Lynn pol’s funds idea KO’d

LYNN – Councilor-at-large Stephen Duffy says he had nothing but good intentions when he proposed soliciting donations from the city’s businesses to pay for a $210,000 Police Department budget gap.The idea has stirred both criticism and support, but the collection cups remain un-used because Lynn police this week received a $274,000 state grant.According to Police Chief Kevin Coppinger, the telecommunications grant reimburses the department for phone dispatchers who handle emergency calls. “That will take off the heat,” said the chief, reiterating that the department would like to hire a crime analyst for $50,000.Duffy’s council colleagues have requested he slow down the fund-raising effort and provide opportunity for others at City Hall and in the business community to discuss the plan in greater detail. Duffy has not presented a written proposal. As he put it during Tuesday’s meeting of the fledgling Crime Prevention Resource Committee, “It isn’t a plan. It isn’t etched in stone. It’s a concept.”Coppinger, too, urged Duffy to slow down.”The mayor has concerns about how we would spend the money (from private donations),” said Coppinger, referring to comments by Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy that donated funds must not be used for police personnel expenses and might better be spent on one-time equipment purchases. “It has to be completely clean and legitimate.”Duffy acknowledged the past week has been a rough one, mostly because of the berating he took from the news media.”I haven’t changed my goals at all. I’m going to get a proposal with those goals in front of the mayor. Since this all started, people have come up to me on the street in various locations, offering to write checks,” he said. “We are just trying to do a positive thing. The Police Department has no involvement in the raising of this money whatsoever. The police are not even part of this committee.”Duffy is chairman of the new committee whose members include Ward 5 Council Brendan Crighton, Ward 6 Councilor Peter Capano, Ward 2 Councilor William Trahant Jr., and Ward 7 Councilor Richard Ford.Capano said the proposal must be written before it can be considered.”We have to all agree about what we are going to do,” he said, implying that Duffy has been going it alone.Capano emphasized that the mechanism by which funds might be publicly collected in behalf of the Police Department remains unclear. Duffy said he was told by City Solicitor Michael Barry that donations could be collected under the auspices of the Lynn Economic Development and Industrial Corp. (EDIC), which could keep the money in a separate account for the sole purpose of aiding the police, rather than add it to the city’s general fund.Mayor Kennedy said the EDIC was created to obtain and manage federal monies, not municipal fund-raising proceeds.”We understand the idea of using Jim Cowdell (the EDIC executive director), but we don’t know for sure if we can do this,” Capano told Duffy. “If you are smart, you will slow down so that if questions come up, we can deal with them. You have what you want to do fixed in your head, but when we leave here, we should all leave with the same goal.”Duffy said further research is underway on the conflicting opinions over whether the EDIC can oversee the fund raising.When the idea was first unveiled, Duffy vowed to approach the 10 largest businesses in Lynn for donations, then ask the smaller ones. Lynn Area Chamber of Commerce (LACC) Executive Director Leslie Gould supported the initiative but small business owner and LACC President John Olson decried it as just another tax on businesses that already pay one of the highest commercial tax rates statewide.On Tuesday, Olson presented the Crime Prevention Resource Committee with a statement clarifying the LACC’s stance. The statement read, in part, “The Lynn Area Chamber of Commerce values its relationship with the Police Department and recognizes the tough job they face each and every day. And while we recognize the ur