me if she loses the primary.

But it is truly sad and disappointing.

But we've seen a lot of Republican talking points and negativity from your campaign and your allies, and we all know there is more coming.

There's that line in Goodfellas where Ray Liotta says, when you got nothin left, you just light a match.

My question is this in the next three weeks, can we expect more Republican negativity in the mail from you and your allies to keep burning down our city?

Success story on the Democratic Party in Bethlehem?

My answer is, I don't know what you're talking about as far as Republican negativity.

As I said, although your family members China pin me as a fake Democrat, I am not.

I have never been a Republican and never will be.

My campaign has been positive.

If anyone is going negative, it is certainly not me.

And as far as endorsing you, how could I endorse you when I don't feel like I have faith and trust in you as a mayor?

Which is exactly why I'm running against you.

And I never thought of running for mayor, but the reason I'm running is because I have had so many people and entities in the last three years asked 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.

We're going to cut it there.

Thank you both.

We'll continue now with more questions from both of you.

After that, we'll wrap things up with closing statements.

Just reminder, you each get up to a minute to respond here, and if you want to rebut something, just let us know.

Will please start us off.

You all right, Miss Smith?

A new Walnut Street parking garage is being built two blocks from a Unesco World Heritage site, and Main Street was just recognized as the best in the country.

This garage will have 250 fewer spaces than the old one.

First off, congrats on the tourism wins.

But where's everyone going to park?

Thank you.

Well, I wish I could ask you that question.

As you may know, I voted against the, Walnut Street garage.

It's not that I don't feel it needed to be demolished, but I didn't like the fact that it's going to be a much smaller garage.

It's going to be higher.

Which went against the Harb.

And the Secretary of the interior is recommendations for historic Bethlehem.

As I said, at that point, we were being considered for a World Heritage site.

I said, what are we going to do about parking?

Because with the World Heritage Site, hopefully will come increased tourism.

And now we're also the number one main street in America.

My other issue with that is being a disability advocate.

We were given plans with the garage and a white box and we weren't told with the white boxes.

Now we know it's going to be apartments.

It's going to be apartments that probably will not be affordable, even though it should be for those people that are working downtown that really need somewhere to live.

The apartments are going to be closer to the Main Street designation, and the garage is going to be farther away.

I feel that that it's not in the spirit of the Ada, because those mobility issues are now going to have to walk farther.

And, Mr. Reynolds, the Walnut Street garage, is it going to fit the city's needs as more and more people come downtown?

Yeah.

And as the chairman of the World Heritage Council and as the mayor, when we were, awarded the best main street in in America, I think we can say things are going pretty well here in the city of Bethlehem, in downtown.

We don't have a parking supply problem.

We have a parking directional problem.

We need short term parkers to be able park in the street.

That's what businesses want.

And we need long term parkers ville parking the garage, building an extra 200 spaces was going to cost us $20 million.

$20 million we can be putting into our parks, putting into events downtown, paying for staff, paying for infrastructure.

We didn't need parking that was going to sit there and not being used.

One of the biggest mistakes the city ever made was build a 500ft long parking garage in the 70s.

It's one of the only urban renewal mistakes we made, but it was a huge one.

We killed a whole block of our downtown and taking that whole block away and, evicting people at the time and kicking them out of those of those areas is one of the more shameful things we've ever done as a city.

So the idea that we're going to bring more people downtown, you want people that are live, work, play downtown, and we're going to have two great new retail spaces in the new Walnut Street garage.

We're taking a dead block and turning into a vibrant block.

And part of the reason we did this is because we had support from the downtown bathroom Association and the South Side Arts District, two different, business associations that both stood up and said, we want less parking and we want more vibrancy.

And, let's see.

Mr. Reynolds, so all three Lehigh Valley cities are struggling with balancing efforts for temporary homeless shelters with long term housing solutions.

What are your plans for addressing homelessness in Bethlehem, and who will you reach out to for help?

As I said, it's always a short term and long term.

They're always short term and long term solutions.

In the short term, we talked before about how working with Community Connections and our coalition of nonprofit partners over the long term were to working with the private, Bethlehem emergency shelter, who has a lease with crisis.

You see, UCC church to be able to find a way to be able to build a permanent year round shelter that's a seven, eight, $9 million project.

The public is going to make a donation, but we're not doing all of that fundraising.

We have help them.

We are going to continue to help them.

We provide them, help on a day to day basis.

But that's the project that's going to really help to bring some stability to this.

But this isn't a Bethlehem problem.

This is a Lehigh Valley problem.

We need our counties to step up.

There are 62 municipalities in the city, in the region, and three of them Allentown, Bethel Mission are are shouldering the load.

So we are also working with Mayor Turk and Mayor Panto to be able to make this the regional, problem priority that it is.

Mr. Smith balancing temporary shelters with long term housing solutions.

Do you have an action plan?

Well thank you.

Like I said, I've worked in the field of housing with individuals for over 40 years.

And when I right before I got on council, I really researched because I saw so many of my students becoming homeless.

And I found that the number one cause of homelessness is affordable housing.

So I went throughout the state and I partnered and I network with people.

And I'm fortunate because I have a dear friend, Mary Scullion, who started Project Home, which is an international model for housing and homelessness, in Down in Philadelphia.

In fact, I took a group of people from the Lehigh Valley down to meet with her and explore all of her wonderful things that she's done.

Nonetheless, I have met with many people.

I have many ideas.

We had a lot of ideas.

Who?

The NYU task force.

Who?

My task force.

We need a permanent shelter.

We need to have a multi systemic approach.

As I say, oftentimes to our city folks.

We need to work more with the Department of Human Services at Northampton County.

We need to assess what the people need that are down in those encampments, living outside in tents.

What do they need?

Do they need mental health services?

Addictions?

Is it just housing?

Do they need jobs?

Cars?

What do they need?

Also, we need to really help them with services like Rep, which I'm glad New Bethany is doing.

I was a rep for many people when I worked in Allentown, whereby their Social Security checks came to our office.

We would pay their rent and pay their bills because otherwise it wouldn't get paid and that gave them stability in housing.

So it's a very multi-dimensional, systemic approach that we need to take.

Thank you.

Councilwoman.

This next question is for you.

Bethlehem's Vision Zero plan aims to eliminate serious injuries and deaths for drivers, pedestrians and other road users.

How can the city realistically achieve this ambitious goal, given the infrastructure needs and the driving record of many in the community?

Okay, well thank you.

That's that's a good question.

And, we were very fortunate under the Biden administration to have the infrastructure bill.

So there were a lot of dollars available to do things that we had planned infrastructure wise as far as like on Broad Street and whatnot throughout the city.

Unfortunately, all that is, is up in the air right now.

It's in disarray.

We don't know if we're going to have the federal funding to do that, but if we do, there's many ways we could do it.

We're fortunate we have the coalition for Alternative Transportation, a wonderful organization where they not only provide bikes to people that need them, but they do a lot of education, and a lot of it is going to be about education, awareness and enforcement, especially those who are reckless drivers.

Thank you.

Mayor Reynolds, your thoughts?

How can the city realistically achieve the goals and Vision Zero?

First of all, that's coming, by the way, to the new Walnut Street garage.

So I appreciate the plug for Cat and our idea to bring them down and bring bike culture down to Center City.

One of the things that we've done is we've built on the plans, even going back to before I was around, and I just want to clarify something too.

I think the difference between us as Democrats is if things went the wrong way.

I'm still supporting the Democrat in November because it's still about helping people, and Democrats are the best people to help people going forward.

We have a great future as far as creating a more walkable and bikeable, future, starting with Cat coming down, but also our Vision Zero plan, our climate action plan, which the city of Bethlehem put together after I introduced in 2017, but also the infrastructure dollars.

We're going to get those Broad Street dollars that include a Complete Streets plan and a bike master plan for the city of Bethlehem.

So what we're going to do with West Broad Street is be able to take that corridor and turn it into being more friendly for families, small businesses, bike lanes.

And that's going to raise the bar throughout the city.

And other residents and other neighborhoods are going to look at.

And they say, we want that too.

There are streets in the city of Bethlehem that are very, very safe.

There are ones that are not.

But now, because of our financial strength as a city, we have the resources going forward to be able to make that a reality, that this isn't just about West Broad Street or about East Broad Street.

This is about the 750 lane miles of streets in the city of Bethlehem, making those so it's safe for your kids to walk to school.

Mr. Reynolds, while we're talking about traffic right now, even a fender bender on 378 or the Hill Hill Bridge causes severe backups and traffic headaches.

A plan to upgrade and add lanes is expected to to begin next year and last four years.

This sounds like a traffic nightmare.

How will your administration respond?

Yeah, so the city's been working with PennDOT for years here to try to minimize, PennDOT to decision to be able to replace the garage.

It's going to be about communication.

It's going to be about talking to PennDOT day in and day out and making sure that we're able to, you know, stage the construction at a way that you're able to be able to get through at the appropriate times.

I'm sorry.

This is the hill, the hill bridge 78, not the garage.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I apologize, but we are working with PennDOT on the hill.

The hill on the hill, Dale bridge as far as 378 is concerned, that's a PennDOT owned, property.

And this is a project they've been working on predating when I was, when I was mayor.

So it's going to continue to come down to communication.

There's never an easy time to fix a $100 million, bridge, but we're going to continue to work with PennDOT to try to minimize that as much as we possibly can for people going to Saint Luke's.

But a big part of this as well is part of your last question.

How do we reduce our car trips?

How do we reduce how many times people are driving throughout the city of Bethlehem?

We're not talking about giving up cars.

We're we're talking about making travel throughout the city of Bethlehem more efficient.

And all of these opportunities are chances for us to be able to talk to people about how there's a better way to get around, necessarily, than getting out in your car for one errand every day.

Thank you, Miss Smith.

How would you alleviate the approaching traffic headaches caused by the Hill to Hill Bridge project?

Well.

Thank you.

That's a very good question.

And like the mayor said, that is a PennDOT, project.

So I know there has been meetings and planning is going to be key.

Certainly there's going to be some back ups, but certainly at least one lane is going to be remain open at all times.

And we're just going to have to do, you know, the best we can and plan for, to alleviate any kind of traffic.

One thing we need to do, like Mr. Randall's talked about, is, with transportation, is we really need to try to improve our public transportation, but that's a catch 22, because Lanta is a great service, but many people don't want to use it.

And if we improve it, then they may want to use it, but they won't use it until they think it's improved.

I mean, I've used the bus and people are like, oh my God, they for some reason there's some kind of mindset that people just don't want to use public transportation in the Lehigh Valley.

And we need to get over that because it's a great service.

It's safe.

It's clean.

You know, there's no reason why we aren't using it more.

Thank you.

Councilman, the city is hoping to rebuild the Pembroke Village public housing development and some of the surrounding neighborhood.

Where will the residents go during this reconstruction?

And what assurances can you make that the net result is more units for people who currently meet the income guidelines?

Well, thank you, but, I really have not been involved because there is a committee involved with the Choice Neighborhoods, program, and I do not sit on that committee.

I was not appointed by the mayor.

So I really do not know what the plan is for that.

But, so that and we're not at the we're not at that point.

Nothing has been presented to city council as far as you know.

We're just in the planning stages.

So we're not at the point of saying, here we go.

This is where the other people are going to go.

I do not know.

I'm not privy to that information.

Mayor Reynolds, can you pledge that no one will be displaced or actually and that actually more people will benefit from a Pembroke Village rebuild?

Yes, absolutely.

Let me start by.

We were awarded we won a $500,000 federal grant to be able to launch this two year community building process that the councilwoman voted against.

As far as the process was concerned, last week at City Council the week before, we are actually going to put a quarter of $1 million into a park.

We had an event a couple weeks ago, a choice neighborhoods event that I know several city council people are here, spent a couple hours for.

I believe the council in came for a couple of minutes and left, which was an opportunity to talk to everybody about the plans, take a look at the map, understand where the units were going.

Answer this very question about where it is that units are being built, how this is necessarily going to be staged, and more importantly, talk to the people that are affected.

There are people we are we are paying people that are living in these neighborhoods to go out and be community organizers.

It's truly an inspiring project that is going to lead to the first housing there since 1941.

We're the first administration to take this on, and we were awarded that $500,000 grant because of our housing study, because the federal government looked at us and said, these people know what they're doing, and that's the only way you ever get to 30 or 40 or $50 million is to be able to get the implement, is to be able to get the planning grant.

And we couldn't be more excited about where that project is going.

Okay.

I'd like to touch for our final question.

Mayor Reynolds, Bethlehem boasts one of the lower crime rates in Pennsylvania, and it's been getting better.

Between 2019 and 2022.

Violent crime fell about 27%, according to a city survey conducted with Saint Luke's University Health Network.

How do you maintain the success?

As federal resources are expected to dry up and other needs will inevitably arise?

First of all, I didn't write this question, but it was.

It was written great.

You know the city, we are the safest city in Pennsylvania.

And one of the things that we do is that we look at it.

It's it's not just reactive.

I've always said it's like you count to ten.

You call the police when you count to ten.

But number one is educational advancement.

Number two is recreation.

Number three is mental health services.

So we are constantly finding ways to be able to invest into our community, to be able to minimize.

We are also working with community connections to be able to respond to different calls that maybe don't don't, require an aggressive police response.

But going forward, you're absolutely right.

And that's what this conversation should be about, is how are we mobilizing to make sure that we're not losing state and federal funding?

That is really, really important and keeping our community safe.

That's what this job is about right now, as much as anything is.

How are you going to work with our state and our federal officials?

How are we going to work with City Council?

I'm proud that five of the members of City Council have endorsed my campaign.

How are we going to work together to make sure that those dollars that were awarded to us, or those dollars that we're applying for, come here to be able to keep our community safe?

Thank you, Miss Crampsie Smith of the city's crime fighting efforts.

How do you maintain it?

As expense, as expenses rise and more people come to town?

Okay, well, that's a good question.

And one of the problems that we have, which is a national problem, is maintaining our complement of police officers.

People just do not want to be police officers like they were in the past.

But we are we are very fortunate because I believe we have a great police chief and we have a great police department as far as being the safest city.

While I think our police chief and police department are wonderful and this is nothing that is a fault of theirs, but really the, where Mayor Reynolds quoted that when number one was really a site that one of the professors at Georgia State said that the methodology is very flawed.

Basically, the primary purpose of the site is to boost security systems and market them for Amazon.

And while we certainly have our low in many crimes, we have gone up in crimes in the last three years.

As far as, maintaining our safety, especially as our our tourism increases and the number of people living here increase, we're just going to have to do everything we can to support our police and try to get them up to compliment.

And I have been a strong supporter again of our police department and our firefighters and all our emergency responders.

And I will continue to be Mayor Reynolds, very briefly.

We have to move on.

Yeah.

If you look at the state police database, we have the lowest crime per 1000 people in any category out of the top 25, 30, 35 cities as far as population.

Thank you.

We've come to the time for closing statements.

Each candidate gets 60s.

We'll go in the same order determined by the coin toss.

Which which gives Miss Crampsie Smith the last word tonight.

But first, Mr. Reynolds, your closing statement.

Absolutely.

I started tonight by talking about that success for formula we have in the city of Bethlehem.

How do you get as many people with the same goals as possible into the same room?

It doesn't matter if it's the private sector, the Bethlehem Area School District, whoever it might be.

We share goals in the city of Bethlehem, and what we've done over the past four years is we've kept our promises and that's rare.

You don't find that a lot of places.

And because that there is a level of trust in the city of Bethlehem that doesn't the credit just doesn't go to City hall.

It goes to you.

Because we have mobilized people that want to be a part of something, that want to be able to solve community problems.

And as we move forward, I just want to say thank you.

The next four years are going to be better than the last four.

We're going to invest more in parks.

We're going to invest more in public safety.

We're going to create new housing opportunities.

But more than anything else, we're going to going to continue to convince you now what's going on in Washington, the chaos in other places.

That's not what we're about in the city of Bethlehem, we've taken every attack we could over the past 25, 30 years, and we've come out stronger and we've come out together.

And because of that, I want to say thank you.

I hope I can earn your support and it's going to be a great next four years.

Thank you, Mr. Reynolds.

Ms. Crampsie Smith, your closing statement.

Thank you.

Well, thank you, everyone, for this valuable opportunity tonight and for coming out.

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

This is especially important now that we are a World Heritage Site as well as number one means Main Street in America.

In the book The Power Code, research has shown that some people are about power over, while others are about power too.

Throughout my life and especially my career, I have always been about power to empowering people for 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 listen to.

I will empower my staff and all those with whom I collaborate to give their valuable input.

After all, is your city too?

Thank you and I look forward to serving you as Bethlehem's first female mayor.

Thank you sir.

Oh, hold on, you give me all your applause.

Thank you.

That brings us to the end of the Bethlehem mayoral debate for the 2025 primary elections.

We want to thank the candidates for being here.

Thanks also to my colleague and co moderator.

Will Oliver, as well as our studio audience here at the Universal Public Media Center.

Now, you can give yourselves a round of applause.

Thanks.

Thanks to our PBS 39 production team for bringing us this important civic exercise.

And of course, we want to thank you for joining us for the program.

Remember, the deadline to register to vote is May 5th and the primary election is May 20th.

I'm Tom Shortell from all of us at Lehigh Valley Public Media.

Good night.