If you want to know which direction new Executive Josh Siegel wants to take with issues facing Lehigh County, there’s a document for that.
On Friday morning, Siegel introduced the 33-page “Transition Strategy & Priorities” booklet in the hearing room at the Lehigh County Government Center in downtown Allentown.
Put together by the transition team — led by Jim Irwin, from the Lehigh Valley Labor Council, and Samantha Pearson, the county’s Director of Economic and Community Development — the document outlines six priorities: human services; housing; economic development and regional growth; labor and personnel; public safety; and local response and resilience.
Siegel said his administration will be “aspirational.”
“A caretaker government that believes that its only responsibility is to do the bare minimum and maintain the status quo, is doing a disservice to the folks in this community,” he said. “You cannot bring a Dixie cup of water to a house fire. And frankly, we are dealing with a house that is on fire in many respects.”
Siegel said he believes that in “an era of chaos and instability,” it’s up for local government to be a source of stability.
He said he will discuss the document in greater detail during next week’s State of the County address.
Here are five things to know now:
Human services and homelessness
Siegel said he will be issuing a disaster declaration to deal with homelessness, an issue that has been in the forefront lately with this winter’s freezing temperatures and Allentown’s cleaning of a homeless encampment last September.
“The days of sweeping this problem under the rug are over,” he said. “The days of kicking the can down the road are done.”
The plan calls for hiring a full-time strategic homeless coordinator to bring stakeholders to the table and find solutions. The position could be paid for by agreeing to a cost-sharing agreement with Allentown or Northampton County for a “bi-county approach.”
“The era of the county and the city looking past each other, while the problem does not regress, is done,” Siegel said.
Other human services that will be addressed include child care shortages, mental health access and nonprofit capacity.
“Whether you are dealing with addiction or mental health,” Siegel said, “you are under our care, and you should be treated with dignity, compassion and concern. Human services is the most important disposition and direction of county government.”
Housing affordability
As a part of the growing Lehigh Valley, the county has been dealing with a shortage of housing as demand has increased. The Lehigh Valley Planning Commission has said that there is a current shortage of more than 9,000 units around the region that will grow exponentially in the future if nothing is done.
Siegel, who has addressed this issue as a member of the state House of Representatives, said the housing crisis is a zoning and supply issue.
“At the core of the housing crisis is frankly a zoning crisis,” he said. “It is a regulatory issue. It is the inability of all communities to do their fair share.”
The plan proposes a “carrots and sticks” approach with municipalities to allow middle-class housing such as duplexes and townhomes. For lower income families, the county will explore building and operating more units.
Economic development
Siegel said the county will reach out to its “anchor institutions” to create economic pilot programs similar to those in such places as Pittsburgh and Providence, Rhode Island, where top employers including hospitals and universities contribute to community improvements like affordable housing.
“I believe that our anchor institutions, who are vested in this community, rooted in this community and can’t move their physical assets, have to step up and play a bigger role in resolving many of the socially external courses that affect them,” he said.
He said if recent college graduates can’t afford to live in Lehigh County, it’s problematic for businesses looking for a quality workforce. If rooted institutions can’t keep employees, the business model will fail.
“I’m not asking to do anything new or reinvent the wheel,” Siegel said. “I’m simply asking us to sit across the table in partnership and as allies, not as antagonists, not threatening to sue or take away legal status. We work in conjunction to find goals that are mutually beneficial around affordability, around childcare, around quality of life.”
To remain competitive, the county must invest in such things as affordable housing, high-quality parks and accessible childcare.
Infrastructure and labor
Public works projects and the labor around them will be tied together under project labor agreements to help make sure they are completed on time with little conflict.
“There is no excuse not to make sure that our public works projects are utilizing local labor and we are creating a new middle class generation of trades professionals,” Siegel said.
The county should mandate that all public projects, from airport upgrades to school renovations, will use local union labor. Siegel believes that such arrangements will help bring a new middle class of trade professionals.
“You now work where you want to live,” he said. “It is incumbent on us to make sure that we are continuing to make investments that make us attractive and competitive.”
Modernizing communications
To keep his administration transparent in a changing information landscape, Siegel said there will be a robust multimedia approach, using such platforms as Instagram and TikTok, to show the public what they’re getting from their tax dollars.
“We are approaching a world, frankly, where there will come a time when we send a press release and there’s no one to listen,” Siegel said. “It is incumbent on us to tell our own story.”
He said it’s important for the government to account for itself.
“Lehigh County is not entitled to your support. It’s not entitled to your vote. It’s not entitled to your tax dollars. What it does have to do is make a case and a justification for its own existence.”
Morning Call reporter Evan Jones can be reached at ejones@mcall.com.
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