Cahill decries loss of Auto Auction by Lynn

LYNN – City Councilor at large Daniel Cahill reacted with frustration Tuesday to news that Lynnway Auto Auction plans to leave the city, criticizing his colleagues in city government for not making a concerted effort to keep the business and its hundreds of part-time jobs here.”That’s why this city is in the state it’s in,” Cahill said. “If we have an opportunity to keep an employer here we should do it. The Master Waterfront Plan is going to take years and (Lynnway Auto Auction) is not going to impede that plan.”Owners of the auto auction that has been held weekly on a private property off Harding Street for a dozen years and brings more than 800 auto dealers to the area on auction days, plan to move the business to a 40-acre site in Billerica this spring after their attempts to find room to expand in Lynn failed.Bob Brest, a longtime Lynn businessman and partner in the auto auction, said Monday the business had expressed interest in the municipal lot that abuts the Auto Auction property, but never made progress on that. Brest said his impression, given the city’s hope to redevelop the waterfront along the Lynnway, is that city officials “don’t want us any longer.”City officials including Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy, Council President Timothy Phelan and Economic Development and Industrial Corp. executive director James Cowdell all on Monday expressed remorse about the loss of the business and jobs – and Kennedy said she’d be willing to help the company however possible if the owners were interested in staying – but each also made the point that the auto auction does not fit with the vision for the waterfront.Cahill on Tuesday blasted his colleagues for the latter position, and also for dismissing his call last year – realizing the Auto Auction was looking to expand – to have the city surrender the Harding Street lot, which has been used for years as an abandoned car storage lot run by the city Parking Department.”Right now we’re paying someone $30,000-plus a year with benefits, including a pension, to watch a bunch of cars that nobody wants,” Cahill said. “I can send you pictures. There are abandoned cars on that lot that have been there since 2007 and 2008. The cars can be towed to other places. I’m in support of abandoning this lot,” Cahill said.According to Cahill, the typical scenario when municipal property is abandoned is that it is divided up the middle and half given to private property owners on each side.”Turn the property over and get it on the tax rolls,” Cahill said. He added that in this case there is – or was – an opportunity to turn the municipal lot over to keep the Auto Auction in Lynn.What’s more, he said, that move might have been be a carrot in negotiations with Ken Carpi, owner of the Auto Auction land and other Lynnway property, over easements to access the new power corridor.City Council President Timothy Phelan was unavailable for comment on Tuesday but had a council clerk forward to the Item a chronology of Council action in 2010 concerning the Harding Street lot.According to that chronology:u Phelan and Cahill co-authored a letter and Request for Proposals to the Council’s Public Property Committee last Feb. 5, that the abandon car lot be put out to public bid.u The council voted 9-1 (with Councilor Stephen Duffy opposed) on March 9 to “no longer tow cars to abandon car lot and remove all existing cars.”u Mayor Kennedy, on March 19, vetoed that council vote and on Sept. 24 she re-signed a contract with Lynn Towing Association to continue use of the Harding Street lot, a move that did not require council approval.Efforts to reach Kennedy for comment Tuesday were unsuccessful.City Parking Department director Jay Fenton did comment, saying he would have no problem moving the abandon car lot to another location, but that attempts to find other locations in the past have proven futile.”I’d be happy to relocate it, but nobody wants it in their neighborhood,” he said.Fenton pointed out that at less than