In Easton Council race, 7 Democrats seeking 3 at-large seats
With no Republicans on ballot, primary likely to determine who wins in November.
By Pete Leffler
Seven Democrats are seeking three at-large seats on Easton Council this May.
Two of them – Kenneth Brown and David O’Connell – are incumbents. No Republicans have entered the race. That means, barring write-ins, the primary will determine who wins in November. Easton Council members make more than $9,000 yearly.
Easton has a seven-member council counting the mayor, who chairs it and is a voting member. Half the six other council members represent specific city districts. All are elected to four-year terms. Councilman Peter Melan, whose term is up this year, is running for mayor in the May 16 primary.
Here’s who’s running:
Kenneth Brown, 78, a city councilman since 2004, is seeking his sixth term. Brown lives on the city’s South Side.
Brown helps oversee the city’s expenses and budget through the board’s finance committee. This is Easton’s 15th year without a real estate tax increase.
“We’ll want to hold the line and not raise property taxes,” Brown recently told Lehigh Valley Live. “We haven’t raised property taxes and I look forward to continuing that.”
Brown said expanding the city’s available affordable housing supply is a priority for him. Homelessness also is on his radar as the number of those seeking shelter increases.
Before joining city council, Brown was on the Easton Area School Board, serving as president and vice president. He’s been employed as Northampton County’s director of court services since 2018, his LinkedIn page shows. Before that Brown worked nearly 30 years at Shiloh Manor Senior Housing and became executive director.
Brown serves “with integrity and a high degree of professionalism,” said Robert Donchez, a former Bethlehem mayor. “Anyone who knows Ken knows his passion and love for Easton, and his commitment for making Easton a better place for people to live, work and raise a family.”
Kurt Carlson, 38, lives in College Hill. He is co-founder of Carlson, Phillips & Associates.
Carlson served as chair of the Easton Affordable Housing Task Force from 2019-21. He was public affairs specialist for the College Hill Neighborhood Association from 2018-19. Carlson has a bachelor’s degree from Monmouth College, a master’s degree from Butler University and a doctorate from Florida State University.
Carlson’s interest is finding solutions to organizational and governmental problems by creating mutually beneficial partnerships. Ten years ago he worked as a Fulbright Fellow for the U.S. State Department and consulted on economic growth, tourism and sustainable housing in rural Austria.
Since moving to the Lehigh Valley, Carlson said he has worked to develop a firefighter trainee grant program through a neighborhood association, set up a nurse training pipeline between the Third Street Alliance and Gracedale Nursing Home and, in the last three years, developed an affordable housing plan.
He said he wants Easton not only to be “clean and safe,” but also a place where everyone has the chance to live an honest, prosperous life.
“Rising rental costs, housing price spikes and unprecedented cost of living increases have positioned Easton at a crossroads,” he says, offering solutions for “a shortage of services such as grocery stores, clinics and community banks, particularly affecting downtown, the West Ward and the South Side.”
Carlson would survey neighborhoods for service “blind spots” such as the city’s two food deserts and, through tax incentives, zoning and partnerships, entice service providers to Easton and help citizens launch businesses and programs.
Carlson wants a detailed neighborhood plan for each of the city’s four neighborhoods, citing the West Ward’s plan as a template.
He sees opportunity for increased collaboration between the city and Lafayette College by offering hands-on experience through local internship programs, developing the Cattell Street corridor into a “hotbed for small business” and engaging in joint housing initiatives.
Ken Greene, who lives on Center Square, worked in education for 35 years, including 13 years as a school superintendent in Newtown, N.J., before retiring last summer. He is now an education consultant.
“I enter this race with the future-focused leadership experience needed to keep Easton on the right track,” Greene said.
Greene is chairman of the Easton Planning Commission. In April, the planners approved a five-story, mixed-use building on the 500 block of Northampton Street. In February, they had approved a six-story mixed-use building on the same block, according to meeting minutes.
“In my time on the Planning Commission, we have promoted a period of extraordinary growth across the city, and I am proud to serve as chairman,” he said.
Greene and his wife, fellow Phillipsburg native Diane Haviland, won a 2022 award for community service, Lehigh Valley News has reported. Their civic group, Friends of Easton PA, helped spearhead an effort to string lights around trees in Centre Square and parts of the South Side hill.
Greene and Haviland renovated the former Lenny’s Men’s Wear building in Easton in 2012. They live upstairs and rent the bottom floor to a bank.
Mayor Sal Panto has endorsed Greene as having the “character, integrity and intelligence to be an effective council member.”
Greene supports Panto’s recent creation of a “neighborhood services” task force following business departures.
“We must take action in every neighborhood based on each one's unique history and potential,” Greene said. “I support scalable business development and sustainable economic expansion.”
Incumbent David O’Connell, 79, of College Hill, is seeking his third term on City Council, “intent on helping to unite the city.”
“We are four distinct neighborhoods, each with its own history and personality. But we are one united city, and it will always be my mission to ensure that all citizens share equally in Easton’s bounty,” he told Lehigh Valley Live.
O’Connell, a Massachusetts native, has lived in Easton since 1989 and won his first race for council in 2015. He was re-elected in 2019.
O’Connell told Lehigh Valley Live he wants to bring more affordable housing to Easton. He has chaired council committees on planning and economic development and is involved in assembling a non-profit housing development corporation.
As a member of the West Ward Community Initiative, O’Connell said he wants to continue helping residents “determine their own interests and what’s best for their neighborhood. We cannot lose sight of working-class, long-time residents to whom Easton is home.”
Pintabone, 44, a fourth-generation Eastonian and lifelong South Side resident, is running on his roots.
“I’m from the neighborhood, for the neighborhood. I want to be your next Easton City Councilman!” is his campaign catchphrase.
Supporters include Panto, state Sen. Lisa Boscola and one of Easton’s best-known favorite sons.
“You wanna vote and want to be a winner? Vote for Pintabone: He’s a knockout,” Larry Holmes says on a Pintabone Facebook post.
Pintabone has seen “the ebb and flow of this city over the last 50 years,” Panto said, making him an ideal council candidate.
Pintabone owns his own landscaping company and told Lehigh Valley Live he has been buying and fixing up Easton properties.
As a member of the Easton Planning Commission, he lauded an upcoming bakery on Second Street.
“The multimillion-dollar projects are great and needed,” Pintabone wrote, “but I really enjoy approving the small businesses.”
Pintabone served six years on the Easton Area School Board, four as president.
During his time on the board, the deficit-riddled district became more financially stable, allowing the district to hire teachers for the first time in years, according to The Morning Call. A total of $14 million in renovations were completed at Paxinosa Elementary.
In 2014, when Pintabone was board president, a grand jury recommended that he, along with school directors Kerri Leonard Ellison and Robert Fehnel, resign as a way of smoothing relations between the school board and administration, according to The Associated Press.
The grand jury had been investigating allegations that an employee used a computer to spy on administrators, The Associated Press reported.
The employee was never charged in connection with the allegation. The employee pleaded guilty to allegations of secretly recording a meeting and entered a first-time offenders program that removes criminal record upon successful completion.
The recommendation to resign was just that – a recommendation. Pintabone and the others did not step down. “There was nothing in this report that says I had any wrongdoing …,” Pintabone was quoted in The Morning Call as saying.
Pintabone continued to serve as president, stepping down in 2017, citing the death of fiance’s son as among the reasons. When he resigned board member George Chando lauded Pintabone’s “countless hours of service and his leadership,” according to The Morning Call.
Pintabone previously served on a committee of the Career Institute of Technology in Forks Township, the Easton Area Neighborhood Center board and the Northampton County General Purpose Authority, his LinkedIn site shows.
His campaign message includes support for creating a city trolley system, a vow to crack down on absentee landlords and a push for a full-service grocery store in the West Ward.
Endorsements listed on his campaign website include organized labor groups.
Rose, 40, another fourth-generation Eastonian, also wants a council seat.
Rose is first vice president/marketing director at Unity Bank, where she has worked 12 years, according to her LinkedIn page. She also has served on Easton’s Civil Service Board since 2016.
The next few years are pivotal for Easton’s future, she said in a campaign news release.
“We need to come together to solve our affordable housing issues and better connect our neighborhoods. Everyone deserves to be heard,” it says. “I am excited to help Easton move forward to a successful future.”
Rose said she lives downtown with her husband, Nick, and their dogs, Bettie and Archie.
She is a board member for America’s Grow-A-Row, a local non-profit that provides fresh fruits and vegetables for those in need. Before that she served on Third Street Alliance’s Bistro fundraiser committees and organized several community movie night events on the Karl Stirner Arts Trail.
Among her priorities, Rose vows to:
Help residents find affordable and safe housing by “pushing out” absentee landlords and “pushing for” harsh fines for those who fail to provide safe housing for tenants.
Help more residents become homeowners in part through first-time home ownership education programs. Many people are unaware of available federal down payment assistance and mortgage loan programs, she says.
Work with neighbors to relaunch the Downtown Neighborhood Association.
Have the city hire a liaison to help small businesses and landlords understand “the codes process and related landlord issues when trying to open a business.”
Wheeler, 55, a lifelong West Ward resident, longtime constable and former president of the NAACP Easton chapter, says he is running to “put more energy into getting things done” in his section of Easton.
The West Ward needs affordable housing, a supermarket and a greater number of activities to improve residents’ quality of life, he says.
“I know the residents. We know what we need,” the community activist told Lehigh Valley Live.
In 2013, Wheeler lost a bid to become a district judge. The next year he started West Ward WISE, a volunteer organization dedicated to curbing crime and improving life in the ward. The acronym stands for “Watch, Identify and Speak up for Everything you see.”
Last Halloween the group opened a pumpkin patch and haunted maze at Centennial Park at 12th and Ferry streets as a way of providing area residents with inexpensive pumpkins and flowers. The group promotes similar events during the winter holidays.
Katherine Reinhard contributed to this report.