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Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson addresses the media in late December, a day after a grand jury decided not to indict two police officers in the shooting death of Tamir Rice. Jackson said the public has a reason to question the fairness of the system.

(Thomas Ondrey, The Plain Dealer, File, 2015)

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson isn't one to chase history for the simple sake of etching his name in some record book.

But now, at the 10-year mark of his tenure as Cleveland's mayor, and the halfway mark of his third term, Jackson is contemplating a fourth.

On the last day of 2017, Jackson will tie Michael R. White as Cleveland's longest-serving mayor. Another four years would take Jackson well beyond where any Cleveland mayor has gone before.

It is not a decision to be made lightly. And Jackson, a decidedly earnest man in a decidedly difficult job, understands that.

So, when I ask him if he contemplates the dangers of staying too long, Jackson, sitting in shirtsleeves at a little round table in a corner of his City Hall office, leans forward and doubles down on the intensity, answering slowly, carefully and with conviction.

"What I don't want to be is like an old fighter not knowing to get out of the ring. So if I believe -- and this is a major consideration -- that I bring relevancy, if I bring value, then the danger of staying will be less.

"If I don't bring value, if I've outlived my style of doing things, if it just doesn't fit the times and would pose a huge danger to the city, if I'm getting in the way of what I'm trying to do for the city and becoming an impediment, then I'm gone."

Jackson said he hasn't decided. I believe him, but I think he is leaning ever so slightly towards staying.

Whatever that decision, he won't announce it for at least a year. And Jackson readily acknowledges concern over who might replace him.

"I think there's some people who are more talk than they are action and would be a complete disaster for the city of Cleveland," he said.

The mayor declined to name names. But if you already guessed he was referring to councilmen Jeff Johnson and Zack Reed, chances are you guessed right.

Jackson's third term has been plagued by far more problems than the first two. Third terms -- especially for big-city mayors -- almost always are.

Allegations of mismanagement issues involving the police, airport and health departments, as well as financial questions about the operation of Cleveland Public Power, have caused many to question Jackson's decision-making. He doesn't run from those issues, but strongly believes many of the criticisms -- including mine -- have been overly harsh.

Complicating those problems is the worsening state of city finances. City income tax revenues are way up but rapidly declining property values have caused tax revenue based on those values to plummet.

Worst of all, said Jackson, is "what the state has done to cities," with deep cuts in its local government funding. Since 2009, figures from the city Finance Department show that changes in the state budget have cost Cleveland $159 million in revenue.

Gov. John Kasich can't have it both ways, constantly saying he loves big cities while enacting policies that wreck their budgets. Jackson and the governor have had a good relationship, but the mayor clearly blames him for contributing greatly to the city's financial problems.

"We are doing things in Cleveland that allow people to make money," he said, in a reference to rising income tax revenue. "But all that means nothing unless we can offer quality services to the people."

Quality services is a goal, surely not a reality.

And while Jackson stopped short of detailing his solution to Cleveland's worsening financial condition, my guess is he'll ask voters to raise taxes sometime within the next 18 months.

That revenue increase would almost certainly come in the form of an increase in the city income tax -- a tax paid largely by suburbanites.

The city's payroll tax, now at two percent, has not been increased since 1981. While I'm almost certain Jackson will seek to change that, far less certain is his political future.

"I'm going to be honest with you -- I honestly, honestly have not decided," Jackson said of running for a fourth term in 2017. "But I have to position the city in such a way that if I decide not to be mayor, then whoever takes this (job) has at least a chance to be successful. And if I decide to run, I don't want to leave myself without an opportunity to succeed."

Jackson is one of the most authentic and sincere people ever to hold the office. Voters sense that, which helps explain why he's never lost an election -- either citywide or in his Central-area neighborhood.

If Jackson runs again, he will win.

And at the end of that fourth term, he would be a 75-year-old man dealing with the enormous problems caused by poverty, population loss, unemployment and blight so pervasive that in some neighborhoods it nearly destroys any hope of a decent quality of life.

A better option would be for him to choose one or two qualified candidates and quietly set in motion a succession plan.

Either way, it's an gigantic decision. Perhaps the biggest he's made as mayor.

Brent Larkin was The Plain Dealer's editorial director from 1991 until his retirement in 2009.

To reach Brent Larkin: blarkin@cleveland.com