Help wanted: Progressive, beautiful, process-oriented university town on the banks of the Willamette River seeks a mayor. Must have plenty of free time and energy, considerable patience for process and an endless ability to be a cheerleader for the town. Must be comfortable with low pay (well, really, no pay) and limited actual power. Must supply own transportation for parades.

Who would want to answer that ad? The question re-emerged last week after Corvallis Mayor Charlie Tomlinson announced that he wouldn't be running for a second term in 2010.

Corvallis' political pundits immediately started to put names of possible successors on their short lists - and, well, the short lists stayed awfully short.

And no wonder: What a thankless job this can be. (But thank goodness, the pay is so low! Rim shot!)

Our point here is not to assess the performance of Mayor Tomlinson: He still has a year left on his term, so any such assessment is way premature. Rather, our point is to take a moment and be thankful that we actually have someone in the job whose performance we eventually can judge. And to hope that we can start the process of talking someone else into throwing their hat in the ring.

On the city's Web site, as part of the monthly reports filed by City Manager Jon Nelson, the mayor gets a chance to report on his activities for the month. Here is the "Mayor's Diary" for September (take a deep breath):

"The mayor met with council leadership twice during September. I judged, with other folks, the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Chili Cook-Off, a fundraiser for Strengthening Rural Families.

" I welcomed foreign students at Oregon State University who are here on the INTO program, and I represented the city at the CAMP luncheon. I presented sustainable mobility to the Corvallis Morning Rotary Club, dished ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery for the Make a Wish Foundation, and represented the city at the Corvallis Tourism annual meeting.

"Other events during the month included attending a Zonta meeting to learn more about the Rosie the Riveter Program in the Albany Parks and Recreation Department, and convening two Energy Strategy Ad-Hoc Committee meetings.

"I represented the city at the Volunteer Appreciation Picnic, the Hallie Ford Center Celebration, the Linus Pauling Institute building groundbreaking, a meeting with representatives of the governor's office and Business Oregon about economic development activities in Corvallis and the Mid-Willamette Valley, and Constitution Day ceremonies.

"I proclaimed International Day of Peace, presented at the League of Women Voters' transportation forum, represented the city at the United Way Day of Caring and two peace lectures at OSU and the Unitarian Universalist Church, and helped kick off the Powered by Orange campaign at OSU."

That afternoon was even busier! (Another rim shot!)

Seriously, we're exhausted after just typing in the diary entry. No wonder Tomlinson passed on running for a second term.

Tomlinson has talked about how the most significant power the mayor has is the ability to make appointments to city boards and commissions. That's important - but it often takes years for the seeds planted by those appointments to flower. The council has more power, but truthfully, considering the two-year terms councilors serve, the real power in city government tends to flow to the city manager and the city's staff.

Corvallis has been fortunate: We've had good people, well-meaning people, serving us as mayor. We've had good people serving as our city managers.

But as we gear up to find Tomlinson's successor, we might want to think a bit about what we really expect from the mayor of Corvallis. It could be we've set our expectations a little bit high.