ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The Lehigh County Board of Commissioners held its annual reorganization meeting Monday night, welcoming a new commissioner and electing a vice chair.<\/p>\n
Commissioners welcomed newly elected member Sarah Fevig to the board.<\/p>\n
Fevig thanked her family, who have \u201cdone without me for quite a bit as I\u2019ve learned this job,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t have been able to do it without you,\u201d Fevig said.<\/p>\n
In her remarks, Fevig spoke about the figurative weaving together of skills and worlds as she joins \u201can incredible group of individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n
A former small business owner, Fevig is currently an assistant vice provost in higher education. She moved to Lehigh County in 2016.<\/p>\n
Her campaign priorities included addressing the region\u2019s housing shortage, creating stronger connections between local government and students and young people, and revitalizing support for small businesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a politician \u2014 I\u2019m someone who\u2019s spent my career helping students and families navigate red tape to build better futures,\u201d Fevig said in a press release. \u201cNow, I want to do the same for our county.\u201d<\/p>\n
She is a longtime financial aid director, community advocate, and parent.<\/p>\n
Marc Singer, provost and vice president of academic and student affairs at Northampton Community College, also spoke Monday. Singer encouraged the new board to work together and to see one another \u201cas connected in a meaningful way.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other organizational business, commissioners reelected Geoff Brace as chair, a position he has held since 2021.<\/p>\n
Commissioners also considered nominees for vice chair who included Commissioner Sheila Alvarado, a Democrat, and Commissioner Ron Beitler, a Republican.<\/p>\n
Officials debated supporting a bipartisan leadership pairing with Beitler and Brace or positioning Alvarado as a potential future chair.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a firm believer in shared governance; there are a lot of ways that happen on this board,\u201d Brace said. \u201cI believe this is an opportunity to train the next chair. I believe (Commissioner) Alvarado will rise to that task.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fevig supported a bipartisan structure and argued that leadership development could occur outside the vice chair role.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, the role is deeply symbolic,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Speaking on his own behalf, Beitler highlighted growing dissatisfaction with both major political parties statewide and nationally. He said Pennsylvania voters are constrained by the commonwealth\u2019s closed primary system.<\/p>\n
He voiced support for \u201cmultipartisanship.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t relish opposing Alvarado; she\u2019s formidable. I respect the heck out of her,\u201d Beitler said.<\/p>\n
Alvarado was elected vice chair in a 5-4 vote.<\/p>\n
Commissioners also discussed Republican and Democratic appointments to the Lehigh County Election Board. Both terms expire in December 2029.<\/p>\n
Commissioners quickly approved Republican Michael O\u2019Hare\u2019s appointment. However, they debated between incumbent Democratic member Jennifer Allen and nominee Kathleen Parsons.<\/p>\n
Brace described the candidate pool as an \u201cembarrassment of riches.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commissioner Antonio Pineda supported Allen, who has served on the board for more than three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve only heard good things about Dr. Allen,\u201d Pineda said.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Jon Irons supported Parsons\u2019 nomination, saying she \u201cbrought energy and history to work that justified the change.\u201d<\/p>\n
Irons said incumbency was not a determining factor, noting that reliance on incumbents can be problematic amid heightened scrutiny of elections.<\/p>\n
He said the appointment would \u201ckeep things moving forward. It may be a little uncomfortable and certainly puts us in a realm of uncertainty, but I stand by my nomination.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brace argued in favor of Allen\u2019s experience, particularly as incoming County Executive Josh Siegel takes office in 2026.<\/p>\n
In the end, commissioners voted 6-3 to reappoint Allen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The Lehigh County Board of Commissioners held its annual reorganization meeting Monday night, welcoming a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,20633,9579,40306,9570,433,2149,40307,40305,9571,40308,27298],"class_list":["post-79166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-antonio-pineda","tag-geoff-brace","tag-jennifer-allen","tag-jon-irons","tag-lehigh-county","tag-lehigh-county-board-of-commissioners","tag-lehigh-county-election-board","tag-marc-singer","tag-ron-beitler","tag-sarah-fevig","tag-sheila-alvarado"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79166","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=79166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}