LYNN — Two city departments have new leadership.
Both the Public Health and Parking departments have new directors after the appointments of Lisa Tobin and Jessica Chiappini, respectively, were confirmed by the City Council on Tuesday.
Tobin, a long-time city employee, was appointed as the director of public health after working in the Inspectional Services Department for nearly a decade.
“I had the opportunity to take the Certified Public Health exam and it coincided with this position becoming open,” Tobin, who will oversee a staff of 14 in her new role, said.
Six of Tobin’s staff members are stationed at the Lynn Senior Center, where Tobin said she wants to increase programming.
“There is a lot of desire to grow that program and make it even more robust than it already is,” Tobin said.
Tobin holds a master’s degree in public administration from Suffolk University.
Chiappini will take over as parking director after working for the Inspectional Services Department since 2020 as a code enforcement officer and assistant supervisor of custodians and maintenance.
Chiappini is an alumna of Salem State University and holds a master’s degree in criminal justice. She spent 25 years as a paralegal at Bradley Moore Primason Cuffe & Weber and is the co-founder of Brown Girl 2 Brown Girl, a mentoring program for minority girls in the city.
She will direct a staff of 13, and her priorities are to continue to upgrade equipment and explore the possibility of installing parking kiosks, which would centralize how people pay for metered parking.
She also said another goal is to make sure two city parking lots downtown are fully utilized.
One of Chiappini’s other priorities is to encourage people to utilize the Rave Mobile Safety program to stay up to date on things like parking bans and traffic delays.
Lynn Chief Financial Officer Michael Bertino, who has served in the role since 2018, was also reappointed to his post.
“I’m happy to continue working for the administration and to have the opportunity to continue the good work that the city has been doing,” Bertino said. “We’ve completed a lot, but there’s a lot more to do.”
Mayor Jared Nicholson said he was happy to have the new directors on staff.
“Both Lisa and Jessica bring a background of dedicated public service and will provide their respective departments with vision and leadership,” Nicholson said. “We are also grateful to retain Michael Bertino, who has played a crucial role in the city’s financial recovery and removal from state oversight.”
