LYNN -Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy delivered her inaugural state-of-the-city address Thursday, highlighting a lengthy list of accomplishments since taking office only six months ago.
The uplifting speech touched on the balanced municipal budget, the need to further analyze School Department expenditures, recent upgrades in local government communications technology, the strengthening of public safety departments, and perhaps most importantly, a change in attitudes and policies at City Hall.”I have banned the phrase ‘It has always been done like that’,” the mayor said, alluding to the answer often heard when no reasonable explanation is given for continuing inefficient or unjust practices.To demonstrate how she balanced “the first big budget” as mayor, she told a poignant story involving an office printer at City Hall. According to the mayor, in January she began reviewing every purchase order from all departments before they were approved. The strategy gave her a glimpse into how taxpayer dollars were being spent. When a request for a $1,200 printer came across her desk, Kennedy sent an information technology staffer to find out what equipment was apparently defunct.The mayor was aghast to learn that the department submitting the requisition already had an expensive printer, but it was going unused because nobody knew how to replace the ink cartridge. Unwilling to admit their shortcomings, the employees kept silent and instead ordered another printer.”I nickeled and dimed it,” she said, explaining how she eliminated the $1.9-million municipal budget gap without furloughs or layoffs. “My next challenge is on the school side.”Kennedy told the packed audience at the Porthole restaurant she is confident that by using the same method, the School Department budget can be balanced without laying off teachers or classroom personnel. “I am fiscally conservative. I don’t want to raise your taxes. I don’t want to raise my taxes,” she said.Last year, under former Mayor Edward J. Clancy Jr., the city budget was $256 million. Kennedy has trimmed that amount by $16 million to $239.5 million.Asked about her top priorities, Kennedy said public safety must come before anything else because a city cannot function or grow if its residents and visitors feel unsafe. Eight new firefighters will attend the fire academy in the fall, and four police recruits are currently receiving training, she said.Kennedy said relations with the Police Department are also on the upswing. On Jan. 6, three days into her term, she received word that the state Supreme Judicial Court had rejected the city’s last-chance appeal related to a 2004 agreement in which Lynn police had deferred pay to help balance the budget. A legal battle ensued after the money went unpaid, leading to a series of court appeals by the city over the past six years, all of which were lost.For Kennedy, it meant having to find nearly $400,000 to pay the police officers. “By July 15, all officers will be paid their share of that money,” the mayor said in her speech.Although she did not take credit, Kennedy cited several ongoing projects that are expected to boost the city’s image and enable growth. Among the projects cited: relocation of electrical transmission lines to create a swath of waterfront development sites along the Lynnway; construction of a new Visiting Nurse Association headquarters near the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority garage and train station on Market Street; $900,000 in public library improvements; repairs to the Grand Army of the Republic building facade on Andrew Street; planned construction of a new Thurgood Marshall Middle School; last week’s groundbreaking for a multi-story wing on the downtown Lynn Community Health Center; and the expanded use of the newly-refurbished auditorium at City Hall, which is now attracting big-name entertainment. “We have an opportunity to make Lynn a destination, to give people a reason to come here,” said Kennedy, adding that down
