HONESDALE BOROUGH, PA — Pat Resti, the recently appointed president of the Honesdale Borough Council, downplayed the exceptionality of that position in a recent conversation with the River Reporter. Not one borough councilor is more important than any other, he said; he views his role as to be the “cohesive glue” for a dedicated, talented roster of borough officials and employees, as much as anything.

Still, Resti makes clear his intention to lead the council down a different path.

“We agreed to be a united front, to be together,” Resti said.

Meetings of the Honesdale Borough Council have, historically, been “rough,” Resti said. He attributes much of the tenseness that’s marked the council’s conversations to a lack of communication between borough officials.

That’s something he’s trying to change, he said. He’s trying to ensure borough officials stay in regular communication, with phone conversations and with open dialogue, “which I think is a big change from what was prior.”

He’s also trying to establish clearer lines of communication between borough officials and the public. In his time on the borough council, he’s taken a shine to meeting individually with people who have problems or concerns—not just exchanging emails with them, but physically going out and seeing them face to face.

“We’re all gonna take an active part in engaging more with the public,” he said.

Borough manager

The first half of the year has been marked by significant change in Honesdale’s borough offices. Longtime interim borough manager, Kevin Kundratic, left in the spring; his replacement, Kendra Nelson, announced her resignation on Thursday, July 2.

Resti says the borough still wants to hire a borough manager. However, it probably won’t have one in place until next year, he said.

The borough plans to embark on its next managerial hiring process in coordination with and guided by the advice of state government, he said. The borough will be looking for someone with at least five years of governmental experience as a manager, and will be looking for someone who can fill the role that borough council needs them to fill, he said.

Speaking with the River Reporter in the summer of 2025, Kundratic said he’d tried to separate out the roles of borough manager and of borough council, trying to draw a line between policy matters and the borough’s day-to-day administration. Resti told the River Reporter that he sees things a little differently; whether the borough has a manger or not, borough councilors need to be involved in the daily grind of the borough’s business, he said.