Lynn voters will soon pick a new mayor, so now is a good time to ponder the past and pick our favorite Lynn mayor. Lynn may be a big city of 100,000 with an allegedly-weak mayor form of government, but there has always been something special about the mayors of our fair city. Tom Costin as a living example.
When Mayor Henry Wall entered the barbershop, this 5-year-old sensed the adults morphing from joking pranksters to engaged citizens. I may not have known what they were talking about but appreciated the power the mayor held over those guys. It was my first political lesson.
Warren Cassidy was the father of my CYO teammate and mayor of Lynn. His arrivals into our games were grand, tardy and noteworthy for stealing the attention of everyone in the gym. The scenes of my political youth; the shocking death of Patsy Caggiano; Tony Marino entering a room and being swarmed by glad handers trying to get in a word; family friend Al Divirgilio packing his golf tournaments until the year he didn’t and Pat upsets the world order as we knew it.
In 1981, Pat McManus ran for councilor at large and did well in the preliminary but didn’t make the final cut. He was not happy and took out his frustration by getting another degree. He also joined my brother Dave and me in the ill-fated “Tommy O’Neill for governor” campaign.
I later managed Pat’s first successful campaign for City Council and, to the chagrin of many, Al Divirgililio’s last mayoral campaign after his stunning second-place preliminary finish in that legendary 1991 race. Pat won and was furious with me. But Pat being Pat, he simmered down and came to our wedding in Ireland six months later.Pat entered that race at the age of 37 as the decided underdog against the favorite of the wise guys ― Southern Essex County Register of Deeds John L. O’Brien Jr. ― and the perceived vulnerable incumbent Al Divirgilio. Pat took the endorsement of the Lynn Firefighters Union and the enthusiastic efforts of his volunteer army all the way to the corner office.
Pat and Al may have both come from the council, but Pat as a councilor was the one on many 10-1 votes while Al was a council president who whipped up 10 votes when he needed them.
Al recently told me that his key to being mayor was to pick three issues and work to get them done. Pat, on the other hand, refused to accept the charter-imposed notion that the mayor was in any way constrained from leading the city.
Pat brought as much energy as intelligence to the job and channelled these qualities into tangible achievements. The McManus administration coincided with a technological revolution in communications. I distinctly remember my fiber optic lecture from Professor McManus after posing an innocent question about the big tower he proposed on Essex Street. His facile embrace of emerging technology was the epitome of leadership and manifested itself in many forms.
Pat became an internationally-recognized expert on water and wastewater policy who chaired the U.S. Conference of Mayors Urban Water Policy Group. He used his perch in City Hall to open and expand trade ties with China.
Back in Lynn, he made major improvements to the three public high schools, diligently worked to replace old water and sewer lines, and made administrative and organizational changes to City Hall.
His leadership style could be stridently confrontational, defined as arguing forcefully when I was searching for the right way to describe Pat’s manner. He would then be coldly logical and suddenly employ a warm and broad smile to close his case. He was unique and almost always persuasive. He thought outside the box when he proposed projects such as locating a high school at the site of Manning Bowl or bringing the Patriots to the Lynnway.
For those who don’t remember those days, you could pick up your Daily Evening Item and not know if you would see your mayor pictured on Page One with a pope or president. He was a prominent supporter of Al Gore and his expected appointment, possibly involving China, was dashed when the Democrat lost the 2000 presidential recount despite a McManus-led team of lawyers to the rescue in Florida.
After that, Pat decided to not seek reelection in 2001 after his tenure as the longest consecutive-serving mayor in the city’s history. Pat was poised to challenge incumbent Chip Clancy in 2009 when he suddenly passed away at 54.
The mayors who came after Pat had a tough act to follow. I was in and out of Chip’s bad and good books over the years, rooted for my old trivia partner Judy Kennedy, and saw Tommy McGee deal with one incredibly tough hand after another during his one term.
I will add an outside-of-Lynn mayor I’ve been lucky enough to work with as the gold standard for the North Shore: Kim Driscoll. May Lynn be lucky enough to get someone half as good as she is.
Pat McManus was an almost larger-than-life figure and Lynn’s best mayor in my experience.
Victor L’Esperance is a political activist with local, state, national, and international campaign experience.
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