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WILKES-BARRE — The candidates for Wilkes-Barre mayor breezed through Wednesday night’s forum, leaving the current office holder wanting more in terms of what his successor will do in office.
Democrat Tony George and Republican Frank Sorick covered a range of topics from crime and corruption to blight and economic development in less than 40 minutes at the program sponsored by the Times Leader and King’s College. Approximately 200 people attended the forum in the school’s Burke Auditorium.
The candidates found common ground on their approaches to governing and credited outgoing Mayor Tom Leighton with some successes, but they kept their answers brief and limited personal attacks.
George, 63, a councilman and former city police chief, told the audience his 30 years experience differentiated him from his opponent.
“From day one I can get the ball and run with it ,” he said.
He stuck to his campaign theme of law and order being the key to the city’s future.
“You’re not going to have any economic development in the city unless people feel safe,” George said. “Right now they don’t feel safe. Once you start that, that’s the building block; make the city safe, you’ll see people coming in, you’ll see businesses coming in and that’s not going to happen until we have law and order in the city.”
Sorick, 42, a Realtor, portrayed himself as the outsider who brings no baggage to the job.
“I’m not politically connected. I’m an average citizen who wants the best for our community,” he said.
He promised to work for a lower salary than the current $84,779 budgeted for the mayor and not accept benefits. He proposed cutting other salaries in city hall and using the money to put more police officers on the street. He also mentioned offering incentives to the businesses to locate in the city.
“Wilkes-Barre does not seem very business friendly or business welcoming. We need to do more to attract business,” Sorick said.
The city’s 3 percent earned income tax is one of the causes of a what he called a “stagnant economy” in the Wilkes-Barre.
“And how we will pay for that is quite simply as I stated before, when we cut out corruption, we cut out the pay-to-play environment we spend money responsibly. We’re certainly not going to be looking at a $55 million budget,” he said.
Leighton last week proposed a $55.1 million balanced budget for 2016 without increasing property taxes.
Sorick took a jab at George over campaign contributions, saying some money came from a person convicted in the sweeping corruption investigation in Luzerne County. Sorick pointed out that he has no such person on his contributor list.
“I’m the only candidate up here who can say that,” Sorick said. While answering reporters’ questions after the forum he identified George’s donor as Thom Greco, who was sentenced to probation in 2010 for his guilty plea in federal court to failing to report a crime.
But George responded there will be no strings attached to the contribution. “I was brought up when I give something don’t expect anything in return. I don’t care if somebody gave me $5 or $5,000 all they’re going to get from me is a thank you,” he said.
Sorick didn’t buy it. “We’ve seen how well that’s worked in the past,” Sorick said.
Leighton, a Democrat, who will end his third-term in January, wasn’t impressed with either of the candidates.
“Very uninformative,” was his critique. “A lot of the questions weren’t answered.”
He disputed Sorick’s corruption comment about the city. “There’s zero, zero, zero, zero corruption in the city of Wilkes-Barre. Every contract is bid out if it’s over $10,000,” he said. “No contracts are handed out. They’re publicly opened in council chambers.”