Candidates Make Their Cases on South Side

If you came to the South Side Civic Association's candidate's , you got to hear the men running for city and county offices outline their goals.

You also got to witness a brief, heated, and unscheduled debate between Ronnie Delbacco and Frank Pintabone, two South Side residents seeking a .

Both men followed the same format as the candidates who came before them: a quick statement about who they were and why they were running, followed by questions from the audience.

Delbacco said he's running because he wants lower taxes, a smaller school district administration and improved curriculum.

Pintabone also wants lower school taxes, as well as improved communication in the district.

Things got a bit tense after Delbacco asked Pintabone about a comment he didn't want the board to be politicized. Delbacco noted that Pintabone had used campaign signs during the primary billing himself as the "only Democrat on the ballot."

Pintabone responded that he only did that because Delbacco -- a Republican -- had challenged Pintabone's cross-filed status.

"I played the card you dealt me, sir," Pintabone said.

For his part, Pintabone accused of Delbacco of lying about not seeking endorsements, saying his opponent had reached out to board member Kerry Myers -- who's stepping down at the end of the year -- for exactly that reason.

Contacted for comment after the forum, Myers told Patch that Delbacco "absolutely" had sought his endorsement.

Delbacco says he reached out to several candidates to talk about the future of the board.

"I made the same kind of call to all the school board members. I wasn't seeking endorsements," Delbacco said.

He faced a tough audience. A good chunk of the people there were Democrats -- most of the front row wore "Panto for Mayor" shirts -- who gave Pintabone the most enthusiastic applause of the night.

Meanwhile, and opponent reiterated most of the main ideas of their campaigns.

Panto said he's running on his record and "not running against any individual." He pushed the city's Clean and Safe philosophy, talked about the increases in business privilege and earned income tax, and improvements to the neighborhoods.

And Krill, a city firefighter, maintained Easton has focused too much on Downtown.

"And it's not just the current mayor, it's the mayors in the 27 years I've lived here," he said.

Also speaking Tuesday were Republican Northampton County Councilman Mike Dowd and his opponent Bob Werner, a Democrat; county Controller and his Republican opponent, Steve Salvesen.

The audience also heard from two unopposed candidates: Tony Bassil, seeking another term as Easton's controller, and City Councilman Ken Brown.