At approximately 8 PM, State Representative Steve Samuelson introduced William before approximately 125 of Reynolds’s supporters.  William took the stage a few minutes later and proceeded to give the following speech after thanking the members of his committee, several dignitaries in attendance, and his family for their support.

We, in Bethlehem, are in the midst of an exciting time.  We have a lot to look forward to.    We are also, however, dealing with a great amount of uncertainty about the future of Bethlehem.  The closing of Bethlehem Steel dealt a big blow to our community.  Twenty percent of the city’s taxable land has sat vacant since.  The Bethworks development, located on the land that once built Bethlehem, is about to change that.  We have been given a great opportunity to continue to create, as our mayor likes to say, one of the premier mid-sized cities in America.  There are no more supporters or opponents of the proposed development. We are all just concerned residents now that need to work together to make sure the impending development doesn’t completely change the fabric of the city that we all cherish and have chosen to call home.  I do not believe that it will and I have great faith that I can help lead us through this extraordinary time.  There are four areas that I plan to focus on during my campaign that support my belief that Bethlehem can become a destination for families in the 21^st century.

The first area that I will focus on during my campaign is the importance that the city must place in making sure the Bethworks development proceeds in a smart, effective way.  Bethworks will hopefully provide something that this area has been lacking since Bethlehem Steel closed and that is jobs that are available to the citizens of our city who need them the most.  Urban areas everywhere over the last several years have had to deal with the loss of the well-paying manufacturing jobs that once upon a time helped create the middle class.  Our community now has an unique opportunity to offer those same types of jobs and lift many of the people who were left behind by the changing economy in this country that, as well all know, took a toll on Bethlehem.  I am concerned; as I am sure everyone else is, about what the development will mean to Bethlehem.

 I intend to do my part to make sure that the city does everything that it can to proceed in a manner that is consistent with the type of city that I know we all want to live in.  As a community, we should be aware that several departments within the city, including our fire, EMS, and police departments will likely be facing an increased workload and we need to plan accordingly.  We also need to be ready to look at the possibility that infrastructure improvements may need to be made in order to accommodate the extensive development that is set to occur. 

Along these same lines, we also need to make sure that, even with the new development; we don’t compromise one of local government’s most important jobs--providing basic city services.  Citizens’ opinions about city government often are determined by, more than anything else, how effectively and efficiently we deliver these basic services.   We must preserve our strong commitment to providing a high level of basic services throughout the city if we are going to maintain the high quality of life present in our neighborhoods that make people want to live in Bethlehem.

The second issue I feel we must focus is the issue of crime in our city.  I know that is an issue that is on the front of many citizens’ minds.  I feel one way to alleviate some of our citizens’ concerns about their safety lie in the community policing program that we already have in place in this city.  I don’t think the city has seen nearly the benefits that are possible from community policing.  After visiting many of the city’s Block Watches and having conversations with many concerned residents I have found that the police substations, one of the centerpieces of the community policing philosophy, are not staffed at the levels that they need to be in order for us to see all of the benefits of the program.  The police department simply cannot afford to assign any more officers to the community policing program.  The understaffing of the police department also has helped lead to high turnover within the substations which minimizes their effectiveness as a center of neighborhood stability.  This year’s budget added four new police officers and I’d like to continue to add more police officers in the future as we work to increase our citizens’ confidence in the safety of their neighborhoods. 

The third area I plan on focusing on is the necessity I see in continuing our economic redevelopment efforts.   In the past decade, several areas of the city have seen the benefits of economic revitalization. These redevelopment efforts have allowed us to take steps towards recovering from the financial hit that the city’s tax base took with the closing of Bethlehem Steel.  We cannot think that the financial benefits of Bethworks will somehow save Bethlehem from all of its economic problems present and future.   We need to continue our revitalization efforts throughout the city if we are going to make Bethlehem a destination for businesses and families in the 21st century.  

Building up the city’s tax base, and adding properties to the tax rolls, allows us to try to keep our property taxes in check and our residents in their homes.  During the past four years, working in State Representative Steve Samuelson’s office, I have seen, on a daily basis, the toll that rising property taxes have taken on many of our residents, including our senior citizens.  It is heartbreaking to see a widow of a former Bethlehem Steel employee come in and explain that she grew up in Bethlehem, got married, bought a home, raised a family and now has to move because she cant afford to pay, among other things, the property taxes on the home that she has lived in for the past fifty years.  We need to continue our redevelopment efforts throughout the city that have allowed us to improve our economic outlook over the past several years if we are going to stop hearing those kinds of stories.

The fourth and final area of my campaign will be a commitment to honest, open, responsive city government.  One of the key influences on my ideas about governmental service, of course, has been Steve Samuelson.  I have been lucky enough to work in Representative Samuelson’s district office for the past four years.  While I have learned a great deal from Steve, one thing in particular that he has impressed upon me is that while every citizen will not always be happy with everything their government does, every citizen deserves an honest answer about what is going on within their government.  I have watched the confidence that our constituents have in Steve partly because of the way he treats people who walk into our office looking for help.  This has had a profound effect on me as an employee, a citizen, and a believer in the notion that government can, in fact, be a positive and helpful institution in people’s lives.  Working with Representative Samuelson, I have worked extremely hard and taken pride over the past four years in providing responsive and respectful service to all of our constituents, no matter the situation that they needed resolved.  I feel strongly that I can bring the same type of dedicated service to our city.  Over the past few months, I have taken it upon myself to visit many of the community organizations throughout the city, such as the Block Watches, and I promise to continue to make myself available to the residents of our city in an effort to provide effective, responsive, and honest city government. 

Once again, I thank everyone for coming out this evening.  I am running for City Council because I want to be able to raise a family in the same type of community that I have had the pleasure of living and working in my whole life.  This will not be easy.  I need all of your help.  I have confidence, however, in myself, my committee, and, all of you, that we can and are going to be successful.  We will go neighborhood to neighborhood, street to street, door to door, in spreading our message of what Bethlehem is, and more importantly, what Bethlehem can become.  I invite all of you to join me on that journey.  Thank you.