Mayoral Hopefuls Differ on Changing City Council

Bethlehem’s two mayoral candidates disagreed on whether City Council’s structure needs to change to better represent certain neighborhoods, but little else during the first of four scheduled face-to-face meetings between the two Democrats Thursday night.

While J. William Reynolds said he favors changing council to add seats that represent specific parts of the city, Bob Donchez said he thinks that kind of change is unnecessary for a city as small as Bethlehem.

The candidates’ forum at the Fowler Hispanic Youth Center in South Bethlehem was planned and hosted by the city’s Latino community.

Both sitting city councilmen said if elected mayor they would work to bring more Latino representation into city government in hiring and on boards, authorities and commissions. Both also pledged to fight to keep the SouthSide Branch of the Bethlehem Area Public Library open.

But Reynolds said he believes residents of South Bethlehem and the West Side have been underrepresented on City Council. Providing for a number of districted seats would guarantee that all corners of the city have representation in the city’s legislative body.

Donchez said he doesn’t think that districted seats are a good idea in communities of less than 100,000 people. He said favors the districted seats in the Bethlehem Area School District, but not in the city, which has 74,000 people.

“I think if we change, we stand the potential of pitting parochial interests against parochial interests, especially at budget time,” Donchez said.

District-based seats are an important issue in the Latino community. Several years back, Latino leaders sued the Bethlehem Area School District and ultimately won, through a settlement, a new school board structure with four regional seats, including one that is based in South Bethlehem.

Reynolds and Donchez are the only two announced candidates for mayor, which means that the city’s next mayor could well be determined in the May 21 primary election.