Leadership in Review - Q&A with Former Royersford Mayor Dave Urner: Part III

Royersford's Mayor Dave Urner made a truly difficult decision in September. He announced that he would be stepping down just about a year shy of the expiration of his term for personal reasons. His resignation was effective Sept. 30 and in the meantime, the borough council had to make moves to select an interim.

Urner took a few hours of his time to sit down with Limerick-Royersford-Spring City Patch Editor Kevin Haslam and discussed everything from the genesis to his term to the wonderful people he's served in the community.

In of our series, Urner discussed his seven-year term, as well as the revitalization efforts of the past, present and future in Royersford. Today, we continue our conversation with the former mayor. 

In of our series, the former mayor talked about the police and fire departments, as well as his joy for the ceremonial aspects of the position.

Make sure you check back here all week long for the continuation of the conversation, and a photo gallery of Urner over his tenure provided by a local resident.

LRSC Patch: What can you say about the people you served on council with over the years? What type of people are they? Did you enjoy serving with them? I know that a lot of them have served for many years. Do you think that it would be refreshing for the borough to have a new face there at some point, or does this mold just click too well to break up?

Dave Urner: I have had the privilege of being at most every meeting of our borough council – that’s twice a month, 12 months a year. We don’t have a lot of absenteeism, which I think speaks for a councilman’s sincerity in holding his office. We don’t have a lot of argument. We have spirited discussion. That’s what I prefer to call it. But, not this near fist-to-cuffs sort of thing. It’s just not there. There is the ability to communicate and when you bundle communication, compromise if necessary, and negotiation together, there has to be a positive effect on the end result. This I can say for our council, I have seen this in action. If there is disagreement, it’s discussed, or executive session is called so as to get it down to the brass tax and get it ironed out. No decisions made in executive session, but at least there is a clear understanding of the objections. Then, we come back and through negotiation, again, we come to an agreement. You can’t satisfy everybody all the time. It’s just not going to happen. But, at the same time, for the good of the whole. That is the bottom line.

Our finance committee has been so astute at holding the line on . We only have our tax base. We don’t have a lot of industry like the township has. We do not have a lot of expendable money that comes into our general fund to be used for things that we would really like to do. Therefore, we’re dependent on grant money and the tax base to achieve what we have accomplished. Back to what I said earlier, we’ve done quite a bit for what we have, and that’s a tribute to our finance committee.

Our public works committee, our parks and recreation committee, our zoning board, our planning commission – all of these committees work together in their own realm and comes back to a recommendation of council, because council is the deciding factor in what gets approved. If there are questions, it may go back to that committee, or it may be understood and we move forward. I just have a lot of regard for our council.

Now, yes, a new person would bring, supposedly, new thoughts and new ideas about something. That sort of evolves. We have a couple of gentlemen who are up in years. Who knows? They may see that it’s time to move on. If that happens, it gives opportunity for a new person to come in. But, you have to understand, at any time only one-third of our council is up for . At any given time, if a new person feels like they wish to contribute to the community through their thought-idea process, then they can run for that. There would be two running for that. Well, there is a process that permits that to happen. So, if that person does receive the popular vote, then he’s in and we go from there.

So, in response to what you’ve asked me, I just have a lot of regard for our council. They all have jobs. Spare time is at a premium. Sometimes the timeliness of a response is a bit delayed, but that has to be understood and accepted because of that. If you have a job, it has to be taken care of. But, they do come back and if it’s something that has priority, it will get dealt with. By and large, things are done in a very timely and orderly fashion. I think that’s a tribute also to the president of our council, [Tom Weikel].

He has been president for several years, and he has things well in hand. As you continue to come to council sessions, you’re going to see he has a good memory. He can remember the action that is on the table to be dealt with and whether there is a motion, whether it was seconded and so on and so forth. He keeps it in order and working so it’s not dragging down and getting into a boring state.

I have a major concern and that is the number of people who actually vote in our borough. When you look at the percentage, we have two precincts. When you compile, at the end of an election, whether it be a general or primary and recognize the percentage of people who voted to put a person in office, it’s appalling – 20-percent, 25-percent. If it’s a popular, general election, you may get up to 30. But, so few people are in this voting process and that scares me to a point. If you have a person who wants to get in on that council, who has an agenda… I don’t agree with agendas. You can have ideas of what may be done, but in keeping with what’s good for the whole – not you. It’s not your objective to get a crosswalk at your home. I just use that as an example, but you can get somebody that has an agenda and with so few people voting, a person can get in there and raise cane. That’s why people should register and vote. I’m not talking about whether you’re a republican or democrat. I’m talking about voting because it’s the right thing to do. You don’t have to agree with everything. At least get out there and vote, because if you don’t vote, then don’t come to me with a complaint about how things are being done. I ask people if they’re registered and if they voted. ‘Well, no, because I don’t like this or that.’ That’s no excuse not to vote. I take them to task on it, because that is not the American way. It’s just not. Because until you vote, you don’t have a voice. That’s your voice. I just throw that in there, because it’s getting lackadaisical. It’s got to be more important than that. You’ve got to vote because today is election day. They’re open from 7:00 in the morning until 8:00 at night. If you can’t get yourself out to vote, then shame on you. That’s my position. I guess it’s an area I get a little bit uneasy about and I just get really disturbed with people that use a flimsy excuse not to vote. But, again, you don’t have to agree with everything. I’m not asking them to vote the way I vote. I just ask you to do what’s right. I haven’t had any real backlash because they know it’s right.

Now, as you know, there is going to be a , because one of the councilmen John Guest was approved by the council to be the interim mayor. So, he moves to his right, which is where I sat, and now that permits another person to fill that vacancy. That vacancy will be an appointment by committee until the next election and then that person can elect to run for that seat or somebody else can come in and attempt to win that seat.

I don’t want to be negative about anything. I just don’t want to go out making a negative statement about things. There are always those areas that you’d like to see a little bit better, but I have to genuinely say, for the most part, I don’t have a lot of those areas that I would say to you in confidence or openly that should be changed, necessarily, because of the dedication of our councilmen. They get things done. I had the opportunity of being a member of the Pennsylvania Mayor’s Association. Once a year, these meetings are held at various locations all over the state – from Pittsburgh to Erie to Gettysburg to coal regions, so that all the mayors have the opportunity at one time or another to attend these things. I started attending these about four or five years ago and in attending them, it gave me the opportunity to hear other borough municipalities’ problems. It gave me an opportunity to observe and listen to attitudes that exist of mayors. These guys are all old geezers. [My wife] Barb says, ‘You talk about old geezers, well what do you think you are at 75?!’ And I say, ‘Well, I don’t feel like I hear them talking.’ But, some of them have real axes to grind in their boroughs, which means I’m finding out that some of them have very poor rapports with their council. I can’t say that I don’t have a good rapport with our council – at least I’m not aware of it. If there was, they certainly do hide it, but I know there are attitudes like that in other municipalities. When I hear it, I wonder how that can be. Again, where’s the communication, negotiation and compromise – if necessary. In small communities like ours, you just have to work together.

Like I said, attending these meetings has just given me so much insight into how our borough compares to other boroughs and I’m very proud of our borough. The cream just comes to the top and that’s sort of the way I feel about our borough in that they incorporate all of those things that are necessary to make things work.

As mayor, I attempted to have office hours, because I do have an down there. I was setting up Tuesdays to do that and I did it for a period of time. I found that it just was not productive for me, because number one, both people in the families are working. If they have an issue they want to talk about or have a concern, then they’ve got to get to the office. Well, how are you going to get in the office during the time you’re working. So, hindsight tells me I should have set up an appointment program or had office hours at night, where there was more opportunity for people to come in and discuss it. Consequently, what I did do, when I saw that wasn’t working, I made sure our administrative assistant understood I had no objection to her giving anyone my phone number. Call me at home – day or night – it doesn’t matter. I was advised against that because of what kinds of cans of worms that it would open. But, if I wasn’t going to be in my office, then I needed to be accessible in another way. It turned out to be not a lot of inconveniences, because I had a message they could go to if I was out of town, so that they knew they could eventually get in touch with me. This is what office hours turned out to be. That, to my knowledge did not create an adverse situation. The next mayor may have a different approach to that, but everybody has a different way of doing what they do and what they see as effective.

So, I like our council. They’ve always been fair. That’s another thing. I haven’t seen them be vindictive or have a grudge – none of that kind of stuff. They call the shot as they see it within the confines of the legal parameters. That’s a tribute to the council, I think.

Check back tomorrow for more musings from the mayor, including: interim Mayor John Guest.