Mayor to stress unity, trust

LYNN – “Unity is the theme,” Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy said as she discussed the central role she will play in next Monday night’s City Hall inauguration ceremony.Kennedy will be sworn in to her second term as the city’s mayor along with other city elected officials during ceremonies in Veterans Memorial Auditorium slated to begin at 7 p.m.In her 2009 inaugural speech, the city’s first female mayor talked about expanding online access to city services and spurring waterfront development. On Tuesday, Kennedy said she will focus during next week’s speech on the responsibility voters placed on city elected leaders’ shoulders in November when they elected to keep incumbent councilors, School Committee members – and Kennedy – in office.”All of us on that stage are returning. The voters like what we are doing, and we have to make sure we don’t disappoint them. Unity and purpose is the theme,” she said.Ward 4 Councilor Richard Colucci on Tuesday downplayed his role as the inaugural’s master of ceremonies – an honor he earned as the city’s longest-serving councilor.”If you tell people at McDonald’s you’re dean of the council, they’ll say, ?It’s still a dollar for the coffee,'” Colucci said.Colucci said short speeches are the key to compelling inaugurals and said Kennedy offered him a preview of her remarks during a recent conversation.”She talked about moving forward and working together,” he said.Kennedy said Housing Court Judge MaryLou Muirhead – a former law firm colleague and friend – will swear her in, and friend and local musician MaryBeth Maes will perform. Kennedy declined to discuss specific initiatives – if any – she plans to announce during her inaugural speech but said her goals for 2014 include filling non-elected city board and commission positions, including “a number” of posts where members serve as holdovers even though their terms have expired.Colucci, who initially won a special ward election in 1990, said he will ensure council newcomer Dianna Chakoutis is acknowledged during Monday’s ceremony.The Ward 5 councilor-elect is the only non-incumbent elected to city office on Nov. 5. He said Chakoutis’ election and the voters’ decision to return incumbents to the committee and council underscores the responsibility Lynn residents have placed on elected officials.”It tells me people are pretty happy, but it’s all about public services and constituent service,” he said.