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

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.

In of our series, he went into detail about the individuals on the council, as well as the importance of voting and having a voice in the community.

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 your successor in ?

Dave Urner: I have, of course, been at John’s right-hand side since I’ve been mayor. I served on council with him for a short time before I resigned as councilman. I’ve known John for that period of time. John has been the chairman of the police committee. That is the committee that hears situations that exist or are brought to my attention and I deal with the on whatever the issue is. So, in this respect, I have had dealings with him. I have had dealings with him and the civil service commission. John is a member of the civil service commission. He will have to resign from that position, as well. I was the former chairman of that committee and had dealings with him in that regard.

John is the chairman of the public safety committee. Public safety and police committees sort of dovetail. He has the understanding of police problems. He knows our police department personnel – the officers – because all of their names, when they were either a part-time officer moving up to full-time or when there was an issue to be discussed with regard to performance or whatever, or anything else as the committee had a need to know… Some things I did not bring to committee because they did not have a need to know. That was an issue the chief and I would deliberate on and make the decision on the basis of my authority with the police department.

But, John has been there and done that so to speak. He will be learning just as I had to learn about the intricacies of the police department. Unless you’ve been a policeman, unless you’ve been involved with police work in some degree or another, you really don’t have an understanding of what it’s all about. Yes, you see it on television and that perspective of the department, but to see their dealings with things that are related, from birth to death almost. If there’s a childbirth, they’re there to run interference for an ambulance, or maybe they’ve been called through 9-1-1 to deal with the issue. All these things, you learn as you go.

You learn an awful lot about things you’ve never been told about – the happenings of what’s going on in the borough and what has been done to correct it. He’ll become knowledgeable of those things because he has the privilege to know. As mayor, he will need to know everything that is happening in our borough – whether that be a drug raid over here or a DUI over here or some emergency that happened in another area. These are things that will be new, but at the same time, I have no doubt that John will be able to handle those things appropriately.

He will need to be able to communicate with the chief. The chief and I talked not every day, but very close. I was just checking in, making sure everything was okay. Are we covered? How’s our schedule? When chief took vacation, that was the time I dreaded the most. I knew the schedules, but suppose there was a sick-out. Well, what am I going to do? Holy cow! What do I do? But, chief covered his bases on this and the second in command, which is Corporal Nerlinger, fell right in there and filled gaps where it was necessary, so we didn’t skip a beat. Everything was covered and everything was secure.

We just finished a police contract – a four-year contract that was approved. I am so happy for that, because that could have been chaotic. I felt that they were fair in what they requested. I felt council was very benevolent in what they approved. The new mayor should have at least no issues that are related to ‘We should have had this,’ or ‘This should have been.’ That’s at least a good starting point for the new mayor.

He works. He has a full-time job. He’s not going to have the time to do what I did. I had the time to call the chief in the morning and find out how everything was going. John may not have the opportunity to do that. He may have to do emails. There will be those challenges, but I feel that John will do justice to the office.

John wears a lot of hats. He’s involved with the . He’s involved with the . When I say hats, I mean he’s on the boards with a lot of these places. Somewhere along the line, he’s going to have to recognize some of those may need to be pinned out. That’s going to be his decision. I don’t know how feasible it is, or how right it is, but he may be able to be in that and conduct his own business, as long as he separates his own stuff. I don’t know. That would be to his benefit if he could. If they want to insist on his presence there, then there has to be that give-and-take. I can’t foresee it as an issue though. I had a computer there and it was very easy to go in but it was more convenient for me to do it at home. That’s what I elected to do. There was never an objection to that. So, it worked.

Check back tomorrow for the conclusion of our conversation with Mayor Urner.