Kennedy: LynnCAM will continue

LYNN – Even as she moved to put financial safeguards in place for Lynn Community Access and Media, Inc., Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy assured local residents the award-winning cable television studio will continue producing programs.Kennedy directed Verizon New England by letter at the month?s start to send future payments intended to support LynnCAM to the city and not the studio. Under licensing contracts with the city, Verizon and Comcast each provided roughly half the $507,000 LynnCAM received in 2013 to pay salaries and produce shows.?Please be advised that the City of Lynn will disperse monies to LynnCAM once it is assured that there are sufficient financial controls in place to prevent any misappropriation of monies,” Kennedy wrote in the letter.A Superior Court grand jury named Lynn resident John F. Chapman in forgery, identity theft, fraud and bribery indictments last week. Chapman presented himself to Lynn Police last Friday in advance of an arraignment date set to be scheduled in Superior Court.The indictments list Chapman as a LynnCAM employee and detail attempts by Chapman to forge checks and use false identities to obtain $13,347 in 2012 and 2013. The indictments also state Chapman?s “intent to defraud” $21,000 from LynnCAM. The indictments also state Chapman made “a false entry” in LynnCAM corporate books and tried to bribe an electrician in connection with work the studio needed done.Chapman, through Andover attorney Matthew Bingham, has denied the allegations.Kennedy sought to assure local cable viewers that LynnCAM programming will continue even as charges outlined in the indictment make their way through court.?I am naturally disturbed by the allegations put forth in these indictments. LynnCAM operates with funding that is derived from Lynn residents who subscribe to cable TV. Any misuse of those funds is a violation of the public trust,” Kennedy stated by email.LynnCAM provides residents in Lynn and neighboring communities access to television production equipment and training, according to its website. Programs are shown on Comcast channels 3 and 22 and Verizon channels 37 and 38.The studio, according to the website, recently won first and third place awards at the Alliance for Community Media Northeast Region video festival.City attorneys have secured state approval to hold a hearing directing Comcast to make LynnCAM payments to the city instead of the studio. State Department of Telecommunications and Cable spokeswoman Jayda Leder-Luis described the hearing as part of a city “internal investigation to determine how funds get sent to the cable access studio.”City attorney James Lamanna wants the LynnCAM board to discuss financial safeguards for the studio, but the question of who exactly sits on the board remains unclear. Chapman?s wife, Karen, resigned as LynnCAM president two weeks ago, leaving a board vacancy.Board member Robert Sewell last week questioned Kenneth Santoro?s nomination to the board, although Santoro came to LynnCAM Monday with a nomination letter in hopes of attending his first board meeting.Nominated under LynnCAM bylaws to the board by School Superintendent Catherine Latham, Santoro said he has been given “no specific mandate” for his board service. Sewell, who also serves on the board with Cynthia Demakes and Lawrence McCully, said he has not received a nomination letter for Santoro and said the board will probably not meet before Oct. 20.