Staffing Lynn slots next for Kennedy

LYNN – She has met with fellow mayors-elect at the State House and joined a statewide municipal association, but Judith Flanagan Kennedy has yet to reveal who will help her make the transition from mayoral candidate to urban chief executive.”I will rely greatly on my own instincts,” she said Wednesday, minutes after a ballot recount cast in the Nov. 3 election confirmed her status as the city’s new mayor.Kennedy plans to discuss the mayoral transition process with Mayor Edward J. Clancy Jr. after Thanksgiving. Like Clancy, she is assuming the mayorship with experience on the City Council, but unlike Clancy, she is walking into the mayor’s office without the experience of running a legislative office and delegating work to a staff.Clancy relied on legislative aides Joseph Driscoll and James Marsh to help run his office in his early years as mayor. Driscoll was subsequently named city personnel director and Marsh is the city Community Development director.The late Patrick J. McManus drew on longtime friendships with Michael Marks and David McCoy to fill out his early mayoral aide appointments. He leavened this choice of seasoned lieutenants with younger men and women who worked in the mayor’s office in the 1990s.Other people close to McManus have been by Kennedy’s side throughout her election campaign including Associate Public Works Commissioner Claire Cavanagh, who was a top aide to McManus; Gordon “Buzzy” Barton, a firefighter and boyhood friend of McManus’ and Kenneth Weeks, a Lynnfield resident and boyhood friend of the late mayor who was picked to run McManus’ brief campaign.He went on to help Kennedy win the mayorship.”I just wanted to help her get elected,” Weeks said Thursday, adding there have “not been a lot” of conversations among campaign aides to date about Kennedy transition team selections.Kennedy has not publicly announced her mayoral staff choices or designated a transition assistant. When asked Wednesday to name someone she will rely on to help her, she quickly named City Council President Timothy Phelan.The pair enjoyed parallel careers as School Committee members and councilors at large and enjoyed top vote-getter status in more than one municipal election. Phelan could not be reached for comment Thursday on his role, if any, in the transition.Mindful of the 30 votes defining her victory in Wednesday’s recount, Kennedy said she intends to “reach out to Clancy people.”The comment did not surprise local attorney Samuel Vitali who said Kennedy has “a history of working with people” including fellow council members she may have found herself at odds with on votes or Council Chamber debates.”It’s a positive statement that she views the city as divided and wants to address that,” Vitali said Thursday.The bitter fight Kennedy and Clancy waged this fall stands in contrast to closer associations enjoyed by their predecessors: Kennedy’s grandfather-in-law, Thomas “Pip” Kennedy, and Clancy’s father, Edward J. Clancy, served together as city assessors in the early 1960s.