After three terms in office, Waltham Mayor Jeannette McCarthy said on Tuesday she would not seek re-election in the 2015 mayoral election. 

McCarthy, under criticism over her handling of the recent snowstorm that left many city streets covered with snow for days, said the decision had nothing to do with criticism over the storm. 

"I have to take care of my parents," said McCarthy, who is currently serving her third term. 

McCarthy told the Boston Globe her mother is ill.

McCarthy told Waltham Patch she made her decision more than a year ago, in January 2012, “because I feel the city deserves a race.”

McCarthy said she told City Councillors Thomas Stanley, Diane LeBlanc and Paul Brasco, whom she sees as the “top three vote-getters” in the next mayoral election, of her decision in January 2012.

She told the Globe she was making her decision public now, “for the benefit of the city.”

McCarthy, a longtime Waltham resident, was first elected mayor in 2003, and was re-elected in 2007 and 2011, according to City Clerk Russ Malone. McCarthy previously served two years as a Councillor-At-Large and six years on the Waltham School Committee, according to her city biography.

McCarthy said she is looking to complete the projects at the former Fernald Center and former Polaroid site before her term expires in 2016.

"Could I probably have won for re-election even with the storm? Yes,” she told Waltham Patch.

McCarthy told the Globe she does not know whether she will return to private sector work after she leaves city government.

While the election is still three years away, Stanley, who criticized McCarthy over her handling of the snowstorm, said the announcement does not change his plans.

“It’s far too early to be making formal announcements three years out [about whether he will run for mayor.] I am committed to Waltham," said Stanley, when asked whether he will run for mayor.