State data <\/a>shows a similar pattern, with violent crimes rising statewide from 2020\u20132022 before leveling off.<\/p>\nBarrett also responded to Cognetti\u2019s claims about the city\u2019s infrastructure and his previous role with the Scranton Sewer Authority.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the utilities in the central business district and lower hill section are well over 100 years old,\u201d Barrett said. \u201cWhenever I got a call from the public works or the police department or the utility that notified me that there was an issue with a particular manhole, then I have a list of contractors that I would call to see about their availability, and we would correct the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the debate, Cognetti referenced a 2017 lawsuit filed by the Green Ridge Neighborhood Association against the Scranton Sewer Authority, Pennsylvania American Water, and the city. The lawsuit, which did not name Barrett personally, alleged an improper change to a landfill permit that allowed the Keystone Sanitary Landfill in Dunmore to use an alternate leachate line. The suit was dismissed that same year when a judge ruled the group lacked standing to sue.<\/p>\n
Another tense exchange Thursday night came when Cognetti said one construction company tied to Beynon\u2019s employer was paid for work that was never completed.<\/p>\n
In a statement Friday, Beynon called that claim \u201ctotally false.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe facts are that the City of Scranton paid a settlement of close to $300,000 to my employer because they failed to give them notice after awarding them a contract,\u201d Beynon said. \u201cShe lied about that, and it was later settled in court.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cognetti said audits conducted during her administration found the opposite.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of these audits discovered that there was $238,000 that had been given to said construction company in the prior administration, and the work was never performed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In a written statement to FOX56, Cognetti defended her record and said she\u2019s focused on continuing the work she started since first being elected in 2020.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first ran for mayor six years ago, it was to clean up a corrupt City Hall. I\u2019m proud of the progress we\u2019ve made,\u201d Cognetti said.<\/p>\n
“We cut red tape, fixed the city\u2019s dismal finances, attracted new businesses, put more cops on the beat, added new parks and pools, repaired our infrastructure, and made real reforms.” <\/p>\n
She added, \u201cScranton deserves a mayor that\u2019s not looking out for their personal self-interests or lining their bank accounts. That\u2019s why I\u2019m running for Mayor again – to continue my fight to ensure accountability and trust in local government and to get things done. \u201c<\/p>\n
Efforts to contact independent candidate, Rik Little were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n
Voters will choose Scranton\u2019s next mayor during the general election on November 4th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 A day after the Scranton mayoral debate at the University of Scranton, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[5896,31,5883,2857,5895,4775,2497,178,180,179,5886],"class_list":["post-6534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-city-contracts","tag-crime","tag-gene-barrett","tag-infrastructure","tag-major-story","tag-mayoral-debate","tag-paige-cognetti","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-trish-beynon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6534","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=6534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}