LynnCam board said dysfunctional

LYNN – A former member of the LynnCam Board of Directors, along with one of the four remaining members, contend that the board president is running the day-to-day operations of the not-for-profit after she fired the interim executive director and had him escorted out of the building by police.Jim Chalmers, a one-time board member who was voted off the board earlier this month, and Dave Johnson, a current member and former Lynn Technical High School athletic director, say board President Karen Chapman has turned LynnCam into her own personal fiefdom.They say she ignores the group?s own articles of organization, racked up more than $8,000 in charges on a LynnCam credit card made out in her name – without supplying receipts for the majority of her purchases – and firing LynnCam?s former executive director at a board meeting and then notifying him of his dismissal by e-mail at 10:30 at night.Chapman insists she made only business-related purchases with the debit card.They also contend that there haven?t been proper audits of how LynnCam spends its roughly $320,000 annual budget, money the group gets each year from fees Comcast and Verizon charge all their city customers.?Karen Chapman is running the day to day, she?s always run the day to day,” Chalmers said.Both men also say that Chapman has allowed favored employees to put in time cards for hours they didn?t work and, when LynnCam?s bookkeeper protested, she ordered her to pay the workers.Chalmers said he went to his friend, Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy, who attended a board meeting in February, for help for what he says are the serious issues at the non-profit.?I went to Judy and I told Judy, ?look she?s running the place, she?s signing all the checks, making all the notes ? I?m sounding the alarm,? ” Chalmers said during an interview at The Daily Item two days after he was removed from the board. “The employees have come to me and are sounding the alarm. I?ve tried to change things, but it?s not working. Now I?m sounding the alarm to you.”But Chapman, in an interview in a conference room at LynnCam last week, where she was surrounded by the not-for-profit?s attorney, her husband and another board member, denied the allegations and instead said Chalmers has caused all the problems at the group since she picked him to serve as a board member.She contends Chalmers used his close relationship with the mayor to convince her to ask for a meeting to talk about the way LynnCam was spending its money and then Kennedy ambushed her and forced her into having a meeting when she wasn?t ready.Chapman said she had no issues with Kennedy, even though she claims the mayor did not respond to several letters she sent her until Chalmers used his relationship with the mayor to make her suspicious.?He wants things the way he wants them,” Chapman said of Chalmers, who she claims she told repeatedly, “You?re a member of the board. You?re not the owner of a business. You don?t go downstairs and tell them where to stand and how to do things.”Pointing the finger of blameLong-time board member Cynthia Demakes was more blunt about her feelings about Chalmers.?I?ve been in and out of this place since 1984. I have never seen such dysfunction until Jim interfered with the workings of LynnCam. We had never had dysfunction at all.”She, like Chapman and LynnCam attorney Emmanuel Papanickolas, contends that Chalmers never told them he was acting as treasurer on a board of another not-for-profit, while he was convincing them to move to a Woodman Avenue building – away from the downtown – that his father owns.All three contend that they spent roughly $30,000 from the non-profit?s budget to fix up the building, when they were told it was in move-in ready.?He was acting up and we were getting distracted,” Demakes said. “We were told zero construction costs. Why did we have to pay so much money to fix up the building? Over $30,000 and he?s whining about debit cards.”Chapman acknowledged LynnCam has not held election