Witch Hunt? – Lynn Mayor Flanagan-kennedy Going Hard After Richard Fortucci

It is impossible to understand what exactly is at work in the ongoing effort to totally discredit the city’s Chief Financial Officer Richard Fortucci.

Is he the worst to ever hold that position as the mayor is alleging?

Or is he the subject of a witch hunt which the mayor is leading?

Both seem to have equal validity.

The hearing recently held had the look and feel of the Watergate Hearings, with allegations of waste and misconduct coming from the mayor about Fortucci.

Broadcast on Lynn Cable Television, it tends to give boredom a new definition.

The mayor appears frozen in time at the hearing.

She looks weary. She sounds weary. She appears lost in thought as though she is thinking to herself: Is this what I wanted to do with my life? Do I really want to be mayor?

For her, this stuff is about overtime – her overtime, that is. She could already have been back at home if it wasn’t for the Fortucci hearing.

Instead, she’s got to sit through the meeting and then another meeting on February 15.

This is not good for someone used to spending much of her time outside of city hall.

She answers one inane question after another in a round robin of questions from councilors and from Fortucci’s lawyer that goes from nothing to nowhere.

Everyone looks as though they are going to fall asleep.

The entire scenario has the appearance of a prison mock trial team competition – with tired, worn out people mostly uninterested in trying to look interested.

Fortucci has been suspended from his position with pay – which, frankly, is no suspension at all if you’ve really done something illegal, unethical or outright wrong.

The mayor has a long list of accusations about Fortucci that frankly don’t amount to enough credible evidence to justify these time consuming and costly hearings.

To his credit, Fortucci has repeatedly claimed that the mayor is impossible to get a hold of.

Nearly everyone being paid and who is a part of this city government under her rule would totally agree with that – but they won’t – because she’s the mayor. Even though she finds it hard to work, she will find the time for a hearing or two held against those who are perceived to be not with her by saying so.

Bottom line, Fortucci isn’t the problem.

The mayor’s inaccessibility is the problem.

Virtually no one in city government here can get her to call them back – but no one will publicly admit it.

Since Chip Clancy got tossed out of office by the present mayor, her main achievements have been to discredit his leadership which she would do well to emulate.

In a Boston Globe article that appeared in the Sunday paper relating difficulties local mayors are having the reporter noted that Mayor Flanagan-Kenney didn’t call him back.

I’d tell that reporter to join the crowd.

The Fortucci hearings are a waste of the taxpayer’s money.

If the mayor has him caught up in a  real scam, fire him, take him to court and make him pay restitution – don’t waste the taxpayer’s time by suspending him with pay and putting on sham hearings that are, more than anything, absurd.