Summary

In this episode of the Zekely podcast, host Zeke interviews Rebecca Starr, a lawyer and community advocate running for mayor of Narberth, Pennsylvania. They discuss her motivations for running, her vision for the community, and the responsibilities of a mayor. Rebecca shares her thoughts on community engagement, the importance of local businesses, and her commitment to inclusivity and public safety. The conversation also touches on her personal experiences and the political landscape in Pennsylvania, emphasizing the need for better communication and involvement in local governance.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Rebecca Starr

01:32 Superpowers

02:46 Running for Mayor

04:13 Now and Then

05:40 The Role of a Mayor

08:51 Mayor Foul: A Game of Ethics

10:50 Spotlighting Local Businesses

11:26 House Special

13:15 Municipal Structures: Why Some Areas Lack Mayors

15:03 Political Identity and Party Affiliation

17:01 Vision for Community Improvement

19:49 Childhood Memories and Safety Violations

22:33 Hope and Plans

24:26 Family Support and Campaigning

https://www.starrformayor.com/

Salon Rosa M: https://thesalonrosam.com/

Full Video Episode Available On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheZekelyPodcast

Short Clips Can Be Found On TikTok: @drzeketayler/@thezekelypodcast and Instagram: @thezekelypodcast

Hello, I'm Zeke. Welcome to the Zekely podcast. Let's talk Pennsylvania. The guest I have today is a lawyer, community advocate and leader on local boards, including Narberth's Police Advisory Committee And she is running to become the next mayor of Narberth Pennsylvania. Thank you so much for being here, Rebecca Starr.

I’m Zeke, a doctor, a Pennsylvanian and unapologetic supporter of Democratic values. You might have seen me on social media working my ass off for Democrats and meeting some pretty amazing people along the way - like President Barack Obama and Governor Josh Shapiro.

For years, I’ve knocked thousands of doors all over Pennsylvania and poured my heart and soul into supporting candidates and causes that make a difference—from local school board races to national elections. The personal is political, and I take every election in Pennsylvania personally.

Where the mainstream media has failed you, I will give you truth and independence. You’ll hear from Democratic leaders, candidates, and change-makers who are working to improve the health of the Commonwealth, and it won’t be boring as hell.

No matter where you are, I’ll meet you with hope and a plan to make your community better one day at a time. Welcome to the Zekely Podcast. Let’s talk Pennsylvania.

It's really great to be here. I'm so happy you're doing this podcast and I was thrilled when you asked me to join you as a guest. Thank you.

Absolutely.

This is so exciting. I've never actually talked to someone who was running for mayor before.

But this is great. I'm so happy you're here to talk about your campaign and so many other questions and games we're going to play. So let's get into it, shall we?

Ooh, game.

Great. Yes, let's do it.

Alright, let's start off with

if you could have a superpower.

Any, just one, what would it be?

the power of transport.

Transport. Okay, that's a good one.

It doesn't necessarily need be teleportation, but the ability to get from one place to another instantly.

Okay.

Mm hmm.

That's that. That'll be good. And if you touch anyone, you could also transport anything you touch as well. Would that be part of it? Yeah. OK, why not? I feel like that's kind of included in the superpower. I think for me, I'd want to read minds. Yeah. I don't I just feel like that's the biggest mystery behind people, right? Is it's their thoughts, you know, it's it's what protects everyone from everyone else that you really.

Why not? Yeah, yeah.

Uh-huh, how come?

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

You can show your body language and you can show what you're wearing and all types of personality, but you never really know what's going on in the noggin. So I feel like that would be a very powerful superpower to have, you know, and maybe a regrettable one because I might not want to know what everybody's thinking, but I just feel like that would be a very subtle and sleuthy superpower. you could, I would obviously use it for good, but you know, that would be something I'd want to do. Yeah. All right. So transportation.

May not always let it know.

Of course. Of course.

and reading people's minds. Got it.

right, next question we'll ask is, why did you decide to run for mayor of Narberth

love

It's really, you know, I was first introduced to it before we moved here by my husband who had lived in the area

You've got this really charming Main Street area, you've got the public transit of the SEPTA station right here.

You have kids biking through the streets. It's one of the few communities where I feel like you really see kids out in the streets playing still. It really is just a wonderful community. Now, in addition to that, we're in a period of transition. We have a lot of development going on.

Mm-hmm.

buildings, multi-use structures being built. We have a bridge that has been out for several years that we're in the process of trying to build.

The combination of all those factors, I think I'll be a great, strong leader for the community and it's the right time.

the mayor who's serving now is just stepping down. Correct. Yeah.

That's right. That's right. She served two terms, eight years,

and she's not seeking re-election.

And do you have a campaign slogan yet for your mayoral run?

I don't really. Why, you have something to suggest?

Not yet. Yeah,

I mean, my wife actually, she says that you should use Starrberth , for Narberth. Yeah, I mean, it does roll off the tongue. So if you want to start printing that out somewhere, my wife wouldn't mind. OK, there you go. Starrberth , for Narberth. Well, thank you for telling us why you want to run for mayor of Narberth.

I love it.

It does.

Why not here?

what's something that we have now that you can't believe that we never had before?

Goodness, this is a good question.

I know.

Yeah, I mean, for me, it's GPS. I mean, I can't, remember, I don't know if you remember, you know, the MapQuest days where you could like, you have to print out the directions, you know, I had stacks of MapQuest printouts in like the, in the wheel well of my car. And then if I had to go someplace, I'd like shuffle through and say, oh yeah, this is how I get to so-and-so's house.

Thank

But that was crazy. I if you made one wrong turn, couldn't figure. I mean, I couldn't figure out where to go. You'd probably just try and go back home again. You'd get so stressed out if you missed a turn on the printout. Now if you miss a turn, just recalculates everything. I mean, it's just crazy how amazing the technology is today with GPS

It is crazy.

For me, that's one of the craziest things.

I feel that way about cell phones,

how did we ever function without being able to leave the house while we're still on a call or talk while we're in the car

I know.

I know.

mean, I remember when my parents got their first cell phone, it was the kind that you plugged into the cigarette lighter, you know, in the car to keep the power going, you know? Yeah, it was a brick and, you know, but it was so cool. Like if your parents had a cell phone in the car, I mean, that was nuts. Yeah, it's crazy. Technology is getting out of control. But I love it. I who doesn't, right? It makes life easier. It's going to be great. Yeah, so things we...

Was it like a brick?

Sort of.

Things we can't believe that we never had before.

Moving on, what would be some of your responsibilities as mayor?

So the mayor is the only executive in borough government. So you have the legislative body, which are the ones who make the laws and the rules is borough council. The mayor is the only member of the executive branch. So.

Mm-hmm.

Hmm.

Okay.

The primary responsibilities are public safety and emergency response.

Obviously we have a police chief who is wonderful,

at the end of the line is the mayor, so to speak, Now that's what the job is, but there's a whole other role.

the role of mayor really depends on the personality of the individual.

I'm really interested in using my role to help continue to foster community. I think our sense of community took a little bit of a hit through the pandemic, no surprise to anyone. And I think between that and just the changes that are going on, I look forward to really continuing to bring people together and find ways for us to connect.

Also, Narborth relies on volunteers. Any borough does, certainly we do. And we need to foster that sense of volunteerism. And I look forward to taking that on as one of my major responsibilities as well. Lots of times people just want to be asked.

I think it's important for all of our new residents to sort of get a proverbial knock on the door to say, hey, I'm the mayor. Welcome to Narberth. We'd love to put you to work.

when you're working with the public safety, when you're working with the police force and everything, are you involved in helping to write guidelines or expand the force, contract the force, do any research studies to show that this is working for the safety of our community? Can you do those types of things?

Yes, yes or no. They expand the force, contract the force. That's a little bit more complicated because it has to do with the, there are union requirements and you're obviously working with union negotiations for that. And it's this weird balance because I would be in charge of the policy for

Mm-hmm.

the police department, but borough council controls the purse strings. So the ability to expand a force is dependent on that. But I do intend to take a look at all of the policies together with the police chief to make sure that the policies are what we want them to be and are in line with best practices

Okay.

are also

community needs.

I mean, it's great. And the fact that you're in charge of the public safety and well-being of your community and then also encouraging volunteerism, those are great responsibilities to have.

I'm really excited about it.

do feel that that sense

both of those things. I feel like having someone at the helm that can take a look at not only the policies, but the practices of the police force. We have a really great police advisory committee, which I've been fortunate to chair since it was first founded. And we spent our first year really doing

Hmm.

Right, right.

sort of a soup to nuts look at the data at, you know, what does the police force do? What does the community think that they do? And so we really have a much better sense now of what comes next.

That's great. Thank you for explaining what your responsibilities will be as mayor.

All right, let's play a little game, okay? It's called Mayor Foul Instead of major foul, get it? Mayor Foul all right? And we're basically gonna talk about why it's so important that you're going to be an upstanding mayor someday and that there are mayors who took advantage of the system.

and in ways that there were consequences for that. So I'm going to tell you some mayors that were not so mayoral, not upstanders, and you're just going to try and tell me what city in Pennsylvania they were mayors of. I don't know if you're a big mayor, all Pennsylvania mayors,

they're all Pennsylvania mayors.

You ready? All right, let's play, Mayor Foul All right, so William C. Courtright pled guilty in 2020 to bribery.

After the FBI found him accepting cash payments from vendors, doing business with the city and sentenced to six years in prison, what city was William C. Quirtright the mayor of in Pennsylvania?

Scranton

You got, wow, yes, that is correct. I'm impressed. I am. You're doing a great job.

These are all different cities by the way. I didn't like repeat any of the cities.

Okay, I'm gonna go with Pittsburgh.

Reading. Reading, Pennsylvania. Yeah, not far from where we are. All right. And now we have Edwin Paolowski.

Reading, okay.

who was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2018 for conspiracy, bribery, extortion, and for supplying the FBI with false statements. This is a big one. I actually looked it up on Google and there are a lot of articles about this.

This week.

Allentown. Allentown. Look, one out of three is pretty good, because I didn't know any of these. So strong

well thank you for playing Mayor Foul

All right, let's talk about businesses. We'll do a small business spotlight. All right, can you recommend any small business in Narberth that you frequented and just want more people to know about it?

Okay, well, first of all, as mayor, I would hope to amplify all of our businesses. We have really

businesses in Narberth. We actually have a wonderful Narberth Business Association. And so come to Narberth, there's lots of great things there.

get my haircut at Salon Rosa M I highly recommend them.

Okay.

gosh, there's so many wonderful businesses. We're so lucky to not just have one bookstore, but to have two bookstores,

Mm-hmm.

Well, thank you for doing some Small Business Spotlight. Let's talk about our house a little bit. What's something you have in your house that you love, but you wouldn't expect other people to know? Like, is there something obscure in your house that you just love about it?

We have the best house for hide and seek.

Okay, so you have a lot of crevices and...

Well,

we're in a twin and we effectively have four stories But there are just lots of little places. It's just, it's always been a really, really great hide and seek house.

Very nice.

So as mayor, you're going to annual hide and seek activities at your house?

I am going to

Well,

yeah, I mean, we already have a really wonderful scavenger hunt in , Narberth so we may have to add on some hide and seek.

huh.

There you go. For me, I love my bidet. I'm throwing it out there. I know a lot of other countries have bidets as like it's normal. It's like everywhere. And in America, it's very not, kind of Neanderthal-ish. But I...

Do you have a separate

bidet or do you have one of those add-ons that like sits under the seat?

yeah,

it's like part of the toilet. I don't have a separate bidet. It's just, I don't know, it was right, I think it was at the beginning of the pandemic or right before the pandemic. I had it installed. I always wanted one and Jess got it for me for Father's Day. And I love it. You should get one.

That's it.

maybe as mayor you can retrofit all the public bathrooms , with bidets. I mean, maybe you can, that you should funnel into public safety. I think, hear me out, hear me out, public safety, health, sanitation decreases toilet paper usage. I think that's a,

of the toilets in Burrow Hall.

Alright.

Environmental

also, so would good.

I think it's a winning message and you can take that.

I'll make sure I bring it to my first borough council meeting.

Okay, good. All right, well thanks

for talking about our houses.

Next question I have for you is, why don't all municipalities have mayors? Because I live in Lower Marion, and we don't have a mayor. So why is it that maybe it's a Pennsylvania thing

Why is it that in some places there are mayors and some there

It's largely historical. There's cities, townships, and boroughs. And I can answer that it's the cities and the boroughs that have mayors, and I can speak to the evolution of the government in the boroughs.

it really is interesting how many, and I don't know if you want to go down this line or not, but how many municipalities there are in Pennsylvania versus other similarly sized states. And I really do think it's hard. Well, I can tell you, I'm going to go to my notes and I don't want to get this wrong. But there are,

Yeah, mean, I know the answer to that.

2,560 different municipalities in Pennsylvania. Yep.

in Pennsylvania? In Pennsylvania?

Wow.

It's a lot of yeah. And New York, which is 5 % bigger, it's only 593. And so when people talk about Pennsylvania being...

That's crazy.

Wow, wow, that's crazy.

hard to predict, you know, why do things function in certain ways? I think when you really look at how it breaks down like that, that's part of the answer. They're really, you know, all of these little communities that function differently and have their own personalities.

Mm-hmm.

That's fascinating.

That is fascinating. Wow. I'm glad you went down that road because that explains a lot just about Pennsylvania. There's so many microcosms of communities all over the state and they all function differently from governmental levels. That's very interesting. That's cool. Thanks for answering that question for me.

Yes. Yes.

All right, so moving on, why are you a registered Democrat and why did you decide to represent the Democratic Party?

Is there a choice? Look,

People make choices, yes.

the Democratic Party supports women. The Democratic Party supports marginalized communities. The Democratic Party supports labor. The Democratic Party overall supports all of the issues that I care about.

And so it really is the place for me. There really is not another choice as politics currently stand. I'm from a left-leaning family. was never, it's not like I broke, had to make the decision. It sort of was where I was raised and where still feels comfortable.

I agree with you.

Hmm.

Hmm. Yeah, I love your answer. It's it's you're absolutely right. I feel the same exact way It's interesting for me, you know, I grew up in a more conservative household. I was a Republican Up until I think Obama was running for

then I think I officially switched my registration after Trump was elected, but I think I was still a registered Republican up until then

interesting.

Yeah, I mean, I didn't know why I was necessarily a Republican at the time. I didn't know the issues. probably never voted in a midterm election until after Trump was elected. I was not engaged politically. I was just voting the way my parents voted a lot of times without much thought behind it. And that was obviously a place of extreme privilege. But then, you know, life gives you experiences and you see the consequences of

Mm-hmm.

of voting, of not voting, of policies. so to me, it's an obvious choice that the Democratic platform overwhelmingly represents the best choice for most people. It has the biggest tent, I would say. Thank you for explaining why you're a Democrat. And I appreciate you for being a Democrat and for upholding democratic values,

absolutely.

All right, let's talk about things that you want to do as mayor to make your community better?

So, you know, we live in an era or certainly in a place where we have an absence of good media. You know, we have the Inquirer, but there's no second front page anymore. The Mainline Times is not what it once was. And so communication really is that much more important. And I think that

while there is good communication that comes from the borough to the community, we need to really continue to think of how to strengthen it, how to make our newsletter maybe a little bit more accessible, how to put out

Mayor minutes, short videos with information from the mayor to the community directly. I think we need to think of how to continue to get more input from citizens to us as well. And I really do want to be one of those linchpins. mean, borough council is an entity of seven individuals and the mayor is a singular person. I want to be accessible to the public and I want to make sure that I'm providing them with information as well.

That's great. I think it's always good to have that type of foresight to want to communicate better with your constituents and let them know what's going on. So I think that's great.

I also want to partner with organizations to strengthen some of the missions that I think already exist in our town. specifically, with regard to inclusion, I want to see the police department certified

as a sensory inclusive borough and make sure that our police department is trained in sensory inclusion in terms of their responses.

Okay. Yeah. Can you explain, can you explain what sensory inclusion means? What does that mean?

But I think that there

So it means that there are generally neurodivergent individuals, who are sensitive to various input. So whether it's sound input or light input, or smell input. And their reactions can sometimes be towards overstimulation.

And I would like to make sure that our police department is sufficiently trained in responding

appropriately if they're called to a house of someone that needs that sort of help.

Gotcha, so it sounds like it's another level of empathy, it's another level of understanding and interacting with your community in a way that protects people even in crisis, essentially. Gotcha, well that's very...

Yes, yes.

To me, some of this builds on the mission and we have Get Cafe right here which employs a lot of people with developmental.

disabilities. We have a residential program for young adults with developmental disabilities.

Hmm.

to me, this is part and parcel of continuing that mission, a mission that already is being serviced by our community.

Mm-hmm.

that makes sense. think it's a great idea.

When you were a kid, what's something your parents had you do that would definitely violate OSHA guidelines? Like the Occupational Health and Safety Administration? Station wagon

my god, I grew up with a station wagon. You know, we were

all, there were like tens of us, like maybe dozens of us, like in the way back of the station wagon.

Yeah,

yeah, no, I think we had a station wagon where we had the backwards facing for a little bit too. I don't even think that there were seat belts necessarily back there. I agree. Yeah, that's definitely a good one. For me, mean, growing up on a farm, had a forklift that my dad would have me drive around. I don't know, must have been 10 years old. I don't know why he would let a 10 year old drive a forklift, but he was basically having me practice

Mmm.

drive a forklift around because my dad was selling horseshoes for a living at the time. It's a very long story. But we have these large pallets of horseshoes and my dad wanted me to become good at moving the pallets around. I didn't know at the time that there were different types of forklifts, okay, which I may be teaching you something right now. There are forklifts that can't leave a cemented area.

gonna this here.

And there are some forklifts that can drive on gravel. Okay. It's like different tires. All right. And so we had a gravel driveway. And so I'm sitting on this forklift, driving around on this cement, you know, area in a barn, solid ground. And my dad's in another part of a different barn that's down the hill, the gravel driveway. I think, well, you know what? I'm doing such a great job. I'm going to drive down to the other barn and show them how good a job I'm doing.

And so I drive this forklift out of the barn and it sinks into the gravel because the tires are not the correct type of tires. And my dad comes out of the barn from below and Yeah, that day I learned a couple of new swear words and he had to drag the forklift back into the upper barn with a backhoe because it was sunk down and there was like a trail.

It looked like a large meteor hit the ground and was like dragged back into the barn and I had to fill in the hole in the gravel driveway. But that's my dad's fault. What are you doing with a 10 year old driving a forklift? Clearly a violation of the OSHA guidelines. would not pass today. He would be fined 100%. So you had your station wagon and I had

Although you do

understand it, Like keeping a 10-year-old entertained sometimes requires a lot. So why not?

Yeah, I don't even

think it was entertainment. He wasn't doing it so I could have fun. He was like, no, you're actually going to learn to do this. You can move horseshoes around the barn for me. And then that'll teach you. I buried the forklift in the

you taught him.

What gives you hope?

GenZ

It's gen-alpha although they're still a little bit young. But the kids are all right. There are a lot of kids that care, that are really pushing the needle on issues related to social justice, issues related to environmental justice, reproductive rights.

Not to come.

Yeah.

And these are all agendas that are being pushed really effectively by Gen Z.

I hope you're right. I do want Gen Z to be more engaged at all levels of government. And I think that with social media, it's very easy to engage that way and watch what's going on and have your finger on the pulse of what's happening in your community. it's great.

We need get more involved

at the polls. We need to get more of them involved in actually serving in government. That's for sure. But they're doing good work.

That's great. And my last question for you is, what plans do you have to get yourself through these next few years? Obviously, you're running for mayor, and that will be an honorable pursuit. But what other things are you doing to get yourself through these next few years?

I've been conserving energy so far. If we learned anything through Trump's first term, it's that whatever you think is going to happen is not what's going to happen. But what is going to happen is crazier than you initially thought. So the first thing is conserving energy and focusing my efforts. No one of us can take on all the issues. But what I can do is run for mayor, win mayor.

provide local protections in our community, make sure the constituents, my constituents, the citizens of Narberth look out for each other, protect each other, protect the marginalized members of our community, and continue to thrive as a community.

That's great. Thank you for that answer. Before we wrap up, What does your family think of your May Or All campaign?

My younger child was a little skeptical at first, but they're 100 % on board. They're really proud of me, really excited for me, want to do what they can to help get me elected. That same younger child is a little disappointed when he found out that I wasn't going to have security detail if I was elected. He really wanted me to have Secret Service.

huh.

That's cute. Yeah.

But yeah, they're really supportive and really excited to help me win this.

That's great. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show, Rebecca. I am super excited you're running for mayor of Narberth. Is there a website that people can go to to learn more about you and just support your campaign?

It is

Star for Mayor, www.starrformayor.com. S-T-A-R-R-2-Rs, four spelled out, F-O-R, Mayor, the typical way.

And it's S-T-A-R-R, two R's.

And there's a place on there that you can learn more about me. There's a place on there that you can, on the website that you can see the endorsements that I already have. It's a growing list, which I'm really excited about and proud of. There's also a place where you can tell me what you like about Narberth. And that's really what I want to build on. It's really about the citizens of Narberth and what they want to see our community look like.

That's great. I'm very excited for you I can't vote for you because I don't live in Narberth, but I'm excited to see where your campaign goes. You're welcome.

Thank you. Thanks for having me

on. It's been a lot of fun.

Absolutely.

Well, thank you for joining me here on the Zekely podcast. Stay hopeful and get involved. And until next time, let's keep building a stronger Pennsylvania together.