After 20 years of service, Narberth councilwoman retires and reflects

Love, Kudos, Remembrance is an occasional installment profiling people from the Main Line who stumble into grand loves, stand out to their neighbors and whose memories remain after they're gone.

On Dec. 28, Mary Jo Daley struck the gavel for her final meeting as president of the Narberth Borough Council.

Daley, who's served on council for 20 years, 10 of which she was council president, grew up in Narberth and had a longstanding commitment to serve the community. During primary elections in 2011, she chose not to seek reelection.

"The fourth time I ran, I said I'm not going to run again, and when that time came I decided really did want to run again for a fifth term," said Daley, associate director of University of Pennsylvania's business services. "We have more younger people who are getting interested and involved, and I never wanted to be the grouchy old council person who said, 'why don't we do it this way.' It's time for somebody different to take it on."
"Sometimes in life the time is right, and it's really important to recognize that," she added.

Daley said she first got involved in politics in 1960 when then-Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy was running for United States President. Her father, Francis X. Daley, who residents nicknamed "Duce," was a local Democratic committee person, and would recruit Daley and her siblings for campaign literature drops around the borough.

"I guess it was the first time I got really interested in an election," Daley said.

As her Democratic politics bloomed that year while she was in the sixth grade, Daley participated in a mock presidential debate at her school.

"Unfortunately, I had to be Nixon, which was really hard," she laughed. "I did not want to be Nixon."

Daley's mother, Mary, from whom she gets part of her first name, also played a major role in her political awareness.

Daley and her mother would go to the local food distribution center to picket and show support for the members of the United Farm Workers when they were boycotting produce growers in the 1970s.

"My activity was probably mostly related to not eating iceberg lettuce and not eating grapes," Daley said of the then-boycotted staples. "To this day I have a hard time eating iceberg lettuce."

Daley said she got involved with the Narberth Borough Council because of this involvement in politics, which in later life, Daley took on as a committee person to find candidates.

The former council president said the Lower Merion and Narberth Democratic Committee had difficulty finding candidates for council in 1991, so she decided to throw her hat into the political race.

"I thought, 'I have as many qualifications as anyone else to do this job,' and I ran and I won. I don't think there was anybody more surprised than me," Daley said.

After her victory, Daley would spend her 20-year term as a chair on the health and welfare and finance committees and a member of the building and zoning committee, and Ad Hoc Committees for Economic Development and Downtown Revitalization.

She also served as council vice president in 2001, before running for a third term with Nancy Lotz, increasing the Democratic presence of Narberth Borough Council.

"For my first eight years, I was the only Democrat on the council," Daley said. "We could see that it was gradually changing."

"We have a lot of folks who used to live in the city, and when they started to have families, they'd move into Narberth and many of them brought their politics with them," she added.

Although Democratic presence has increased since – in the 2011 elections, newcomers Mike Alexander and Bob Weisbord, as well as incumbent Sam Quinn ran on the Democratic tickets unopposed – the number of women on council is down to one, Councilwoman Heidi Boise, since neither Daley nor Lotz sought reelection.

This fact disappointed Daley.

"I was never the only woman and I really like to see women in these jobs because it's a different viewpoint," Daley said.

Daley added that she's known Bob Weisbord for years and met Mike Alexander through the 2011 election and likes them both. She said it isn't that men aren't qualified, but rather having diverse viewpoints rounds out the council.

Last week, in addition to Quinn getting elected to the council president seat, Councilman Surge Ghosh announced his resignation. Daley was surprised by this announcement, but said there was an opportunity with the open seat.

"I did say to Sam, 'so, you're going to appoint a woman, right?" Daley added.

The accomplishment Daily said she was most proud of while on council is the work she did with fellow council members on the Downtown Revitalization.

"I recently looked at some photos before [revitalization] and it looks so much better now," Daley said. "We didn't want it to be fancy, we wanted it to just be home, so it was kind of like sprucing up your house."

Daley's post-retirement plans include exercising, focusing on her job and taking more dance classes with her husband, Bob Winkleman. Daley said she and Winkleman have previously taken ballroom dancing.

"I'm really looking forward to having more time to exercise, more time for myself," Daley said. "But I'm sure I'll end up doing something else, because it's fun to get involved in your community."

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