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WILKES-BARRE — United in their love for the city, Mayor Tony George and George Brown, his opponent in the upcoming Democratic primary, split on how to run it.
The two men squared off Wednesday night in a debate sponsored by the Times Leader Media Group before a packed room of more than 100 people at the Think Center downtown.
During the hour-long debate George, the incumbent seeking a second term, sparred with Brown, a former city councilman who lost the 2015 primary to him on issues of crime, fiscal responsibility, public safety and blight.
George said he would only run if he was sure he was leading the city in the right direction.
“I think the city is progressing in the way I want and I’m pleased with it so I’m running again,” George said.
He touted the reconstruction of the Solomon Creek wall, the decision by Berkshire Hathaway GUARD Insurance Cos. to locate its corporate headquarters downtown and bring 700 jobs, money saved through job consolidations at City Hall and his administration’s efforts to address blight in the neighborhoods among his achievements that merit him four more years.
“I think I’ve accomplished a lot in last 3½ years,” George said.
But Brown painted the mayor and his administration as fiscally irresponsible, hiring cronies and not only putting the firefighters and police at risk through understaffing and overwork, but also jeopardizing the safety of residents.
“Our leadership styles are different. Our love for the city is the same. We both love the city, but we have different ways of fixing it,” Brown said.
“As your mayor, I’ll give you results not reasons for failure,” Brown said, referring to the mayor’s complaint he’s cleaning up the mess left by prior administrations.
Brown, whose retired from the private sector, promised to put his experience in organizational and operational management to work. At the start he would take a pay cut to $60,000 from the budgeted salary of $82,000 for the mayor. He also said he wouldn’t take health insurance, setting himself apart from George.
“I will save you in four years over $110,000. That’s what I’m giving to you as residents of Wilkes-Barre,” Brown said.
The practice of selling assets to balance the budget will stop if he’s elected, Brown vowed. The one-time sales eliminate a revenue source, he pointed out.
“City Hall has to be shown how to be fiscally responsible,” Brown said.
George noted he has raised property taxes only once. If Brown gets in he’ll raise taxes to pay for the hirings he wants to do in the police and fire departments, George said.
“If you want your kids and grandkids to pay the bills, vote for him,” George said.
The mayor said he would like to hire more firefighters but it costs the city approximately $145,000 a year in wages and benefits for a single firefighter.
The department has 54 firefighters and unfilled vacancies, but there are a minimum of 11 firefighters on each of the four daily shifts, George said.
“We have enough firemen.They just have to work, ” George said, stirring a rumbling in the audience. He later complimented the firefighters, saying, “They’re one of the best departments in the state.”
Brown questioned George’s reluctance to fill the vacancies and said if elected he would meet with the chief and department administration to determine staffing and equipment needs.
“Folks, they’re underappreciated. They’re understaffed and that has to change,” Brown said.
The candidates found common ground on the burden tax exempt properties place on the city. Both agreed the city benefits from having Wilkes University and King’s College downtown. They’ve increased their Payments in Lieu of Taxes to the city and have invested more than $10 million in their campuses. But it’s up to the state to deal with tax exemptions not the city, they said.
Brown and George were far apart on the issue of blight, however.
George said the “Taking it to the Streets” initiative instituted in 2017 has been successful addressing health, zoning, code and nuisance and abandoned properties.
There’s still a lot of work to be done, but his administration’s efforts are a start, George said.
“It takes time to straighten out a city. The city didn’t get this way overnight. It took years and years,” George said.
The mayor talks about demolishing 37 blighted properties, but that’s just scratching the surface, according to Brown.
Brown said he would embrace the “Broken Windows theory” of cleaning up the neighborhoods. “What I mean by that is address graffiti, address dirty streets, address dirty neighborhoods, address blighted properties and you’ll get that from day one if Brown is your mayor,” he said.
Times Leader Media Group publisher Mike Murray thanked the candidates for participating in the debate and encouraged residents to vote in the May 21 primary “because it makes a difference and every vote truly counts.”
Bob Caruso attended the program and said it provided the audience with plenty of information.
“This was a good demonstration of who these candidates are,” Caruso said. “The manner in which they can represent themselves indicates how they can represent the community and they both demonstrated their abilities here tonight.”
