LYNN – The Khmer community is a hesitant participant when it comes to local government, but Kirirath Saing, known in Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy’s office as “AJ,” is hoping to change that over a cup of tea.”The Khmer community is not used to government buildings, and I thought if we can bring them in and have tea with the mayor, just socialize so they can get to know who she is, it would be good,” he said. “It was no more formal than that, but it didn’t happen.”When Kennedy was re-elected, Saing, who works part-time as a clerk in the mayor’s office, asked if he could resurrect the idea, and Kennedy agreed, he said. Things have changed in four years, however, and the simple program has outgrown the mayor’s office and will be held in the auditorium, but it will still include tea.Tuesday at 6 p.m. Saing will hold “Tea with the Mayor” in Veterans Memorial Auditorium. It will include a meet and greet, a dance demonstration by Khmer teens and tea with “Cambodian cake.””I call it that because there is no translation for it,” Saing said.The Cambodian cake, or Num anksom sach chrouk, isn’t a typical cake, Saing added. It’s sticky rice with a strip of pork in the middle surrounded by beans and wrapped in banana leaves.”We’ll serve little slices of that with tea and that will be that,” he said.Saing said the effort is really about trying to cement a good relationship between the Khmer community and City Hall.The Cambodian community settled in Lynn in the early 1980s and has been growing ever since, Saing said. It is a modest, quiet community, but over the last few years, it has become more visible. Saing said not long ago he became familiar with the Living Field Church on Union Street. He said he’s impressed with the way the church supports local youth, particularly those from what he called broken families.”They teach them about their roots,” he said. “They teach them the traditional Khmer dance and they support them in terms of education.”The idea is that the youth have something to look forward to and something to hang on to when times are difficult, Saing explained. They are the kids who will dance Tuesday.Saing also brought a group of the youths to Kennedy’s inauguration, where they were also treated to a tour of her office. He said they were surprised to learn they had such access to someone so high in local government.”I want them to know they can come here,” he said. “That their tax dollars pay for this, and they belong here too.”The event begins at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Veterans Memorial Auditorium.