Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch ducks conflict of interest conflict?

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– News about Quincy from Quincy Quarry News
Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch ducks conflict of interest conflict?
In what has to be a first, Quincy’s Mayor Thomas P. Koch has opted to try to duck a potential conflict of interest quagmire.
In the wake of a Public Records request by a CommonWealth Magazine reporter for a copy of the bid proposal submitted to the City of Quincy by Patriot Ledger’s GateHouse Media corporate sibling Propel Marketing to promote Quincy, Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch apparently then as well as suddenly decided that there might be the appearance of a conflict of interest if he retained Propel.

Specifically, Mayor Thomas P. Koch’s spokesmodel, Pinocchio Walkbacker foisted up spin that “Mayor Thomas Koch said the GateHouse submission didn’t meet the specified criteria, and added that it was a nonstarter anyway because of the optics.”
Pinocchio then added that the “… mayor was concerned about ethical conflicts if the owner of the city’s major newspaper went to work promoting the image of the municipality …” (and he then added that, ed.) ..  “(t)his is absolutely not something the city would have entertained.”

So what for the fact that – again – this apparently sudden change of heart would clearly appear to have probably followed not only just after Commonwealth Magazine’s Public Records request, but also in the wake of not just one but rather two scathing Quincy Quarry feature exposés last year exposing Mayor Koch’s retaining Propel Marketing’s services for his recent reelection campaign.
After all, if retaining Propel Marketing to assist his reelection was apparently perfectly acceptable, why now is even but merely considering Propel’s proposal to promote Quincy ” … absolutely not something the city would have entertained (at this time, ed.)”?

This point was at least generally broached in the Commonwealth Magazine’s article.  Its reporter, however, apparently did not obtain an answer from anyone in the Koch Maladministration as to why it was perfectly fine for Mayor Koch to retain Propel’s services for his reelection campaign last year but why is Koch now as well as suddenly not willing to even but merely entertain Propel’s proposal to promote the City of Quincy on local taxpayers’ dimes.
Then again, Quincy Quarry would also love to obtain an answer to this question – along with innumerable others; however, the Quarry is news medium non grata as far as the variously questionable Koch Maladministration is concerned.
As such, Quincy Quarry will have to continue to rely on its growing legions of sources both high but mostly low to obtain answers and/or receive “dimes.”
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