Editor\’s Note: There will be no Faculty Q+A this week. In its place we have information regarding the candidates for mayor of State College. Faculty Q+A will resume next week.
Jen Golding contributed to this report.
In fewer than 36 hours, State College will have elected a new mayor for the first time in 15 years.
For the past two months since the passing of Mayor Bill Welch, two candidates have campaigned for the right to replace him in office. A third candidate has declared he will not campaign but will accept the position if elected as a write-in candidate.
The following information is intended to help you select a candidate and vote effectively.
Voting Information
Hours: 7 a.m. – 8 p.m.
Meet the candidates:
Former council member Joe Wakeley, Republican
Wakeley, a 40-plus year citizen of State College, has been out of politics since he left borough council in the early 1980s but believes his absence can help him be a better mayor.
He says having been away from local politics has kept him from having a “political ax to grind” and will allow him to be impartial in his approach to the problems facing the borough.
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He served four years as a member of borough council and two years as its president. He is the co-founder of the State College Area Family YMCA and served as chairman of the YMCA’s Board of Directors for nine years. Wakeley also founded the State College Area High School Boys and Girls swimming team and the William L. Welch Community Pool swimming team.
Wakely worked as an engineer for Penn State’s Applied Research Lab for almost 32 years before retiring. Together with his wife Esther, he raised five children in downtown State College, four of whom attended and graduated from Penn State. He now has two grandchildren who are current students. This, he says, gives him a “unique perspective that bridges the ‘town and gown’ divide.”
He plans to close the gap between students and area residents by including students in more borough decisions. He would like to officially include students on borough council subcommittees.
Wakeley has voiced clear opposition to the proposed Nuisance Gathering Ordinance, which would make party hosts responsible for their guests’ actions, because he feels it is attacking students.
He has been endorsed by fellow republicans such as state Representative Kerry Benninghoff, state Senator Jake Corman and U.S. Representative Glenn Thompson. All are Republicans.
Borough Council President Elizabeth Goreham, Democrat
Elizabeth Goreham has lived in State College for 16 years, and has sent 12 of those years serving on borough council.
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She is also the current vice chairwoman of the Centre County Metropolitan Planning Organization, a recent board member of the Pennsylvania League of Cities and Municipalities, and a member of the Steering Committee for Transportation and Infrastructure for the National League of Cities. She has also served on the Board of Directors for the State College Community Land Trust and helped to establish the Centre Region Bike Coalition.
A concerning issue in State College for Goreham is the borough’s increasing dependence on state and federal revenues. State College is 50 percent full of tax-exempt properties, and it’s a struggle to find the necessary revenue, Goreham says.
Goreham traveled to Harrisburg with mayors of other counties to lobby for a 1-percent sales tax that would stay in the town, similar to what Philadelphia and Pittsburgh have.
“It will take several years for legislators to understand this need, but expenses are growing and revenue is decreasing,” said Goreham.
One important issue for Goreham is seeing the town become more “eco-friendly.” She has met with the student group Eco-Action to discuss ways to help facilitate this goal.
“We need ways to be more energy-efficient, and we all need to reduce energy consumption,\” she said.
Goreham, who originally favored the Nuisance Ordinance, has since changed her stance on the issue after she “looked at the issue further.”
Goreham came under fire in early October when she told a Centre Daily Times reporter at a borough council meeting that she did not anticipate the nomination of former council member Felicia Lewis. It was later revealed that she had held a meeting discussing that appointment “a week or so” earlier.
“It was wrong of me – I misspoke,” Goreham told the reporter. “I apologize. It was wrong.”
The issue led to the creation of nogoreham.com and the placement of several of the site’s signs around town.
Goreham has been endorsed by The Daily Collegian and The Centre Daily Times.
Former borough council member Jeff Kern, Independent
Jeff Kern is not campaigning for the position of mayor, but he said he’ll accept the position if he is elected through write-in votes. And he has strong support coming from the wife of the late Bill Welch.
Kern was a registered republican when he ran for mayor against his good friend, Bill Welch, but he has since changes his registration to Independent.
Welch’s wife, Nadine Kofman, spoke highly of Kern’s character in her endorsement, and said he would be a good person to replace her late husband.
