By all accounts, it appears as though the mayor, her minions and the daily are making an attempt to oust the President of LynnCam’s Board of Directors, Karen Chapman.
Ms. Chapman, we believe, does an admirable job of running LynnCam in the absence of an executive director. As a LynnCam viewer, this writer can attest to the high level of professionalism practiced at LynnCam. What we view on a daily basis is proof of that. What is being programmed is further proof of that.
The question to be asked about this new witch hunt by the mayor against Ms. Chapman is what has Ms. Chapman done to deserve the public humiliation and lack of due process she is being made to endure?
To our mind, this appears to be another witch hunt not so unlike the one the mayor recently ran with her designee, the former city auditor Mr. John Pace. History will show that the mayor and Pace made a great effort to run out of office Richard Fortucci, the city’s Chief Financial Officer.
That witch hunt failed miserably. The mayor’s assertions about Fortucci and those made by Pace had no standing. The city council wouldn’t buy any of it – to the city council’s great credit – and in the end, Mr. Pace was fired and the mayor returned to her spotty work in the mayor’s office after long hours of meaningless hearings which were an embarrassment for the mayor and the city.
Now comes LynnCam’s Board of Director President Karen Chapman for the mayor’s special treatment.
The mayor has been able to round up people close to LynnCam to make preposterous statements about Ms. Chapman’s behavior. They apparently have her down as an embezzler and as a troublemaker.
She is neither.
According to Ms. Chapman, the mayor and her LynnCam gang want an executive director who lives in Chelsea. In addition, she has detailed in her letter to the Journal how outrageous the behavior of another board member has been.
She has described one board member’s behavior as dysfunctional, confrontational and combative – which is not so unlike Mr. Pace’s motions when he tried to do in Mr. Fortucci and later on when he was questioned at his dismissal hearing he basically failed to answer questions about accepting taxpayer money he was not owed.
What is happening to Ms. Chapman is a repeat of what happened to Mr. Fortucci.
It is another instance of trying to do in a board member whose reputation has been untarnished since she was first appointed by Mayor Albert DiVirgilio almost two decades ago.
She, too, has found the mayor virtually inaccessible and uncommitted.
Before another salvo is fired in this sad bit of city business, the city council should schedule a hearing or two, as it did in the Fortucci situation, to question Ms. Chapman and the others trying their best to ruin her reputation and to oust her.
The city council has shown an ability to cut through the smoke screen and to act on merit.Such a protocol is needed here.
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1 2 Next »Oh dear god, this article is riddled with inacuracy and bias. It's a known fact that Karen's reputation is tranished with multiple people in the city and even her own employees don't like everything that she's done. And how can both her and Fortucci's situations be linked? Also, she has no part in any of the programs run on LynnCam--that's all the efforts of some employees. Cassie doesn't do any work anymore according to multiple people--and guess who allows that to happen...
Not enough was written about the other items of interest that the Item took the time and effort to research and write about--including getting both sides of the story and not one. Perhaps that's why the Journal is free, because nobody would pay to read this lacking form of journalism.
Wow... Where did this staff get their journalism degree from? I'll make sure my kids don't go there.
Well....First off...thank you for the laugh....I cried a little....it was enjoyable....what wasn't enjoyable however was reading this unprofessionally written...un-researched pile of manure...
Here...I'll write a note to the editor right here....Next time don't write an article until you have both sides of a story...I've read highschool newspaper articles better written than this....maybe this was written by a middle schooler???
Here! Wanna see how to write an article where both sides are interviewd!
Part 1
http://www.itemlive.com/articles/2011/06/27/news/news01.txt
Part 2
http://www.itemlive.com/articles/2011/06/28/news/news02.txt
It seems a bit odd to me that the 3 comments above were written at approximately the same time...Just a guess that they are either the same person, or 3 people who are very involved in this matter and are on the 'same side'. Nevertheless, we can't overlook that the article written in the Item was rather one-sided as well. Perhaps this is because the reason it was written was because a certain person(s) initiated it? I would urge the people of the City to turn their heads away from the fools who started this journalistic nonsense and turn their heads towards what Lynn CAM is doing for the city. Would the people prefer to follow this soap opera, or rather, have Lynn CAM focus its energies towards broadcasting the voices of the City?
Sadly soap operas are far more entertaining than watching programs about goings-on in the city
Does this guy have a clue what he's talking about? The mayor doesn't have a witch hunt against karen Chapman....she was just stating what went on and to her knowledge what is going on...the only witch hunt with this paper seems to be towards the Mayor............yes do in a Board President from the Divigilio era (lol) seriously? where the heck were the elections by the members of the station and the mayors thereafter.....umm excuse me...thought that was a regulation....and the city attorney even thinks it's all wacked.....what's up with her husband being there??
It's kind of funny....Chapman says she doesn't want the executive director because he's from Chelsea and not Lynn....yet she personally hired Ken Kinna who was from boston and never once moved to Lynn in his 5+ year tenure at LynnCam.
Why was my original comment flagged and removed? Because I spoke my opinion on Chapman and the Journal's "writers"...thats freedom of speech that was just censored....Now it's on
Memo to Lynn Journal:
Clancy lost. Get over it.
"Ms. Chapman, we believe, does an admirable job"
What does she do? You have no idea. You basically go against anything the mayor does. So, now you've jumped on the side of Lynn Cam.
It's really pathetic. Your paper is so irrelevant.
thats why they're a free paper...who would actually pay for this junk?
This sounds like the same BS that Medford TV 3 went through recently...with their mafia run tv station... hmmmm...