Weeks case brought to courtroom

NEWBURYPORT – A mayoral computer consultant?s attorney told a judge that politics motivated City Council questions launched at Kenneth Weeks last month, but a city lawyer Thursday urged the court not to limit council ability to probe city government.?The council has this ability and any order that would prevent council from investigating city affairs would seriously undercut the legislative powers of the City Council,” Lynn Assistant Solicitor James Lamanna said.Lynnfield attorney George Hazel told Superior Court Justice Maynard Kirpalani that councilors subjected Weeks to “harassment” during a heated Oct. 22 council hearing. The questioning abruptly ended after 70 minutes when Hazel and Weeks walked out of the Council Chamber.Hazel on Thursday asked Kirpalani to keep councilors from using subpoenas – legal paperwork demanding Weeks appear before the council – to force Weeks to answer their questions. Kirpalani banned the council from enforcing subpoenas sent to Weeks until the judge rules on Hazel?s request.The judge on Thursday did not indicate when he might issue a ruling on the matter. The election is Tuesday.Weeks, a Lynnfield resident who helped run Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy?s 2009 election campaign, told councilors under questioning on Oct. 22 how he took the council executive assistant?s computer out of a city office on Sept. 17 at Kennedy?s request.Weeks, during the council hearing, said he reviewed and returned the computer to the office after Kennedy suspected the computer might have been used to draft a campaign letter for City Council President Timothy Phelan?s mayoral campaign.Weeks found nothing on the computer, and Phelan has said he drafted the campaign letter and directed a campaign worker to sign it for him with no use of city resources or employees.Hazel argued in court the council has “no procedures” for subpoenas and said the Nov. 5 city election, including citywide voting for mayor, loomed large in the councilors? push, beginning in September, to bring Weeks? before them for questioning.?This is so political it defies the imagination. The mayor?s race ought not to be influenced by this,” Hazel told Kirpalani.Weeks did not respond to a council subpoena asking him to appear before councilors on Oct. 8 for questioning. He responded to a second subpoena and attended the Oct. 22 council meeting, but Hazel refused to allow Weeks to answer questions about Weeks? consultant?s pay, hiring details and supervision outlined in the second subpoena.Lamanna said the city charter gives the council authority to conduct investigations and said council questions about Weeks? computer review fell well within that authority.He acknowledged the first subpoena issued to Weeks was “defective” because it did not comply with charter language.Lamanna told Kirpalani that hiring and compensation questions outlined in the second subpoena sent to Weeks “are all related” to council questions about the Sept. 17 incident.Hazel wants the court to restrain the council from asking those questions.?We?re asking for some civility,” he said following Thursday?s hearing.Thor Jourgensen can be reached at [email protected].