Please give us your input!
Please take a few minutes to give us your input on potential next steps, meeting times, and your interest level
Even though we didn’t collect the 8,000 signatures needed to legally repeal the mayor’s and council’s raises, we’re not giving up on making Quincy’s government more transparent and accountable to its residents!
To do that, we need as many of you involved as possible. We’d love your input as we decide where to go from here:
Please help us prioritize potential next steps by filling out this poll
We’d like to have a meeting to discuss those potential projects – and to celebrate our hard work on the petitions – in the next two weeks. Please fill out this form to let us know which date(s) work for you so we can choose a location big enough to accommodate everyone who wants to come
To get a sense of how ambitious we can be as a group, please let us know how big a role you’d like to play in A Just Quincy by filling out this form
Finally, please join, and ask friends and neighbors to join, our mailing list. Thanks so much for your interest in creating A Just Quincy!
—Maggie
What it was like to collect signatures on the salary repeal petitions
Jim Kogler and Jocelyn Sedney share their experiences
AJQ's blog is a place for members to express opinions and ideas and should not be considered official statements from the group. This post contains letters published in The Quincy Sun by two residents who collected signatures on the raise repeal petitions, Jim Kogler and Jocelyn Sedney.
How can the Mayor unite a city as diverse as Quincy? By giving himself a taxpayer-funded 79% raise.
I have never been a political activist, and I certainly never thought I would be going door to door to collect signatures in Quincy Point to repeal City Council resolutions. Despite being a long-time supporter of Mayor Koch, I was outraged when I learned about the recent raises given to the City Council and Mayor. As soon as I heard about the work of A Just Quincy to repeal these raises by obtaining 8000 signatures of Quincy residents, I became involved. I resolved to collect 200 signatures in support of the effort. I had to act quickly because, due to a previously scheduled vacation, I had only one week to collect them.Each night, I walked between one and two hours through Quincy Point, knocking on doors, talking to my neighbors, and leaving flyers. The process was enlightening. I didn’t keep count of the actual doors I knocked on, but it was over one thousand. I did manage to collect my two hundred signatures. During this process I got to learn a lot about the mood of this city, it’s angry.
Someone answered the door approximately fifteen percent of the time. Almost everyone I interacted with signed.I spoke to exactly one person who didn’t sign, saying, “The Mayor deserves it!” I spoke to two people who said something along the lines of, “I am personal friends with the Mayor, and I cannot sign it, but I support your efforts. He messed up here.” I had two additional people say they wouldn’t sign it without giving a reason. I had one couple tell me they wouldn’t sign because the FBI would be sent to arrest them (I believe they were serious). About fifteen people told me they were not citizens of Quincy and therefore were not eligible to sign. I had two people tell me they weren’t registered to vote. I had one child tell me their “father only votes for the president of Brazil” as he ran away. Finally, I had two people with whom I couldn’t communicate due to language barriers. One of them spoke to me in Italian, telling me, what I could only imagine, was the story of his life for ten minutes. I understood some words and tried my best to communicate back; it was a wonderful conversation.Everyone else signed. The anger at the mayor is visceral. I had a couple tell me that they were extremely grateful I interrupted their dinner. I had multiple people offer me food and beverages. I met with firefighters, police, teachers, and other city employees who were outraged at the pay change; the mayor ensured they received significantly less. I met with people who, like me, explained they were long-time supporters of Mayor Koch but had been disillusioned by this cash-grab. I also ran into many people who had clearly disliked the mayor for a long time and were happy to sign. I ran into young people, grandparents, xenophobes, self-described activists, people of every age, color, and walk of life. A few chased me down the street, one with a bicycle, to sign. Most had a story to tell. I ran into someone who had grown up in the house I currently own.The anger at the City Council for agreeing to the raises was fierce.In the last Mayor’s election, the electorate was split. Anne Mahoney had a very good showing, and Mayor Koch got by with a sizable lead but not a blowout. As I walked and talked, I saw there was no split. Quincy is outraged, across the board. A Just Quincy didn’t achieve the eight thousand signatures to repeal the raises due to the tight time limit imposed by the state, but they would have far surpassed it if another week had been allowed.I have been a long-time supporter of Mayor Koch, and I had the chance to speak to him at a parade some time before the raises were given. I told him he has done a good job running Quincy. He told me, “It’s not me, it’s the great people of Quincy.” As I trod the streets of Quincy Point, I saw just how true that is, but I also saw how universally angry people are at both the Mayor and the City Council for the way these raises were given.
—Jim Kogler
Stewart St
Grateful for raise repeal signers and volunteers
THANK YOU to the 6,000-plus Quincy voters who signed the petitions to roll back the raises! I volunteered to spread the word about the petitions to repeal the 79% mayor’s raise and the 50% council raise and want to share some of my experiences.
As I went door to door, I was so impressed with how engaged people were – most had heard about the raises and were so angered they practically grabbed the clipboard from my hands. Others shared the fruits of their own analysis of the basis given for the raises. Others wanted to share their outrage when so much needed to be taken care of in their neighborhood. Others told me that they were solid Koch supporters, but this was just too much. Many said that they were in favor of raises but the greediness here was wrong. Some said that they were concerned about negative impacts on themselves, family members or businesses – but they signed. Almost to a person, they thanked me.
I volunteered my porch as a signing location. In looking at the addresses on the petitions, I was struck by the distance that people traveled. I was surprised at signatures by elderly people who left their homes to walk to the house. I was impressed by the diversity of signers.
What started out as a small group of people disturbed by the size of the mayor’s raise grew to a grassroots movement with many volunteers across the city. I would not be surprised if this was the first time in the history of Quincy that such an effort was undertaken. And, while not ultimately successful in repealing the related ordinances, the group did collect signatures from just shy of 10% of all registered voters in Quincy – in only 20 days, including a four-day holiday when many were away. My hat off to all!
—Jocelyn Sedney
What’s Next?
Some thoughts on next moves from AJQ member, Kathy.
It is not going to end. Quincy is long overdue to pay attention. The petition to repeal the mayor’s and city councilors’ raises struck a chord with many. Just think for a moment — there were 6,030 signers to the petition to repeal the mayor’s raise – obtained in 20 days, during the summer and including the July 4th week. A Just Quincy reached so many, but there are still Quincy citizens we didn’t reach. And worse, there were Quincy citizens who wanted to sign but didn’t because they were afraid they could lose their jobs, pension, housing. What might have happened if we had only a week more, or if we had 20 days in the fall?
In the immediate future, we keep getting people to sign the petition as a form of protest (find signing locations here), and we encourage people to write their city councilors and mayor, encouraging them to finally listen (find their email addresses here). The city council can still introduce ordinances overriding the current ordinances. Let’s tell them to do so.
Please weigh in on other possible steps here.
– Kathy
Keep checking in on A Just Quincy.
If you have not signed up for our mailing list, you can do so here.
Thank you all!
Did we meet our goals?
No, and yes - we didn’t get enough signatures to stop politicians’ raises from going into effect on January 1. But we got more than enough to build a movement that will bring about change in Quincy
No – and yes. We needed about 8,000 signatures on each of two petitions to repeal Quincy politician’s raises, and we got 6,030 to reverse the mayor’s 79% raise and 4,642 to undo the council’s 50% pay boost. So, not enough to stop the raises from going into effect on January 1. But more than enough to build a movement to prevent such injustices from sliding through unchallenged in the future.
The fact that we fell short of 8,000 signatures is disappointing for sure, especially after the hope we had allowed ourselves to feel when we saw our signature collection rate rise ever higher over time. “We might just pull this off!” I thought, after seeing that we’d made it more than halfway to our goal.
Still, we had less than two days to collect the remaining 3,500 signatures. We threw ourselves into it, as we had since the project’s start. Our volunteers braved miserably hot weather to collect the required signatures. New volunteers raised their hands to help, which gave all of us a lift. And we saw more and more people interested in signing because they had seen news stories about the repeal effort. It was an exhilarating and exhausting push to the finish line.
And truly, that’s how it’s been for the last three weeks. A series of highs and lows that have left us a little bruised and battered but also invigorated and hopeful. Here are some of the challenges we faced, in addition to the heat and the fact that many folks were on vacation during our 20-day (state-regulated) collection window:
Bullying. Some volunteers – to my knowledge all women – have been followed, yelled at, or told to leave public spaces (sometimes with the admonition to go home and “spend time with their families”). Ironically, these incidents have occurred at events meant to celebrate the birth of our democracy. One woman, a veteran and member of a Gold Star family, was told to leave this past weekend’s patriotic celebration in Quincy Center.
Lack of citizenship status. The state law governing this process, known as a referendum petition, says that only registered Quincy voters can have their signatures count towards the required total. And to vote, one must be a US citizen. So unfortunately, many folks who pay taxes here who wanted to sign – and whose taxes are affected by increases in government spending, such as raises – could not make their wishes known through this process.
Fear of reprisals. Many residents who wanted to sign the petitions didn’t because they were afraid of reprisals from the city government. All our volunteers reported hearing this fear. On June 30, I wrote to the city clerk asking her to address those concerns. With no reply, a few days later I emailed the city’s top lawyer, Solicitor Jim Timmins. He responded that the city clerk had been out of the office and that it was up to our group to “reassure” people who had these worries. We continued to hear these fears – unfounded or not – all across the city. (And those fears are why we decided not to turn in petition signatures to the city clerk unless we thought we had enough to repeal the raises.)
But while we did face some headwinds, our experience collecting signatures left us all feeling overwhelmingly hopeful and invigorated. Here are some of the reasons why:
More than 100 people officially signed up to collect signatures, and many others just downloaded PDFs of the petitions at home, gathered signatures, and dropped them off. People’s willingness to pitch in and help was touching and inspiring – people WANT to play a role in how our city runs. Even if our elected representatives discourage it, WE can help each other have a voice in what happens here.
Many volunteers said they had never participated in civic actions like this but felt the raises were so unfair that they had to try to stop them. These new civic engagers included folks who had voted for the mayor, members of the Asian community, and city workers who, even though they feared reprisals, joined the effort because their annual raises had been just 0 to 3% since the mayor’s last raise took effect (while the mayor’s new raise is equivalent to a 6% increase every year over the same time period), and (in the case of teachers), they had fought for months and stood out in the bitter cold to push for fair contracts.
All the interactions with signers and other volunteers have brought people together and forged new friendships. Since collecting signatures from strangers can be a daunting task, some people paired up with each other for moral support. Volunteers have been bringing petitions to residents unable to visit signing locations posted online, and acting as on-call translators when needed. Folks have shared their research expertise, musical and writing skills, and video and graphic know-how. This is a dedicated, thoughtful, and generous community, and I’m grateful to be part of it.
So, yes, I am disappointed that we didn’t hit our goal of getting 8,000 registered Quincy voters to sign our petitions in 20 days. But we knew from the start that reaching this goal would be a long shot. I consider the effort a monumental success because it has sparked so many conversations about how we want things to run here. And each of those thousands of signatures represents a conversation – a connection – with a neighbor that strengthens our community.
Our work is not finished. Stay tuned for how you can help in our next steps as we fight to make the city more transparent and accountable to us, its residents, by joining our mailing list at bit.ly/ajqlist. I have been so moved by my neighbors’ passion and commitment. Together we will bring about the change that Quincy residents deserve!
–Maggie McKee
The Rally
A recap of our 7/7 rally and where we stand as of Tuesday night.
Our rally on 7/7 was a success. We are not sure if it was the ice cream (thanks Pam!), the music (thanks Spencer and Jon!), or the passion of our activists (thank you all!), but nearly everyone involved in the planning and execution of this event agreed that it was one of the best displays of community activism we have been a part of. The rally organization was led by AJQ member Susan Yuang, and it was carried out by a great team. People lent their talents and their stuff. We had tables, tents, chairs, coolers of water, and an ocean of clipboards, petitions, and pens.
We had some great speeches that I hope our elected leaders take a few minutes to listen to.
Of course, the main goal of the rally, of our efforts for the past 20 days or so, has been to collect signatures to repeal the ordinances that establish these raises into Quincy’s law. After the rally, the counting began. We want to thank everyone for their patience these past weeks while waiting for an update. There were many opinions on how public we should make the ongoing count. It was decided to be forthcoming with the count. The problem was we didn’t know it at that point. As of the end of the rally, we had no idea how close, or far, we were from our goal. Maggie reported in a blog post that we had about 4500 signatures on the mayoral petition as of Monday morning. The number was slightly lower for the city council petition. Since we were over 1/2 way there we decided to use the grace period that was initially given to us by the clerk’s office. People have been collecting and submitting signatures at a furious pace these last two days.
We do not anticipate making it to 12% of the registered voters. However, I would love to be wrong!
There are several reasons that collecting signatures was not as easy as we hoped it would be.
Getting busy people to stop and discuss political matters is tough. The nation is polarized, the public’s faith in elected officials is low, and their willingness to engage with the peculiar people with clipboards. Even Americans’ opinions of local governments, which has been consistently higher than their federal or state counterparts over time, has slipped since Covid.
The law that outlines this process provided a very short time frame while requiring numerous signatures. Specifically, we needed 12% (about 8000) of Quincy’s registered voters to sign within 20 days. As a comparison, to run for a municipal office in Quincy, you need 50 registered voter signatures to sign your nomination form within approximately two months.
This 20-day period happened at the onset of Summer and over the Independence Day holiday. This is a time when average folks tend to be unavailable. People travel now. Families transition from school schedule to vacation mode. The weather sends people to the beaches and golf courses etc.
We heard from so many residents who were nervous about signing the petition because they, or a loved one, worked for the city. This was covered in a previous blog post.
We promised signers we would not turn in the petitions unless we had acquired enough signatures to repeal the ordinance(s). So, since we most likely will not turn in the petition, we will keep collecting signatures and let the citizens of Quincy express their opinion all the way up till the next city council session. It is my hope that the city council will see how upset the people they represent are and will choose to repeal the ordinances on their own. Then a legitimate, trusted process, that includes citizen input and logical financial analysis, can be used to find fair salary increases for the position of mayor and city council.
~Joe Murphy
Keep checking in on A Just Quincy.
Updates on our next steps will be coming soon.
If you have not signed up for our mailing list, you can do so here.
Thank you all!
Update: keep collecting signatures til July 10 @ NOON!
We have more than 4,500 signatures to repeal the mayor’s 79% raise (and a similar number for the council) — please keep collecting signatures for two more days!
I write with some exciting news. You all have been SO GOOD at collecting signatures that we have more than 4,500 for the mayor (and a similar, but smaller number for the council, as yet uncounted). We are more than halfway to our goal of 8,000!
We have decided to extend our repeal referendum signature collecting until Wednesday, July 10. So PLEASE KEEP COLLECTING UNTIL THEN!
Our signature collection rate has been rising exponentially in the last couple of days, and I think we have a really good shot at this if we all get out there and pound the pavement!
More about why we have the extra two days for those interested: State law says we have 20 days after a measure’s final passage to collect 12% of registered voters’ signatures to repeal the measure, and City Clerk Nicole Crispo told Lorrie Thomas, the volunteer who wrote up the petitions, that we could start the 20-day count on June 20, with the signatures due on July 10. Lorrie emailed the clerk back the next day reiterating what the clerk had said and thanking her for her help.
Originally, we decided to be extra conservative, in case the city chose to use June 18 for “final passage” date (the council vote was the night of June 17). But the clerk did tell Lorrie we could start the count on June 20 because that’s when she answered Lorrie’s question about when the final passage was. So because we have SO MUCH MOMENTUM – and new TV coverage, and people coming back from vacation now – we are going to try to reach our goal by July 10, when the clerk told us we could return signatures for a legally binding repeal.
So please go out and collect like mad til Wednesday (still try to return signatures to 117 Rawson as early and often as possible)!
Here are some suggested places to collect signatures (thanks for the list, Nate!):
All grocery stores in town
2 Stop & Shops
Star Market
99 Ranch
H Mart
All Public Transport
North Quincy T Station
Wollaston T Station
Quincy Center T Station
Adams T Station
Marina Bay Ferry
Major Shopping Areas
North Quincy Target
Walmart
BJ's
I have clipboards on the porch at 117 Rawson Road if you’ve already turned yours in and want to go out again, as well as blank forms.
Onward, and THANK YOU for all your hard work thus far! We are at this exciting point because of you!
—Maggie
We address the mayor’s defense of his raise
Point by point, we address Mayor Koch’s defense of his 79% raise
In our efforts to try and reach everyone by land, sea, and air, we have tried a video podcast.
Podcast, Joe, Kathy, Maggie
Looking Forward to Quincy’s First Olympic Games
With a mayoral salary higher than that of Paris and Tokyo, Quincy must be on the short list to host an Olympic games, right?
AJQ's blog is a place for members to express opinions and ideas and should not be considered official statements from the group. This post was written by Jon Gorey, a writer and Quincy resident.
Paris, France, is set to host its third Summer Olympics later this month. I’m excited to watch the world come together in a spirit of free, fair, and fierce competition, in one of the most enchanting cities on earth. Since bidding for the games almost a decade ago, Parisian mayor Anne Hidalgo has worked hard to prepare her city for this intense global spotlight, building arenas, expanding Metro service and accessibility, and cleaning up the River Seine to allow recreational swimming.
And yet, next year, Quincy’s mayor will be paid more than double what his Parisian peer earns.
The mayor of Paris, a legendarily glamorous city of 2 million residents, earns about $115,000 annually, while the lord of our six wards will draw a staggering salary of $285,000 next year. That’s more than the mayors of New York, Boston, and London earn, according to the City Mayors Foundation. Not only that, Quincy’s mayor will soon make three times as much as his counterpart in Tokyo, who earned about $76,000 while leading a thrumming metropolis of 14 million as it hosted the previous Summer Olympics.
So what I’d like to know is: When is Quincy submitting its bid to host the 2036 Olympics?
It would be a thrill to watch the world’s most elite athletes sprint around the track at Faxon Field, glide across the Lincoln Hancock pool, row sculls down the Neponset, bounce down the trails of the Blue Hills Reservation on mountain bikes, leap and tumble across the mats in the Quincy High School gym, and dive to dig volleyballs out of the sand on Wollaston Beach. If we could slow climate change enough to once again ensure reliable snowfall and frozen February ponds, maybe we could even make a bid for the Winter Games, and resurrect the speed skating and ski jumping terrain in the Blue Hills where Quincy used to host an annual St. Moritz Winter Carnival almost a century ago.
While it’s gratifying to realize that our little city of 102,000 really does have, on a small scale, many of the recreational facilities and landscapes needed to host a sporting event as diverse as the Olympic Games, this is mostly a joke, obviously — just like the mayor’s 79% pay raise.
Of course our mayor should get a raise; that’s hardly in question. But when adjusted for inflation, the mayor’s last pay increase, which brought his salary to $150,000 plus perks, would amount to about $198,000 today. That’s a competitive and fair salary, more than double what the median Quincy household earns, and roughly in line with the mayor of Boston’s salary. Bring it back up to par, then set it to automatically increase with inflation so we don’t have to keep doing this.
Some folks may consider Quincy “the Paris of the South Shore,” but if we’re going to pay our mayor more than double what the real Parisian mayor makes, I expect much bigger and bolder leadership to accompany that whopping pay raise. As mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo hasn’t just readied her city for another Olympics. She has also ushered in a new era of sustainable livability for her residents by prioritizing people over cars — slashing vehicle emissions and car trips by adding bike lanes, repurposing parking spots, and closing hundreds of streets to traffic next to schools.
If a Mount Olympus-sized mayoral salary won’t buy us an Olympic Games, I at least want a world-class city out of the deal. Or better yet, a more reasonable pay increase we can all live with.
Quincy residents to hold July 7 ‘Repeal the Raises’ event at City Hall Plaza
Come to the rally at City Hall Plaza on Sunday, July 7, from 2 to 4 pm
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.
Patriot Ledger article
The Patriot Ledger provides a summary of what is going on with the elected leader salary increases and our group which is trying to repeal those same increases.
I was gratified that the Patriot Ledger wrote about our group’s efforts to repeal the salary ordinances.
The Ledger’s Peter Blandino wrote an article about our Petition Referendum.
Quincy group petitioning to repeal mayor's big raise (patriotledger.com)
I encourage everyone to share the article with as many people as possible. We are at a critical junction; we need to reach more people immediately. Most people we talk to agree with us: The mayoral salary should be raised. It’s overdue. But that does not mean a 79% pay increase (from $159,000 to $285,000) makes sense. Here are some of the many points to consider when asking people to sign our petition.
This repeal effort would not mean the mayor and city council could not get a raise, it would ask them to start over with a sincere process.
The 79% is justified using the Dorminson analysis, which has been widely criticized as flawed. It’s methodology seems to have been designed to achieve a desired outcome rather than a sincere analysis.
The mayor’s raise relies on comparisons to town managers; employees who are hired and fired by the relevant legislative body. Town managers are not selected through elections nor is their job political in nature. Being Mayor of a mid-level city is a higher-profile job that affords cachet and opportunity beyond this position. There is value in being the mayor beyond the salary.
The average salary of town managers referenced in the Dorminson report was $169,000. When this is pointed out, the replies point out that Quincy has a larger population. However, when you point out that this salary puts the mayor’s salary above cities exponentially larger and more populated, we are told not to focus on population or size.
The ordinances will immediately cost about $261,000 more per year. Over the next four years, they will cost well over a million dollars. This is real money that will affect property taxes and limit the city’s ability to provide services.
The mayor and city council were just reelected/elected last Fall. The raises were brought up a matter of weeks after having been sworn in. No one ran on the idea of increasing these salaries. The voters have not been given a chance to provide their input.
The repeal referendums will force the city council to either repeal the ordinances granting the new salaries, or put it to the voters in a city or special election.
The current mayor has worked for the city his whole life, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of how it runs. If Quincy’s city plan allowed for a town manager, he would be an excellent candidate. However, the next mayor of Quincy may not have similar experience and know-how each department runs and could need to rely on department heads and possible new hires.
This new salary will make it more difficult for future mayors to hire the staff they may need.
The mayor’s office and city council have expressed concern that they may not be able to attract good candidates without a far larger salary. They do not seem to worry that an overly large salary like this could cause an entrenched incumbent to hold onto power longer than they might otherwise.
Elected positions were not meant to be lifelong careers.
Public service is not meant to be a path to financial prosperity
There are better ways to find a fair number. To name a couple:
Compare the salary with any of the 100+ cities with similar populations and challenges.
Take his salary and apply the raises afforded teachers or city workers since it was last increased. Or simply apply a 3% raise each year, a better deal than the teachers and workers got.
Applying similar raises to the city council ($30,000 x 3% from 2014 - 2023) would net them a salary just below 40k rather than the $44,500 they approved. (City Council is a part-time position)
~Joe Murphy
Will residents face retribution for trying to block the raises?
The US Constitution protects our right to petition the government for a redress of grievances
Our volunteers keep reporting that folks they talk to WANT to sign the petitions to repeal Quincy politicians’ raises, but they’re afraid to do so for fear of retribution from the city. (Hopefully that fear is not based in reality, but it’s concerning that it seems to be so widespread.) So here is a little information for anyone who is worried about that.
A Just Quincy will only send the signed forms to the city clerk’s office if it looks like we have the required number of signatures to pass one or both repeal referendums (one is to repeal the mayor’s 79% raise, the other is to repeal the council’s 50% raise).
The city clerk’s office will then have to check that the signatures come from registered Quincy voters and that the number of those verified voter signatures is equal to at least 12% of all registered Quincy voters.
Citizens’ right to follow their consciences and petition the government for a redress of grievances is enshrined in the first amendment to the US Constitution. But even so, I’ve asked the city clerk to confirm that citizens will face no negative repercussions if they sign these petitions, and I fully expect she will do so when she returns to the office after the weekend.
—Maggie McKee
A letter from Lorrie
Take a Stand Against Unjust Salary Increases
On June 17, 2024, the City Council approved a 79% salary increase for the Mayor and a 48% increase for themselves, despite constituents' opposition. At the June 3 meeting, several councilors acknowledged hearing from residents against these raises. Still, they chose self-service over public service.
What can we do? Fortunately, we have a recourse. Section 42 of the City Charter and Massachusetts General Laws Part I Title VII Chapter 43 Section 42 allow us to seek a repeal of these ordinances.
A group of concerned taxpayers, A Just Quincy, is collecting signatures for two referendum petitions to repeal Ordinance 2024-055, which raises the Mayor’s salary to $285,000, and Ordinance 2024-056, which raises the City Council's salary to $44,500, effective January 1, 2025.
To submit these petitions, A Just Quincy needs signatures from at least 12% of registered voters within 20 days of the ordinances' final passage. That’s over 8,000 signatures by July 10, 2024. If successful, the Clerk will forward the petitions to the City Council, suspending the ordinances and prompting immediate reconsideration. If not rescinded within 20 days, the petitions will go to a city-wide vote.
We must act now to ensure our voices are heard. Sign one or both referendum petitions to repeal these raises, or join A Just Quincy in gathering signatures. Visit ajustquincy.com or email info@ajustquincy.com to help restore integrity to our local government. Let's make a difference together.
Lorrie Thomas
Quincy
How it started vs how it’s going
One week into the repeal referendum process, we take stock
It’s been one week since a group of Quincy residents launched an effort to repeal the 79% and 50% raises for the mayor and city council, but it feels much longer.
In part, that’s because we had been working for several weeks before that to convince the city council not to vote the raises through. That work sprang up quite organically. Folks shared news of the record-setting salary range proposed by consultants connected to city officials, researched the bidding process through which the consultant’s contract came about, discovered that (a) the city has a charter, (b) the charter requires politicians’ raises to go into effect in the term following the one in which they’re voted, and after a public vote, and (c) apparently the charter has no teeth, and state law allows the raises to go through in the calendar year following a raise vote (ie, January 1, 2025).
Neighbors who had never met in real life shared findings from their public records requests and calls to the state attorney general’s office and organized protests at City Hall.
Before the June 17 council votes on the raises
Teachers got between 0 and 3% increases every year since 2015, when the mayor’s last raise went into effect. The mayor’s newly approved salary is equivalent to him making a 6% raise for each of those years.
Quincy is one of 15 cities with so-called “plan A” governments in Massachusetts. The mayor’s new raise is far out of line with what the mayors of all those other cities make
After the council rushed through the first of two votes to approve the mayor’s raise and looked set to rubber stamp both raises at the following council meeting, the group of residents that had come together started holding Zoom meetings to plan more protests and create an online poll to show the city council how many folks were against the raises. But on June 17, the council voted to push the raises through – without a public hearing – before working out a better system for calculating salary changes, which they vowed to do in the fall.
One resident who had seen the writing on the wall had already been researching how to UNDO the raises once they had passed. She found out that according to state law, any measure (like the raises) can be repealed if 12% of registered voters physically sign a referendum petition within 20 days of the measure’s final passage. We had more Zoom meetings, and debated whether we could get the 8,000 signatures needed by July 8. After all, that’s equivalent to 40% of the voter turnout in the 2023 election, which people had a higher chance of knowing about, in large part thanks to the ubiquitous yard signs and frequent mailings that one of the candidates spent about a million dollars on.
Could we, a group of about two dozen residents who had come together to organize the protests, along with the signers of our online poll, get so many signatures in such a short period of time? In the summer, when many residents are away for the July 4 holiday? Was it worth the daunting effort? And if we didn’t get the signatures, which seemed likely, would that contribute to more cynicism about residents’ ability to effect change and even about the democratic process itself?
We discussed it and decided that the effort was worth it. The trying was the whole point. By trying, we could spread awareness of how this raise process was handled, and remind our elected officials that they are meant to look out for our interests above their own. By trying, we’d meet new people, build community, and flex the muscles of our out-of-shape democracy, where less than a third of eligible voters cast ballots in the last election.
And it’s working! Nearly a hundred volunteers have taken petition forms to collect signatures, and we’re all meeting new people across the city and having conversations and (thankfully respectful) debates about how we want things to run here. I am energized after these conversations. Sometimes I start to worry that we’ll never reach our goal of 8,000 signatures at that pace, but then I stop and remind myself that those conversations are the goal. That sense of community and camaraderie is the magic that makes a street feel like a neighborhood. And that mutual sharing of information and hopes and frustrations is what a democracy is all about.
A bonus is that this magical feeling of connection and empowerment seems to be spreading, and people have been lining up to sign the petitions. So while I think that our efforts have already paid off in strengthening our democracy and community, I am increasingly hopeful that we will also meet our goal of repealing these raises and forcing our elected officials to come up with a fairer and more sensible raise process.
So if you haven’t already, please find out where to find tireless signature collectors at ajustquincy.com/petition. And stop to chat with them, even if you don’t end up signing. Talking together is not just a way to keep democracy alive. It’s our only hope.
Folks signing the petitions to repeal the mayor’s and council’s raises
—Maggie McKee
Will a higher mayoral salary encourage more candidates to run?
Incumbents’ war chests, particularly here in Quincy, seem the bigger issue
The following is from a Facebook post by Maggie McKee on June 5 (after the city council’s finance committee voted on June 3 to approve the mayor’s 79% raise).
At the city council meeting the other night, a couple of councilors mentioned that people don't tend to run for office in Quincy (and one suggested that lower-than-the-private-sector salaries could keep more women and people of color from trying).
But I think what prevents more people from running is the political machine that builds up around incumbents, making it very hard to compete as a challenger (particularly a new challenger).
For example, Quincy's incumbent mayor, Tom Koch, raised and spent more than all 85 of the other mayoral candidates on Massachusetts ballots last year, taking in about $620,000 and spending about $962,000. (https://ocpf.us/Reports/MayoralReports?year=2023)
The average amount spent by all mayoral candidates on Massachusetts ballots in 2023 was $62,000. Mayor Koch spent nearly $1 million.
That war chest (war bank vault?) seems more likely to discourage would-be contenders from throwing their hats in the ring than the mayor's purportedly "low" salary of ~$158,000 ($150k base salary plus car allowance).
If we truly want to help more people run for office, campaign finance reform might be a good place to start.
QATV interview
Maggie and Joe went on AM Quincy. In this blog post, Joe walks everyone through some of the highlights.
Joe Catalano, affectionately known as Joe C by many locals in Quincy, is a well-known figure. He serves as a producer and on-air personality for much of Quincy Access Television’s (QATV) content. Joe is widely respected for his fairness, honesty, and friendly demeanor.
Recently, I (Joe M) contacted Joe C and proposed that he feature “A Just Quincy” on his show for an interview. To my delight, he responded and had A Just Quincy reps on. On Wednesday, my colleague Maggie McKee and I overcame our shyness and appeared on his show. Let me walk you through the experience.
The interview began with the expected question: “What is ‘A Just Quincy’?” We explained that in response to the announcement of two ordinances aimed at increasing the mayor and city council salaries, a group of Quincy citizens came together to voice their protest. Notably, we informed Joe C that, beyond the two dozen active volunteers currently working with A Just Quincy, we swiftly garnered approximately 600 signatures on a survey opposing the ordinances. Most of the respondents also chose to leave comments we promised to share with the city council.
We then moved on to the nuts and bolts. What is this “petition referendum” that we are working so diligently to get signed before a quickly approaching deadline?
Maggie and I explained that the referendum is the recourse prescribed by state law when the public wants to request a repeal of recently passed ordinances. Within 20 days of the ordinance’s signing, 12% of the registered voters need to sign the petition and submit it to the city clerk’s office. In our case, we would need approximately 8,000 signatures. This Herculean task will require the assistance of many people.
Given that this task is a substantial undertaking, and there’s a very real possibility that we may not achieve our goal, why are we attempting it? The members of A Just Quincy recognize the inherent value in our efforts. By advocating for change, we’ve already made an impact. The city council lowered their salary request by $3,000 per year, resulting in a savings of $27,000 for Quincy taxpayers next year. These positive effects will continue to ripple through the years, eventually affecting pension funds. Moreover, we believe it’s crucial to wield democracy more effectively within our city. Our hope is to empower the often-unheard voices of average Quincy residents.
We’ve discussed the value of this endeavor even if we fall short. However, we’re determined to successfully submit this petition to the Clerk’s office. What will happen if we achieve our goal?
If we successfully gather the signatures and submit them to the city clerk’s office within the allowed timeframe, the City Council may decide to repeal the ordinances voluntarily. If they opt not to do so, the decision will be put to the people of Quincy through the next city election or a special election. At that point, the residents will have the opportunity to make their choice, as intended by the city charter.
We appreciate Joe C bringing up the metaphorical elephant who had taken up residence in the room. Some have suggested, including Mayor Koch and at least two city councilors, that our efforts are a personal attack on the mayor. Let me clarify: we harbor no animosity toward the mayor. Our concern lies with the excessive salary raises and the unprofessional, undemocratic process behind them.
Within “A Just Quincy,” individual feelings toward Mayor Koch are not only irrelevant but also diverse. The notion that our actions stem from personal dislike is both inaccurate and insulting. We don’t need to like or dislike the mayor to recognize when a decision is flawed.
Furthermore, let’s consider an alternate scenario: had Anne Mahoney won the election and proposed a similar salary increase package, we would still be out there collecting signatures to oppose it.
There are many reasons these raises feel wrong. Obviously, they are enormous—people do not get 80% salary increases in real life. Also, the whole process felt icky. There was almost no pushback from the city council. Even though they received many calls from constituents voicing opposition, no one really felt the need to question the appropriateness of the raises. The only councilor who did was Councilor Dan Minton. He actually proposed lower numbers but stopped short of proposing an amendment to the ordinances. But what some people have expressed was that this just doesn’t feel in line with public service. When you go into certain fields, it’s a foregone conclusion it is not for the money.
This discussion traces back to the founding of the republic. It was a topic explored in the writings of Alexander Hamilton, who believed that public servants should receive adequate compensation to meet their necessities without being vulnerable to manipulation. However, he cautioned against excessive pay that could fuel avarice and compromise their integrity. Benjamin Franklin, in a speech to the Federal Convention, also warned against enriching leaders solely for the benefit of those who seek to do so, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a balance. To Franklin’s point, although there was no natural moment to bring this up yesterday, the fact that the council is having its own salary raised dramatically along with the mayor’s is problematic.
The people participating in A Just Quincy believe that the mayor and council should have their salaries raised just as we feel everyone deserves for their salaries to rise over time. But the drastic increases, justified by a financial analysis with a suspicious methodology and flawed conclusions, defy reason and common sense.
In 2021, Quincy enlisted Dorminson Consulting to do financial analysis for Quincy, particularly around salaries. One specific report they produced was concerning the salary of Quincy’s mayor. The Dorminson report seems to have reinvented the wheel, so to speak. With thousands of mayors across the United States and approximately 100 cities having populations around 100,000 (including Quincy), a more sensible approach would have been to select 10 or 20 cities with similar characteristics and challenges to Quincy. Using those mayors’ compensation as a dataset would have provided a more relevant comparison. There are also 14 other cities in Massachusetts with a type of government similar to Quincy’s, and those could have been used as a benchmark for comparison.
However, Dorminson took a different route by comparing the mayor’s salary with that of city administrators. City administrators are a distinct type of professional. They serve as hired experts who can be dismissed if things don’t go well. Unlike mayors, they remain non-political and are accountable to the city council. Their performance undergoes scrutiny through reviews conducted by the elected body or even the public.
Dorminson based their recommendation for the mayoral salary on data from over 40 city manager positions in Massachusetts. Interestingly, the average salary for these positions amounted to approximately $169,000. To justify why the mayor of Quincy deserved significantly more, they pointed to Quincy’s population in comparison to the smaller cities and towns overseen by these city/town administrators.
However, when critics highlighted that Dorminson’s recommendation would have placed the mayor of Quincy’s salary above that of the mayor of New York — a city with 81 times as many constituents — the size comparison suddenly lost its relevance.
Lt. Gov Kim Driscoll, former Mayor of Salem
In addition to the salary and privileges afforded them by their citizens, mayors can parlay their experience and public profiles into higher office. Examples would be Kim Driscoll, former mayor of Salem, now the Lt. Governor of Massachusetts, and Secretary of Transportation and former presidential nominee Pete Buttigieg, who gained prominence for his success as mayor of South Bend, Indiana. Three mayors of mid-level cities have gone on to the presidency: Calvin Coolidge (Northampton, MA), Grover Cleveland (Buffalo, NY), and Andrew Johnson (Greenville, TN).
Mayors often go on to lucrative public-private partnerships (P3s), consulting/advising roles, corporate boards and nonprofits, education/academia, business development, etc. This diversity of opportunities underscores why mayors are not compensated like their lesser-known non-political colleagues.
Sec. of Transportation, Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg
To illustrate, literally, our point, Maggie brought some data-driven visuals. While we discuss numbers and methodology, it’s important not to lose sight of how strange and glaring these raises are. So, here we are using our sight.
In my personal opinion, this argument lacks sincerity. I don’t believe our elected leaders genuinely worry about having insufficient good opponents. It seems like an argument that sounds appealing without much critical thought. However, this issue highlights a core problem in Quincy’s democracy. People hesitate to run against the mayor because they know he will have significant financial resources (around a million dollars to spend), strong connections to power, and upsetting the likely winner is daunting.
As we discussed earlier, many competent and accomplished individuals would relish the chance to serve as mayor in this city.
Now, let’s delve into another aspect. While on my way to QATV, something struck me—perhaps it had crossed my mind before, but this time, it resonated loudly. Why are we raising these salaries now? When the Patriots or Red Sox sign a free agent, does management immediately revisit those contracts at the start of the season? No, they’ve already agreed to play for that existing salary.
This is so strange when you think about it. How is this decision, at this moment, helping the people of Quincy? These ordinances affect nine council positions and the mayor, all of whom were sworn in weeks before this conversation started. It is a strange time to give a raise, right? We aren’t in danger of losing any of these newly electeds, at least not to salary demands. There is a theory as to why it had to be now. We can talk about that in another blog post.
Thanks for going through all this with us. It’s a lot… we know.
Thoughts from a resident, data edition
Maggie McKee says the size of the mayor’s raise is far outside of state – and national – norms
These comments were made by Maggie McKee at a standout against the raises in front of City Hall on May 29, 2024 (before the council voted on them).
Hi, everyone. My name is Maggie, and I live here in Quincy with my family.
I want to start out by saying that I am not opposed to salary increases for our elected officials. I believe that all employees should get cost of living adjustments regularly, and the fact that this does not happen now is, I think, a fault in the system.
But the mayor is not proposing a different system, one that would tie his salary increases to, say, annual rates of inflation or teacher contract changes. He is simply asking city councilors to vote for a 79% raise for him, from $159,000 to $285,000. The basis for this request is a mayoral compensation review done by the City’s Finance Department.
But I do not think the council should vote for the mayor’s proposed change. That’s because the amount of the raise is far outside of state – and national – norms.
The city’s compensation review lists 42 salaries for what it calls “chief administrative officers” of relatively small Massachusetts communities, with populations smaller than two-thirds that of Quincy. The salaries of these communities’ leaders range from $98,000 (Southampton) to $293,000 (Plymouth), amounts that make $285,000 seem quite reasonable for a leader of Quincy’s larger size.
The problem is, none of the 42 communities selected have Quincy’s form of government.
Massachusetts cities and towns can choose from a bewildering menu of government types. Quincy has a “plan A” government with a mayor and a city council, for example, while Plymouth has a representative town meeting form of government, with 135 representatives elected from the city’s precincts, five elected select board members, and a town manager appointed by the select board.
All of the 42 communities list “manager” or “administrator” as the title of their city’s CEO. These positions are hired by an elected council, which can set the desired experiences and qualifications for the position – and can remove the manager at any time through a vote. Like business consultants with expertise in a particular field, these managers are workers whose contracts can be ended if their performance falls below expectations. And as a result, they seem to command salaries more in line with the private sector. Plymouth’s town manager, for example, has a master’s degree in public administration and worked as director of administration and public health in Worcester and town manager of Upton before taking the top job in Plymouth.
Quincy follows a different model. Its residents vote for mayoral candidates who can collect the required 50 certified signatures to run for office. Any eligible candidate who receives the most votes wins the seat, regardless of their level of education or prior experience. And then they serve for a set term (in typical plan A governments, that term is two years; in Quincy, it’s four).
So how much do these directly elected mayors make? I looked up the 15 plan A cities listed in the Massachusetts Municipal Association directory. Their average population is 108,000 and their average mayoral salary is $140,000.
Quincy, with a population of 102,000 and a mayoral salary of $159,141, is currently very much in line with those averages. But if the city council votes to increase the mayor’s salary by 79% – to $285,000 – it will be far out of line.
Not only that, but the mayor’s requested salary would be higher than that of Governor Healey, who makes $222,000, and our two US senators, Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, who each make $174,000.
And it would be higher than the mayors of nine out of ten of the largest US cities, which have populations ranging from 10 to 82 times Quincy’s size.
For Quincy’s mayor to potentially make more than all of those positions seems unfair, even egregious. But what troubles me the most is the fact that he felt entitled to ask for that much money in the first place. In our plan A government, also known as a “strong mayor - weak council” system, the mayor holds nearly all the power, appointing department heads and members of city boards that rule on any manner of issues. Asking for a 79% raise seems like a brazen display of unassailable power, and I can’t imagine many of us have had the temerity to request the same of our bosses.
But our tax dollars pay for the city’s expenses, and I hope that we will all raise our voices to tell our elected leaders how we want our money spent.
Collecting in-person signatures
FAQs on how to collect signatures to legally repeal the raises for mayor and councilors
We need to get about 8,000 in-person signatures of registered Quincy voters by July 8 to successfully repeal the mayor’s and council’s 79% and 50% raises, so we are going to need everyone to pitch in as much as humanly possible up to that time!
The two petitions (one to repeal the mayor’s raise and one to repeal the councilors’) are available to download and print at ajustquincy.com/petition (please print double sided). You can also request printouts using this form, or come pick them up from the porch at 117 Rawson Road starting Tuesday, June 25.
PLEASE SIGN UP FOR AT LEAST ONE LOCATION & TIME TO COLLECT SIGNATURES HERE. We will post the times and places on our website so registered voters wishing to sign the petitions can find you.
You can also just go out and collect signatures without any advance notice to us, of course (please do!). Some ideas of places to go include playgrounds, dog parks, outside T stations, libraries, and grocery stores (apparently 10 am to 2 pm on Saturday is a peak time for shoppers), or anywhere people have to wait for a while (the line outside the soon-to-close La Paloma Restaurant on Newport Ave, or the pedestrian crossing at Squantum and Hancock Streets near North Quincy T station come to mind!). You can also door knock in your neighborhood or even sit out on your front steps and chat with people as they walk by!
Every day that you collect signatures, please fill out the short form at bit.ly/quincycount with the number you got (for both the mayor and council). That way we can keep track of how many we get and how many more we need so we have the best chance of meeting our goal.
Things to note:
To be counted, the signers must be registered voters in Quincy. Ask them, “Are you a registered voter in Quincy?” and if they say yes, have them sign the form. (If they’re actually not, their signature won’t count towards the goal, but this is a numbers game, so if there are other people around who might sign, it’s best to get everyone who thinks they are a registered Quincy voter to sign as quickly as possible. If there’s no one else around, and they’re unsure if they’re registered, you can suggest that they check their registration at bit.ly/mavotercheck.)
PLEASE MAKE SURE THEIR NAMES AND ADDRESSES ARE LEGIBLE!
Since there are two different petitions - one for the mayor's raise and one for councilors' - it's important to clearly identify the forms so people know what they're signing. Because marking up the petition forms (such as with a highlighter over the words "mayor" or "council") might not be allowed (why risk it?), it's a good idea to use your own system: different-colored post-it notes (or a post-it note on just one form and not the other), or a colored ribbon tied around the clipboard used for one and not the other... Also, given that most people seem more upset about the mayor's raise than the councilors’, we recommend asking people to sign that one first. Thanks!
Here are some talking points about the raises. Please use them only to the extent necessary – talking too much can turn people off.
Signing one or both of these petitions doesn’t mean you don’t like the mayor or councilors or don’t think they deserve raises. It just means that you object to the size of the raises and/or the way they were pushed through.
For comparison, Quincy police, firefighters, and teachers recently received raises of 3% per year.
This raise would bring the salary of Quincy’s mayor from $159,000 to $285,000, making him the highest paid mayor of any city with a similar government type in the state. With the raise, Quincy’s mayor would make more than the Massachusetts governor and both US senators, as well as the mayors of major cities like New York ($258,000), Boston ($207,000), Chicago ($221,000), and Houston ($236,000).
The raise will substantially increase the mayor’s pension, which will cost taxpayers for the rest of the mayor’s life.
The report used to justify the mayor’s raise is fatally flawed and included no mayors of cities with similar government types to Quincy. It uses a specious argument that city managers’ jobs are equivalent to that of Quincy’s mayor. That’s not true. A city manager is hired and subjected to regular performance reviews (which are often public) and can be fired at any time. (If the same were true for Quincy’s mayor, it’s unclear that he would still have a job after some of the things that have taken place under his watch.)
Councilors quickly green-lit the raises without debate or a public hearing, even though they admitted that the way the pay boosts came about was flawed.
Please make sure to take a picture of each page of signatures you collect, and then drop off the completed forms (even if they only have a single signature on them!) BEFORE JULY 8 to:
Maggie McKee
117 Rawson Road
Quincy, MA 02170
617 669 1832
or
Kathy Thrun
234 Everett Street
Wollaston, MA 02170
1.617.872.4048
Or if you can’t drop them off, please email info@ajustquincy.com and let us know where to come pick up the signed forms from you.
THANK YOU!
Our next phase
They ignored the people they promised to represent. So we keep going.
Hello, neighbors!
We told city councilors that 500 people had signed our poll opposing the exorbitant raises that the mayor proposed for himself and them. But councilors voted for 79% and 50% raises anyway, so our next step is a repeal referendum.
This page contains a lot of information on what that is and what it entails. If you would rather skip to the action part, we need you to physically sign two petitions (and ideally help collect other signatures!). Please fill out this form and we’ll be in touch with you about how to do that, or come to the signing opportunities listed at ajustquincy.com/petition.
Now more on the nitty-gritty details.
Why are we against the raises? Many of us are concerned about the way the mayor and councilors pushed them through:
proposing the increases immediately after an election, so voters couldn’t weigh in on them at the polls and politicians wouldn’t have to vote on them in an election year
using a report by consultants with connections to city officials that made spurious comparisons to cities and towns with government structures that “did not correctly relate to Quincy,” according to Ward 5 Councilor Dan Minton
foregoing any opportunity for public comment, etc. etc.
City councilors acknowledged that the process was flawed and vowed to work out a system for instituting regular raises based on inflation and performance. But instead of doing that work first, on June 17 they voted to approve the huge pay jumps, bringing the mayor’s salary from $159,000 to $285,000 and the councilors’ salaries from $30,000 to $44,500 starting in 2025.
Politicians: 1, residents: 0, right? Not necessarily. If we can get enough in-person (termed “wet”) signatures, we can repeal the raises and force the council back to the drawing board.
How would this work? State law says that if 12% of registered voters sign a referendum petition protesting the raises within 20 days of their approval, one of two things will happen: (a) the city council would have to repeal the raises, or (b) the raises would be put to a vote by the public in either the next city election (in 2025) or in a special election.
How can we make that happen? There are about 66,000 registered voters in Quincy, and 12% of that is ~8,000. We have until July 8, 2024, to return the 8,000 signatures needed to repeal the raises.
Isn’t that impossible? Not impossible, but very, very hard. We are going to need all hands on deck to do it! We are asking everyone to (a) make a plan to sign the petition(s) they support and (b) help gather other signatures. If each of person who signed our poll got just a dozen signatures, we could repeal the raises!
What happens if we’re successful? We should have a big party to celebrate the power of the people! Then we should use that power to demand that the council FIRST work out an appropriate system for raises – with public input – and THEN give out raises. Doing it the other way around is just bad governance.
What if we fall short? Honestly, this is a strong possibility. But the trying is what’s important. In making the effort, we raise awareness about how our government is working (or not), and we build connections with our neighbors. We also put elected officials on notice: their actions will have political consequences. In short, we strengthen our democracy.
How can I get involved? Fill out this form if you can sign the petitions and/or help us collect more signatures! And keep checking ajustquincy.com/petition to see where and when volunteers (including, hopefully, you!) will be collecting signatures over the coming days.
Thanks for caring about our city and how it runs!
Thoughts from a Quincy resident
Ward One resident, Mike Cotter shares his thoughts on the Mayor and City Councilor raises.
Thoughts from a Concerned Citizen to City Councilors, the Mayor and All
June 7, 2024
First, I have great respect and appreciation for citizens like the Councilors and Mayor who beyond their personal and professional lives, choose to serve in elected public office. This service involves myriad, frequently overwhelming demands and responsibilities, a commitment to listen to, communicate with, and represent all constituents - and to resolve conflicts fairly. The City Council/Finance Committee meetings of 6/3/24 exposed numerous serious issues regarding salaries and raises for the Mayor and City Council; There should have been: *An absolute determination of the legal salary/raise process- whether per Quincy City Charter or G.L c. 39, s.6A, determined by the Attorney General or Mass Supreme Judicial Court. (This did not occur and out of frustration some citizens have suggested the desperate measure of suing the City to achieve the proper due process.)*Constituent input in the form of public hearings before a vote.*A reasonable resolution and schedule to the salary/raise process, so as not to repeat the current uproar and controversy. None of that happened. As I wrote to Mayor Koch after his January 2024 inauguration, I appreciate his hard work on behalf of and dedication to our City. He is a good man, very experienced, capable, politically astute and connected. With Quincy's current "Plan A" form of government, in my view, Mayor Koch is "too powerful" and the City Council is "too weak." Some comment that with rare exceptions, "If the Mayor wants something, it happens, and if he doesn't, it does not." Under his administration many very good improvements have occurred: the building of several overdue new schools, the public safety headquarters for police and fire, seawall and infrastructure repairs, the Hancock Adams Common, park upgrades, the promotion of arts, cultural and civic programs and events, etc. There have been significant "losses" as well, such as Quincy City Hospital, The Quincy Human Rights Commission, MBTA deterioration in Quincy, the loss of a master plan for the renewal of Quincy Center (as opposed to the current piecemeal development), the "preventable theft of $3.5 million in invested City pension funds, over-development, etc. I feel strongly that Mayor Koch should lead with much more commitment and effectiveness with regard to the environmental crisis, social justice, smart development, and affordability related to housing and property taxes. I look forward to and support such progress over his next, and perhaps his final 3 1/2 years. Yes, we absolutely must offer reasonable and competitive compensation to attract and keep good candidates for public service. However, there are serious concerns regarding the Mayor's raise.
There are questions about the validity and applicability of the $9500 Dorminson Consultants recommendations of $298- $370,000.
Should Quincy's elected Mayor reasonably make more than our Governor, US Senators, and the mayors of major cities in Massachusetts and throughout the U.S.?
An additional very relevant factor is the significant compensation for Mayor Koch upon his retirement with an annual pension of 80% for life. While almost all agree the Mayor (and Council ) are overdue for raises, the amounts and process are the issue. Did any "unbiased" citizens actually contact Councilors in support of these raises and this process? If, during his last campaign, Mayor Koch had proposed his salary be raised 79% to $285,000 with the resultant pension boost (and property taxes be raised up to 18% for many) would he have been re-elected, even by that slim margin of 1904 votes? Not likely. Six months into his current term, the timing, amount and approval of his raise caused me to raise a frustrated and angry sign at the June 3rd meeting which read, "Greed". It is difficult not to view this raise as a "money" grab,” to be rubber-stamped by a too weak and compliant City Council. Only new Councilor Minton had the integrity and political fortitude to refute the " consultant" and suggest a more reasonable raise for the Mayor to $230,000 and $38,000 for the Council. Councilor Minton also cast the only vote against this extreme Mayoral raise, while Councilor and Council President Cain was notably absent. Minton's compromise and any recourse, or further opportunity for public input was ruled out by the Council's sadly predictable vote. Citizens/taxpayers hoped that this controversy would be handled in an open, democratic, fiscally reasonable and fair manner - and it was not!
Moving forward: Typical raises for Police, Fire, and Teachers are 3% per year. It has been calculated that if the Mayor's salary had been raised annually by 3% (and why was it not?) it would now be approximately $213,000. This amount would still be more than that of Boston Mayor Wu at $207,000, serving a city of 650,000. The $285,000, unfortunately, is a "done deal", short of an unlikely, very expensive, and complex legal campaign to overturn the current ordinance, challenge or reform the City Charter or General Law.
At the June 17th City Council meeting-What if the Council, after voting themselves a raise to $38,000, as Councilor Minton suggested (rather than $47,000) then introduced an ordinance for a future 3% annual raise for themselves and the Mayor? Would this at least settle this matter equitably for the future? I, and many citizens /taxpayers genuinely have felt ignored, betrayed, and exploited in this latest municipal legislation. I am sure that is not the Council's intent. Perhaps this Council, with this one ordinance, could begin to "mend fences, build bridges" and move onward in partnership with Mayor Koch to resolve the many urgent priorities Quincy faces.
A Final Note-
The very controversial, conflict ridden and temporarily withdrawn Quarry Hills 99-year lease extension is looming in the wings...Citizens beware!
Councilors, as always, please act in the best interests of all Quincy citizens/taxpayers.
Sincerely and hopefully,
Mike Cotter
Surfing the waives.
June 17’s council meeting was as disappointing as expected, but it was also hard to follow.
by joe murphy
I had a dream.
The nine members of the city council were churning through the various budget items they had to vote on and they pause on one in particular. “2024-055 – Ordinance – Amending Municipal Code – Chapter 72 – Article 1 – Job Classifications and Salaries, Sec. 72-1 - Official Salary Schedule – Mayor”, The Council president, Ian Caine, announces loudly and clearly, “we are scheduled to vote on this as it cleared Finance at the last meeting. However, since then, we’ve seen vigorous opposition and I know a few of us in the body felt that it would be careless to continue without more discussion.”
Councilor Minton speaks up at this point, “Mr. President, can I speak to this?” The floor is given to Councilor Minton, who begins to unpack many of the concerns of the residents. “First, the Dorminson report recommended an unexpectedly large increase in pay for both the mayor and the council. Simple cost justification principles dictate that we need a second analysis to either confirm or dispute Dorminson’s findings. Not only was their recommended increase far larger than expected, but their methodology was also highly unorthodox. Instead of comparing Mayor Koch’s salary with mayors of similar cities, they chose to compare it with city managers. While these functions have overlap, they are entirely different types of jobs. It is unclear why Dorminson would choose to make this comparison when a robust data set from the thousands of mayors across the country already exists?”
Another city councilor speaks up, “A lot of my constituents are dismissing the Dorminson report as a report that started with a conclusion and worked backwards.”
At this point I start to feel lighter and proud as it seems like we have a city council who represent the concerns of those they are elected to represent. But then, the scene turns strange. Several of the councilors turn into FastFood mascots and I feel confused and a bit creeped out.
As it turns out, the Council’s sudden turn towards sensibility proved to be a product of my imagination, a figment of sensibility stored in the same place as a mishmash of fast-food marketing. What happened in real life made less sense and was more upsetting.
To no one’s surprise, despite hundreds of signatures and comments from residents asking for their elected representatives to pause on the 79% raise for the mayor and the 50-something % raise for themselves, both votes went through with nearly no questioning. The council did reduce their raise by about 5%, with no explanation as to where that number came from, but no one spoke up for the residents who have clearly expressed objection. It’s hard to believe that such a significant change, which will cost taxpayers millions of dollars in the ensuing decades, had almost no one questioning it. Aside from Councilor Minton, who has come out against it and suggested lower numbers (though did not propose any changes), it seemed many were in lockstep with the same talking points. In fact, at the June 3rd meeting, there were a few jokes about how what they had to say was samesies.
It's strange that there was so much repetitive agreement over such a contentious issue.
Perhaps most upsetting is the actual conduct of the meeting. I have been attending meetings for seven years and, if I’m being honest, I can attest to the fact that the meetings are very hard to follow at times. Mass.Gov defines Robert’s Rules of Order, the Parliamentary Procedure used by most cities and towns (including Quincy), as 'rules for conduct at meetings that allow everyone to be heard and to make decisions without confusion.' Reading over these rules, it’s clear that they are meant to prevent a system where meeting attendees shout at and over each other. While RRoR does seem to prevent a cacophony of shouting and opinions, it is not easy for the uninitiated to decipher. The Councilors, perhaps in an attempt to be efficient with time and to get home at a reasonable hour, often rush through sections.
They speak quickly, move their faces away from the microphones, and mumble when engaged in the parliamentary parts of the meeting (motions, seconds, votes). In contrast, they speak slowly and elegantly when thanking or praising one another, city staff, or guests. They waive readings of ordinances without regard for the people in the audience who are there to understand what is happening. I think it would be very hard for a visually or hearing-impaired person to follow along.
This past Monday was confusing enough that at least one city councilor did not understand what they were voting for. Kudos to that councilor for being honest about it the next day. It was brave and refreshing to see a Quincy City Councilor explain that they misunderstood something that was happening. I wonder how many votes over the years went one way or another because a councilor (or five) got lost in the parliamentary bog.
On the off chance that any of the Councilors read this, I am sure we agree that the meetings should not be confusing. The people of Quincy, elected officials included, should be able to follow and understand what is happening.
I’ve compiled a best-of reel from Monday’s meeting to catch you up on the salary issues and to illustrate how difficult these meetings can be to follow, even to the initiated.
I am not accusing the City Council of using mumbling and waiving as a way to deflect criticism, although some may. I do think they want to get through the meetings, which have been known to stretch into the wee hours. I just wish they’d reduce the time by perhaps praising each other less and keeping thank yous shorter, etc. It would be beneficial to take a moment to explain what is happening beyond niceties and keep people informed, even if they oppose your position. True professionalism is shown by serving those who disagree with you.
Finally, this might be comforting or terrifying, but it seems local governments work the same wherever you are. Here’s comedian, Brian Regan, talking about his experience with his city’s council.