Norco executive candidates Cozze, Zrinski share passion for public service but highlight differences
Democratic nomination at stake in May 20 primary
The Democratic candidates for Northampton County executive, Amy Cozze and Tara Zrinski, share a passion for public service and politics, both having sought elected office previously.
Some of their positions on key issues facing the county – retaining ownership of the Gracedale nursing home, for example – are similar as well. However, as the campaign played out this spring, they highlighted their differences and attacked each other during an April 30 debate and on social media.
Whoever wins the May 20 primary will face Thomas Giovanni, a Republican who serves on county council, as he is unopposed on the GOP ballot.
The county executive position is open because Lamont McClure, a Democrat, declined to seek reelection to a third, four-year term; he has since announced his candidacy for next year’s election for the 7th Congressional District seat.
The executive oversees 2,000 county employees and a budget of $502 million. Beginning in 2026, the annual salary for the executive will increase from $85,000 to $105,000. McClure had vetoed the increase, but council overrode his veto. Zrinski, who was on council at the time, was one of two votes against the override.
Zrinski has served as a county commissioner for six years and two years ago was elected county controller. Cozze ran for state representative in 2018, losing to incumbent Republican Joe Emrick, who continues to represent the 137th District.
Cozze, 42, of Bethlehem, owned Cozze’s Cakes in Nazareth, worked for the county for four years, the last two being in charge of county elections until early 2022. That’s when she joined U.S. Sen. Bob Casey's staff as regional manager and later as director of outreach. The job ended after Casey lost the election last year to Republican Dave McCormick.
Cozze told WGPA Sunny 1110 talk show host Brad Osborne that working for Casey was her “dream job.” But after Casey lost the election, she said she was at a crossroads about what to do next, other than work in public service.
“It is my passion. It's something that I really, really love doing, whether that is working for the elected official or being the elected official,” she said.
Cozze said she wasn’t sure she would ever run for office again, “but when Lamont announced that he was not going to seek a third term and that this position would be open, it felt like the timing was right. … I really firmly believe that now more than ever it's really important that we are getting qualified and experienced leaders in these local offices because over the next four years, that's going to be the final line of defense for some of the things that … we're going to see handed down from the federal government.”
Zrinski, 49, of Bethlehem, is a granddaughter of a Bethlehem Steel worker and the first woman in her family to attend college. She has taught philosophy at colleges in the Lehigh Valley. She worked for a solar panel company and as a counselor and wrote a children’s book.
She served six years as a county commissioner and is in the second year of a four-year term as county controller. Like Cozze, she did not plan to run for county executive.
“I had every intention of keeping that promise of finishing as county controller and even running again [for reelection],” she said at the debate. “I do love the position, but when Lamont stepped down, I felt that I was the most prepared, the most experienced in the county, and I was asked by so many people to run. I felt that I had a responsibility and a duty to my county to run for this office.”
Here’s a look at how the candidates stand on key issues.
Tax cut
McClure proposed a 1-mill reduction in the 2022 real estate tax – a savings of about 8.5% for property owners. Zrinski, as a county commissioner, voted in favor of the reduction, which was approved by county council.
“I cut taxes and put $36 million back into taxpayers’ pockets,” she said during the debate.
At the debate, Cozze questioned whether it made fiscal sense to cut taxes and using the money for county services.
“If we hadn't passed a tax cut in 2022, that on average gave about less than $10 a month to individual property owners, but [it] blew a $36 million hole in our county budget that could be used for things like beefing up homeless shelters,” Cozze said.
She explained that it’s important to look for ways to save money. “I do think that there are ways that we can become a more efficient county that will free up resources that we can invest in these other [services]. Now, does that mean that there's going to be a tax cut? This may be unpopular, but I don't think we should be giving tax cuts when there are things in the county that still need to be addressed. So I think that as long as we are fulfilling our obligations to the residents of Northampton County, then we're not, we're certainly not going to see a tax increase.”
Gracedale
Zrinski has been a strong advocate of keeping the Gracedale nursing home under county ownership.
During a radio interview with Osborne, she related how her mother was a resident of Gracedale and that the staff treated her well, bringing her a cake for her birthday and singing “Happy Birthday.”
“We have to protect it at all costs because of people like my mom, and I know that many other people in our community have family members that are going to be facing the same situations,” she told Osborne.
Cozze also supports maintaining control of Gracedale and knows there is a need for upgades to the facility.
“I think that care can be improved by making sure that we are retaining staff, making sure that they are being paid well, and that they are motivated to come to work and do the best job that they can do,” she said during the debate. “We need to upgrade facilities. We need to make sure that we're not putting too many residents in one room.”
Warehouses/open space/affordable housing
During the debate, Cozze said, “I believe in preserving open space, but conserving open space as a way to combat warehouse development is just lazy policy.” She said Chester County, for example, conserved large amounts of open space, leading to higher housing costs. “Is that what we want to see happen here? Or do we want to come up with actual tangible solutions to make sure that we're championing development that actually works for the citizens that have to live in these areas?”
She said the county should take the lead in working with municipalities to make housing more affordable and to change their zoning laws.
Zrinski had a different perspective. “I disagree somewhat with Ms. Cozze insofar as I don't just believe in conservation and land preservation. I've actually conserved land and preserved land with my vote and with my efforts on the Wildlands Conservancy and conservation districts. And I do think it is effective in … mitigating warehouse proliferation.”
Elections
Cozze was in charge of county elections as chief registrar for two years until leaving early in 2022. She started after the November 2019 election, when voting machines undercounted votes for a judicial candidate; after a review of the back-up paper printouts of each ballot, that candidate was declared the winner.
In 2020, while undergoing treatment for breast cancer that she “led a team that transformed Northampton County’s elections from national embarrassment to a state model during historic and unprecedented times,” she wrote on Facebook. “We implemented mail-in voting from scratch, rebuilt voter trust, trained 800 poll workers, and delivered results faster than any other county in the commonwealth. We did this all while receiving regular threats of violence and constant harassment by extremists.”
She said she never received an increase in pay as promised when she took the job. That led to her submitting a resignation letter in October 2021, shortly before the election that November. She stayed on and council agreed to give her a raise, which McClure vetoed and council overrode, Cozze said.
She resigned in February 2022 and joined Sen. Casey’s staff the next month.
During the debate, Zrinski said Cozze approached council at a meeting asking for a raise and also submitting a letter (which has since been published by Lehigh Valley Ramblings) explaining her reasons why.
In her Oct. 8, 2021, letter, Cozze concluded, “My request for a raise to reflect the increased workload, my performance which has been praised by the County Executive and County Council, as well as the toll this job has taken on my physical & mental health, has been denied.”
Zrinski said, “The letter that you presented to us did say that the stress, that mental, the physical stress that you endured in the elections office was too much and that you needed to resign. You came to county council and you told us that if only you could have a raise, that somehow it would alleviate this stress and this mental scrutiny that you had experienced. County council did allow you to get that raise only for you to leave your position. … [The] question here is two weeks before the election, you held county council hostage and indicated that you needed a raise or you were going to leave.”
Cozze responded by saying she never appeared before council (the minutes indicate she did not attend the two council meetings in October 2021).
The way she was treated “was unacceptable … and I think it would be unacceptable to any county worker,” she said, adding that’s why morale among employees is low and turnover high.
Raises for county employees
“They need higher wages,” Cozze said at the debate. “We either pay now or we will pay more later. High turnover costs more money to the taxpayers than just giving fair pay. We can budget smarter, so we can do it without raising taxes. We can negotiate fair contracts up front. We can cut waste, reduce vacancies [and] aggressively secure outside funding.”
Zrinski agreed. “We definitely need to pay our workers more. Our corrections officers start at $46,000 a year. That is not acceptable. They could literally go to Sheetz and make more money,” she said at the debate.
“So we need to look at what it is that we're doing in each of these locations in terms of the capacity that we have, the employees that we have, and how we can increase their pay, and what resources we can utilize within our budget to redistribute funds to those areas.”
Endorsements and campaign finances
McClure is backing Zrinski, as are two former county executives, Glenn Reibman and Gerry Seyfried, and county commissioners Ken Kraft, Kelly Keegan and Jeff Warren.
Casey made a visit last week to boost Cozze’s campaign. Former U.S. Rep Susan Wild, Lehigh County Executive Phil Armstrong and Easton Mayor Sal Panto also support her.
Zrinski’s campaign has a slight financial edge over Cozze’s, according to their campaign finance reports that reflect the period from Jan. 1 through May 5.
Friends of Tara Zrinski had $73,069 available, spent $54,229, leaving a balance of $18,840. The campaign also received $35,265 as in-kind services. Cozze’s campaign had $59,766, spent $48,246, with a balance of $11,520. Her committee received $15,272 in in-kind services.
Zrinski’s major contributors include IBEW PAC Voluntary Fund, $3,500; International Union of Operating Engineers Local 542 PAC, $5,000; the Lamont G. McClure 4 Exec campaign committee, $5,000; IBEW Local 375, $10,000; Northampton County District Attorney Stephen Baratta, $500; Christian Martin, Bethlehem, $5,000.
The Pennsylvania Democratic Party provided Zrinski’s campaign with in-kind services valued at $33,410 for design, production and postage for mailers. The report also showed the committee paid the state Democratic Party $34,899 for campaign materials and services, and $3,000 to Nineteen Sixty Campaigns, Chicago, for campaign consultations.
Major contributors to the Amy for Northampton campaign committee include We Invest in Lives and Dreams PAC, $1,000; Ironworkers Local 404, $1,000; Sheetmetal Workers Local 19, $5,000; state Rep. Mike Schlossberg, a Democrat from Allentown, $500; Lisa Pektor, president of PennCap Properties, $1,000; Louis Pektor, owner of Ashley Development, $3,000; Murat Guzel, CEO of Natural Food Source Inc., Whitehall, $4,000.
The Pennsylvania Democratic Party provided the Cozze campaign with in-kind services worth $14,916 for design, production and postage for mailers. In turn the campaign contributed $15,662 to the state party organization.
The campaign paid $20,910 to BerlinRosen of New York City for direct mail and photography services; $4,000 to Public Policy Polling, Raleigh, North Carolina; and $2,500 to MFS Strategies, Harrisburg. Cozze loaned her campaign $7,000