It is usually a good idea to find and hire a professional to guide a business or a political candidate, but not always.

A few weeks ago, longtime KING-TV political analyst and reporter Robert Mak was hired by Seattle's mayor to be his communications director and senior policy advisor. Mak had been on the television station for 16 years and had won Emmys and other awards for his reporting. He has a good reputation for doing television news and was reportedly liked by fellow employees and most sources (no political reporter is ever liked by all politicians).

His salary boggled a lot of minds here. Mak would be making $160,000 a year - more than Mayor Greg Nickels and a bunch of qualified city officials. The salary was defended on the basis that the city's business is getting more complicated and because the mayor is becoming known in the nation for his stands on climate change. There is no doubt that Nickels is well known around the nation for bringing together local political leaders on this issue, offering refuge from the refusal of the George Bush administration to deal directly with global warming.

We often question the mayor's leadership and wonder if he is spending too much time on an issue that the city can do very little about directly. He has become a cheerleader, of sorts, but some say more attention needs to be paid to Seattle's infrastructure and other rather mundane but necessary issues right here at home.

What makes us mad about the Robert Mak affair is not that Mak will get a good salary, albeit maybe a tad too much. The mayor of a fast-growing city should have competent help to negotiate the minefield of public opinion. What frosts us is we, the taxpayers, are paying for this expertise. The reason it galls is because Nickels is up for reelection in a mere 15 months. Therefore, since the mayor makes it clear he wants to be mayor for another four years, we have a question.

How much of Mak's work will be to get his boss reelected? Will he be seeking out vulnerable reporters to get them to pull back on criticism of His Honor? Will Mak become a kinder, gentler mouthpiece than those who have preceded him for far less money?

It seems clear the taxpayers are paying this man to get the mayor reelected and that is just plain wrong. We have no problem with the mayor having a political election guide but that person should be earning whatever the mayor wants to pay him or her from political funds donated to get Nickel reelected.

We may be a very, very - actually too very - Democrat-centric city, but there are many who just wish someone with qualifications and class would run against this mayor. He is becoming too much like a machine pol and less like a forward-thinking mayor of a fast growing city in a financially challenged era.

Bag the flak with the bag tax, Mr. Mayor. Come back and remind us why we elected you, instead of making us wish you would just go away to the Other Washington and become a big deal there.

- Jack Mayne