PHOTO BY PAULA MULLER
Webb Primason and Rick Khana wait for proceedings to begin at LynnCAM.
By THOR JOURGENSEN
LYNN — It has everything Lynn Community Television needs to expand its five month-old operation, but an ongoing legal battle keeps the now-closed Lynn Community Access and Media, Inc. studios and offices off limits to city.
The LynnCAM property was scheduled to be sold at foreclosure auction last Thursday but a Peabody attorney filed bankruptcy paperwork on behalf of LynnCAM’s former board of directors before Community Television or any other potential buyer could submit a bid. The auction is now scheduled for July.
Created by Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy last October, Community Television broadcasts city events and municipal meetings on Verizon channels 37 and 38 and Comcast channels 3 and 22. It is currently operated by three former LynnCAM employees out of a City Hall meeting room.
City Hall’s access to a fiber network connection allows Community Television to broadcast live, but the public access provider’s five-member board appointed by Kennedy would like to find a new, larger location
LynnCAM’s Western Avenue location has a fiber connection but there is no love lost between Kennedy, city officials and the former LynnCAM directors after the mayor denounced them as a “rogue board” last September.
She made that statement after former LynnCAM board of directors President Robert Sewell and board attorney Emmanuel Papanickolas told two dozen LynnCAM members at a raucous meeting that an election to choose new board members would not be held.
That declaration was the last straw for Kennedy who had previously stated she was “extremely frustrated” by prolonged city efforts to obtain detailed financial records from LynnCAM. She followed up that remark by authorizing city officials to direct Verizon and Comcast to make public cable access payments to the city instead of LynnCAM and ordered LynnCAM to submit any bills it needed paid to the city for review.
Kennedy’s directive was set against the backdrop of state Attorney General Maura Healey filing a 2015 court complaint alleging LynnCAM board members were “responsible for misappropriation of charitable funds.”
The city has filed its own complaints in the last year against LynnCAM with Papanickolas, on the LynnCAM’s board’s behalf, filing counter complaints. Papanickolas restated the board’s position last Thursday, saying the city continues to hold $850,000 belonging to LynnCAM in escrow.
“It’s LynnCAM’s money,” he said.
City Comptroller Stephen Spencer and city attorney James Lamanna challenged that claim.
“I don’t know where that is coming from,” Spencer said.
Lamanna said two judges have ruled LynnCAM is “not entitled to additional monies.”
“We are confident we will prevail at trial,” Lamanna said.
Spencer said $191,000 set aside by the city to pay LynnCAM bills last year remains in a city account.
“It’s staying right where it is,” he said.
After the city last September submitted a formal filing for a new cable access corporation with the state, Kennedy named attorneys Michael Marks and Michael Cerulli, former Council presidents Robert Tucker and Richard Coppinger and Fire Department veteran Joseph Carritte as Community Television’s new directors.
Tucker last Thursday said Community Television has slowly expanded its operations, but needs studio space with a fiber network connection.
“We’re trying to find a new home. There’s a limited number of opportunities,” he said.
Thor Jourgensen can be reached at [email protected]
