Why I think the mayor has to run (away)

I wrote in a previous post that I wasn't going to go into this and that the mayor has to do what the mayor has to do, and I still believe that.

But I've been thinking about this - it's much easier to think about stuff you're supposed to be on top of if you're not worried about paying your rent, by the way - and I have concluded that the following (the numbered bits) may have contributed to this sudden application for a job in Winthrop.

Forget about friends/colleagues urging him to apply. That line was used before, by school superintendent Kevin Lyons.

Surely there have been other jobs he could have nabbed. And don't forget that if the Swampscott guy gets the Winthrop job, the Swampscott job will be open ...

Anyway ... here goes ... and again, this is all just conjecture on my part:

1. The landfill. In making his "deal with the devil," I think John Moak went against his own sense of who and what he is. There is going to be backlash, if not from the City Council then from somewhere else. Honestly? I don't think he's up to that amount of backlash. He really isn't a politician, as he says all the time, in the true sense of the word.

And honestly (again)? It's above his pay grade - the mayor makes peanuts.

2. Karp. It looks like Karp & Co. are prepping to make some moves here. What would happen if Karp somehow wrangles vehicular access through the central waterfront? Would Moak be re-elected?

Remember that former Mayor Lisa Mead was willing, in the late 1990s, to sign off on a hotel on the waterfront in exchange for guaranteed public access to the water. Doesn't Karp's pitching to and wooing of the local Chapter 91 people sound like a tentative move towards asking for similar concessions?

Who's to blame when a party gets out of bounds? The mayor, that's who.

Maybe it's time to realize that you get what you pay for and even a person with the best intentions and love of his city gets to a point where s/he wonders, "Is this worth it?"

At that point, s/he becomes another person.

How much can you expect a person to do for so little return? Trust me on this one.

There really comes that point when you start to do what's expedient, not necessarily what's your best effort - and the self-doubt creeps in.

This is when you want out, because nothing is going to change and you really don't want to be that other person.

No, I think John Moak would be a much better as a city manager; I think it would be a better fit for him as a person.

Read Tom Salemi's post with his take on what maybe should happen here, if you haven't already read it.