BY THOR JOURGENSEN
LYNN — Longtime city Health Director MaryAnn O’Connor is leaving her job to become Medford’s new health director.
The Lynn native and St. Mary’s High School Class of 1979 graduate said the new gig offers a chance to tackle health initiatives she has worked on in Lynn, including teen smoking reduction, opiate abuse intervention and exercise promotion.
“I hope to do some good things there,” she said.
With a population of roughly 57,000, Medford is about half Lynn’s size.
Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy has yet to select a replacement, said mayoral chief of staff Jamie Cerulli.
“She wishes her well,” she said.
Since succeeding Gerald Carpinella as health director O’Connor said her biggest accomplishment has been to expand health services beyond the Health Department’s City Hall office.
O’Connor said she brought $10 million in grants and other funding into Lynn to fund health-related programming. She formed partnerships with local organizations during her 12-year career including Lynn Community Health Center and Girls Inc.
“You go to the experts in the field to get the work done,” she said.
O’Connor earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Boston College and studied graduate public health courses for two years at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Her last day will be Friday, Aug. 12.
The search for O’Connor’s successor comes as Kennedy and the city council remain at odds over hiring a $73,000 a year deputy election commissioner.
Since the council passed an ordinance creating the deputy commissioner job, the position must be funded in next year’s city budget. That said, Kennedy insists the city cannot immediately spend money to pay the salary.
Councilors sided with City Clerk Mary Audley, who oversees the clerk’s office and city elections and wants a deputy commissioner in place prior to the Sept. 8 primary election.
Audley said early voting initiatives and work involved in relocating several city polling places has made the election oversight job complicated enough to require another department head to manage it.
Council President Dan Cahill last month said money in the clerk’s budget and other funding sources are available to pay the deputy salary until a new budget year begins next July.
A half dozen applicants have submitted resumes for the job, and the council personnel committee may conduct interviews as soon as next Tuesday, said Councilor at large and committee chairman Brian LaPierre.
“We’re moving forward with the looming Sept. 8 primary,” LaPierre said.
Thor Jourgensen can be reached at [email protected].