… can only be obtained and maintained if one continues to occupy the mayor’s office. Addendum: link to the Providence Journal story.

[Woonsocket Mayor Susan] Menard, who won her seventh mayoral term last fall, announced that she would leave office on June 15, a year and half before her current term expires.
But as the weeks went by, controversy in the Police Department died down and the City Council’s investigation of misuse of city resources by city employees hit a snag when Menard filed an injunction to stop the investigation.
Last week, during her weekly visit with WNRI radio talk show host Roger Bouchard, Menard said she wanted to stay to see the adoption of the 2008-09 budget and the mailing of the first-quarter tax bills on July 1. Menard said she would decide on July 1 when she would go.

Taking a powder was a pretty reasonable course of action under the circumstances – an ethics investigation going full steam ahead, an off-the-books mayoral slush fund, hazy funding of the city pension, a phantom budget surplus, the aforementioned injunction to halt the questioning of city employees, not to mention hidden recording equipment in the mayor’s office.
Then again, if the mess is bad enough, perhaps the only option is to stay in order to block prying eyes, fix or undo what you can and hope that, with time, it will all blow over.