Court: Former mayor must reimburse Lynn for overpaid salary

LYNN – Former Mayor Edward “Chip” Clancy could be forced to repay the city over $400,000 after an Essex Superior Court Judge ruled in favor of Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy’s claim that the mayor’s salary is set at a flat $82,500 a year.
“City Council President Dan Cahill and I have met and are discussing the options,” Kennedy said Thursday. “There are a lot of implications made that need to be explored.”
The summary judgement makes clear however that “Clancy is not entitled to receive additional compensation above ($82,500 per year) and that the city is entitled to reimbursement of the amount paid to Clancy above $82,500.”
The suit also means that City Councilors, whose salaries are tied to the mayor’s, could take a 15 percent pay cut.
When Clancy left office in 2010 he claimed he was owed $33,000 in city benefits including longevity, sick-leave buyback, vacation and two days pay. Kennedy filed a lawsuit claiming the city owed Clancy nothing and in fact he’d been overpaid during his tenure as mayor.
Kennedy has always maintained that the mayor’s salary is $82,500 a year, as was set by the City Council on June 9, 1998, according to court documents.The suit claims that Clancy should have made $660,000 as mayor serving from 2002 to 2010 but instead he made $1,061,436.67, according to his W-2 tax forms. The judgement states that Clancy also received more that $12,000 in travel reimbursements.Stay with Itemlive.com for further updates to this story.