2021 Municipal Primary Candidate Questionnaire

Prepared By: Geoff Brace REDACTED

Phone/Email: geoff@geoffbrace.com, 484-639-1860

Campaign Manager: NA Phone/Email:__________________________

Candidate Name: Geoff Brace

Campaign Email: geoff@geoffbrace.com

Campaign Website: www.geoffbrace.com

I, Geoff Brace, certify that the information provided on this questionnaire is accurate and the
opinions stated here accurately reflect my own positions.
__________________________________________________________________________

Please complete, sign and return this via email in either Word Doc or PDF format to
politics@lvstandsup.org on or before March 27th, 2021.
_______________________________________________________________________

Disclaimer

In an effort to build transparency and hold our leaders accountable, LVSU intends to publish this
questionnaire on our website and social media to draw our members’ attention to issues in this
election cycle. We also intend on publishing answers from your campaign to more directly
engage with our membership and community. Do you agree to have some or all of your
responses shared publicly as part of our endorsement process?

❏ Yes
❏ No (if no we will indicate that you preferred not to share your answers publicly)

INTRODUCTION
Lehigh Valley Stands Up (LVSU) a grassroots multi-racial working class force for transformative
political change in the Lehigh Valley. We empower constituents and public servants alike to
address systemic causes of inequity at the heart of our mission, especially the systems that
disproportionately impact our marginalized communities, such as Black, Indigenous, People of
Color (BIPOC); Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Queer (LGBTQIA+); disabled; and
otherwise vulnerable residents. The following open-ended questions are intended to help the
members of Lehigh Valley Stands Up (LVSU) understand how you view the world and the
political issues that face the Lehigh Valley. As you might expect, these questions are big and
broad. We expect each answer to explicitly address the issues facing the aforementioned
vulnerable communities. Please respond to each in 250 words or less.

1. What do you value most about the municipality you’re running to represent and why do
you want to represent the people of that municipality?
a. I represent a district that is entirely within the City of Allentown. It is diverse. It
has character. It tends to be progressive. I love that my son is growing up in a
community that is exciting and diverse. It will make his life better in a way that it
has made my life better.
b. For 8 years I have represented the district with great pride and I want to continue
representing this community in county government. With the influx of federal
relief dollars finding their way into county government, we have an opportunity to
serve this community in ways that county government has not been able to do
because federal resources allocated to the city flow to city government, not
county government. We will have flexibility with these resources that we haven’t
had before. I want to use my knowledge and skill to build on the recent
successes we’ve had to make Lehigh County more just and equitable.

2. What do you believe are the biggest issues facing BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ constituents?
How does it fit into your campaign priorities?
a. The biggest issue facing our community is recovery from the pandemic. 2020
was an earthquake that shook the nation. 2021 is the year we begin the process
of rebuilding, not just in a way that takes us back to 2019, but in a way that is
equitable and responsible. The recovery must include strong community
development response that serves vulnerable and historically marginalized
individuals, result in economic justice and strengthens public health in a way that
allows residents of Lehigh County to weather any future health insecurity crisis
that will almost certainly threaten our community.
3. How will you regularly use the power of your office to dismantle white supremacy and
address systemic racism in our local and municipal governments?
a. Establish County Health Bureau: Allentown is fortunate to have a strong agency
to provide public health services. Every resident of Lehigh County deserves the
same protection and assurance for health, regardless of where they live.
b. Calls for criminal justice reform: Public safety requires justice, which requires
equity. Issues of cash bail, prison pipelines and opportunity after incarceration
are complicated. The Board of Commissioners does not have the legal authority
to set bail policy or make demands of prosecutors or judges that overcrowd our
jails. We have recently allocated resources to divert people away from the prison
pipeline with over $400,000 in new resources to address homelessness, youth
violence and reentry. I was the author of the budget amendment that made this
happen and look forward to getting these resources into the community in mid-
2021.
c. Continue policy to stop 4th Amendment violations by ICE: In my first term, the
Board adopted policy requiring ICE to show a judicial warrant before our
departments would detain an individual at ICE request. ICE practice was to
make a request and expect counties to honor that request without warrant, a
clear violation of the constitution. This resulted in the Trump administration and
conservative leaders labeling Lehigh County a “sanctuary county.” Even in the
face of public outcry, I have been resolute: we will uphold the Constitution of the
United States.
d. Continue to advance appointments of historically marginalized individuals to
boards, commissions and advisory councils populated by residents of Lehigh
County. I have been a strong proponent of appointments that reflect the diversity
of our communities and helped to advance the nomination and appointment of
leaders often overlooked for these appointments.
e. Standing with organizations that push for progress: I have marched with
organizations and stood up for common sense gun safety, Black Lives Matters
and other justice efforts, even when conservatives demanded the resignation of
other elected officials who dare to do so.

4. The 2 main campaigns for LVSU in 2021 are de-carcerating the Allentown school
system and protecting and expanding voting rights in the Lehigh Valley: In seeking our
endorsement, how will you support our campaigns?
 a. The largest allocation the county made from the CARES Act was $2M allocation
to the Allentown School District for the safe reopening of schools. It is the single
largest contribution made to any school body and marks the first time the county
made a direct allocation to a school district.
b. In my first term, we expanded mental and behavioral health services to
consumers in Lehigh County by piloting and subsequently expansion a data-
driven, school-based mental and behavioral health services in the Allentown.
This included high-fidelity wrap around services in our schools, a model which
has expanded into other school districts in our region. I also forced a system-
wide review of services available to students with Autism, requiring providers to
re-evaluate their services and make improvements.
c. Election reforms to incorporate vote by mail opened a door to make voting easier
and more accessible during the 2020 election. While elections themselves are
overseen and run by the Board of Elections in Lehigh County (independent of the
Board of Commissioners), we are responsible for making certain they have the
financial resources necessary to voting possible. We allocated new funding to
expanded the number of election staff and successfully pushed to place drop
boxes for ballots. I would like to see more drop boxes for ballot return, use of
selected drop boxes to accept applications for processing (rather than risking
USPS delays) and establish a way for applications to be sent to all registered
voters.

5. What is your vision for the role of police in our communities in the Lehigh Valley? Please
address how your elected office can take steps to accomplish your vision.
a. During the fall of 2020, the Board of Commissioners took steps to allocate new
resources to lessen the need for a large criminal justice system. When
successful, these resources for homelessness prevention, youth violence
prevention and reentry services will divert people away from the criminal justice
system and toward a system where the community is just.
b. We need to rethink response. I would like to see the County deploy a force of
social workers to respond to mental or behavioral health crisis through our 911
system, or a system like it. When somebody is experiencing a physical health
crisis, we deploy medical staff (EMT) to get the person help. The same needs to
be done for mental or behavioral health. Somebody experiencing a mental
health or behavioral health crisis is at-risk for a terrible outcome when confronted
by response by people who are not specifically trained or deployed to address
that crisis. Likewise, the people deployed are at risk. It’s truly a situation where
nobody can expect a good outcome. So, let’s change the way we do response. I
know the Lehigh Valley Justice Institute is advocating one model. I would love to
allocate the resources, build the infrastructure and deploy a data-driven approach
that recognizes need for response to mental health or behavioral health the same
way we respond to physical health. Doing that requires destigmatizing mental
health or behavioral health crisis and treating it the same as we do a heart attack
or broken leg.
6. According to a December 2020 report from the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center,
CARES funding for PA schools was distributed inequitably and underfunded the poorest
districts and those with majorities of students of color most. The state also failed to
distribute $108 million in rent and mortgage relief within the allowed period. With more
COVID relief available soon from the Biden administration, we need leaders that will get
relief into the hands of those that need it most. If your elected body received a grant for
COVID-related relief, what would be your top spending priority? How would you ensure
that COVID-related relief lands in the hands of vulnerable people first?
a. Lehigh County deployed $33M in relief to non-profits, municipalities, businesses
and government agencies to disrupt the fall out of the pandemic on our entire
population. The biggest challenge we faced was the deadline. We had only a
few months to act. Under the American Rescue Plan, we have almost two years
to get this right.
b. With several partners, Lehigh County has made $24M in rent relief available. We
expect that relief to be pushed into the community to keep people effected by the
pandemic secure in their rented homes. It’s a large task, but lessons learned by
the failed distribution of CARES dollars for rent assistance has given county
governments, which previously didn’t have much control over the process
c. My priorities for relief are the same as my approach to government: Liberty &
Justice for ALL. I have a couple of specific places where I would like to see this
happen to ensure funds are distributed in an equitable manner, with sustainability
of the investments being critical to long-term success and the beneficiaries be
those people most directly effected by the brunt of this pandemic.
i. Public Health: establish a public health bureau with the short term use of
these funds and then sustain it with general fund revenue after Lehigh
County’s annual Debt Service obligations drop by $7M.
ii. Establish a stronger system to address homelessness with stronger
sheltering options and more affordable housing.
iii. Bolster diversionary activities to disrupt mass incarceration

7. Municipal and local budgets are notoriously cash-strapped. In a period of austerity how
will you prioritize the needs of our BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities in the face of
budget shortfalls?
a. Thankfully this has not been an issue in Lehigh County. I’ve taken difficult votes
to ensure adequate resources to prevent budget shortfalls. This allowed us to
redirect resources toward preventative measures (homelessness prevention,
 youth violence prevention and reentry services). We will be delivering these
resources to community groups during the summer of 2021.

8. What is your path to victory? How will you engage new voters and expand the electorate
in your municipality or body?
a. Winning an election is not a mystery. It requires direct engagement with voters,
on their front steps and by reminding them of a vision for progressive change. I
am a door knocker. I am walking neighborhoods talking to people.
b. I worry about the energy of the electorate in 2021. History shows energy falls for
the movement that took the White House. My task, along with other
progressives, is to continue to remind people how important our recovery from
the pandemic is. If left to people determined to “drown government in a bathtub”
prevail at the ballot box, we will not have an equitable recovery. Racism and
suppression will grow. Oppression will continue.

9. Who is funding your campaign? Is there anyone from whom you are not taking campaign
contributions? Why?
a. To date, my friends and family are my financial supporters. They have
contributed to my campaign because they believe in my vision and my abilities.
I’m grateful and fortunate. I do expect sizeable support from organized labor
which represents working-class people in our region. Our vision for sustainable
wages and economic justice align and I am proud to have that support.
b. I will not be seeking support from organizations that promote mass incarceration
or attempt to justify racist political beliefs. I do not expect to receive any support
from developers and corporate interests. All of my donation solicitations are very
clear that I will not accept corporate contributions.

10. For School Board Candidates Only: Given the difficulties K-12 education faced
throughout this pandemic, what are your preparedness plans for future pandemics?

ADDITIONAL CLARIFICATION

If there’s anything else our membership should know about you or if you feel the need to
provide additional information about any of your above responses, do so here. Please keep your
response to a total of 100 words or less.
Liberty and Justice for ALL requires constant attention. I am committed to continuing the fight I
started when first elected. In 2014, the Tea Party dominated county politics. With support from
the movement, we stopped their efforts and put in place different leaders committed to undoing
their damage. The efforts I listed above are not complete. We have a rare opportunity over the
next several years to succeed and I hope to continue leading through this storm. I hope to use
my passion for Liberty & Justice and my ability to get things done to build on what we started.