Q&A: Mayor David Smith's Farewell

Today marks David Smith’s last day as mayor. For 33 years, he has led Newark and has seen the transformation of the town that houses 44,530 residents.

He officially steps down from his post at the city council’s 7:30 p.m. meeting at and will be replaced with Mayor Elect .

In an interview with Newark Patch, Smith reminisced on his time as mayor, shared what his best accomplishment is and offered some words of advice and gratitude for the incoming mayor and the residents of Newark.

Read the interview below:

Q. What will you miss most about being the mayor of Newark?

A. It’s the people. It’s just that kaleidoscope of experience of working with so many different folks in so many different arenas on so many different topics, but yet everybody working together. I’ll miss those interactions. I’m still going to have some of them going forward, but it won’t be in my role as mayor. That’s what I’ll miss the most: all the people I’ve dealt with.

Q. What is your most cherish memory during your time as mayor?

A. That’s the toughest question. I was thinking, that could go down a lot of paths, so the path I chose to talk to you about is those Kodak moments. There have been a lot of those where I could take everybody I know, miniaturize them and put them in my pocket … and say look at this. …I’ve had a bunch of those one of them being with President Obama at Solyndra …But my favorite Kodak moment of all time…Newark has had one president visit and that was [former] President [George] Bush Sr. He visited Newark in June of 1992 during his campaign of re-election. …There were two Kodak moments during that visit. One was when Marine 1 landed on the baseball field [at Newark Memorial High School] and one of his aides came and grabbed me … she walked me out and said stand here Mayor Smith and welcome President Bush to Newark. It took a while for the door of the helicopter to open, and it was a gorgeous, sunny Chamber of Commerce day and I as standing there all alone, just x feet away from the helicopter and thought to myself, “Oh goodness in just a minute or so those doors are going to open and the president of the United States is going to step down.”… [It was] just the awesomeness of that moment. …His mission was to visit Evergreen Oil at that time because what they were doing was the most unique technology in the world – turning used oil to lubricating oil. … [After the trip, we headed to Hilton Newark Hotel] We get back in the limo … They create a tent out at the Hilton …and the limo pulls into a tent and nobody can see, and everybody jumps out. So it’s me and George. And that was the second Kodak moment. I’m sitting there pinching myself and thinking “Holy Smokes! Here I am. I’m sitting here and it’s just me and the president and we’re talking like we’re old friends.” … I got to sit there with the president until it was time for him to go to the presidential suite and bid him farewell.

Q. What would you say is your most significant accomplishment as mayor?

A. It’s being a part of a wining team. There are no losers on a winning team. And being able to work through the wonderful, what I call, glory days and challenges, but always doing it working together. That’s the Newark way: Working as a team. …Folks who are engaged and in the game are team players and I think everybody really realizes that if you’ve something to say it’s going to be heard because there is no monopoly on good decisions. We’ve taken stuff that was heading one way and turned it another way because of input and listened. Everybody who comes to work for the city… you’re coming to work to do your best and everybody gives it their best every day and that’s where it has been so much joy to be a part of. That’s what delights me the most: Being a part of a winning team. … Where you really see if that’s going on is when things get tough. It’s easy to see laughing and joking when things are going good… “We just cut the ribbon at the mall! We have the Silliman Center! We have new overpasses on the freeway! OH! Sun Microsystems.” It’s when you go through a Prop. 13 or go through this last round of the great recession,  that’s where you see what people are made of. Are they going to pull together or are they going to start pointing fingers? Are they going to go into it with what’s right for me? Or is it what’s right for the city. …I’m not saying we didn’t’ make some mistakes along the way but they were done with pure hearts. We always tried to at the end of the day do what was right for the greater city as a whole. …It is that team play and and everybody checking that ego at the door and saying “Let’s work on this together.” 

Q. What is your advice for Mayor Elect Al Nagy?

A. I hope he can continue the sense of team spirit and team play. I feel that he will because he’s been a consumant team player. He really has. Talk about a guy who checks his ego at the door, his picture should be in the dictionary under that.  …The other thing I would remind him of, is when things get tense sometimes, you’ve got to keep your sense of humor. You take your job seriously always but don’t take yourself seriously. Keep the sense of humor about you and you’ll be fine.

Q. What are your last words to the residents of the City of Newark?

A. Real simple: Thank you. Thank you for allowing me to serve you. It’s really been a pleasure.