Dave Meager

Category: Business
Published: July 2007

Dave Meager has served as Malta's Town Supervisor for over three decades. He shares the story of his entry into politics, his plans for Malta, and the reasons for his continued success.

Success Magazine: Dave, what does success mean to you?

Dave Meager: I think it's doing what you like. When doing what you like benefits an individual or the community, that is success.

SM: You have had careers within careers over your lifetime. What originally made you go into the insurance business?

DM: My parents started Round Lake Insurance in 1949. I graduated from Union college with a degree in English, and took a job with the New York Telephone Company. After four years with New York Telephone, I made the decision to leave the big company career and join the family business. I liken it a little bit to the Robert Frost poem, The Road Not Taken. I chose to join the small family business in 1964. I took the road less traveled, and it made all the difference. Over the years the business grew. We were actually in business for 53 years, which for a family business is a very happy achievement. Not all fathers and sons can work together, but in our case it worked out very well. I admire my parents greatly. They started a business when they had four children, which is not the easiest thing to do. I think part of my drive came from wanting to prove to my father that I could do the job, that I could really contribute.

SM: What aspect of the business did you enjoy the most?

DM: I liked being my own boss. I was a business office manager for New York Telephone. It was a structured environment where I had a boss. I prefer the freedom of being my own boss. The truth is, I work harder and longer hours for myself than I ever did working for someone else.

SM: What made you decide to sell the business?

DM: The agency had no perpetuation plan. My two boys had established their own careers; they were obviously not going to come into the insurance business. I was the one who did all the outside work. I wanted to be sure Round Lake Insurance Company would continue so that my employees would be protected, so my clients would be protected and, number one, my wife wouldn't have to deal with the sale of a business if something happened to me unexpectedly. It was strictly a business decision. I have a lot of energy; I'm sixty-eight, and will be working for a while yet, God willing. My parents both lived into their nineties, and they worked in the agency in some form until they reached that age. I was brought up with that kind of work ethic. As long as I can serve a useful function here, I will continue to work with my clients. I do have a little more time to enjoy myself now that I don't have to supervise things. I can get away for a while in the winter. My wife and I rent a place in Florida for three months. She stays down there, and I fly back and forth, two weeks in Florida, two weeks here. I haven't dared to ask which of the two weeks she likes best.

SM: What led you to politics?

DM: Insurance led to politics in an interesting way. We wrote the account for the town insurance, and because it was one of our largest accounts, I attended all the town board meetings. It was the late 60s, and town board meetings were held in the town clerk's Victorian home. The board members sat around the dining room table and the public sat in the living room. Many times I was the only member of the public there. At the end of every meeting the town clerk would serve homemade pie; eventually they invited me to have pie with them. I was president of the both the Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club at the time. I was very active in the community. When the town board began searching for a candidate for town supervisor somebody said, "What about the kid who eats all the pie?" I was nominated and ran in 1971. It was the only time in my political career that I was opposed.

SM: You have been in the public eye for years. There has to be tremendous pressure on you to be who people esteem you to be, pressure to be perfect. How has that affected your life?

DM: Perfection, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. You have to make a lot of decisions in elective office, and with each decision there will be people who are displeased. You will never be perfect. The most you can hope for is that people will understand that you have a pure heart, and you're doing what you think is right; that you're looking at the facts and listening. There's a saying, "When you talk you don't learn anything." I always did my best to listen to everyone, and ultimately tried to be a consensus builder. I was lucky. When I started out, the town of Malta was small; I was hometown kid, and as the town grew, I was able to grow with it. That growth was also a challenge, because it forced me to change my perspective at times changed.

SM: What are your entrepreneurial acumens? What makes you different?

DM: One of my strongest skills is being able to surround myself with good people. I did that at the town level by hiring very talented department heads. I did it in the insurance business by hiring good employees. I understood that I couldn't do all of the jobs myself. I needed to be able to delegate and, if I really wanted to be successful, I had to delegate to people who would carry out the job and the mission.

SM: What other keys to success did you implement? Did you have a plan?

DM: Actually, our plan for Round Lake Insurance was somewhat ill-defined. The plan was to grow 20% a year. That was the entire plan. Fortunately, Saratoga County is a place where businesses can succeed, because the area is growing. It's a vibrant economy. It's a place where people want to live. I was in a good place in 1964, and when the Northway was built, I was in a position to capitalize on the new growth, because we had a business that was operational and profitable. So the business did grow. Working with the town is more structured. You have zoning ordinances. You have a master plan. You have to involve the people in the process. You have to involve department heads and other employees in the process. When I was working in the small family business my we would sit around the lunch table and strategize. Working in the public sector is different.

SM: The Town of Clifton Park has a wonderful layout and it's close enough to Northway for easy access. What was the master plan for the region?

DM: There was more than one master plan over the 34-year period. The latest plan had to consider the Tech Park. We had to make some massive changes, because we wanted to make sure that the Tech Park would be successful without destroying the community. Our first step was actually designing the park. It was a great public process; people were very involved. There was a huge public contingent at each of our 45 meetings. We put all the documents we received, including the environmental impact statement, on our website. Not everyone agreed with our decision, but nobody could complain that the process wasn't public. It was a tremendous amount of work, but the 32 preceding years prepared me for it. The ultimate design for the park is sixty percent green space. There are 7.5 miles of trails winding through the park. You won't be able to see the Tech Park buildings from anywhere in the town of Malta, and the buildings in the Tech Park will pay full local taxes and school taxes. Once the design for the Tech Park was approved we had to revisit our master plan. We divided the town into fourteen different zoning neighborhoods. When we rezoned, it was with the idea that the outer areas would be more agricultural or rural with a downtown area in the center, around town hall. It was a long process. We had a consultant who helped us, and we had more public meetings. The master plan is really just a guide, and a goal. The plan evolves through the process. If all you do is create a master plan and stop, you've done your community a big disservice. You have to take the next step and change the zoning ordinances. The zoning ordinance is the law; the master plan is the goal. The zoning ordinance is what implements the master plan.

SM: What are your words of wisdom to up and coming entrepreneurs?

DM: You have to have the right idea in the right place at the right time, and you have to be driven to make that idea a reality. I think it's what a person has inside that drives them the passion to succeed. But, on the practical side, they should have a business plan and a strategy to capitalize and execute that plan. When you are your own boss, all the successes are your responsibility, but so are all the problems. Everything lands on your desk. As Harry Truman would say, "The buck stops here." Working for yourself is a commitment to a lifestyle; it's more work than working for someone else. Ultimately, the big thing is having the inner drive to succeed. This is the land of opportunity, and I really think Saratoga County is a great place to do business and a great place to live.