Politics & Government

Macungie Mayor Wants to Prep Successor

Macungie Mayor Rick Hoffman says he hopes to sit down with any candidates for Macungie mayor and discuss with them the mayor's responsibility for the police force.

Macungie Mayor Rick Hoffman says that if a mayor candidate isn't willing to take on the police force, then he or she shouldn't bother running for office.

The mayor of a borough, he explains, has two jobs—to break ties on council votes and to head the police. That's it.

So, Hoffman says, if a candidate for Macungie mayor isn't up to the challenge of being in charge of the Macungie Police Department, that candidate really has no business trying to get elected.

Find out what's happening in Lower Macungiewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Hoffman, whose tenure as mayor has been surrounded by controversy largely due to tensions with the police, feels so strongly about the need for the next Macungie mayor to be prepared for his role in managing the police department. that he wants to sit down with any mayor candidates -- write-in or otherwise -- and discuss this important job responsibility.

Democrat Gary Cordner, currently a professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at Kutztown University, was the sole candidate in the May 21 primary race for Macungie mayor. There was no one running in the GOP primary.

Find out what's happening in Lower Macungiewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Hoffman announced earlier this month that he has sold his home in Macungie and will be stepping down as mayor effective June 28. His term does not expire untl the end of the year. There is no word on whether an interim mayor will be named.

This article is the third in a series. Check back on Lower Macungie Patch for more from a Patch interview with Macungie Mayor Rick Hoffman. During the interview, the mayor spoke about his upcoming move to Virginia, his time as mayor and shared some parting words for his constitutents.


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