By GAYLA CAWLEY
LYNN — City officials entered into a community compact with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on Tuesday, a program designed to strengthen the partnership between local and state government.
“The idea of getting some technical assistance on our capital long-range planning was a really intriguing possibility to pursue,” said Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy. “And after speaking with the CFO, Peter Caron, and understanding that we would be getting financial assistance to obtain the technical planning expertise, it seemed like a no-brainer to accept the offer from the commonwealth. So, with that, we contacted the governor’s office and arranged to become … the 254th community to sign onto the compact.”
Kennedy said there are two places where the compact will be especially helpful to city government. She said the city is in desperate need of modernizing its IT (Information Technology) department, which consists of only two employees. She said Caron also serves as head of that department, and would like to see that change, as IT and financial expertise don’t always go hand in hand.
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Through the compact, which city officials signed onto with Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito at City Hall, Lynn will work with the commonwealth to implement three financial management best practices. The city will work to develop and use a long-range planning/forecasting model, prepare a capital improvement plan, and review and evaluate financial management structure to improve efficiency.
Also on hand for the signing was Sen. Thomas McGee (D-Mass) and state Rep. Donald Wong (R-Saugus).
Caron, the city’s chief financial officer, said Lynn secured a $75,000 grant through the consulting group hired by the commonwealth, PFM (Public Financial Management), to pay for the three best practices.
The mayor also spoke about the importance of long-term planning. Kennedy said the city is currently operating five schools that are more than 100 years old. She said officials have recently replaced one of the middle schools and have applied to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) for a second middle school. But because of the large student population growth, she said the MSBA told officials that they would either need to build the largest middle school in the commonwealth or build two schools.
“So, this has obviously put some strains on our ability to focus on and capitalize (on) our long-term plans,” Kennedy said. “So, we are going out for a debt exclusion to the public on March 14 to try to fund those two middle schools.”
Polito said the compact program is not an unfunded mandate, but a funded, best practices voluntary program. She said the program grew out of conversations with municipal leaders on how state government can be a better, more reliable partner. Through the compact, she said, municipalities can apply to programs for IT grants, complete streets and for regionalization and efficiency.
“Every single compact is unique because you, as municipal leaders, decide what you want to work on,” Polito said. “In this case, the mayor and your CFO will talk about the best practices and why you’ve chosen them, but certainly around financial planning, capital planning, financial management.
“You’re at a point in time where the expertise from our office and others through the grant that we will provide you can really professionalize and update the policies that you want in place, as your city continues to grow, both population-wise, because I know you’re stretched out in your schools, and economic-wise, because you’re really starting to develop your economy here in a more meaningful way,” she continued. “So, this is like reset, and laying a solid foundation for you to then continue to build on in municipal government.”
Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @GaylaCawley.