Good evening.

And welcome to the 2021 Lehigh County Executive Debate.

I'm General News Director for WLVT.

Are we at PBS39 WLVT are proud to present this forum in partnership with The Morning Call.

Good evening.

I'm Tom Shortell, Lehigh County government reporter for The Morning Call.

An End Call .com.

Jen and I will be moderating tonight's debate.

We're coming to you live from the People Public Media Center in Bethlehem.

Our guests are the two candidates hoping to serve as Lehigh County executive for the next four years.

They're joining us remotely.

The election is Tuesday, November 2nd.

A little more than four weeks away.

Let's meet tonight's candidates.

Phillips Armstrong is the incumbent Lehigh County executive Democrat from Whitehall Township.

He's in his fourth year as the head of county government.

Glenn Eckart is the Republican challenger.

Mr Eckert lives in Salisbury Township and has served previously as county controller and as a county commissioner.

Here's the format for tonight's debate.

First, each of our candidates will have two minutes to introduce themselves and share an opening statement.

After that will begin with a lightning round.

Each candidate answering three questions specific to them.

They'll have one minute to answer with no rebuttals.

After that, Shenandoah will begin the next round of questions to both candidates.

They'll each have a minute to reply.

Rebuttals are permitted in this part of the debate.

Candidates, if you wish to make a rebuttal, just raise your hand or signal us.

We'll come to you after the response now to Spice things up a bit.

A little later, we'll give the candidates a chance to ask each other questions.

Just three in our crossfire round as we head into this debate.

The candidates do not know what the questions will be.

Journalists from PBS39 WLVT and The Morning Call wrote the questions the candidates have not seen them, nor have they been involved in creating them.

So let's get to it before the debate, we flipped a coin.

Mr Eckhard, you'll kick us off with your opening statement.

The good evening, everybody.

I'm so glad and honored to be here on Channel 39 and it's great to see our old reporter from Lehigh County Shortell moderating the debate as well.

Thank you for everybody who's watching and going to have an opportunity to see at the end of the debate who will be better to serve us for the next four years.

I grew up in Lima, Pennsylvania, proud of my parents who served in public service their entire life volunteering.

We moved to Salisbury Township in Salisbury Township.

I graduated high school and at the age of 20 I started my own small business throughout the years I've coached basketball for about 15 years as a volunteer, I was honored to serve on the Salt Barrett Township school board for two years and which in 1998 was one of those two years in which taxes did not increase and salt Barrett Township at the school district and now it is 23 years later which it has gone up every year since as my time in Salisbury Township Board of Commissioners, I was honored to serve six years as a township commissioner in which we increased the size of the full time police force by 20% and in that period of time we cut taxes twice and we were able to also rejuvenate our parks and do many, many stormwater projects as county commissioner, I was honored to be one of the sponsors to eliminate three or two elected positions in county government and those positions have saved us over $1 million over the last 15 years.

And as county comptroller, I was so honored to serve on the pension board in which I drove and work to cut costs on the you will see I'm most qualified.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr Eckhardt.

Mr Armstrong, your opening statement.

Well, thank you again.

To PBS and public radio and Tom Shortell in The Morning Call for giving me this opportunity to get my position out to as many residents are listening.

First a little bit about who I am.

I am Philipps Armstrong, your Lehigh County executive.

I graduated from Kutztown University in 1971 with a BS degree in 1975 I received my master's degree in education.

I have spent 40 years, 40 wonderful years as a public school teacher in the Whitehall complex school district.

In those 40 years I also became the department chair of Whitehall Social Studies Department also was elected to two terms as the secondary chairperson for the Mental States Council on Social Studies.

This allowed me to travel through five states and Washington, DC also because as a teacher I was so involved with a lot of extracurricular activities.

I also coached basketball, tennis, swimming, just about everything that there was to coach because of my coaching background, I was elected to the Lehigh Valley Hall of Fame and to the White House Emmaus High School Hall of Fame.

After my 40 year career, I felt there needs to be something else in my life and I then became a white Hellertown commissioner where after two years I was elected president of the Board of Commissioners Hazle Township I'm very proud to say that we did not raise taxes during my role as president and we also lowered our garbage fees 30% and doubled our recycling.

I'm very, very proud of that background because of those things, the residents of Lehigh County chose me four years ago to be their Lehigh County executive through this debate tonight, I'm sure will be able to explain the things that we have accomplished for the last four years.

However, on a personal note, since I have become the executive of Lehigh County, I've also been a lesser ANIZDA your time is up.

I apologize.

OK, moving on.

We're now going to hit the lightning round.

Each of you will have a minute to respond.

Can you start us off?

I'd be happy to.

Mr Eckhart, this first question is for you.

More than 900 people have died from Covid-19 in Lehigh County since the start of the pandemic.

We'd like to know your thoughts on vaccines and their effectiveness.

Would you urge county residents or employees who work with at risk groups to get vaccinated?

Well, I'd like to first start off with the fact that over 50% of those folks live in a nursing homes and are over the age of 80.

I am an open book as far as vaccines.

I myself, I have decided to go without a vaccine and I have also used a vitamin D elderberry zinc.

So I have gone the way of working out, staying in shape, getting enough sleep so everybody should have a right to choose how they're going to fight their war on the pandemic.

I've chosen not to and I will mandate anyone to have to get a shot or wear masks.

Mr Eckhardt, just a quick follow.

Would you urge others, especially those working with high risk groups, to get vaccinated?

That is completely up to them.

I it's not my job as Lehigh County executive to urge people to get a vaccine or my job is to run Lehigh County government as effectively and efficiently as possible.

And my job to see I am not a doctor nor is my opponent, the CDC and the state health officials and people who go to church and pastors reverends decide on and doctors decide on how people should treat.

I can't somebody to do something that isn't in their mix.

Thank you, Mr Armstrong.

Covid-19 has ravaged Cedarburg Nursing Home.

It's one of the hardest hit Petzold in terms of total deaths.

You have not mandated shots for nurses and staff.

Why is that?

Well, first of all, our rate of inoculation at the Stroudsburg Fountain Hill and Seabrooke Nursing Home in South Whitehall Moore Township is almost at the 90% rate right now.

We are doing everything we can with the federal government mandating that all people that work in these kinds of situations must have the vaccination.

We are working toward that.

However, when you look at Cedar Brook, you will see that our rates are really just reflecting of what the community rates are on the outside.

So we're very similar to what's going on.

And I also want to point out very, very proud that we still maintain a foyer for staro rating at Cedar Brook and our CMS people, everybody there are doing a fantastic job.

So we're doing the best with what we have at this point.

Thank you, Mr Eckert.

You entered this race just before the filing deadline after a potential candidate dropped out.

What can you tell us that shows that you're serious about leading this county?

Oh, I think my background my experience in County government far outweighs any elected official within Lehigh County as far as spreading out not only through the executive branch but also of each and every row office.

In fact, the executive branch, of course, is the biggest chunk of the pie.

But the courts are our second and there are several Roaf.

The executive branch is actually only a co row officer with each of every department that's within Lehigh County.

It's no stronger, it's just bigger and there's a lot to do and it's over half the budget.

And I fully 100% committed from HR to Human Services to IT to maintenance.

As far as how broad that background is in the executive branch.

Thank you, Mr Armstrong.

You pride yourself on promoting a bipartisan approach to government, but you made the chairman of the County Democratic Party, your director of administrator.

Is that a conflict for a county position that's designed to serve everyone well?

Actually, I made him the county director of administration before he became that party.

But again, in non-partisan, Mr Hosa came to us as a ten year experienced mayor of the third largest town in Lehigh County with many valuable years of experience in local government.

As you know, I also have a Republican solicitor who is at this time running for judge and there is no way, shape or form that I would ask him to step down.

What they do from eight to four is my concern and I'm very, very proud of the work they do from eight to four.

After that, that's up to them because I have been non-partisan I pick people are it doesn't matter to me what party they are as long as they're giving me their complete dedication and Lehigh County everything that Lehigh County needs.

Mr Eckhart, as county commissioner, you embraced Tea Party politics.

If you're elected, you'll be working with one of the most liberal boards of commissioners Lehigh County has seen in decades.

How's that going to work and what, if any, common ground do you share.

Oh, I, I think I've built great relationships with all those folks throughout the years, including Phil.

We work together on many projects together and made sure that politics didn't play a role.

You know, one of the differences that I'm going to do as Yorketown executive is I'm going to take one hour every two weeks and meet with every single one, the commissioners one on one.

So they can discuss their issues that they want to see accomplished.

And I want to and I want to get accomplished so we can build a strong relationship.

I've worked with Democrats, I've worked with Republicans.

I've proved it at least in my six of eight years county controller that I'm as neutral as you can be.

I had just as many Republicans mad at me as Democrats over the So I'm excited to get to work on January 3rd or 4th and winning on the election November 2nd.

Very good.

Mr Armstrong, you've held office during a time of reckoning on race and equity.

What can you point to in the last four years right here at home that you've done for people of color on social justice and institutional racism?

OK, and I only have a minute to answer that.

All right.

Well, let's start with our public defender's office.

We've expanded our public defender's office, putting in people who can speak bilingual.

We've added help in that department.

We've responded with 22.5 million in rent and housing assistance to help people.

We've also established a veterans department where we put money into that, which then Pat Brown again working together with bipartisan match 250,000 that we could help our homeless veterans.

So we have done many, many things along that line to try to make things more equitable.

And I think what we have done and I've expanded that in my own cabinet where I have appointed people of color, I have appointed people of different nationalities and different religious backgrounds.

So we are expanding, doing all of that in our positions at County executive.

Thank you, Mr Armstrong.

And that concludes our Lightning Round.

And thanks to both of the candidates for taking part in that, we're glad you're here for this live debate between Lehigh County executive candidates on PBS39 and 91.3 WLVT.

Let's move on for the next questions.

You'll both have a minute to answer.

If you want to rebut or add something, you can, but only after you've both had a chance to respond.

Tom, why don't you start us off with the first question?

Thanks, John.

Mr Eckert, we'll begin with you this summer on Twitter.

You said corruption Lehigh County led to quote the bailable voter fraud.

What evidence do you have for that?

Do you trust the county's election results?

Well, I have a text right here from my friend Phil Armstrong, who says we have a camera that can see the video of which if people had broken the law that they would be caught.

Well, unfortunately and I'll let Phil explain it, but unfortunately, there is no video so I can prove it as he cannot disprove it.

So we're at a standstill as where we're at Mr Armstrong USHERY But yes, I do.

First of all, there is no law requiring anybody to have a video surveillance of the drop boxes.

Second of all, Lehigh County, I'm very, very proud to say that now one ballot was questioned after that election.

We had members of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party present as we opened up all the ballots and everyone was verified.

So I stand behind that and I think it's time we put aside that past election and start moving forward.

Moving forward.

Sounds great to me.

That's why if there's going to be drop boxes, there should be a video.

It's going to be 24 hours.

It should be manned.

So somebody can watch it.

And that's what I would like to see if that's if that's the case.

If not, then we're just still opening up ourselves up to potential fraud.

And when you have head of the Democratic Party, which you said himself from before, his job is to work for you, but the other hours his job was to run the Democratic Party and I was the Republican chairman and my job was to elect Republicans, I'm sure in his off time his job is to elect Democrats, as I know, he's made many contributions to Democrats past is not involved in anything with the voter registration.

And second of all, all our drop boxes for this coming election are in spots where there will be video surveillance and there was all of them.

The last election.

One of the cameras was mistaken.

We not turned on, but it was only one of those minor errors.

But it wasn't not turned on because of voter fraud or anything like that.

I think it's time we let down.

We're going to move on from this question.

We're going to move on to our next question and this one goes to Mr Armstrong first.

Mr Armstrong, criminal justice advocates have criticized the county for not investing enough resources into social justice efforts.

The public defenders Office, for instance, which you mentioned a few minutes ago under the 2022 proposed budget, would get less than half the funding of the district attorney's office.

Are these complaints justified?

Is the county doing enough to ensure people aren't being needlessly imprisoned?

Oh, absolutely not.

In fact, if you just watched last week Team Meesa, our program to prevent people from going to jail was recognize by the State Department of Counties as one of the top counties in the state of Pennsylvania that these kinds of programs.

Second of all, the public defender's office and I in doing the budget meet regularly, she then tells me her plan and we put her plan in place in our budget and her plan is a step by step.

It's not.

Let's just throw money there for the sake of money.

Let's see if this works.

Then we're going to add in every year we've added to these programs as we get the data that they were and last but not least, comparing the public defender's office and the district attorney's office are completely different because a district attorney prosecutes every single criminal case.

Public defender only prosecutes those who do not have the money.

He also needs to investigate and he runs the risk so that your minute we're going to move on to Mr Eckhart.

Mr Eckhart, what do you think?

Is the county doing enough to make sure people are being detained unnecessarily?

Well, I've seen the public defender's office work and they do a great job.

But again, this is a rookie mistakes rookie understanding of how county government Berks the district attorney is responsible for delivering a verdict unanimously.

The public defender's office only needs to pick off one person.

So if you are able to get one person to say not guilty, then it's a not guilty verdict.

It takes more resources to prove and get 100% verdict of guilty verdict.

So that's where the difference is and it should be different.

It's completely it's completely the same.

Both offices have detectives.

Both offices have good lawyers.

I've seen them in action.

That's like if I can add just one last thing to you.

Look at the salaries.

They're both comparable.

We are not shortchanging either one of them.

And I think what we're saying is what we're doing is the best we can to make sure we have started not as a rookie, but as an experienced 40 year county executive.

We now have a program where we have a drug court.

We're putting in an alcohol court.

We are doing many, many things to help as many people as possible.

Well, it seems you're in agreement then let's move on to the next question, Mr Armstrong.

This is for you.

Lehigh Valley has experienced extreme weather in recent years.

Heat waves, record snowstorms and flash floods in communities that haven't seen them before.

Is this climate is this a climate change emergency for Lehigh Valley?

What should the county be doing to prepare for the future?

Well, that's a great question.

Yes, I think climate change has a lot to do with this.

I was just down at the lower end of Allentown, the Hamilton Street, and they have received two 100 year floods in the last three years.

And what are we doing about it?

Well, our emergency management team is developing a very smart plan, our Emmaus for plan needs to be put together and we need to talk about development.

I have been elected as the regional director on the United States Department of Regional Planning and now I'm in charge of four states.

We have to start looking at things in a more broad scope.

It's not a Catasauqua problem or an Allentown problem.

It's a complete area problem.

It's a regional problem.

So we're trying to work together with the Planning Commission to come up with a better plan for stormwater runoff.

No one has a major problem.

Thank you, Mr Eckardt.

What are your thoughts and think extreme weather is Carla Kohler.

Go ahead.

My thoughts are simple.

There is changing weather.

I don't know if it's manmade.

I during the Jurassic period, temperatures on a planet where seven to ten degrees warmer than they are now.

I'm a study of history and the dinosaurs thrived and the trees grew really.

So we don't know what's going to happen over a long time.

But in a short time I'll go back to what Phil said.

It is planning issue.

Stormwater runoff isn't issue farmland preservation and open space help retain that water and we got to get control of the water when there are storms.

So you do get more flooding.

That's a simple, simple result.

Phil, hit that one on the head in the second half of his response and I'll agree with that.

We got to we got to do a better job of planning.

And if I can add another one, dinosaurs are extinct because of those things.

And I don't want to be extinct.

So I want to make sure we do a really better job at preparing for this.

And that's why I think it's so important that we're doing things regionally now.

You can't build the warehouse in one town and not worry about it affecting another town.

And I, I, I also agree on the farmland preservation in my term.

We have put more money into preserving farmland and open space than ever before.

In Lehigh County.

Let's move on.

The Lehigh Valley has been a hotspot for Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic and Lehigh and Northampton counties are dealing with another surge from the Delta variant as we speak.

Mr Eckhart, a decade ago officials including yourself debated creating a Berks County health bureau but ultimately abandoned that effort.

In hindsight, was that a mistake given the circumstances of the last two years?

Do you think it's an idea worth revisiting?

I think it's a great question and no one is the county controller.

I don't want to see any tax payer money used for that.

But if it's all hospital money, yes, it should be gone because the hospitals or nonprofits and they have the deep pockets in the research since they do not pay property taxes and they can fund and they can pay for their the doctors there, the nurses, they should do the job.

It's not the county government's responsibility.

I'm not a doctor as far as I know, at least in medical terms.

My opponent is not a doctor.

If I could add Mr Strong, please go ahead.

OK, thank you, Chad.

First of all, with the cooperation of St Luke's and the Lehigh Valley Health Network, I thought we led the league.

In fact, I had other counties call me and ask how well that we were doing in getting the vaccination rolled out that they wanted to know what were we doing that they weren't.

Yes.

At this point we are looking into establishing a health bureau.

We're not jumping off the deep.

We're bringing in the Allentown Health Bureau.

We're bringing in the people from the hospitals and Bethlehem and we're having committee meetings.

We are going to research this.

I don't jump into anything without knowing all the facts% and collecting the data.

I know I'm not a doctor.

I don't intend to ever be one at this point in my life.

But I do listen to them and I do understand how important it is to have these valued partners with us that we can make the right decision for the county.

And that's what we're doing at this time.

Thank you, Mr Armstrong.

The latest census figures show the county's Latino population has increased almost 50% in the past decade.

Nearly 100,000 people in Lehigh County identified themselves as Hispanic.

How is the county adapted to serve the significant population?

And what more would you do?

Well, again, working in our public defender's office, we have put in more people who can speak Spanish with our Human Services Department.

We are reaching out to this community.

And if you saw in the news, we're going to have a community outreach, our second one, which is going to be sponsored by our public defender's office.

Now on that day, we are going to help them with legal problems, free legal advice.

We're also going to have to give away.

We're going to have the Veterans Trust from the state here to help our veterans.

We're going to have CareerLink here.

We're going to have elections in Spanish as well as English.

We are doing as many things as we can and including to try to get them as involved as we can in our local government.

But we do recognize the growth in this area and they are a major part of the growth of this area.

Thank you, Mr Eckardt.

What more should McAdoo?

I think that's a great question.

And I start with education.

You, unlike I am not an educator.

I coach my opponent with an educator.

I continue to bring in folks for career day so we haven't on that long time.

It's time that I know when the comptroller's office we work and we had interns and we want to have as when I'm there to have career days and start this process very early in the process.

If you know what my opponent said, he went right to the social issues of jail and this is what we're going to do with jail.

I'm starting an education for our Latino community and help educate them, take care of themselves.

Well, I think I could start a little closer than that.

We have funded and helped fund through the CARES Act and the rescue funds today.

I was at a ceremony where Governor Wolf attended preschool, which is probably the most important thing for people who are not speaking English.

And we're expanding thanks to a grant the state of Pennsylvania has just added 30 more dollars million for preschool education and I have given out money from CARES Act to preschool for computer literacy and technology because I definitely recognize, yes, education is the key I've been here or these groups.

And I tell you, we have to start with the younger people we're looking at.

People can't get help right now.

Why can't they get help?

Because their parents can't get daycare.

We need to get daycare.

Problem solved.

We need to get daycare workers open these places back so their parents can get back to work and our economy gets going again.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr Armstrong.

Mr Eckardt, last winter, a cold outbreak at the county jail left an inmate and a corrections officer dead.

Family say inmates weren't protected from the virus and news reports indicated staff were ready to walk because of working conditions.

Was not being done to protect people at the jail.

And how is the county prepared to handle another potential outbreak with the Delta virus?

Bechtelsville can look, you can look through our controller audits in which we've made recommendations that the prison and Cedarburg need to hire more staff.

They are at all-time low records now if they don't have staff we have overworking conditions.

One of the issues that came up was in our first discussion about Covid and how we deal with it.

One of the first things is to get enough sleep.

So if we're working our corrections officers two and three shifts in a row, that is not going to solve the problem.

And no doubt the county has a lawsuit somewhere that they're going to have to pay for.

Well, I could add that Mr Record is correct.

We are short officers, but right now in Lehigh County there are 8000 job openings.

What are we doing for that?

Well, we have added hazardous duty pay.

We've also to try to recruit new officers.

We are giving bonuses to any officer who can bring in somebody else.

So we have also enacted a pay study where we've really kind of combined some of the pay study programs into the jail to make it more equitable salary to keep our good people so we are working on a retaining the people we have be rewarding those people with hazardous duty pay and see, we put out ads, billboards and now we're also promoting if you can get somebody in, we're looking at a bonus for you.

So we're trying as best as we can.

But is it position just like every job in the county, we're all needing people and we're doing the best we can.

And I think our Joe Gale as met all the standards and has done everything that needs to be done and just went through an audit and came out flying colors.

So I'm very proud of what they've been doing down there.

All right.

We'll continue this like this.

Oh, OK. We can help you.

You can add one more word, Mr..

It just always seems like it's money.

Well, we're going to get more money from Washington.

We're going to get more money from Governor Wolf.

You know, Social Security is bankrupt in 2034.

How is the Lehigh County that now has a $5 million budget that only two years ago had a four $409 million budget to continue to sustain paying money when the federal government and the state government can no longer pay all this all this stuff.

Mr Mr Armstrong will give you one more word.

OK, first of all, it's not a 5 million.

It's a $510 million budget.

500 it is a 510 because the minute I took office, I started working on a five year plan.

Everything that we do is in a five year plan.

So regardless of what happens with the state or the federal government, we're going to be on great ground to meet the needs of our citizens.

Mr Armstrong, we're going to give you the last word on that.

But you're going to have a chance to ask each other some questions in just a minute.

So stick with us.

We'll continue this Lehigh County executive debate here on PBS39 nine.

This program is being simulcast on our radio station 91.3 WLVT and streamed on our Facebook and website at PBS39.org.

The deadline to register to vote is October 18th.

All right, candidates, thank you again for participating here tonight.

We're going to switch things up a bit.

We're calling this our crossfire section of the debate where you get to ask the questions taking turns.

You'll each ask your opponent three questions and they'll have one minute to respond.

Mr Aykut, you start your first question for Mr Armstrong.

Thank.

In December, The Morning Call reported at Cedar Brook was one of the top ten long term care facilities in the entire nation with Bethlehem Covid-19.

It is outrageous that Cedar Brook, the safety net of our seniors is near the top in the country for death from Covid-19.

If you can't protect our seniors when they are the most honorable, how can anyone trust you to continue to lead Lehigh County?

OK, I'd love to answer that question.

I've as I said, Cedar Brook, just as every senior home in the state of Pennsylvania and te United States, the numbers that occurred in the home or reflected to the numbers that occurred outside, I hope like for example, people like you who don't get the vaccination.

If you went in to that home, you could have brought that in.

So what we did immediately was kept people like you from coming into the home.

So we kept people to try to keep the spread of the virus from coming in.

So it was the thing that if everybody go out and get the shot, we'd be out of this.

Mr Armstrong, your first question for Mr A'Court.

OK, Mr Gordon, a little while ago when you were chair of the Republican Party, you cast a vote to censor r r United States Senator Toomey.

Now, my question is I have work with Pat Toomey and definitely we're on different sides of the political aisle.

But one thing is for sure, when it came to the Lehigh County, when I had a problem that was there for me just several weeks ago, Patni posted a Fountain Hill conference in right in our government building.

I'm puzzled on why you would vote to censor our own county, United States Senator number one, I didn't.

So you don't even know the facts.

I had resigned as the county chairman prior to the vote.

I had no desire to Pat Toomey Pat Toomey has done so many good things for Lehigh County and for our state for many, many years since 19 eight.

And I had no desire to continue to be the Republican chair because now I was a candidate for county executive.

So I had resigned.

And so you just asked me a question that is completely moot.

I didn't even Albright or there's not going to be any rebuttals.

Oh I'm sorry.

Go well, Tom Wolf can tell you that Tom and I had to discussion.

All right.

Mr Eckardt, your second question for Mr Armstrong out yet in November, the Democratic chairman of the Lehigh County Board of Commissioners wrote an op ed saying that he was committed to dismantling white supremacy and Lehigh County by defending defunding the district attorney and law enforcement.

There has not been a counter from you on that.

I haven't heard anything in fact, you have donated to his campaign for reelection.

So the question is, do you believe that after almost four years that as Lehigh County executive that white supremacy is a major issue facing Lehigh County and need to define the district attorney's office as a result?

No.

In fact, meeting with Mr Martin for this year's budget, Mr Martin and I get along very, very well and he has gotten when we decided the is what he needed, we put it together and we've gotten together.

I don't think white supremacy is an issue at all in Lehigh County in fact, I think we saw through Covid the best cooperation that you could have from all of the groups of people in Lehigh County this was the only way we could get things done in our county.

And it was through the cooperation of everybody.

So no, I don't think white supremacy is an issue.

And Mr Martin and I have a great, great relationship.

He is one of those people we are dealing with issues such as mental illness and things along that.

Those are our biggest issues.

Thank you, Mr Armstrong.

Your second question for Mr OK, Mr Eckert, as you said a couple of times now that we're doing this tonight by Zoom because the studio as a policy of nobody being vaccinated, allowed in the studio or non vaccinated, how do you think you could lead the county and tell your people that work in the county, especially those in Cedar Brook and the people work a human services that have to go to the hospital and the hospital has a policy that they need to be vaccinated as the leader.

Shouldn't you be the one that sets the example?

Listen, I've already told till I'm 50 pounds lighter than I was in 2019.

I'm in better shape.

I'm taking I'm working out more.

I feel so much more better than I did in years and LA vitamins and the homeopathic way of treating this is the way I've decided to do it.

I am not a doctor but I have chosen a way that is completely legal for me to take care of myself.

It's not government's job to take care of me and at a point in which you believe that county employees should get shot because you mandate it is going to be a very sad day and Lehigh County because that's where you're going next.

I never mandated Albright, but you're just telling me to do what I'm saying for you to set an example for people.

All right, let's move on.

Mr Scarnati health care professional, not a doctor to set an example.

I've said that before, Mr Eckhart.

This is your third and final question for Mr Armstrong.

Yes.

You had mentioned before the videotape, the videotape that was the 24 hour drop box that you were not able to turn on.

You realized it was not turned on.

So if you can't even turn on a video recorder to tape people who are dropping off voting documents, how can we trust you to continue to be our Lehigh County executive?

Absolutely.

It was a person from the other party, your party that was in charge of that security and it was a simple mistake.

And I don't think that determines whether I would be a good executive.

I think the four years of what I have done in office proves my value as executive, not whether I turned the machine on or not.

Mr Armstrong, your third and final question for Mr Eckhart.

Mr after you had lost your election control or you came down to my office and asked me for a job?

No, I didn't.

Yes, you did.

And then you texted and I have the text you texted my campaign manager and told her that because I refused the job, you were then going to be a Republican and be a thorn in my side.

Is that not correct?

Would you like to see the text that is sent?

Well, number one, you have the office to say really?

I really wish you were to switch to a Democrat because you weren't happy with the guy who one has control and that's when I said, hey, listen, I don't know what I'm going to do, which I consider to be an administration.

That's what happened outside of that you that actually I have the text and I have Gracedale.

I have proof that you have the video.

Thank you, gentlemen.

That concludes the crossfire.

Segment of this debate.

We're going to continue with a more questions that you'll each have a chance to answer next.

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

Once again, this live debate between Lehigh County executive candidates is being brought to you by PBS39 and 91.3 WLVT in partnership with The Morning Call just a reminder, you get each get a minute to respond to this next set of questions.

And if you want to rebut something signals Tom, why don't you start us up again?

Sure thing, Mr Armstrong.

Many of the new apartment buildings that have gone up in Allentown, Bethlehem are out of the reach for most city residents.

Last year, the median home sale prices in the region went by $25,000.

What is the county doing on affordable housing?

Well, that's a really good question.

And start with because of my national associations, I've been able to get us a 22.5 million grant, first of all, for rent assistance, we brought in the Catholic Charities and Calce to help with getting money to keep people into those houses.

We've also purchased a building or two to help house people that we can get out of the jail and get them into houses.

So it's a complex issue.

There's no doubt about that.

But what we are doing is we are looking the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, some of the money I had from the rescue funds I gave to the Planning Commission, which, by the way, was the only county that did this.

And we said to them, please map out the county, all the towns where is there a housing shortage where their job problems.

So we can then take this report, give it to the local government and to the school districts so they know where the problem is that we can start looking at regional solutions to these problems.

Mr Eckardt, is the county doing enough on affordable housing?

What's your response?

It's not the county's responsibility.

I mean, you heard it from Phil.

He's going to just throw some more money at me.

More money is going to just come out of the air and we're going to fix everything.

If you don't know basic economic principles as clearly the county executive does not understand, it's simple supply and demand.

People are moving here because of the Coaldale conditions of states like New York, New Jersey and Connecticut where people are trying to get away from.

And they're coming here to Pennsylvania and they're driving up housing prices on the people who live here and that's going to continue as long as those states continue to go that way.

And it's simple economics.

There's not enough housing, so the price has to go up.

Mr Armstrong, you wish to rebut?

Well, they are moving here because number one, we have 170 lifescience businesses that are moved to Lehigh Valley these businesses pay $90,000 a year average salary with the economic growth in this area.

People are moving here and that's a good thing.

We do have jobs available.

We now have companies that are providing free college.

If you do those jobs.

So it is going to uplift the people, the quality of life the last four years in this area, thanks to our open spaces, our farmland preservation, our realistic trails, these are the reasons people are moving here.

Let's look at the question why?

What are we doing about the low income housing?

And the answer is now all of a sudden, well, we're having people move in.

I mean, you have completely gone backwards.

It's a simple supply demand situation here and you clearly don't understand that.

No, Gentlemen, we have to move on of life, which is bringing people to Mount Penn.

Gentlemen, let's move on.

We can talk some more, however, and the next question about the economics of the valley.

Mr Eckhart Lehigh and Northampton counties are geographically and economically connected, but the two haven't always worked together to solve common problems.

Why is that in your view and how if at all, would your administration address regional issues as well?

Regionalization in many areas is so, so very important.

That's the only way we can save money is it is regionalization and I can tell you that I mean, Lehigh County used to be part of Northampton County Bucks County used to be part.

Now we have these individual counties that are run separately.

This is no different than what we did when we eliminated a row off to row offices in in Lehigh County in which we save money.

Regionalization is the way to go.

I'm ready to go.

I'm ready to talk.

I have a business background and the acumen to actually get these things done.

Mr Armstrong, your thoughts on this?

Oh, absolutely.

Mr McClure, the Lehigh or the Northampton County executive, we were the only two counties in the state of Pennsylvania that got together with the CARES Act funding, put money together in a pool to help the businesses that we both shared, such as land and the airport and things like Music Fest that attracted people to this area.

So we are working in fact, in my administration we have just opened the door that we now are using the juvenile detention center in Northampton County as a place to send our juveniles.

Hey, that was definitely not in the last several years.

So we speaking of generalizations, we are doing thin