agreement with the state which advanced $3.7 million in state funds to be allotted for the construction of a materials recycling facility in the city. Menino put a freeze on water utility rates in place in the city, which were at rising due to the need to pay off the expenses of a court-ordered cleanup of Boston Harbor. Menino's freeze was popular with the city's residents, though there were questions as to whether an acting mayor actually held the authority to take such action. 1993 mayoral campaign Menino would win the 1993 Boston mayoral election, becoming mayor. This made him the city's first non-Irish American mayor since the Great Depression. Menino initially ran a low-profile campaign, having informally indicated his intentions ahead of taking office as acting mayor for months. After taking office as acting mayor, Menino ran a sort of "Rose Garden campaign" that played up his acting incumbency and used the perks of the office. He formally declared himself as a candidate for mayor on August 16, 1993, after many other candidates had already formally entered the race. A number of actions that he took immediately after taking office were characterized by analysts as shoring up his image for a mayoral run. When running for mayor, Menino pledged to serve "only two terms, and that's it for me." However, his tenure ultimately exceeded this in length. Menino ran for a third term in 2001 and clarified that "I promised I'd serve two terms–in every century." Menino was ultimately elected to a fifth term in 2009. Mayoralty Menino served an unprecedented and unsurpassed five terms as mayor of Boston. On March 28, 2013, Menino announced that he would not seek a sixth term. After Menino's death, Katherine Q. Seelye of The New York Times wrote that Menino "presided over one of the most successful urban renaissances in modern American history" as mayor. Politics Menino was a liberal and a Democrat. Menino led a powerful political machine in Boston. In 2009, the Boston Globe wrote that "Menino has assembled the most extensive political operation in modern Boston history over his 16 years in office, rivaling that of legendary mayor James Michael Curley. He's done it the old-fashioned way, by blurring the lines between politics and policy, between city work and campaign work, delivering services to everyday residents and warnings to his rare foes—many of them intended to strengthen his electoral