[instrumental music] Hello, I'm Lisa Adams.

And I'm Mike Ruzzi.

On behalf of Erie News Now and WQLN, welcome to Election 2025, a debate in the Erie Democratic mayoral primary race between incumbent Joe Schember and challengers, Daria Devlin and Sheila Ellyn Woeger.

Now, before the program, candidates rolled dice to determine who will give the first opening statement and the first question and the order of the closing statements.

Daria Devlin won the coin toss.

She will go first.

Sheila Woeger will go second.

Mayor Joe Schember will go third.

Daria Devlin also won the toss for close, but she elected to go last.

So Sheila will go first, followed by Mayor Joe, and finally, Daria Devlin.

Each candidate will be given two minutes for an opening statement, a one minute for their closing statements, and 90 seconds to answer the same questions with 30 seconds for rebuttal if requested.

And Mike and I may be asking follow ups along the way as warranted.

We will rotate who answers the question first with each round of the questions.

And so we'll begin now with our opening statement from Daria Devlin.

Thank you so much, Lisa and Mike.

Thank you to WQLN for hosting this today.

I wanna thank WICU and WSCE as well for agreeing to be partners.

You know, this is a local election and it is an important one.

I think we all focus so much on our federal elections, on national elections, and we believe that those have so much to do with our lives, and they do, we know that.

But local elections matter so much right here at home in Erie, and this is an incredibly important election.

And so I'm so grateful that we have the opportunity today to talk together.

I'm grateful to my opponents in this race, Mayor Schember and Ms. Woeger who are coming today, and I'm looking forward to a good conversation.

So I really wanna start out by saying, as I've said a few times during this race, I love Erie so much.

It is really fundamentally the reason that I am running.

I am a daughter of this city, and I truly have said and believe that all the really good and kind and strong things about me come from this community, from the neighborhoods, from my church, from my family, from our schools, from the way that I was raised here.

And so, you know, I was born on the lower east side of Erie in the Historic East Bayfront.

I grew up down there in a rectory.

My father as an Eastern Orthodox priest and my mom, we lived down on Front Street back when Front Street wasn't even paved, when there was just gravel down there and the grain elevators were what we looked at every day.

I went to Pfeiffer-Burleigh Elementary school when it first opened, back in the eighties.

I remember loving Pfeiffer-Burleigh for its diversity and for all the students and all the learning that I did there.

I graduated from Central High back when it was Central High in 1995.

And because of my really strong education in Erie Public Schools, I went on to Colgate University with nearly a full scholarship because of the success that I had here, thanks to the teachers and to the education that I had received.

There at Colgate, I met my husband Neil on our very first day.

And we got married right after we graduated, and then soon decided as we started our lives, we lived in Pittsburgh for a period of time.

But when it was time for us to decide where really we wanted to plan our roots, I knew that it was Erie.

I had been raised to believe that Erie was a place where we could make a difference.

And so I've come here back to this town, raised my three sons, and I'm running in this race because I don't like what I see right now.

I think we have so much more to offer and so much potential, and I'm ready to get started and lead our city forward.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next opening statement comes from Sheila Ellyn Woeger.

Thank you.

I'd first like to give honor, excuse me, to God, the name of his son, Jesus Christ.

I want to thank Elise and Mike for this opportunity.

Excuse me.

I moved to Erie in 1996 and it reminded me of the segregation city in which I grew in.

I'm originally from Muskogee, Oklahoma.

I was born during the era of segregation.

I attended segregated public schools where I was taught how to read in first grade, introduced to cursive writing in third grade, and was solving algebraic equations in my head in seventh grade.

When I moved to Erie, I immediately fell in love with it.

But the problem is, is that the segregation appearance after almost 30 years, it's still here in Erie.

Erie has a potential to be a very beautiful city, but it has to be inclusive of all people, regardless of your race, color, your economic status.

And there is a divide here in Erie that I see, I've seen it for almost 30 years.

And I want to change that.

No person, no person, no human being should be living in homes that should be condemned.

No person should be without water.

That's going on today here in Erie, Pennsylvania.

I want to change that because the scripture tells us that the poor is gonna be with us always.

There's no eliminating the poor.

We have to be mindful of them, be inclusive of them.

And that is what I want to change here in Erie, Pennsylvania.

I love the city.

I received my bachelor's degree from Gannon University in Legal Studies, my associate of arts degree in paralegal studies from Fullerton Community College.

But I was never able to get a job in either field here in Erie, Pennsylvania.

I remember my first interview, I only had an associate of arts degree.

I went to this law firm on West Sixth Street.

And when they saw that Sheila Woeger was African-American, if you remember back in the day when we had, you could make it a Kodak moment with the looks on their faces when they saw that I was African American, it would've been a Kodak moment.

And that spirit still exists in here today.

We need to change that.

There's time for a paradigm shift and it has to start somewhere because what's been happening is not working.

We need new ideas.

Thank you.

All right.

The third opening statement comes from incumbent mayor, Joe Schember.

Thank you very much.

I'm very happy to be here with all of you today.

I've been mayor of Erie as you know, for a little over seven years.

I'm in my eighth year right now, and it is just a wonderful experience for me.

I've really, really enjoyed it and done, I believe, a lot of good things, and I'll continue to do that as well.

You know, one of our missions for Erie is that Erie is a community of choice.

And we celebrate five things here in Erie.

First is our incredible way to get together and work on things.

We really have a wonderful way of doing things and we'll continue to do that for as long as we can.

I also think we have accomplished a lot of very good things as well.

And we will continue to do that.

We are constantly thinking of how can we do more?

How can we do better?

One of the very impressive things I believe that we have done so far is the amount of money we raised to help us keep the city balanced, financially, but also not increase, as you probably all know.

We have not increased taxes now for six years in our role.

And we'll continue to do that absolutely, for as long as we can.

We want to continue to grow Erie, bring Erie together, and not raise taxes while doing that.

You know, when we first took over, we looked five years out and the projected deficit in 2023 was $17 million.

And in 2024 it was $23 million.

I'm very happy to tell you that neither of those years did we have a deficit.

In 2023, our deficit was just under $300 million.

And in 2024 our deficit was $2 million.

And I should have said 300,000 for 2023 and then 2024, the $2 million number.

So thank you very much.

I appreciate being here and I look forward to serving you for years to come.

Thank you, Mayor.

Now Lisa will pose the first question, Daria Devlin.

So we'll start right off with what's a topical issue of funding cuts with uncertainty regarding federal funding in the future.

What concerns you most moving forward?

How will you prioritize city projects and services?

I mean, just today we're learning that $3 million earmarked for the plan public safety building, and the Miller Brothers facility is gone.

Yeah, thanks Lisa.

Of course, we're all very concerned about what's happening at the federal level and I think the most important thing to think about right now is how we take care of ourselves, how we take care of our community, and how we come together to advocate for what we need.

You know, as mayor, I would travel regularly to Harrisburg, to DC to make sure that our legislators both at the state and federal level are aware of how these cuts are really hurting our folks right here at home.

We're seeing here in the community, you know, concerns about public safety, concerns to our nonprofits, concerns to our higher education.

We need to be very, very clear and advocate very effectively with our legislators to let them know what's hurting us.

So that would be number one.

I also think it's really important during this time that we begin to think smartly about the projects we have down the pipeline.

I'm so grateful to have been appointed by Representative Mursky to the newly created quiz authority where we are thinking very carefully about how this new tool can be used to really address the biggest and most important projects in our region.

I love the work that Infinite Erie is doing to create that pipeline, to make sure that as we're being thoughtful, we're really being careful with the funds as we're spending them.

You know, the Miller Brothers project is a great example, but we need to have a good plan for how $30 million would be raised with or without federal money.

So we need to advocate, we need to effectively plan for the future, make sure we're prioritize our projects, and come together as a community to do that.

Make Erie even greater.

Thank you.

Same question for you Sheila.

You know, with uncertainty with federal funding cuts, what concerns you most and how would you prioritize city services moving forward?

Let me first say this, that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof and all in there that dwell they're in.

The scripture tells us that when you give to the poor, you lend to the Lord.

A lot of what we're going on through, we're in a spiritual warfare right now.

It's not against flesh and blood.

And if we as a nation that professed to be a nation under God, and if we would go by what he says in the scriptures, a lot of would be solved.

Second Chronicles 7:14 says, if my people, which are called by my name would elbow themselves and pray, turn from your wicked ways and seek my face, then will I hear from heaven.

I will forgive your sins.

I will hear your land.

So this is what we need to do as a nation to profess to be under God.

That's who we need to be seeking after.

And that's is what's lacking in our nation today.

We praise God with our lips, but our hearts are far from him.

But then on the level of I would seek the Lord in whatever I do, I'm gonna do as according to the Lord, I will seek his face.

And however he would guide me, I would do that.

We always have to look inside for the problem, is there too much overhead?

Do we need to get, you know, eliminate?

And unfortunately there may be people that may have to lose jobs, but I'm sure, well I know I've suffered it and God has always provided for me.

So maybe this is God's way of getting our attention to come back to him.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And Mayor Schember, same question.

Federal funding cuts, what worries you most right now?

Some of you know about already, some you don't.

Yes.

You know, we've been very successful raising money and we will continue to do that, 'cause not all of it comes directly from the government.

We applied to various different sources and I want to remind you that so far we've brought in $120 million in funding from at the state level and also the federal level.

And we're very, very proud of that.

And we will continue to work hard on bringing that forward.

Miller Brothers funding, we've divided that into a couple different approaches.

We're not gonna go for the whole $30 million right up front, we're gonna do it a little bit at a time.

We already had enough to buy the property and to be ready to go there.

So I'm very, very proud of that and we will continue to do that.

We are doing research right now and figuring out where we can get the initial money.

One of the most important things is we gotta get the fire department moved out of the repair area that they're in now, which is very dangerous and move it here, which will be much more safe and much more efficient as well for them to work on things.

So we will continue to work on that and we're really dedicated to that.

And we're looking at different sources of funding we might be able to use.

We're pretty confident we're gonna get the sources and we'll be able to move forward, but it'll probably take about three years to get the whole thing done.

We are hoping to get that first set done, especially in order to move fire over before the end of this year.

Just quickly, you have the funding now to start that project and move fire there?

We have actually already started it, but we can't move fire there quite yet.

LISA: Thank you.

All right, our next question is for Sheila Woeger.

Is it fair to say that progress in Erie over the last 10 years is thanks to the private sector investment from Erie Insurance to the EDDC equity fund to UPMC Hammett and HN St. Vincent?

How has the city contributed?

How should it contribute in the future?

Erie Insurance is really a game changer for the city of Erie.

I won't say what I was thinking, but in the process of all of this, we are evicting people, people that look more like you than me, and they're converting that space into green space.

So if you're not working, if you are unemployed, you're being taxed for tickets for this, for that.

And the core are the ones that are the most affected.

If you can't find employment because an employee doesn't like the way you look, how are we as citizens to contribute if our, if we're being taxed, money is not going where it should be going.

We have seniors that are working right now in lieu of paying school taxes and the burden is getting harder and harder.

How can we possibly contribute when the millionaire is the one that's making the money?

He has the money, you know?

he's calling the shots.

And so instead of him looking for us to the poor, you should be giving more to the poor instead of looking for us to help you.

See, we're a government of the people by the people, but we're not for the people.

And that's where there needs to be a shift.

Thank you.

Mayor Schember, same question for you.

How has the city contributed?

How should it do it moving forward?

We'll continue to do the things we've been doing lately, which has resulted in that 120 million of funding coming in.

And most of that was not from private individuals.

Most of it was from the state or the federal government.

And we're very happy with that.

We don't know how that might change, but we're also looking at other sources of funding that we can draw money from and we're gonna continue to work hard on that and we're pretty confident that based on our experience the first seven plus years here, that we'll be able to bring a lot of that type of money into the city.

We will continue to do that.

We will not give up.

Daria Devlin, same question for you.

How should the city move forward?

Thank you.

You know, I hear the mayor talk about the grants that have been received, but I think on the topic of EDDC, this truly was private money, this was corporate money.

This was investment that was done by Erie Insurance and others in our philanthropic community as well.

I love the work that's happened down at EDDC and I'm so proud of it.

I tell people all the time, the Food Hall's one of my favorite places to go.

But you know, I would really argue to you today that most of that progress was done in spite of City Hall, not because of City Hall.

It is City Hall's job to make sure that when business is interested, when investment is ready, that we create the environment at the city to be able to make things happen, not to make things harder.

And in my experience and in talking with some of the new business owners downtown, you hear a lot of concerns and complaints that City Hall certainly hasn't made it any easier for them.

So we're grateful to Erie Insurance, we're grateful to the investment, let's keep it going, but let's make sure City Hall is working alongside of them.

And one other thing I wanna say, and it really kind of piggybacks on what Ms. Woeger said today, we now need to take that progress to our neighborhoods.

We've seen investment in growth, but what's happening in our neighborhoods is not okay and we need to make sure that we're lifting up those spaces next.

So I say great work, let's keep it up, let's expand it to make sure that all residents are benefiting from.

All right.

The next question goes first to Joe Schember.

We're gonna talk about the population in Erie.

Through more than one mayoral administration, there's been a stated goal of growing Erie's population, getting Erie back over 100,000 residents.

What's been the strategy to do that and why has it failed?

Yeah, we are working very, very, very hard on that.

I think we're making progress.

It won't really get measured again officially for quite a while.

So I don't know when we're gonna be able to say we definitely have, but I feel we've been putting a lot of time and effort into that.

And we are definitely trying to increase that, our population.

We've been bringing a lot of immigrants and refugees in and that's one of the things that's helping us.

I think since about 2020, we've had about 5,000 more immigrants and refugees come into our country and we try to welcome them.

We don't like some of the things the federal government is doing now with those immigrants that have come here and kind of force, maybe forcing them out or taking 'em out.

We're trying to do all we can to prevent that and just to make sure that we can continue to move forward and do what's right for the people here in Erie.

So I really feel like we are making a lot of progress.

It's very hard to measure that right now because there's no really way to do a count, official count of the whole city.

But that's one of my big goals.

You know, we were 140,000 people when I was a kid growing up here, now we're about 95,000, so that's a drop of about 45,000 people.

And most of them actually just moved out to Mill Creek or Harbor Creek or to the surrounding areas, which grew the whole time.

But now we want Erie to be appealing and we want people to wanna come here and we'll continue to work on that as hard as we can.

And just quickly, you had challenged the census count.

Were you successful at all in getting a response to that?

They told us they were gonna adjust it and move it up, but they haven't done it yet.

That's over a year ago they told us they understand and they would increase it, but they have not done it yet.

Right, thank you.

The same question for Daria.

We've heard even before Joe Schember was mayor, we've gotta get the population back.

We've seen us drop in what, you know, being the third largest city in Pennsylvania most of my lifetime, to now five.

So what do you think the stated way was that we were trying to grow the population and why isn't it working?

Yeah, you know, so I hear the mayor saying there that it's hard to measure and I understand the Census comes and goes, but at the most recent one, 92,000 is about where we were hovering.

That is not reaching our goal, our stated goal of 100,000.

So it is easy to measure.

We need to make sure that number gets up.

And when I think about strategy, you know, we need to actively be working on this issue.

We can't just hope and work on it, but we need to have plans and take action to make sure that this is happening.

So a couple things that are on my mind.

First of all, I wanna work with our local business owners to incentivize their employees to live in the city.

We know that many of our folks that work out, work inside the city, work for some of our major employers, they live outside of the city, they live in some of our suburban neighborhoods.

We need to work with our employers to say, when you're recruiting doctors, when you're recruiting lawyers, when you're recruiting professors, are you incentivizing and encouraging them to buy a home to live in the city?

That's number one.

But you know, in order to do that, we also need to address the housing crisis that we know we face.

Because even if we're getting them to live in the city, are there places for them to live?

That's number one.

We have infrastructure challenges.

And the third thing that I'll say, and I serve on the Erie School Board and I'm honest about it, we need to address some of the issues in our schools because I think that continues to be a challenge for some folks and an issue and a concern that they have.

So I would definitely have a strategy we need to actively be working to get that number back up.

All right.

Same question for you Sheila.

The population has continued to decline in Erie, despite stated goals of growing it.

Why isn't it working?

It's not working because it is not an inviting environment for all peoples.

In the almost 30 years that I've been a resident here in Erie, Pennsylvania, I know of two African American communities that have been gentrified.

That's number one.

Our school system.

I was a substitute teacher in Erie school district and we have students that are being exited from the Erie School District with letters of completion rather than a high school diploma.

Fourth graders can't read.

11th graders can't read cursive writing.

It has to be inviting.

And when you have neighborhoods that are being gentrified, well you're letting that population know you're not welcome here.

And so we're trying to get rid of you.

The poor is gonna always be among us.

We have to, we see people on the benches.

People have died, frozen to death.

We have to make it an inviting place.

And the way that it is now, it reminds me of segregation when I was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma.

It's not inviting.

Thank you.

Next question is for Daria Devlin.

New Americans make up a significant portion of Erie's population.

Are there enough opportunities for them?

And are you concerned that visa issues might shrink those numbers?

Yeah, so you know, it's interesting, Mike, one of my first jobs out of college was I worked for an immigration lawyer in Pittsburgh.

This was many, many years ago.

And so it's interesting now I've learned a lot of the basics of immigration law, so I think I have at least a basic understanding.

And a few weeks ago I was really lucky to meet with some of our Syrian community here at the Quality of Life Center.

And one of the things I heard from them over and over was, "We love Erie.

We're glad to be here.

We want our families to thrive here, but we need some things.

We need more English language classes."

And I think it's really important if we're going to be able to keep these new Americans active and working and taking part in our economy so they can buy homes, so they can pay taxes, so they can be a part of what we're doing to make Erie thrive, we need to give them the tools they need.

That means English classes that are across the board, that are reliable, that can really help them to get to that next level.

I think we also need to make sure that their skills are being met.

You know, a lot of these folks coming to us have skills from their home countries there, their mechanics, some of them doctors, they're teachers.

We need to make sure that they're being able to take advantage in our economy, learning the skills that they need so that they can take care of their families.

And by the way, once they're here in Erie, let's get them to stay here too.

I think we hear often they settle initially in Erie and then they're leaving themselves to go out to our suburban communities.

Let's make sure that housing is being taken care of for them.

And always, always, we need to be advocating.

We have many legal immigrants right here in our community.

These are refugees, they've done things the right way, they followed the rules.

We need to take care of them and make them be part of our future.

Sheila Woeger, same question for you.

Are you concerned that they will receive the proper opportunities?

I'm very concerned, yes.

Because, but then not to the point where there is no hope.

Where there's life, there's always hope.

And a lot of the new Americans that are coming here already with a great education under their belt, they have skills, so they have something working toward for them.

And then all we need to do is make sure that what they're in need of, as far as English as a second language, we need to supply that for them and not wait until the need is needed.

We should have that in place before they get here and then they can already fall into whatever area they need to be in because it's already available for them.

But if we aren't doing it for our own children in the Erie Public School, seriously.

You know, we need to focus on what's home too as well.

Let's not forget our own before we brought stretch out and helping someone else.

Let's take care of home too, because too many of our children can't read English.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor Schember, are you concerned that visa issues might shrink those numbers we're talking?

I think you always have to be concerned about something like that.

I think we're doing a lot of very good things though to make things better.

One of the things Chris Groner is just implemented, I think he announced it a week or two ago, but basically what they are doing is they're trying to get people to build new homes and live in Erie.

And the goal is to, they have about $100,000 they're working with.

The goal is to get two or three built this year.

And if that's successful, we will build that up then in future years.

Because for too long our homes have been deserted, they're in bad shape, a lot of 'em get torn down, and they become, they're often taken by the neighbor that lives next door.

They just use it as a yard.

So that's something we're trying to change and I believe we're making good progress with that.

I know Chris already has two applications for the ability to build a house.

And this is built in a way that it's relatively easy in terms of how you spend money, where you get the money and that sort of thing for the people that decide to do this.

They have to be building a house for themselves that they will live in and it becomes theirs.

So it's not like they're building it to sell to somebody else.

So we're very, very pleased with this progress.

It's something we just are starting and it's something I think will make a huge difference going forward in Erie.

Thank you.

Sheila gets the next question first.

And it has to do with jobs and poverty.

I think we've touched on this somewhat, but how would you define family sustaining jobs in Erie?

Where should these jobs be coming from and what is your message to families who continue to struggle?

The latter part of the question is just hope.

When I moved to Erie, Pennsylvania as a single mother with three children, turned down again and again for employment.

And then you're hearing it said that quote, "You people don't wanna work."

You know, that does something into a person's psyche.

But I thank God that I, because of my faith, that I was able to press through that.

Also, and that's the bottom line because of, and you may call it racism, discrimination, I call it demon possession 'cause only a person with an evil heart will deny a person an opportunity.

And that's the basic of what's going on today.

People don't want to pay you because they have this mindset that they are a superior race that we should stay beneath, you know, and they perpetuate all of these lies.

"You don't wanna work."

"You're lazy."

Well, how did we get here?

We came here because our ancestors worked.

So work is in our DNA, all we need is a chance.

And that's, and we're not getting, even within education, I couldn't find a job in the field of paralegal studies and was called for an interview just on my resume alone.

And it was my facial appearance that turned them away.

So we're gonna have to learn to change our mindsets about one another.

If we're a nation under God, let us be that.

Thank you.

Mayor, you have talked a fair amount about family sustaining jobs.

What's the role of the city in helping to create or build a climate for family sustaining jobs?

And we know a lot of people who have to work multiple jobs to make it work.

So what's your message to those families who are struggling in the city?

I can tell you that we're trying to do all we can to help with this.

And here's some success we've had since 2020 this year.

What we've done is we have about 2000 more people now working in the city of Erie.

They all don't necessarily live here, but they have a job here and pay some taxes.

And also we have 400 individuals who have either started new businesses or expanded their businesses.

And that's where these 2000 new employees are now working.

So that's something that we got started.

We wanna keep that going.

We will keep working on it.

And that's the sort of thing, the sort of opportunity that my team and I are looking at trying to move forward with.

So we're very, very pleased with that.

And I think that's a good example and a good rationale behind, hey, this is working, let's expand it and keep it going.

Can you elaborate on how you did this?

You created jobs for 2000 more people?

Yes.

Basically we didn't create the jobs.

The 400 people that started the new businesses or expanded an existing business are the ones that created new jobs.

And we help with some funding to them to help them have the funding to be able to do what they wanted to do.

And we support 'em in every way we can, as well.

LISA: Thank you.

Thank you.

Same question for Daria Devlin.

Thank you.

So first I'd question, how many of those 2000 new jobs were created by employers like Erie Insurance?

And I don't have those numbers, but I think that's something we really should be thinking about.

But some things that really concern me when we talk about poverty, you know, recently we saw on the news a third of the children that live in the city of Erie are now living below the poverty line.

This is simply unacceptable.

It's unacceptable for a region like ours that is well-resourced, that we have so many of our children living in this situation.

And the median income for a family in the city of Erie is hovering right around $40,000.

That's half of the national average.

So clearly we're not doing something right.

And that poverty number for our children is the highest of any city in the state of Pennsylvania.

Again, unacceptable.

So what's the city's role?

The city needs to be creating an environment for business to make sure that new businesses are coming in and that we are making sure that these are family sustaining wages.

You know, during my time at ECAT, one of the things we did was create career opportunities for people so that they could be trained in things like construction jobs, and as a medical assistant.

This is the way we pull families outta poverty.

And lastly, I'll say this, education is the key.

We will never see a change in these poverty numbers in Erie if the city isn't working more closely with our public schools, with the Erie School District.

As mayor, I would meet regularly with our new superintendent to make sure that our students are graduating with the skills they need to sustain their own families and our future in our economy.

Daria, thank you.

Our next question is for Mayor Joe Schember.

Your thoughts on the job creating plastics recycling plant that just decided not to go forward because of lack of support?

Could or should the city have helped out?

I think we did help them out as much as we could.

We really wanted to help, we really wanted to see that move forward.

There are just some things that happened that have prevented them from being able to do what they had planned to do.

And so they're not.

Now we are still giving some plastic, you know, basically plastic, you know, jars and anything plastic can still be delivered to the areas around town.

There's one right on the Bayfront Parkway over near Cranberry Street where you can, and I take usually two bags of the plastics a week to that and put them in there.

So you could still help with that.

And I'm hoping eventually we might get back to getting that recycling plant going again.

But for every reason to stop for now.

But I'm hoping to get that going again.

Daria Devlin, same question for you.

Yeah, you know, the loss of IRG in this community was really a blow.

Certainly there were some members that had environmental concerns and I think those were valid and needed to be addressed.

But the loss of so many jobs in our community, particularly on Erie's east side, which has been disadvantaged, which really has not seen a lot of investment, really was a blow.

So certainly I think the federal government cuts had something to do here.

But as mayor, I would be advocating actively meeting with our business owners.

You know, we've seen many of our employers leave.

We saw GE leave not too long ago.

I would be actively meeting with our business owners to say, excuse me, "What do you need?

What are you missing?

What can we do for you?"

And when it comes to these federal cuts, again, I can't say it enough, we need to be in the face of our legislators in DC and in Harrisburg to let them know how the things that they're doing there, how the decisions that they're making are directly impacting jobs and families right here in Erie.

So do I think that this was a disappointing thing?

Absolutely.

I know that the mayor's office did what they could, but I would be more active in my advocacy and I would be meeting regularly with our business owners to make sure this doesn't happen again.

Sheila Woeger, same question for you.

There are pros and cons in every business that comes into the community and because of the health issues that could have been related to that, I don't know enough about that to really comment on it.

But as far as jobs, yes, wherever there's jobs are going to be available to help us move ourselves up, yes.

But I think we need to have looked at it more closely and I don't think that happened.

We need to make sure that we're not putting our citizens at risk while supposedly helping them.

So I really don't have much more to say on that.

All right.

The next question, Daria goes to you first.

And I know you're working in this space, so let's talk about homelessness.

It has become a growing visible problem in our community.

I know there's a growing dialogue between a number of different organizations that are trying to target this problem at work to tackle it.

Do you think city government has been playing enough of a role in targeting this problem?

And if not, what should they be doing?

Yeah, so first of all, you know, I think the homelessness issue is twofold.

First, this is an issue of humanity and morality.

We as a community, again, can simply not allow our neighbors to be sleeping outside, in particularly in a climate like Erie, when we know how brutal that can be.

And you know, in my work at the Hammond Health Foundation, what we found is the number is solvable.

We've got about 100 people who are chronically homeless.

That means they've been homeless for more than a year.

That's a solvable number.

We really should be able to figure that out.

So I think the city's role here in this issue and in many of our issues is with its convening power.

So as mayor, I would be convening all the organizations in town who are working on this issue.

That means nonprofits, it certainly means the crisis unit of the police.

It means our health institutions to say this is the problem.

How are we going to solve it together?

What are we doing?

When there is funding available too, I think the city needs to think about allocating its resources.

I know the city has home funds that it can dedicate to projects like this.

So I'm really proud in our work at the Hammond Health Foundation, we're working on a permanent supportive housing unit to make sure we're at least housing 20 of those 100.

But again, the city's role is in convening and allocating funding where it can to make sure that problems like this, which really are solvable and are impacting our community, both from an economic development perspective and from a perspective of humanity, are solved.

Just a quick follow up for you.

We sometimes in the news media hear that there's almost competing forces about how to tackle this problem best.

How can we get over that?

Again, convening I think is important.

So the mayor needs to take and work closely with the county executive.

I think sometimes the county executive has opinions on how the county's gonna solve it.

The city has theirs.

We need to work together on these issues no matter who's in those seats, to make sure that we're taking care of our community.

I think collaboration is really important when we come to issues like this one.

Sheila, same question on homelessness.

It has become really out of the shadows and really visible in Erie, like other communities across the country.

Has the city been doing enough to tackle this and maybe the private sector as well?

I would have to say no, because where there's one homeless person, there's not enough being done.

Excuse me.

Having experienced homelessness myself after losing employment and then working at the homeless shelter, there has to be a holistic approach in dealing with the homeless.

It's not just about supplying them a bed, but there are many issues that come along with homeless people and that is not being addressed.

To say that I'm gonna supply 20 beds for a person, but then if they don't obey the rules, we're gonna kick them out.

Well that's not solving the issue because we need to get to the bottom of why they're homeless and treat them holistically and not just as a systematic approach.

And as long as there's poor, there's gonna be homeless.

As long as we have homes that are, that should be condemned and yet people are living in them.

When we have big businesses gentrifying neighborhoods and they're thrusting those individuals into homelessness, there's always gonna be an issue.

So we have to work collectively together as a community, as a state, as a nation, because it's always gonna be a problem.

Always.

And so what we have to do is make sure that we have housing and, excuse me, housing available as well as affordable.

Thank you.

Same question for Joe Schember.

It really has been so much more visible.

So have you had a lot of complaints about that at the city that the city could or should be doing more?

What has the city been doing in your administration and what more do you hope to do?

Thank you.

Yeah, we do take this very seriously also.

And the big thing we have going on, I think I might have mentioned it earlier, is the new facility we're in the process of constructing, which will give 50 homes to people in this situation.

Now we know we have a lot more than that on the street, and we're hoping that they get in there for a year or so.

They get, you know, they get things together and we're gonna help them get things together 'cause often if you're living on the street, don't have a place to sleep and that's when your life falls apart.

So we wanna get their lives back together in this program and then help them get a job, get a place, another place to live and then bring more people in.

So that's not gonna, it's a huge problem right now.

It's well over 150 people on the streets.

We're creating this place where 50 of them will have a place to stay, live and learn.

But you know, that's a first step and that's gonna cost us well over a couple million dollars.

We have the money to do it.

So we're moving forward with this to start to make a resolution to this big problem.

Thank you.

Next question is for Sheila about blight.

What kind of grade would you give Erie for taking on blight and why are so many neighborhoods still struggling with blight?

I would give Erie an F on blight.

I remember it's been over now 20 years.

There was a home that I had my eye on on East ninth Street that had been sitting vacant.

And when I did purchase the house under a sale through the city, it was just, it was unrepairable.

So I ended up just relinquishing the property back to the city.

But there are so many properties like that.

I served on the blighted property board and because my my voice was only to rule a property blighted.

And I'm knowing that there are people that are homeless, properties that could have been repaired.

I was reading through some material the other day and there was, the city spent $40,000 on a repair on a roof for a warehouse.

And we have taxpayers with tarps on their roofs in my community.

That $40,000 could have purchased four roofs.

You know, so yes, it is a problem.

And, and our code officers are not doing what they should be doing.

Some of these properties should have been blighted long before they were, 'cause that house stayed empty for over 10 years before I took interest in it.

So we need to do that more.

I mean, it needs to be done sooner than later.

Mayor Schember, your response.

Okay, well, blight is certainly an important problem in Erie and we are definitely trying to address it.

Every summer we go into neighborhoods, mainly on the east side and help them do things like put up a new sign with their homes address on it, which a lot of 'em don't have.

We'll fix things up, fix the front door up a little bit, make the steps up to the front porch better.

And all that is done with donations of people that do that for a living, that are doing it as a volunteer to help us get this done.

And I think we've helped get over 400 homes to try to make them better.

There's still a lot to do.

We will, and our plans for this summer are to do the same thing again.

And again, this is almost all done on the east side of Erie where a lot of the problem exists.

And we're very happy to do that and we will continue to do it as long as it takes to really turn this around.

MARK: What else can be done?

What else can be done by the city or?

I'm not sure 'cause you know, there's a lot of money that goes into this and you know, we're trying to manage our money well and not waste money, but also we don't want to increase taxes as well.

So this is something, actually the first couple years we did it, I think it'll be in the fourth year this year, first couple years it really went well.

We did a lot, we had a lot of repairs, a lot of things done.

Last year it didn't go as well.

We had some turnover in the team and so we want to get it back together this year and do a much better job this year than we did last year.

Thank you.

Daria Devlin, what grade would you give of the city?

Yeah, so I would, I'd give the city, I'd say a C right now, Mike.

And I wanna say, I think the program the mayor is referring to is the Love Your Block program.

Many of us are familiar with that.

You know, I see Love Your Block as a nice program, but as a bandaid to a really intense and impactful problem in the city of Erie.

So the Erie Refocus plan that came out in 2015, by the way, that's 10 years old already.

It doesn't seem like it's been that long, but it has been, Erie refocused that.

At that time there were 4,500 properties that were blighted or in danger of blight.

And I think just recently in a conference that Chris Groner gave from the city, they said that the city had addressed something like 250 of those.

So what I'm seeing is a scale of a problem that needs more than Band-Aid solutions.

That needs proactive, not reactive code enforcement.

And that needs to provide homeowners with ways to solve the problem.

So it's not enough for code to show up and tell you what's wrong with your home.

We need to be able to provide more resources like actively advocating for the Whole Homes program that the state provided that's now been defunded.

We need to advocate for more of that funding from the state so that we can give residents opportunities to fix those roofs, to fix those windows, to make sure that the blight doesn't get worse and worse.

Because what we see is many of these people wanna stay in their homes, but they're not able to because they don't have the resources.

And you know, blight will continue to be a problem.

It will continue to be a nuisance problem for folks that are living in there that can cause issues for our fire department.

We hear that very often.

It will also be a problem that continues to destabilize our neighborhoods, which we really need to make sure are strong if we're gonna get that population number back up.

All right, the next question goes first to Joe Schember.

Let's talk about fees.

You talked about not raising taxes, but are fee increases really tax increases and in your view, are city residents getting what they deserve for those fees?

Let's talk about snow plowing for example.

Okay.

Yeah, fees are important.

And in the past, a lot of the fees have been moved from where they were given, for instance, for snow plowing, into other areas of the city's budget.

We stopped doing that a couple years ago.

That had been done long before we started and we finally got to a point about two years ago where we could just, the fees all stay in the area they were meant for.

And so we continue to try to make sure of that and I think we've been very successful with that as well.

We certainly, our fees last this year, the new fees were about $52 per person and that will continue, of course.

And we're, you know, we're happy to have that income as well, but that is not our primary focus really.

We are looking for other sources of income.

For instance, we've been very successful bringing in that $120 million and some of it is definitely for this type of thing as well.

So we'll continue to do that and hopefully be able to move Erie forward very successfully.

And I understand there's not a snow plowing fee, but I'm just talking I guess about fees and city services as well.

So I guess I'll just circle back on the snow plowing part of that.

The Thanksgiving storm, was that an epic one-time incident or do you think the city should have done better on keeping streets cleared or getting streets cleared more quickly without having to have outside help come in?

Yes.

Yes we were very pleased with what we were able to do with that.

We think we were very successful with it as well.

I would get 10 calls every day from people who are upset about something on their block not getting done.

I would turn it over immediately to our people that manage that and they would get out and get it reconciled quickly.

So I worked every day then and it was always in and sometimes I worked more than normal just because they were working around the clock as well, 24 hours.

And I'm very pleased with what we're able to do and we'll continue to work on that.

All right.

Same medley of questions, I guess for you.

Are fees really tax increases, hidden tax increases, is that a good idea?

And then talk about city services as well as the snow plowing issue people raise a lot.

So I'm surprised the mayor says he's pleased with how that went because as we know, that was certainly a once in a lifetime snowstorm, but we were not ready.

And I would argue that some money from, for example, from the ARP funds that came in, could have been used to improve our infrastructure so that something like that didn't happen and we had the snow plows and the things that were ready.

You know, I talked to seniors down in the Frontier neighborhood who told me that they were terrified during those days because they couldn't get out of their homes.

They were worried that any sort of emergency vehicles couldn't get down their street.

So this was really a wake up call for us to make sure that we are, you know, dealing with our core city services.

Getting back to the city's core job, streets, plows, garbage, budget, public safety, these are the things that taxpayers rely on us for and we need to do better.

When it comes to fees, I would say this.

You know, the mayor talks about not raising taxes, but those fees are very regressive in the sense that it doesn't matter how much you make, it doesn't matter how much your home is worth, you get the same fee placed on you.

And I think a lot of people are really tired, and I would call that also a bandaid solution.

We need to look at our budget holistically, understand the structural issues that are there and address these issues without bandaid solutions like fees that again, are really regressive, that are hurting our residents and we need to make sure those core city services are there.

Ms. Woeger, your thoughts on fees and snow plowing?

Snow plowing was this year, a disaster.

You know, I made a suggestion that when the snow plower comes down a street, that there should be another vehicle behind them because they're blocking residents into their driveways because it comes by.

With the, as far as the fees, the seasonal parking that we have, a $25 ticket can be increased to $100 and it's affecting the working court the most.

So where is this money going to help them?

And seeing that's where the street department can come in and some of this money should be allocated personally to them, specifically knowing what our winters are like.

The police coming down my street, where is that money going?

How is that money being allocated?

And so we have fees, fees, fees.

We're taxed, taxed, taxed, but then when we need the assistance, where's the money coming from?

Where's the money going?

And especially these parking fees really need to be looked at.

I don't know enough about it.

I haven't looked at the books to determine, you know, what's what, what's working, what's not.

But these fees definitely need to be looked at because our citizens are getting poor and these fees are really hurting our working people, especially during winter.

Thank you.

Next question is for Daria Devlin.

Erie now has the CRIZ designation.

Is this a game changer and how can the city support it moving forward?

Yeah, it is a game changer and I think we need to be really grateful to the folks who legislated and advocated so deeply and over so many years for this.

So of course, very grateful to Erie Insurance who made a lot of this possible, but additionally to our state legislators who really carried the water, Senator Laughlin Representative Mursky, and Harkins.

We thank them for that.

This is a game changer and as I sit on the newly created CRIZ authority board, we understand the potential here is for up to $15 million to come back to Erie in taxes that would otherwise go to Harrisburg, that could come right back into our community every year for 30 years.

That's really unbelievable when we start to think about it.

So again, Infinite Erie and the work that they've done to create that playbook, that pipeline of projects that are needed.

I think the city's role is to make sure that whatever's happening is aligning with the city's vision for the future of Erie.

We think about our Bayfront, for example.

What a resource we have, what a gem.

When we think about the future of our city, so much will have to do with the Bayfront.

So the city just needs to make sure that whatever investment is being made by the CRIZ authority board aligns with our vision that we all have for what our city can be in the future.

And always making sure that it is increasing economic opportunities for our city and we hope, property tax increase, so that we can continue to thrive.

Sheila, how can the city support CRIZ going forward?

I don't know if the city can afford to help CRIZ going forward because one of the main players of CRIZ has added to our homeless population.

And so when our citizens see that more space is being made for green space, but then you're pushing the homeless people out, who is it really benefiting?

You know what's going on in my mind right now?

The love of money is the root of all evil.

And so we promise people with these jobs are coming in and this money is going to bring this in.

But where is it really going and who is it really benefiting?

Because when you say that we going to put 50 people in housing, well, where are the other people going?

Are you making room for them too?

And so it's not aligning to be conducive to include all citizens because it seems as though you're trying to eliminate the poor and the poor is gonna be with you always.

We can't put everything to the Bayfront.

Like I said, the I be east side of Erie, looks like doing my days of segregation.

Nothing's going there, but everything's going to the Bayfront.

No, we can't do that.

We have to be more concerned about our citizens and their needs and not just big business.

Mayor Joe Schember, is it a game changer?

I believe CRIZ is a game changer.

I was very actively involved with this race in the beginning.

We had a group that met and talked about it, talked things through, and I'm totally supportive of it.

It's very exciting.

I believe in the first year we will get about $10 million into CRIZ and as was said earlier, we'll get for 30 years, we're gonna get up to $15 million every year.

And I'm hoping that over time we can get that up over $15 million.

So we're getting at least $15 million every year, as quickly as possible.

It may take a couple years, but I know Erie Insurance is very actively behind this as well.

And they probably will get things started that will get us that first $10 million coming in.

And that's gonna come in, remember for 30 years going forward.

And all that money has to be used in the areas we've designated where this is going on.

So it's gonna be improving housing, improving streets, whatever needs to be done in those areas can be done with this money.

So I'm very, very supportive of it and very, very happy we're moving forward with it.

All right, I think we're gonna do a really quick round and then we're gonna go to our closing statement.

So on the quick round here, I think we'll just go in this order.

One word answer.

What's your best attribute that you think would make you a good mayor?

Leadership.

All right, Sheila.

Your best attribute that would make you a good mayor.

Empathy.

Mayor Joe Schember.

Your best quality that would make you a good returning mayor.

Caring.

All right, so thank you to our candidates.

We're going to move now to your closing statements.

Again, each of you has one minute for your closing statement and we'll begin with you, Sheila Ellyn Woeger.

Thank you so much again for this opportunity tonight.

I'm sorry this afternoon.

But it's been, I've enjoyed living here in Erie.

I mean, it's been a struggle for me, but life is a struggle.

But we need to be more mindful of those that are less fortunate than us.

And that is my passion because I've suffered some of what people are going through now.

I've had my water turned off.

I've lived in apartments that should have been condemned, and yet I was, had to pay, and then when I moved out I was accused of causing the damage that was already there.

So I know what people are going through and I think that we come together and be mindful of those that are less fortunate than us.

And not always about more money, more money, more money.

But let's be concerned about those that we have at home.

While we're sending billions of dollars overseas to fight other wars, and yet we can't take care of our own.

There's a problem.

And I'm the one to bring about the paradigm shift that Erie needs because I've suffered things that I shouldn't have based on the color of my skin.

But if we say that we love one and another, and especially to the church, if you say you love God, but you hate me, no.

We have to love one another, be more concerned about one another.

And I would bring that passion not only to the citizens of Erie, but also our employees.

You know, are they being appreciated for what they're doing?

I want to get to know everyone by name, every employee by name, they'll know me by name, so that we can work together.

And I say this in every form that I've been a part of.

We all came to America on different ships.

My ancestors' journey was not voluntary, but we're all in the same boat now.

And the sooner that we start working to row together, the better we will be as a city, a state, a nation.

Thank you.

MARK: Thank you.

Joe Schember, your closing statement.

I really believe in city of Erie.

I was born and raised here.

My grandparents come over from Sicily on my dad's side and Ireland on my mom's side.

And I'm the second generation actually born here in Erie.

I'm really honored to be here.

I really believe in our town and what we're doing and how we're moving forward.

I'm very proud of everything my team and I have done while we've been in power.

And I'm really hoping to get one more four year term to really, really move things forward.

I think we might accomplish just as much in the last four years as we did in the first eight.

So that's my promise to the people of Erie.

We'll do all we can to help everyone feel better.

Have any problems you have, you could feel free to call me.

I talk to people all the time.

I go to two or three walks every week, usually to go get something to eat somewhere on State Street.

But a lot of people talk to me when I'm out.

They know who I am, they talk to me.

I really appreciate it and will continue to have those conversations going forward.

Thanks very much to everyone.

Thank you.

Daria.

Thanks again to both of you for having us and for the stations.

I wanna really say this, it's time for change, Erie, and I believe it's time for change right now.

We have some significant challenges facing us.

We have a housing problem, as you heard today.

We have a problem with our budget, which we didn't talk about, but a structural deficit that is showing that in not too many years here, we're gonna be facing a $9 million structural deficit.

But I know that we can address these challenges together because I also see the potential that we have.

And I believe that together we can create an Erie that works for all of us, and most importantly is an Erie that my children will choose, that your children will choose, that works for all of us and is a community that we can all be proud of.

So I'm asking for your vote no matter how you vote in this really important local election, whether you vote early or you vote via mail-in, or you come to the polls on May 20th, I am humbly asking for your vote.

This has not been an easy decision for me to do to make this decision to run, but I believe Erie needs change now and I'm ready to lead us forward into that next chapter.

Thank you all so much for watching today.

Well, in closing, I'd like to say thank you to all three of our candidates today.

And on behalf of Erie News Now and WQLN, we wanna thank you for joining us for this Primary Election 2025 Debate.

And Lisa, we wanna remind everyone that Matthew S. Thomas is running unopposed on the Republican primary ticket.

He's been offered time to share with us his platform on Erie News Now at seven o'clock.

A last reminder, remember to get out and vote in the May 20th primary or return your mail-in ballots early.

Thanks again for being with us.

Thank you.

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