Our mayor, John Moak has lived in Newburyport, Massachusetts since the 1970’s. Mr. Moak has seen Newburyport evolve and has been the Newburyport City Clerk for 11 years. He has been able to observe up close, and with of a certain amount of detachment, how Newburyport has been governed. John Moak also knows who all the “players” are in Newburyport, Massachusetts.

It also seems to me that John Moak is a person who values harmony in the work place. And from what I have read it appears that Mayor Moak would like to see all of Newburyport’s department heads have constructive interaction.

Nicholas Cracknell, Newburyport’s Planning Director, on the other hand, appears to accept conflict as a natural and normal part of any process. Mr. Cracknell’s emphasis appears to be on getting things done and not an emphasis on getting along.

And when Mr. Cracknell came into town approximately 4 years ago, he did not know who all the “players” were and therefore tackled various projects in a certain void.

Mr. Cracknell is an innovator and a visionary. He seems to be always looking over the next horizon, trying to do what other people say can’t be done. Mr. Cracknell has a powerful drive and has been able to turn those visions (which btw are the visions of the Newburyport Master Plan) into realities.

Nick Cracknell values progress and change, while other types of personalities find great value in a static and unchanging life and often worry that things change too fast. There are many kinds of personality types that work carefully and methodically with a detailed plan of action. What I’ve observed in Mr. Cracknell is that he has bursts of inspiration and translates them into reality through recurrent periods of extremely intense activity.

The world is fortunately made up a whole variety of different personalities and ways of approaching issues and problem solving. This is a good thing. The world would be awfully boring if everyone were the same. It can also make it very difficult to manage something like a municipality. However, it can be done. It requires an understanding, respect, appreciation and tolerance of each other’s differences and points of view.

When someone told me that Mayor John Moak and Newburyport’s Planning Director, Nick Cracknell were working on working together, I was delighted, and hope what I was told is true. Each man has Newburyport’s best interest at heart, they just happen to be two very different personality types and come from two very different viewpoints.

It would be an enormous benefit to the citizens of Newburyport, Massachusetts if these two very dedicated men can find a way to creatively work together. It would also be leadership through example of a way to tolerate and work through differences on a human as well as a political level.

What I’m beginning to see on the Newburyport Political Blog is the emergence of different personality types and different points of view. I think this is a great thing. And I’m going to be really interested to see if the Newburyport Political Blog will be able to foster a constructive dialogue where as a community we can appreciate and understand each other a little better. And if the Newburyport Political Blog could bring people together and help make municipality problem solving just a little bit easier.

Mary Eaton, Newburyport