LYNN — Mayor-elect Jared Nicholson discussed building relationships with city departments and the City Council, budgeting and ongoing infrastructure projects with Mayor Thomas M. McGee during a meeting on the transition between the two administrations that took place in the mayor’s office at City Hall on Wednesday afternoon.
“The office is kinda big,” said McGee. “I find it bigger than needed, except for the meetings.”
Nicholson responded that he doesn’t know how he is going to fill all of the wall space. McGee offered to leave him the Green Community certificate that Lynn has received this year.
In the recent days after the Nov. 2 election, Nicholson has put a Transition Committee together, launched a website, lynnforallofus.com, for his administration and has been sketching his schedule for the next days and weeks to prepare himself for January, when he takes over the corner office.
McGee said that he intends to make himself as available to Nicholson as possible to help the transition.
“I really appreciate that and I think it’s gotten off to a good start,” said Nicholson. “We have a little more time than the Boston mayor, but I think it is going to go by quick, the eight weeks, and then we will be here.”
He said his goal was to keep the momentum going and that close cooperation during the transition period would help him.
“I know for us, four years ago, a key piece of the transition was the chance to meet with all of the department heads, and that set the tone for us, getting our hands around the job and getting ready to move forward,” said McGee.
Meaghen Hamill, McGee’s chief of staff, who was also at the meeting, said that she has been setting up one-on-one meetings with the department heads for Nicholson that will be taking place until the second week of December. This way, Nicholson will have time to hold follow-up meetings before his inauguration if he chooses to.
McGee and Hamill described to Nicholson how they were working with different city departments and department heads. They also advised him on what their approach was for the budgeting process.
Nicholson will inherit several big infrastructure projects that are underway in Lynn, with help from the commonwealth, said McGee. He specifically mentioned the Essex Street project (Eastern Avenue to Johnson Street), the $44 million Western Avenue reconstruction project, and Jenness Street. There will be public meetings coming up, design and engineering questions, and the mayor-elect will need to keep track of those projects with his team, McGee said.
Nicholson will also see the next phase of the Northern Strand bike path project, which now goes from Everett to Lynn and will be extended all the way to the ocean. Official completion of phase one will be celebrated next Friday.
“I’ve biked it several times to Everett,” said McGee. “And the Lynn section is nice, if not the nicest section of the whole stretch.”
When providing advice on working with the City Council, McGee said that building relationships with the councilors was important but that Nicholson already had these relationships going as a School Committee member. McGee said that the mayor’s office and the City Council have a lot of common goals, in terms of moving the city forward, such as infrastructure, development, and implementation of the housing production plan.
Nicholson also intends to reach out to more people and community stakeholders outside of City Hall.
“Those groups who are doing work for their communities are looking for a partner in City Hall,” said Nicholson. “And the top priority for us is to be there to take that call.”
Currently, he is thinking not only about who he will surround himself with in City Hall, but about a team in a broad sense. He is looking for people who can fill boards and commissions and play advisory or ad-hoc roles.
To prepare himself for the mayor’s role, Nicholson is going to take a Harvard Kennedy School seminar for newly-elected mayors in December and follow up with other mayors in the area who have reached out to him with advice after the election.
“Going into any new role you want to have people you can turn to, you want to have mentors, and that’s definitely true the way I look at this role as well,” Nicholson said.
