Oh what a night! (not so late September)
Post by Joe Murphy
Opinions are his own
Well Nine Nine lived up to the hype.
The rally was a big success. If the powers that be in Quincy hoped the outrage would die down over the summer, we certainly disabused them of that notion. I’m not exactly sure how many people showed up to express their anger over Salarygate—around 100 according to the Boston Globe. The evening began with speeches from some of the usual AJQ voices. All the while, Scott Jackson and Bob Bosworth from the Quincy Sun, Peter Blandino from the Patriot Ledger, and a reporter from the Globe (whose name I didn’t catch) arrived to cover the event. (I updated www.ajustquincy.com/press to show the latest)
At around 6:30, we headed inside to secure seats. However, at the door, Quincy police informed us they had orders from City Council President, Ian Cain, to bar any signs from the meeting. [putting aside whether or not this was a lawful prohibition for the sake of this recap] Although the officers were following the law to the best of their knowledge, some in the crowd felt their freedom of expression was unfairly restricted. Given we hadn’t been allowed to address these raises in a public forum—and with many of our communications to the council going unanswered—bringing in our signs felt like our last opportunity for free speech. But, AJQ was not about to be scolded or sent to the corner that night.
Me: (aside) I have always hated how city council meetings in Quincy do not offer very much opportunity for the public to speak. TV shows have led me to believe that’s an integral part of these meetings. The only consistent time that the public gets to speak is when utility companies need to take a piece of land to provide their service, e.g. put in a utility pole, etc. The public can come and speak for or against any of those land use things. Whenever there is a hot issue that I want to speak at and no opportunity is provided, I think about speaking during one of these National Grid land proceedings.
I mentioned to my seatmate Mimi Balsamo, a civic activist in Quincy who is far braver than I, that it would be delicious to use this minor public hearing procedure to say what is on my mind. She wasted no time, got up, and walked to the microphone, “I’m Mimi Balsamo, and I’d like to discuss repealing the raises.” The crowd erupted in a standing ovation. I was so proud of her. Mimi quickly left because mischief had been managed. But that wasn’t the end of the excitement.
Councilor Cain tried to restore order, but this time the crowd was not so easily curbed. You’ll recall the famous scolding from Councilor McCarthy on June 3rd, well that had been on our minds ever since. It was not going to work twice. This time the crowd shouted back at Councilor Cain who truly seemed like a deer in headlights. He repeated “We can have this meeting all night” while that sent shivers down my spine as I don’t like being outside my house all that long, for the AJQ crowd there was a palpable “Ok, let’s do that” vibe. He would say “This is not the time for that.” To which the crown responded, “When is the time!” and “Then make a time.” Councilor Cain simultaneously expressed willingness to have a conversation about free speech, while saying that he was not going to have a back and forth dialog. Eventually he threatened to have the police escort people from the room. No one in our crowd wanted to put the good police officers in that position. But we had made ourselves heard.
A few minutes later the ordinance committee had come to an end and there was a 4 minute break before the main council meeting was to begin. AJQ quickly huddled up and decided that we were going to walk out now while there was still light outside. We made a quick adjustment to the plan to wait until the meeting was back in session. We had a false start to allow for the Pledge of Allegiance and the open-meeting law announcement, but as soon as councilor Cain called the first agenda item, we stood, turned our backs on them, and filed out of the meeting. Someone was heard saying “You turn your backs on us, we will do so to you.”
But that’s not all.
We placed ourselves right beneath the windows of the grand council chamber and we had a good hour or so of chanting. We worked hard to be heard in the meeting. Some of the chants were:
3% payraise, not 79
Stop salarygate
Shame on you
We’re still here
Vote them out
The raise is too high, we wonder why
Eventually the meeting ended and we watched as, one by one, the city councilors exited out the back of city hall. However, one city councilor came out to address the crowd. Ward 4 Councilor James Devine, came and stood in front of our group, some of whom were riled up, and spoke with us. I give him a ton of credit. It showed courage and integrity. I was impressed. Now, that is not to say that we agreed with each other, but I truly thing we heard each other.
“Why won’t you just get over this?”
”It’s over, let it go.”
”Why do you care what someone else makes? Jealous?”
These are some of the comments AJQ supporters have heard, but yesterday is a prime example of why we haven’t given up. We are still denied the right to speak, so we have to find creative ways to be heard. We are denied public meetings, and we’re told we can’t bring signs into council meetings—so we stand outside and shout. Our councilors refuse to meet with us but have no problem scolding us. Quincy, a city that birthed two presidents, one of whom was a Founding Father, is seeing democracy falter right now.
Last spring, the mayor proposed two raise ordinances, and the city council approved them. We call it Salarygate. It involved 10 individuals—one to propose the legislation and nine to approve it. Ten individuals, who just so happen to be the only ones benefitting from it. This will cost Quincy taxpayers $256,000 a year, starting in January.
But thanks in part to the actions of AJQ,
the raises of the city council were lowered $3,000 (3k x 9 councilors = $27,000 savings per year)
one councilor is declining the raise, (assuming he can do that, that is $13,500 in savings per year)
the people have been given a voice
We need all hands on deck as we go forward. We are going to stay on our elected leaders about these raises and we are going to identify a new generation of leadership to vote in next year. One way or another, we will take it back.
Oh, and one more thing.
