Have an example of intimidation by city officials?

The following letter ran in The Quincy Sun on November 7, 2024. Please see the last paragraph to find out how to report examples of intimidation by city officials.

Mayor, Sun Should Apologize for IDing Raise Critic

The Oct. 31 Sun included an interview with the mayor in which he identified the name and street of a constituent who had participated in a summer petition effort to repeal the mayor’s and council’s 79 and 50% pay raises.

The mayor pointed out that the city had rebuilt the resident’s street and had temporarily housed some folks in the neighborhood after a catastrophic flood in 2018. “We went in as a city and did everything for those people,” the mayor said.

The fact that the resident (and presumably his neighbors) accepted this help without the funding being put to a popular vote – as many residents wanted the pay raises to be – struck the mayor as unfair. “So it’s okay when it works in his favor,” he complained.

Before naming the resident and his street, the mayor made it clear he wanted them published: “I don’t mind going on the record on this.” But the Sun should have minded. “Private people have a greater right to control information about themselves than public figures,” reads the Society of Professional Journalists’ code of ethics. “Weigh the consequences of publishing personal information.”

The mayor is a public figure; the resident he named is not. Publishing the name and home street of a private citizen who criticized the mayor is not in the public’s best interest – and worse, it could endanger the citizen who dared to speak truth to power. The mayor and the Sun owe this citizen an apology for putting him and his family at risk.

By naming and shaming a constituent who spoke out against his official actions – actions that the same Sun article revealed had triggered an inquiry by the State Ethics Commission, the mayor proved that he is willing to go after his critics. 

That could discourage residents from expressing their true views to those in power. A Just Quincy saw that phenomenon in action this summer during our salary repeal petition drive, which ultimately fell short of the required signatures for a binding repeal. We decided to hold onto the signed forms instead of turning them over to the city because so many residents feared that signing could lead to retaliation. Now the mayor has proven them right.

We’d like to gauge the extent of such abuses of power, so please reach out to info@ajustquincy.com, @ajustquincy.18 on Signal, or 6176691832 on WhatsApp with any examples.

Maggie McKee

Executive committee member

A Just Quincy

QATV: Koch and Cain on the raise deferments

This week, Mayor Tom Koch and Council President Ian Cain each addressed the newly announced raise deferments on QATV’s podcast, AM Quincy with Joe Catalano. Their transcribed comments are below.

Mayor Tom Koch discusses raise deferments (Oct. 15, 2024)

Mayor Koch: The issue just continued to come about. I just felt it was time we put it aside so we can continue to focus on the important issues that the city is facing. It’s becoming a real distraction. So the city council president, Ian Cain, I know he discussed it with his body… and myself, we talked the end of last week. We talked and both agreed we would put it off til next term. That should hopefully put an end to it for a bit. The council term, you know, is a two-year term. The mayor’s term is a four-year term. I think at this point that was the best we could do with it.

QATV’s Joe Catalano: Would they be retroactive once they take effect?

Mayor: No, it’s forward.

Joe C: What happens to the funds that were already approved for these increases? 

Mayor: They’d just fall in at the end of the year for the surplus. That’s not a problem. You look at the budget like a big pie with pieces broken up for various departments. So sometimes certain departments may have trouble staying within that number, and others have a surplus. At the end of the year, you take the surpluses and deal with the deficits. Whatever is left is a positive thing that goes into our free cash. That’s not a problem at all.

Joe C: Would there have to be another public hearing process again once these are included in the budgets?

Mayor: No because the process is done. We made a decision just to put it off til after the next election. I think it had plenty of public comments. So It’ll just take effect the next term for the city councilors, which I believe for the councilors would be Jan 26, and for the mayor’s position, Jan 28.

Joe C: Does that mean you’re running for reelection?

Mayor: It does not mean anything, Joe. I’ve always said one at a time. It’s too early to talk about that. I’m only in year one of a four-year term. I’m not even thinking about that right now.

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Council President Ian Cain discusses raise deferments (Oct. 16, 2024)

Cain: The statement was pretty clear that we put out. There isn't much more to discuss about it. I think it just made a practical sense to push it to the subsequent elected term so whomever is elected in those roles for that term would benefit from that salary increase. Now, there still is some discussion to be had at the council for the ordinances and the process by which future salaries in those positions would be governed, so that will come whenever we put it on the agenda in the ordinance committee.

QATV’s Joe Catalano: The mayor talked about distraction. Was that part of the reasoning behind the deferment?

Cain: Yeah, that was his direct quote, and I agree with him. I think this has been a distraction. I just even want to stress the two issues that we’re talking about [in this podcast]... we’re also talking about huge amounts of roadway work and infrastructure work. Huge amounts of cost savings to the city for work that's being done across the city, between electricity infrastructure and more roadway and infrastructure work itself. Those are the real tangible things that I know that my constituents in ward 3 care about. They still care more about that work, they care about the trees being trimmed, they care about the trash being picked up, they care about the snow being plowed in the winter. I think that there are so many good things going on in Quincy in terms of our growth, and as we’re heading towards the 400th anniversary of the establishment of this great city. Yeah, I think this has been a big distraction. I’ve said it in the Sun and I'll say it here. I just think that people have easily bit onto this as an issue to grab onto, and it’s a sort of continuum of issues I think that we’ve seen, at last I’ve seen in my tenure as a city council. I think there are bigger fish and things to do in the city. And to continue working forward to make this city better than it is.

Joe C: Have you decided whether or not you’ve running for reelection next year?

Cain: I’m enjoying the role that I'm playing right now. I’m trying to make sure that I can finish projects that I've started. And that I can give the same level of energy that I made a commitment to since I first ran in 2015. So I’m working on getting this municipal broadband project over the line, and if I feel that I still have all to give to the residents of Quincy, I think I got a little time to make that decision. We’re still in the first half of the term. But I certainly will make a decision in the coming months.