The Lynn City Council opened its Tuesday, October 27 meeting by suspending its rules so that two striking Encore Boston Harbor workers could watch it pass a resolution in their support and get back to the picket line in Everett. The 10 to 0 vote was the first of a long night that also brought a new planning chief, a contested seat on the Traffic Commission, a $425,000 state grant request for Ames Park and a public dispute over how hearings get scheduled.
Councilor-at-Large Hong Net was absent on a scheduled vacation. Every roll call that followed was 10 to 0 except the Traffic Commission appointment.
Encore strike
Peter Romero of Cedar Street told the council during public comment that workers had been on strike for 54 days. “We’ve been under the sun, under the rain, with the cold weather right now, and we’re probably going to be there with the snow, too,” he said. James Atkins, chief steward for Teamsters Local 25 and a lead gardener at the casino, said Encore took in $847 million last year and that he wanted those profits to benefit the communities around it.
Councilor-at-Large Brian LaPierre offered the resolution, which puts the council on record supporting the striking members of UNITE HERE Local 26 and Teamsters Local 25, urges Lynn residents and leaders not to eat, meet or sleep at Encore while the dispute lasts, and sends copies to Encore president Jenny Holaday, Wynn Resorts chief executive Craig Billings, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission and the two unions. Council Vice President Fred Hogan, who seconded it, said he and Ward 7 Councilor Jordan Avery would join a standout of area councilors at Encore on Thursday at 5 p.m. Hogan described himself as a 29-year member of IUE-CWA Local 201.
Drago confirmed twice
Mayor Jared C. Nicholson appointed Lauren Drago principal planning director under the city’s new administrative code and, in a second letter, chief of planning and community development. The council confirmed both appointments 10 to 0. Drago said she had been a founding member of the planning department over the past six years and pointed to more than $150 million of infrastructure investment in the pipeline and hundreds of new housing units coming online. In the new role she will oversee the parking and community development departments and support bodies including the Lynn Cultural Council and the traffic and parking commission. Council President Coco Alinsug said her confirmation had been pushed from the October 13 meeting because that agenda was full.
Traffic Commission seat
The Council Appointments Subcommittee interviewed two applicants earlier in the evening for the council’s seat on the Traffic Commission: Robert Stilian, the longtime parking official who has been serving on the commission as the public works commissioner’s designee, and a second applicant with 15 years in construction and 15 years as a call firefighter. The subcommittee chose Stilian 4 to 1, with Councilor-at-Large Nicole McClain voting for the other candidate.
On the floor, Ward 1 Councilor Peter Meaney objected. “We’re nominating a man whose helm as chairman of the Traffic Commission has been riddled with chaos, disorganization and inefficiency,” he said. “The fact that we’re considering putting him back on the Traffic Commission is not only laughable, it’s embarrassing.” The appointment carried 8 to 2, with Meaney and McClain opposed. Stilian had told the subcommittee that a new speed bump policy is being fine-tuned and that the commission “is actually made to do the right thing, not the popular thing.”
Ames Park
The council authorized the mayor to apply for a $425,000 Parkland Acquisitions and Renovations for Communities grant from the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs for Ames Park at 30 Strawberry Avenue, with $56,440 in fiscal 2027 and $368,560 in fiscal 2028. The plan calls for a splash pad, a lawn and passive recreation space. The city would front the full $625,000 cost from Community Development Block Grant funds and be reimbursed. The order notes that the park has been a playground since 1923 and is protected as parkland because of federal Land and Water Conservation Fund money received around 1977.
Hearing dispute
Councilor McClain said a public hearing she requested on behalf of Marion Garden residents had been set for October 27, then moved to November 24 without anyone telling her. She asked for a standing procedure requiring direct notice to the sponsoring councilor when a hearing date changes. Alinsug read the charter section that compels a hearing only on a petition signed by at least 150 certified voters, said McClain had submitted 50 signatures, and said he had scheduled the hearing at his own discretion after one side asked for a November date. He said the city council does not decide the question at issue, the location of a summer event, which belongs to the Parks Commission. McClain’s motion, seconded by Hogan, goes to the Rules Committee, which Alinsug said met last week for the first time since 2018.
Also at the meeting
- A lead hazard reduction agreement with the Lynn Housing Authority and Neighborhood Development was approved through October 15, 2030.
- Ways and Means moved $300,000 in federal recovery money from the Water and Sewer Commission to heating assistance for tenants through LHAND, accepted $112,057 from the Play Ball Foundation for middle school sports and $10,900 from Greater Lynn Senior Services for the Mind, Body and Soul program, and approved a $77,641.37 city match for a firefighter grant.
- The council set a November 10 hearing on repealing obsolete special acts, the last step of the charter review, and set hearings on the tax classification rate and a National Grid pole on Western Avenue.
- Kimberly Lee was reappointed to the Lynn Cultural Council through December 31, 2029.
- The licensing subcommittee approved reopening hours for the McDonald’s at 567 Lynnway, which an administrator said will reopen November 9 with a 24-hour drive-through, extended hours to 2 a.m. for Tex-Mex Express at 702 Lynnway with 30, 60 and 90 day reviews, and a secondhand article license for an ecoATM phone-buying kiosk inside the check cashing business at 62 Market Square. An auto repair license for 517 Lynnway was tabled and sent to the Economic Development and Industrial Corporation.
- The new Youth, Children and Adolescents subcommittee held its first meeting and heard from Denisa Lopez of the Youth and Adolescent Task Force, which surveyed young residents and ran a Youth Voice Summit for 60 teenagers at Girls Inc. Lopez said Lynn has more than 5,000 high school age residents and no youth council.
- Councilor LaPierre asked for a moment of silence for Linda Roach, a 49-year Lynn Public Schools teacher at the Brickett and Shoemaker schools.
The recording is on Lynn Community Television.
