Board endorses Lynn candidate for comptroller

LYNN – A Lynn native vying for the city’s comptroller job received unanimous support from a committee of City Councilors in a quiet meeting Tuesday night.Chief Financial Officer Richard Fortucci presented Stephen Spencer to an approving City Council interview committee while a raucous public hearing for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority took place two floors below in City Hall.Fortucci said he, the city’s mayor and treasurer spent five months whittling down resumes and in the end decided on Spencer, who is currently the interim deputy director of accounting and operations for the state’s mental health department.”We had some good candidates; he just had a combination that seemed to fit,” said Fortucci in an interview before the meeting.Spencer said he grew up in Lynn, attended school in the city and now raises a family in Lynn. He joined the state’s department of mental health 12 years ago and worked his way up to his current position but said he’d like to come full circle and work in Lynn.”It’s a professional job in my field, in my hometown,” Spencer said in an interview before the meeting.The council members in the interview committee agreed that Spencer has the right mix of professional and personal ties.”He’ll be a good fit for this position,” said Ward 1 Councilor Wayne Lozzi. “His ties in the community are just icing on the cake.”If approved by the full City Council, Spencer will fill a position that has been empty since early June when Fortucci fired then-comptroller John E. Pace for allegedly overpaying himself.Spencer declined to comment on the situation surrounding Pace but did say his work for the state is fully transparent – anyone can log onto mass.gov and check his work, he said.”I can honestly say my record is clean,” he told the councilors.Fortucci chose Spencer from more than 15 candidates who included two Lynners, including Pamela Hinkle, the current assistant comptroller.Ward 2 Councilor William Trahant, the chairman of the committee, said it’s a matter of pride to hire from within the city.”I think it’s wonderful we have so much talent and brain power in Lynn,” he said.Spencer said he is on good terms with most of the councilors from having lived in Lynn all his life.But Fortucci said he had never met Spencer prior to the confirmation hearing and denied that any sort of cronyism – to hire candidates councilors were familiar with – took place.”I told (Council President Tim Phelan), ?If I don’t feel comfortable with somebody, I’m going to let you know,'” Fortucci said.Trahant echoed Fortucci’s sentiments. He said the City Council’s interview committee wasn’t involved in the hiring process.”We had no voice in it until tonight,” he said in an interview after the meeting.Councilor at large Daniel Cahill and Phelan, who are not on the interview committee, stepped out of the packed MBTA public hearing Tuesday night to watch the committee approve Spencer.At least one member of the public also attended the meeting – a stark contrast from the hundreds downstairs at the MBTA hearing, Cahill said.Cahill said he wished the committee would have moved Spencer’s confirmation hearing to another day to avoid such conflict.”This is an important position,” he said.He reiterated Trahant’s words that there is no scheme to hire someone the councilors all know.But Cahill said holding two public meetings on the same night could feed misconception otherwise.”I’m working hard to try to dissuade those assumptions,” he said. “We will pick the right candidate for this position based on their credentials.”Amber Parcher can be reached at [email protected].