BETHLEHEM, Pa. — While national politics often makes headlines, local government typically has the most impacts on residents.
Why is that? What really goes into local government?
This week on Political Pulse, host Tom Shortell talks to former Bethlehem Mayor Bob Donchez about municipal government and how it impacts Lehigh Valley residents.
"It's very complicated," Donchez said. "But the local government is the most important, from my point of view, because it's the closest to the people.
"They get to see if the pothole gets fixed, they get to see if the street gets overlayed or how are the swimming pools gonna be."
Municipal governments still argue about or disagree on how to address issues like those that Donchez mentioned, even if they're part of the same political party, Shortell noted. Where there may be a push to align with party goals at a national level, it's not like that at the local level, Donchez said.
"The political system is really changing in a sense," Donchez said.
At a local level, elected officials can interact with their constituents more, Donchez said, noting that most of the concerns he personally heard about included potholes, noise in their neighborhoods and questions about taxes.
Bethlehem has changed too, he said, for the better.
"I found that very productive," Donchez said. "You never know. You always try to respond to the public when they came in and [if] they had an issue we tried to fix it."
Shortell notes that the skillset to campaign isn't necessarily the skillset required to govern. What's required of the latter? Watch the latest episode of Political Pulse to find out.
