Quincy residents to hold July 7 ‘Repeal the Raises’ event at City Hall Plaza
When Quincy Mayor Tom Koch proposed enormous raises for himself and the city council, residents were given no opportunity for public comment.
When residents grumbled in a city council committee meeting where the raises were discussed, they were scolded.
And when the council rushed through votes for their 50% raises and the mayor’s 79% pay boost in the last council meeting before the summer break, residents – and at least one councilor – were confused about what had just happened.
Now, residents collecting signatures to legally repeal those raises are planning an event to give the public an opportunity to voice their concerns about the raises and their hopes for the city. The event will be held at City Hall Plaza on Sunday, July 7, from 2 to 4 pm.
“This is the starting point of the journey to strive for good governance in the city,” says event organizer Susan Yuan, a member of the newly formed group A Just Quincy, which is working to repeal the raises. “We need to send a loud and powerful message. We won't just quietly back down.”
A group of A Just Quincy volunteers holding a sign made by one of them (thanks, John!)
The event will also serve as the final gathering to collect the required signatures necessary to legally repeal the raises through what’s known as a referendum petition. Under state law, if 12% of registered voters sign the referendum petitions within 20 days of the final passage of the raise ordinances, those ordinances will either be repealed or put to a public vote in a city or special election. That means about 8,000 registered Quincy voters must sign each of the two petitions (one to repeal the mayor’s salary and one the councilors’) by July 8.
More than 100 volunteers have been tirelessly collecting signatures towards that goal, and residents from across the city have been lining up at collection locations to sign. “People are really upset about both the size of the raises and how they were pushed through,” says A Just Quincy member Maggie McKee. “It’s inspiring to see how much energy and time people are putting into trying to fix what they see as a broken system.”
To celebrate this massive grassroots effort, A Just Quincy is providing free ice cream (in individually wrapped packages bought from the store) and music by musician Jon Gorey and DJ Spencer Henderson, both Quincy residents.
But A Just Quincy’s work is just beginning, and the group hopes to build on the momentum of this referendum petition to work towards greater transparency and accountability in city government. To join the group, go to ajustquincy.com/contact.
