Mayor John Button Sounds Off

Editor’s note: Talk of the Town is a new Moorestown Patch feature. Every Friday, local editor Rob Scott will interview someone from Moorestown—politicians, school administrators, volunteers, businesspeople—and ask them a series of questions pertaining to matters local and otherwise. If you have suggestions for potential interviewees, send them to rob.scott@patch.com. This week he sat down with Mayor John Button.

Moorestown Patch: You’ve insisted repeatedly that council has nothing to do with PREIT’s push for liquor referendum campaign, yet a lot of people still think you’re in cahoots. How frustrating does that get?
Mayor John Button: It’s very frustrating to me, because I don’t think we would be doing the job responsibly if we started with the answer to any issue and then tried to find a way to justify our answer. Our job is to be open-minded and to consider the things we think are in the best interests of our residents and our taxpayers. And PREIT is a large ratable owner in our town—the largest, in fact—and they came forth and told me if we were willing to stick with them, they’d like to stick with us. And they had a vision and they’d share it with us over time about trying to make this mall successful. I’m just interested in that business case. I have to be interested in it … And I will arrive at my decision based on two things: one, my personal feelings, certainly, but secondarily, my responsibility to the township in terms of the revenue side of the budget.

Moorestown Patch: What takes precedence: Your personal preferences or what you think is best for the town?
Button: Hopefully they’re in alignment. If I’m conflicted … I signed up to represent the residents of the town and I think that would have to carry the weight.

Moorestown Patch: Do you think PREIT should have public meetings to give the public a chance to voice their opinion and have their questions answered directly?
Button: PREIT needs to communicate to the public. That might be different than saying there needs to be a public meeting. Oftentimes in a great big, huge meeting, it’s difficult, because what starts out as a conversation ends up to be a debate. What I’d like to see them do is get whatever information they have that might be helpful to all of us in making this decision, get to the public … in whatever form it takes.

Moorestown Patch: Many of those who are opposed to lifting Moorestown’s status as a dry community say it will change or ruin the town’s character. What is the town’s character? And do you believe that?
Button: Moorestown is a relatively small, “all-American” community. It has walk-to neighborhood schools. It has a Main Street where people gather. It’s conducive to having neighbors meet neighbors. Because so many people know so many people, it makes a very collegial, comfortable place to live … When we think about alcohol, if we were to have a large chain bar on Main Street, that would change Main Street. No question. If liquor stores were to pop up all over town, that could change the character of the town. But to simply say if Moorestown allows alcohol, the character of the town will change, I’m not ready to say that yet. Depends on the conditions.

Moorestown Patch: You’ve said your number-one priority is to be responsible with taxpayer dollars. But a lot of people are concerned about the cost of the municipal complex project. How do you justify that expense?
Button: It’s important for the community as a whole to have a complex they can visit. Everybody seems to like having things together, close to town. We’re trying to also pay attention to building up our business community on Main Street. So having this complex there hopefully is going to help feed into a little bit bigger resident-friendly area there. We want to build for 40 years not four, so we’re trying to make decisions that we think are prudent. It has to be done in my mind.

Moorestown Patch: What do you make of the Republicans in Congress and their approach to the deficit and to jobs? Are they on the right track, or would you do things differently?
Button: We’ve got political staging going on that’s getting in the way of running the country effectively. And both sides of the aisle are contributing to that. Certainly we need additional jobs in the country. The economy is in a bad place right now. And I don’t think the federal government is acting as responsibly as it could in trying to solve that problem … It’s pathetic. It’s really kind of sad.

Moorestown Patch: Who wins it all this year: Phillies or Eagles? Who would you rather see win?
Button: Easy question. I’d rather see the Eagles win, because I grew up in northern New Jersey and I can never not be a Yankee fan. So I like the Phillies, and if the Phillies are playing anybody else, I’ll root for them. I’ve been an Eagles season ticket holder for a lot of years … (But) the Phillies have the deck stacked. If they don’t win, shame on them.