State to rule on Lynn Police Association info request

LYNN – The Lynn Police Association won a small victory in a long battle over residency Tuesday when the Residency Compliance Commission agreed to follow whatever ruling the Secretary of State hands down regarding a list of public documents the LPA wants but the City Solicitor has thus far denied.”I called this meeting because I’m concerned ? I’m worried we’re being obstructionist,” said Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy, who is chairman of the Commission.Kennedy said the LPA requested a stack of information from the Commission in August but the City Solicitor’s office denied virtually every request citing various exemptions.City Solicitor Michael Barry, who sits on the Commission, said he forwarded the request to the Supervisor of Public Records division of the Secretary of State’s Office. However, he also pointed out that not every record the city has should be made public.”It would set an awful precedent,” he said.Barry said many of the requests were for personnel records of public safety employees, which contain addresses, which should not be released. Kennedy called the denial of records the antithesis of what the Commission was supposed to be about, transparency.”Transparency is not always what you want,” Barry said. “If we release where police officers live it could put them in danger.”LPA President Lt. William Sharpe told the committee that the records requested are connected to attempt to scrutinize the Commission’s authority to challenge the court case, which allowed Kennedy to bargain residency with the LPA.In September the Commission filed a 51-page brief asking the state appeals court judges to uphold the city charter rather than Judge Richard Welch’s May ruling that allowed residency to be bargained by city unions.”This is serious business,” Sharpe said. “It is intended to shine light on a board that publicly maligns selected employees and then has the temerity to claim privacy exemptions on their behalf. It is intended to highlight claimed actions versus actual actions. It is intended to highlight how this commission has functioned in concordance with its authorizing ordinance and how it has functioned in accordance with state law.”Commission member James Cowdell noted that he sponsored the original legislation to create the commission with the idea that it would operate with utter transparency. He said he would support the motion made to allow the Secretary of State’s office to rule on the public information request for records.”It will tell us which records need to be produced,” said Kennedy. “My request is we don’t quibble with the decision.”Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected].