By Michael Lafleur, mlafleur@lowellsun.com
LOWELL -- City Manager Bernie Lynch's proposal to create a new city Division of Cultural Affairs and Special Events could be rejuvenated as early as next month, and this time the measure is likely to pass City Council muster.
Lynch has been working with Mayor Edward "Bud" Caulfield on a compromise agreement that Caulfield said yesterday he could support. With Caulfield on board, the measure should receive the six votes necessary to pass.
Caulfield is scheduled to undergo prostate cancer surgery Tuesday and said he expects to miss the next two council meetings while he recovers, possibly returning April 15. Lynch said he expects to reintroduce the two proposed ordinances required to create the new division after Caulfield's return.
"I just want to get it off my agenda and move forward," Caulfield said of the matter.
At issue are two ordinances that would streamline the city's special-events and marketing functions under one director. Lynch proposed the measures in accordance with one of the primary recommendations of a business-funded study -- done last year by Somerville-based Mt. Auburn Associates -- on the health of the city's cultural organizations, museums and festivals.
Despite concerted lobbying from Lowell's artist community, a split City Council in February sent both proposed ordinances down to defeat.
The measures would have merged the functions of the Cultural Organization of Lowell, or COOL, with the city's office of special events, creating the new division and the position of its director. Votes from at least six of Lowell's nine city councilors were required to pass the measures, which only received five votes in favor. Opposition from Caulfield and Councilors Alan Kazanjian, Michael Lenzi and Rita Mercier sealed its fate.
All expressed fears about the powers of the new director and were critical of the fact that Lynch's choice to head the new division, COOL Director LZ Nunn, would have seen a more than $18,000 raise, boosting her salary to $64,400.
Though COOL is a private, nonprofit organization, the city budget funds Nunn's current annual salary of nearly $46,000, and she reports to the city manager. The city also contributes a quarter of COOL's $500,000 budget.
Under the initial proposal, COOL funds would have paid the difference between Nunn's present salary and the cost of the new position during the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.
Lynch earlier this week said the new division is "still something I think is important."
In the amended version, Caulfield said Lynch has included amended language about the new director's powers, specifically indicating she would have no jurisdiction over the Tsongas Arena, the Lowell Memorial Auditorium and the Greater Merrimack Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The amended proposal also indicates that the city will continue paying Nunn's base salary of about $46,000, but any additional money in her paycheck will have to come from "cultural grants," Caulfield said.
"In the first ordinance, it was very vague," Caulfield said of the division director's powers. "We got that squared away, and I think the salary issue will be worded in such a way that the average taxpayer will realize this person will receive $46,000 from the general fund and any other cultural grants they apply for. I think that's fair."
This story appeared in the Lowell Sun on Thursday, March 27, 2008