Cobbet students get insight into mayoral life

LYNN – She told them about her razor-thin 2009 election victory and how she crafts the city?s budget, but Cobbet School third-graders had other topics they wanted to discuss with Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy on Tuesday.They peppered her with questions after spotting a Wii game in a corner of Kennedy?s office. The mayor explained she bought the game when her high school-age son and daughter were younger and needed ways to occupy their time on days she brought them to City Hall.?No one wants to sit around and watch their mother work,” she said.Kennedy explained that she works long days and sometimes takes an early evening before heading out to a nighttime meeting or function. She satisfied students? curiosity about why she has a treadmill next to her desk.?When I went out walking, I got stopped six times by people who wanted to talk to me,” she explained.The 30 students and teachers Joan Gallo and Alyson Serwacki spent about a half hour with Kennedy in her office stuffed with books, mementoes, pictures and a framed front page proclaiming the 27-vote victory margin that set the stage for Kennedy to become the city?s first woman mayor.?If one little side street in the city had decided to vote differently, there might have been a different outcome,” she told the students.They gasped when she asked them to guess the size of the city budget and told them that $266 million in local and state tax dollars will pay for city services during the next year.?You?ve got to go up to 10-digit numbers if you want to be mayor,” she told them.Kennedy said the chance “to set the course for the city” prompted her to run for mayor and told her audience of potential future politicians that a love for reading is a good first step to public service.?Do you ever get to rest?” asked Anthoni Chavez as fellow students held up their hands ready to pepper the city?s chief executive with more questions.?Not as much as I want to,” the mayor replied.Thor Jourgensen can be reached at [email protected].