Lynn officials concerned over DPW leadership

LYNN – Acting Public Works Superintendent Manuel Alcantara worked his last day on the job Friday, which leaves the DPW temporarily without leadership.”I have a couple of names for acting superintendent and expect to have someone in place soon,” Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy said Friday.In the meantime, Associate Superintendent Larry Donahue and Acting Associate Lisa Nerich are on the job, she said.Alcantara was named acting DPW Director last spring after Jay Fink stepped down. He is officially retiring July 8 but will run out his vacation time starting June 17.Alcantara’s departure leaves a hole, and Kennedy admitted there is no permanent director on the immediate horizon to fill it.”We are actively interviewing,” she said. “We’ve been through two rounds of candidates and we’ve yet to find a suitable candidate, but we will continue to search.Ward 6 City Councilor Peter Capano said he’s worried that public works will be, at least temporarily, without a leader.”They need someone in charge,” he said. “It’s not a good time of year for this.”Kennedy, however, said if she was going to have a lull in leadership at the DPW she’d rather have it in the summer than when the snow flies.Capano said his concerns are really greater than a lack of leadership.”We don’t have enough help, in my opinion,” he said. “Maybe they have a plan but if they do I’m not aware of it.”Capano said public works has a backlog of 324 stumps to be removed, numerous calls from residents with downed branches in their yard and neighborhoods, his in particular, full of graffiti.”But there is no one to operate the graffiti removal machine,” he said. “What happens is this little stuff turns into big stuff. I have things that have been on a list for two or three years.”Capano was quick to add that Public Works does a good job with the resources it has, “I just don’t think it has enough resources. They’re going to spend part of a $4 million bond to fix up the parks but what good is it to spend money if we can’t maintain the parks?”Ward 1 City Councilor Wayne Lozzi agreed. As chairman of the council’s Public Works Subcommittee, he has held several meetings over the last two years to discuss the shortage in staff and equipment, he said.”For a city the size of Lynn, 48 or 49 staffers is not enough,” he said. “I’ve looked at other communities, smaller than Lynn, that have almost double that number.”He said he has urged Kennedy to find the resources to hire additional staff. Kennedy said DPW is at the top of her list in terms of hiring but she cannot do it this budget year, particularly when she is asking departments to trim costs.Lozzi acknowledged that it’s not entirely Kennedy’s fault. He said he was disappointed that Gov. Deval Patrick only released half of the money he initially authorized for Chapter 90 funding.”That’s road repairs,”Lozzi said. “There is always hope we’ll get the other half but who knows?As a ward councilor, many of the complaints I hear are averaging two years,” he continued. “Work is just not getting done in a timely manner.”Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected].