such places as Pittsburgh<\/a> and Providence, Rhode Island, where top employers including hospitals and universities contribute to community improvements like affordable housing.<\/p>\n\u201cI believe that our anchor institutions, who are vested in this community, rooted in this community and can\u2019t move their physical assets, have to step up and play a bigger role in resolving many of the socially external courses that affect them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said if recent college graduates can\u2019t afford to live in Lehigh County, it\u2019s problematic for businesses looking for a quality workforce. If rooted institutions can\u2019t keep employees, the business model will fail.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not asking to do anything new or reinvent the wheel,\u201d Siegel said. \u201cI\u2019m 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
To remain competitive, the county must invest in such things as affordable housing, high-quality parks and accessible childcare.<\/p>\n
Infrastructure and labor<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere 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,\u201d Siegel said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou now work where you want to live,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is incumbent on us to make sure that we are continuing to make investments that make us attractive and competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Modernizing communications<\/p>\n
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\u2019re getting from their tax dollars.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are approaching a world, frankly, where there will come a time when we send a press release and there\u2019s no one to listen,\u201d Siegel said. \u201cIt is incumbent on us to tell our own story.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said it\u2019s important for the government to account for itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cLehigh County is not entitled to your support. It\u2019s not entitled to your vote. It\u2019s not entitled to your tax dollars. What it does have to do is make a case and a justification for its own existence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morning Call reporter Evan Jones can be reached at ejones@mcall.com.<\/p>\n
Read the entire report here:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you want to know which direction new Executive Josh Siegel wants to take with issues facing Lehigh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,433,182,139,28,432],"class_list":["post-119835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-lehigh-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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