Slap a fresh coat of paint over the urine-soaked stairwell of the dirtiest parking garage in town, and you wipe away four years of willful neglect. Never mind the underlying problem that leads to people having to relieve themselves in public structures-just make a token effort a few weeks before the election, and voters forgive everything.

Our expectations of politicians have become so low that we accept a few new street signs and a half-assed cleaning job as signs of progress. Forget bringing business to town, improving a failing school system or even luring at least one decent restaurant into my neighborhood-the city spent $80 on paint and another $65 on trash collection, so this guy deserves four more years.

As the November mayoral race heats up in the small city I live in, the incumbent has made a series of minor improvements. Once overflowing, rusty trash cans have been replaced by newer models. Fresh coats of paint have been given to public facades, and the aforementioned parking garage has been at least somewhat sanitized.

No real effort has been made to clean up a town whose only claim to fame is that many rappers grew up here. We did, however, get some banners proclaiming "Mount Vernon: A City that Believes."

Throw in the burned-out Christmas decorations still scattered around the city, and we're the world leader in inappropriate things hanging from street lights. Unfortunately, we rank decidedly lower in most other categories.

If the mayor was elected on a campaign platform where he promised to waste four years then scramble to look like he's been busy as his job comes up for renewal, he's done a fine job. Otherwise, he's the kid who stayed up all night playing Nintendo instead of doing his homework. He might put the paper he wrote on the way to class in a really shiny plastic binder, but he can't hide that it's written in crayon.

In any other profession, a chief executive who does nothing for four years would lose his job. In fact, most business leaders get less than a year to turn around the fortunes of even the most beleaguered companies.

In the same time period during which my mayor has presided over a city riddled with urban blight, crime and decay, Bill Parcells has turned around two of the saddest franchises in professional sports. While I'm sure rebuilding a city's neglected infrastructure is somewhat different than reviving a failing NFL team, the expectations should be the same.

If the mayor needs better players on his team, than he could draft some from the dozens of colleges in the area. If he needs help cutting crime, then bring in a new defensive coordinator. While Buddy Ryan or Bill Belichick could get it done, more traditional options like William Bratton and Ray Kelly already live in the area.

Given four years, I would expect that even Pete Carroll, Butch Hobson or even M.L. Carr could turn around most cities. Until the public regularly demands accountability and at least an adherence to some minimal standards, our politicians will continue to claim victory after 2-14 seasons.