State of the City Is 'Strong', Mayor Says

By Christina Georgiou


Easton Mayor Sal Panto gives the State of the City address
at the city council meeting Wednesday evening.

 In his annual "State of the City" address, Mayor Sal Panto exuberantly touted  achievements and successes in Easton in front of city council members Wednesday evening, and stressed that continued city success depends on continued development and investment.

"I am here to report to you that the state of our city is strong and getting stronger," Panto said. "We are vibrant, open, and smart."

Quoting Alvin Toffler--"to think about big things while you're doing small things"--Panto highlighted various projects that have been recently completed, mostly involving revitalization and business investment, and lavished praise on city employees for those successes.

"Some of my proudest moments as mayor have been seeing the response ofout city employees in the face of...challenges," he said. "In each and every situation, they have demonstrated what good government is all about."

During Superstorm Sandy, first responders deserve much credit for their efforts to minimize property damage, he said.

Volunteers also helped a lot in the past year toward driving the city's forward, the mayor said.

"Community volunteerism has benefitted Easton's economy," Panto said. "Volunteers also played an important part in our special events which brought hundreds of thousands of visitors to our city. They came, they saw the improvements, and they returned."

A slide that accompanied Mayor
Sal Panto's State of the City
address Wednesday evening.

Listing off a number of new businesses and rehabbed structures, both completed and yet to be finished, the mayor said, "Everything we do relies on a strong financial foundation."

The Silk Mill project is coming along, and other renovations around the city are also contributing to the city's progress too, he said.

"We started to do green rehab in 2009," the mayor said, especially noting a plan to renovate blighted properties along the 600 block of Pine Street, along with other locations. "Any blighted and vacant property we can buy and flip, we will do so."

"When (I) came into office in 2008, our city finances were in a state of severe decline,"  Panto said. "The fund balance was depleted, we inherited a deficit of $2 million, and our taxes had increased 107 percent over the previous four years. We were in the state's early intervention program on our way to filing (for bankruptcy) under Act 47."

Acting proactively, as well as working "smarter" and making use of modern technology to do more with less, was the solution to the situation, he added.

"We made the difficult cuts dictated by the draconian times our city faced," Panto said. "How are we doing it? By reducing wasteful spending and being more efficient."


A slide that accompanied Mayor Sal Panto's State of the City
address Wednesday evening shows the increases in Easton
municipal costs year by year.

Still, rising pension and healthcare costs are an ongoing problem that needs to be solved at the state level, the mayor said.

"Pension reform is something we really need," Panto said. "(Rising pension costs for municipalities are) happening throughout the state. Pensions are out of control, even for the wealthiest municipalities...Yes, we enacted a commuter tax, but we are still absorbing an additional $500,000 or an additional $2.7 million since 2008."

When it comes to the police and crime, despite a record high of six homicides in 2012, "all involving individuals involved in illegal activity surrounding the drug and gang segment of society", overall, crime is down in the city, the mayor said.

He cited the statistics: overall crime was down 16.3 percent, violent crime dropped from the 2011 by 14.7 percent in 2012, and non-violent crimes such as vandalism, impaired driving and disorderly conduct fell by 16.9 percent.

Again, returning to the theme of economic development, Panto talked about the city's achievements, noting that a Cheeburger Cheeburger franchise signed a lease to occupy restaurant space in the newly completed Pomeroy shopfront earlier on Wednesday and that phase II of the Pomeroy property is nearing completion.

"Even in this economy, the city continues to draw public and private investment dollars with more than $100 million in active projects last year and more than $20 million in grants being managed this year alone," he said.

From a city managment standpoint, an IT manager will be officially hired in coming months, and that person's first goal will be to add online payment capability for the city, which will "drastically reduce the thousands of utility bills processed each month," the mayor said.

"In closing, we are not here merely to hold office. We are here to empower the people of our community to live a better life with greater vision, with a sense of hope, and with the chance to achieve their dreams for themselves and their families," Panto said. "We are here to attract families and investors who feel confident that our finances are stable and secure."

Panto will again give the State of the City address this morning at the State Theatre during a breakfast gathering hosted by the Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce.