BEVERLY - If Bill Scanlon wins re-election next month, he'll become the longest-serving mayor since the city began electing them in 1895.
Asked to comment on the possibility of that historic achievement, Scanlon said, "Let's wait and see how it goes next month."
Scanlon's supporters say that kind of focus on the task at hand is typical of his hard-driving approach. He may be on the brink of political history, they say, but he's more concerned with ushering through the next project.
"Those are the things that consume him," said Bruce Nardella, a former City Council president and longtime Scanlon supporter. "He's like a project manager. He focuses on projects, he doesn't focus on two-year terms of mayors."
Scanlon said his biggest accomplishment in the last two years was saving the high school's accreditation. The New England Association of Schools and Colleges had threatened to revoke accreditation because of the building's poor condition.
In February 2006, Scanlon convinced the City Council to approve a $65 million renovation, prompting the accrediting agency to withdraw its warning. Scanlon said the decision to fix the high school saved the city from the potentially devastating consequences of losing accreditation, which he said would have led to lower property values and a cycle of financial trouble for the city.
"If we'd lost the accreditation, it would've been a powerful negative for the city," he said.
With such a major political victory in hand, some mayors might have been content to pass off the details of the project to others, Nardella said. But he said Scanlon, a former engineer, has immersed himself in the design and construction plans.
"It's not too often you get a mayor of a city focusing, at times, 75 percent of his day on a school construction project," Nardella said. "But he realizes it's that important to the future of the city."
Too much power?
With his 12 years of experience as mayor, degrees from Harvard and MIT, and a toughness that suited him well as a hockey player - a sport he continued to play into his 60s, Scanlon, now 67, has become a powerful chief executive with no significant opposition in sight. His opponent in this year's final election, retired U.S. Army veteran Euplio Marciano, has never held political office.
Asked to comment on the possibility of that historic achievement, Scanlon said, "Let's wait and see how it goes next month."
Scanlon's supporters say that kind of focus on the task at hand is typical of his hard-driving approach. He may be on the brink of political history, they say, but he's more concerned with ushering through the next project.
"Those are the things that consume him," said Bruce Nardella, a former City Council president and longtime Scanlon supporter. "He's like a project manager. He focuses on projects, he doesn't focus on two-year terms of mayors."
Scanlon said his biggest accomplishment in the last two years was saving the high school's accreditation. The New England Association of Schools and Colleges had threatened to revoke accreditation because of the building's poor condition.
In February 2006, Scanlon convinced the City Council to approve a $65 million renovation, prompting the accrediting agency to withdraw its warning. Scanlon said the decision to fix the high school saved the city from the potentially devastating consequences of losing accreditation, which he said would have led to lower property values and a cycle of financial trouble for the city.
"If we'd lost the accreditation, it would've been a powerful negative for the city," he said.
With such a major political victory in hand, some mayors might have been content to pass off the details of the project to others, Nardella said. But he said Scanlon, a former engineer, has immersed himself in the design and construction plans.
"It's not too often you get a mayor of a city focusing, at times, 75 percent of his day on a school construction project," Nardella said. "But he realizes it's that important to the future of the city."
Too much power?
With his 12 years of experience as mayor, degrees from Harvard and MIT, and a toughness that suited him well as a hockey player - a sport he continued to play into his 60s, Scanlon, now 67, has become a powerful chief executive with no significant opposition in sight. His opponent in this year's final election, retired U.S. Army veteran Euplio Marciano, has never held political office.
According to some of his critics, Scanlon has accumulated too much power.
"Most of the people in City Hall do whatever he wants, and that's it," said Mary Rodrick, a retired Harvard Medical School researcher who is active in city affairs. "He is the boss."
In October 2006, Ward 6 City Councilor Patricia Grimes accused Scanlon of a "pattern" of making up his own rules and ignoring the city charter. As an example, she said Scanlon formed a committee to pick an architect for the new high school without informing city councilors.
"We had an ad-hoc committee that the full council did not know even existed making major decisions, which is end-running the structure of government that's put in place by the people," said Grimes, who is running for councilor-at-large.
Asked this week about Grimes' criticism, Scanlon said, "All I can say is apparently she just wasn't paying attention."
Scanlon said he told City Council President Paul Guanci about the formation of the committee, and in fact asked him to appoint two councilors to the group.
"We followed exactly the process that the law requires," Scanlon said.
Grimes' criticism recalled earlier attacks against Scanlon for a lack of accessibility and openness. That perception led, in part, to his only political defeat, the 2001 upset by Tom Crean that interrupted Scanlon's mayoral run.
When Scanlon returned to office two years later, he pledged to hold monthly "town meetings" to answer questions from the public. Asked this week why he no longer holds those meetings, Scanlon said they were sparsely attended.
As for accessibility, Scanlon said he is inundated with e-mails from the public and welcomes anyone to visit him at City Hall.
"Pretty much anybody who wants to see me gets to see me the next day or the following day," he said. "I think I'm as accessible as a person can be."
Nardella, the Scanlon supporter, dismisses the notion that Scanlon wields too much power. If that were true, he said, Scanlon would not have lost the election six years ago.
"The voters have seen fit more often than not to elect him," Nardella said.
"The power is with voters, and they like what they see."
On the record
Accomplishments in the last two years:
* Approval of $65 million project at high school
* Progress on flood-prevention projects in Raymond Farms, North Beverly and Beverly Farms
* Increased recycling by residents and businesses
* Opening of two new playing fields near Beverly Airport
Projects pending but still not done:
* Sale of city-owned waterfront land to build Black Cow restaurant
* Sale of vacant McKay School
* Building of parking garage at train depot
* Building of skating rink on city-owned land near airport
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