Former Santa Maria City Councilmember and 5th District County Supervisor Thomas “Tom” Urbanske passed away on May 17, leaving those in local government reflecting on the longtime teacher, advocate, and public servant’s legacy in Santa Maria and North County.
Urbanske was 88 years old.
“He really cared about people and he was a very good listener,” Santa Maria Mayor Alice Patino said in a statement from the city. “He took his job very seriously as an elected representative because he wanted to know what people thought. He really cared. He consistently embodied advocating for people who could not advocate for themselves.”
Urbanske served on the Santa Maria City Council for a total of 16 years, according to a release from the city, from 1972 to 1976 and again from 1984 to 1996. He resigned from the council in 1995 when he became 5th district county supervisor.
According to a release from the county, Urbanske served on the Board of Supervisors from 1995 to 2002, preceding Joe Centeno, and was known “as a dedicated public servant who displayed kindness and empathy.”
“Tom was way ahead of his time,” current 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino said in the release. “He was committed to improving the community and creating opportunities to address the needs of the homeless, mentally ill, and veterans. I offer my deepest condolences to his family, friends, and the constituents he served with grace and compassion.”
For Wendy Stockton, who worked in the Santa Maria City Attorney’s Office while Urbanske was a council member, he was a city official passionate about education.
As a former teacher, education issues had Urbanske “on the edge of his seat,” Stockton said, recalling litigation between the city and local school districts regarding funding mandated by state law.
“Everyone was hurting, and Tom was at the forefront of negotiating a resolution to that issue, to resolving the conflict, because a lot of times litigation doesn’t totally resolve things,” Stockton told the Sun. “So we needed to find a way given that the state hadn’t caught up with its legislation yet, and he was really helpful and involved in that.”
Stockton said that Urbanske was also vocal about “state-mandated costs” for cities, or when a state law required something of a municipality but provided no funding to help reach those mandates.
“He said that when the state decides that a city must do something, that the state must also provide the funding to make it happen,” she said. “He was very vocal about that and one of the first to identify the issue, give it a name, and run with it. That was my impression as a staff member.”
Urbanske also made another impression on Stockton, she said, when he would ride his bike to work at the city. Stockton, who buses/bikes to work in Santa Maria from her home in South SLO County, said that Urbanske and former Santa Maria City Councilmember Bob Orach both cycled in Santa Maria, which spurred her to commute with her bike.
“He was very inspirational, he and Bob Orach, as people who can ride bikes [in the city],” she said. “I still think were emerging in our ability to both realistically and and safely ride bicycles. They were real pioneers.”
This article appears in May 24-31, 2018.