ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 Two new faces are set to join City Council.<\/p>\n
Jeremy Binder and Cristian Pungo will formally join council Monday night after they finished among the top four vote-getters in last year\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n
They were elected alongside incumbents Cynthia Mota and Natalie Santos. <\/p>\n
Allentown City Council members are scheduled to take their oaths of office at 6 p.m. Monday during a reorganization meeting in which members will elect a new council president and vice president.<\/p>\n
Allentown City Council agenda<\/p>\n
They’re scheduled to take their oaths of office at 6 p.m. Monday during a reorganization meeting in which members will elect a new council president and vice president.<\/p>\n
Binder, who owns an IT and security consulting firm based in the city, campaigned on his hopes of bringing \u201ca broader perspective\u201d to council.<\/p>\n
He said he would \u201cfocus on community\u201d and work to build better relationships between residents and city officials.<\/p>\n
Pungo is a construction manager at Alvin H. Butz Inc. He told voters he wants to bring his \u201cresults-based approach\u201d to Allentown City Council to try to avoid some of the \u201cdysfunction\u201d the body has faced in recent years.<\/p>\n
He identified investments in affordable housing and infrastructure as top priorities.<\/p>\n
‘Own personal beliefs’<\/p>\n
Binder and Pungo will replace Daryl Hendricks and Ed Zucal, who depart with two decades of council experience between them.<\/p>\n
Hendricks served a dozen years across three terms. He sought a fourth term last year but finished 25 votes short of Pungo in May\u2019s Democratic primary.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to serve with dignity and integrity.”<\/p>\n
Outgoing Councilman Ed Zucal to incoming members<\/p>\n
Zucal\u2019s time on council will end after two terms. He did not seek another four years on council as he challenged Mayor Matt Tuerk for his job in 2025.<\/p>\n
Zucal last month told LehighValleyNews.com that he was ready for \u201ca little break.\u201d He offered a small piece of advice to the newcomers who will replace him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to serve with dignity and integrity,\u201d he said, urging Binder and Pungo to ground themselves in their \u201cown personal beliefs\u201d as they weigh numerous, varying perspectives.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear when or if council will revisit Allentown\u2019s 2026 budget.<\/p>\n
Council members, by a 4-3 vote on Dec. 17<\/a>, passed a budget that kept the property-tax rate flat while increasing annual trash fees $135. <\/p>\n Tuerk vetoed that budget<\/a>, and members failed to override<\/a> his veto.<\/p>\n Council and its solicitor argue that leaves the city without a budget, but Tuerk told LehighValleyNews.com his initial proposal \u2014 which called for an almost 4% property tax increase on top of the trash-fee hike \u2014 wouldtake effect Thursday<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 Two new faces are set to join City Council. Jeremy Binder and Cristian Pungo will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,3179,2748,39643,3299,121,120,39641,39642,39644],"class_list":["post-77180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-budget","tag-allentown-city-council","tag-allentown-city-council-reorganization","tag-allentown-election","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-cristian-pungo","tag-jeremy-binder","tag-new-allentown-city-council-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77180","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=77180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}