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Amid a host of missteps, it’s time for Mayor Marty Walsh to reset his administration

He’s got his dream job, and he works hard at it. Up early. Out late. But you have to wonder how much fun it is to be Marty Walsh these days.

Around every other corner, it seems, the mayor of Boston sees trouble and turmoil. And, over the horizon, maybe there’s something much worse than that.

Federal investigators are prowling around City Hall, where a guessing game’s afoot about whether there will be further indictments and how high an ongoing corruption probe will reach.

His bid to bring an IndyCar race to the Seaport District has crashed and burned, hanging would-be Grand Prix patrons out to dry. They’re looking for refunds. But the mayor — once the race’s biggest booster — says: Don’t look at me.

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There’s an echo of the Olympics fiasco here, that ill-fated bid for international glory that the mayor — who promised transparency and openness — once tried to cloak in a speak-no-evil, nondisparagement clause. City workers were ordered to reflexively salute the Olympics until Walsh came to his senses and reversed himself. Here again, the mayor climbed out on a limb, embracing something big and bold, and then watched as it evaporated.

Add to that last week’s roiling episode at Boston Latin School, where Walsh’s tepid response did little to defuse a crisis that led to the resignations of top administrators amid concerns about the iconic institution’s racial climate.

Someone’s got to tell Walsh something that nobody at City Hall would ever be willing to say: He’s got to reboot his administration.

I sat with the mayor on Tuesday in his office at City Hall and asked him about that. He did not jump up and say: What a great idea!

“I wouldn’t say you were wrong,’’ Walsh said. “I’m constantly thinking about how to move forward. We’re a young administration. We’re going to be aggressive, and we’re going to make mistakes. No one’s perfect.’’

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And then, rat-a-tat, he rattled off a list of accomplishments.

And Walsh — who took office in January 2014 — is right that all is not doom and gloom.

General Electric’s decision to move its headquarters from Connecticut to Boston’s waterfront is an achievement any mayor would proudly trumpet.

When Brigham and Women’s Hospital and its nurses union averted a strike this week, Walsh stepped in as an unofficial mediator, placing three dozen phone calls throughout the weekend to help seal a deal.

All fine.

But Walsh should reach for that reset button at City Hall.

This is not a question of political expediency or survival. It’s early, but Walsh — whose bank account and poll numbers are fulsome — seems likely to cruise to a second term.

It’s a question of leadership, fulfilling promises, building a record of achievement, and avoiding self-inflicted wounds.

More than a few people I spoke to this week about Walsh and his record struck the same chords. Marty is a nice guy. But he’s loyal. To a fault.

That means the mayor needs to widen his circle of advisers beyond longtime friends such as Eugene O’Flaherty, the administration’s lead attorney, a bare-knuckles politician who served in the Legislature with Walsh. O’Flaherty’s counsel to the mayor has been somewhere between ham-handed and dubious. And that’s being generous.

O’Flaherty is now at the right hand of the mayor, who should make room for somebody else. Don’t hold your breath. Walsh wrapped his arms tightly around O’Flaherty when we spoke on Tuesday, using adjectives like “talented” and “incredible.’’ Really?

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“Marty’s biggest problem is his greatest strength, and that is loyalty,’’ said one City Hall observer, who wouldn’t let me use his name because he feared invoking the mayor’s wrath.

Actually, Walsh’s biggest problem may be that investigation that US Attorney Carmen Ortiz is pursuing.

Last month, the feds arrested Kenneth Brissette, Walsh’s director of tourism, sports, and entertainment. Brissette was indicted on a charge that he withheld city permits from a city music festival until it hired unneeded union stagehands.

That indictment said “at least one other City Hall employee” repeatedly told festival organizers that they had to hire union workers.

Walsh has said he has done nothing wrong. But he doesn’t seem interested in learning the identity of that other city employee. And he hasn’t said whether he’s been summoned before the grand jury in the case. I’ve been trying to figure out why a sitting Boston mayor wouldn’t say he hadn’t been to the grand jury if he hadn’t. I think I know.

Walsh needs to chase the storm clouds away. He can start by fully embracing the transparency that he’s said from the start that he cares so deeply about.

This mayor has a lot going for him. The city booms around him. People genuinely want him to succeed. He can help himself do that by bringing in some adults, a new crew of people — seasoned and adept — who will tell him what he may not want to hear.

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“As we get through the halfway of the first term, I start to think about who’s going to stay in the second term and where I would look to maybe continue to keep ideas fresh and keep things moving along,’’ Walsh said.

“The last thing we want is for people to get stale.’’

Don’t wait. Do it today.

Because right now, we have a mayor who’s being poorly served by people who are getting too many things wrong.


Thomas Farragher is a Globe columnist. He can reached at thomas.farragher@globe.com.