Weeks fails to show at Lynn hearing

LYNN – Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy?s computer consultant has admitted that he took and examined a City Council computer to determine if it “had been improperly used for campaign work.”Investigator David Grunebaum also stated in a report, released Tuesday night, that Kenneth Weeks knew the reply he gave to council aide Terry Young when she asked him why he took the computer was “untrue.”?When Ms. Young asked why he had removed the computer, Mr. Weeks replied that he believed there was a virus in the computer. Mr. Weeks has acknowledged that he removed the computer at the direction of Mayor Kennedy and did so in order to determine whether or not the computer had been improperly used for campaign work or in any other way,” wrote Grunebaum.Meanwhile, Weeks did not show up Tuesday night for a questioning session ordered by councilors on Sept. 24 using their subpoena powers. His absence mystified and angered councilors, who had received hand-delivered letters from Weeks indicating he would attend a council meeting.They voted 11-0 directing city attorneys “to enforce the subpoena” and order Weeks to attend the next council meeting scheduled for Oct. 22.City attorneys Tuesday night received a letter from Lynnfield attorney George Hazel, who is representing Weeks, and a court motion to “quash,” or legally reject, the council subpoena. A subpoena dropped off at Weeks? Lynnfield home on Oct. 4 directed him to attend Tuesday night?s meeting.Weeks, in an interview last week, said he was willing to appear before the council.?I went to every councilor?s house the following Saturday with a letter saying, ?with adequate time I am willing to appear.? A subpoena seems like political grandstanding,” he said.Weeks, in his motion, summed up his actions on Sept. 17:?I was directed by the Mayor to examine the City of Lynn computer on September 17, 2013 because she suspected wrongdoing.”City attorney James Lamanna, however, said the subpoena?s delivery did not meet a five-day City Charter requirement for advance notice of a council appearance. He said the subpoena could not be delivered until Kennedy signed the council order.But Ward 3 Councilor Darren Cyr questioned why Kennedy did not ask Weeks to appear.?This is a person who works for the mayor,” he said.Grunebaum, a Wellesley attorney typically retained to handle city labor matters, did not draw conclusions or make recommendations in his three-page report on the computer incident – a fact noted on Tuesday by Kennedy.?The report found nothing improper about my actions,” the mayor said.But an angry Cyr Tuesday night said Kennedy should stand before councilors and apologize for Weeks? actions.Weeks, in last week?s interview, defended his examination of Young?s computer.?I believe what I did was in the bounds of what the mayor – the chief executive officer of the city – can do,” he said.In his report, Grunebaum wrote that “by and large, the facts are not in dispute” surrounding the computer probe: Concerns about a Phelan campaign letter targeted to veterans prompted the mayor to voice her concerns in a meeting with Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett on the 17th and then proceed to order Weeks to look at Young?s computer.?Mayor Kennedy believed that Ms. Young had used a computer in the City Council Office to prepare the letters on behalf of the three Phelans (Phelan and military veteran brothers Vincent and Robert) and that she signed it,” Grunebaum wrote.After taking Young?s computer and examining it, Weeks told Young he was checking the machine for a computer virus. Young challenged this claim in a Sept. 20 letter to city Solicitor Michael Barry and asked Barry to investigate Weeks? actions. Barry turned the investigation over to Grunebaum.Phelan said he wrote the veterans letter, and he has electronic mail and cellular telephone documentation showing he asked campaign aide Delores DiFillipo to sign all three brothers? signatures. DiFillipo has confirmed she signed the names on the letter.Yo