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– News about Quincy Massachusetts from Quincy Quarry News with commentary added.
The City Council defensive linez
An old Colombia Pictures image
The Quincy City Council pushed back last night on Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch’s outsized pay raises proposed for his senior suits in the wake of Quincy Quincy News exposing them.
Granted, while causality is far more illusive than many realize, Quincy Quarry’s pay raise exposé did hit the fan before the council subsequently put the proposed outsized pay raises on hold for at least a while.
Plus, the read of the room by Quincy Quarry reporter covering Quincy Mayor Koch’s presentation of his proposed Fiscal Year 2024 budget a week ago Monday was that at least some of Quincy’s City Councillors were uncomfortable with outsized raises for only some favored parities dining at the City’s trough.
“I am shocked, shocked …”
A Warner Brothers masterpiece]]>
That and understandable concerns about approving a record busting budget spending increase in an election year.
Additionally, at least a few councilllors were actually outraged by it all..
Accordingly, after some Inside Baseball back and forth, council members opted to listen to City of Quincy department heads who were scheduled to present their respective unit’s proposed budget but hold off on voting yea or nay on any of proposed massive pay raises if their work unit’s respective budget included any such proposed outsized pay raises.
“I’m in the money!”
Image via danieldervartanian.com
The crux for doing so was over the proposed outsized pay raises for the favored few.
The pushback arose care of the Koch Maladministration after seeing a compensation study by an outside consulting firm presented to the City Council but a few short weeks ago, a study that found that the City of Quincy was paying many of its senior suits less than what is paid for comparable jobs elsewhere.
The councillors were in turn expecting to be able to discuss the comparable pay study at their leisure after first approving the FY 2024 budget – say, next fall as opposed to considering such outsized raises during this month’s budget review and approval process.
So-called comp studies are typically undertaken so as make sure that an organization is paying a fair enough market rate so that its employees do not leave for a better paying gig elsewhere.
So what, apparently, for the fact that seeing at least some employees go away would be such a bad thing.
That and how the Koch Maladministration has seen virtually no one leave its senior ranks in recent years other than by death or retirement.
“Yet another national search ,,,.”
A Howie Carr/WRKO image
This, in turn, baits a key premise underlying a comp study: that those employed by the organization are duly qualified for the gigs they hold.
Local case in point, the City of Quincy’s Public Buildings Commissioner who has a woeful record at seeing consequential projects completed on both schedule and on budget.
Most anywhere else, this so-called manager would be gone.
Long gone
Pigging out at the public trough
A Melissa K. Norris image
Then again, this Kochster is rumored to have needed his longtime friend the mayor to set him up in a well-paying job after their mutual friend Dan FlynnFlam is said to have some years pretty much fleeced the now-commissioner.who is now slated to see an eye-popping 21% raise.
And then are those senior suits now working for the Koch Maladministration who left other government jobs under such dark clouds that they are now not likely to score a new place at a public trough unless a political Godfather provides it via a hack hire.
Then again, when one is in a position of such power, what else should such a person do other than see one’s friends’ score dubiously deserved second chances at taxpayers’ expense, if not also their sufferance, or at least endeavor to see their friends in need score some (suspect, ed.) leniency.
Also no heavy lifting …<br/>An Easy Money Associates/Orion Pictures image
Unfortunately, Quincy Quarry thus expects this temporary hold on granting outsized raises to only be a temporary hold as one can only reasonably assume that Quincy’s peerless mayor will doggedly bulldoze principled opposition while concurrently “enticing” the weak to do as they are told.
In any event. most of the rest of the City of Quincy’s roughly 90% of its employees are looking at but 3% raises during the upcoming fiscal year.
Except, that is, for paraprofessionals working at Quincy’s public schools.
These long woefully underpaid city employees were given close to forty percent raises as well as saw their work schedule increases from thirty hours a week to forty hours a week.
Net/net, figure close to an eighty percent increase in their gross paychecks.
Then again, such a pay increases was in the realm of reasonable as Quincy was losing paraprofesionals to other school district that are paying more than Quincy had long been underpaying.
Plus, it probably was but a coincidence that Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch’s wife at last report works as a paraprofessional at North Quincy High School.
Time for the city councillors to look out for the taxpayers instead of rubber stamping everything the mayor wants. He spends way too much money.
What we need is an Asian hatchet person elected mayor. Start cutting positions, so many screwing off. Layoff 60% of the workforce and what a financial difference will be noticed. Also, set up a brick company as lots of grifters will be s****ing them all over. Just need to pick them up.
Last night, a group of residents attended a new ZBA Board meeting in response to the new plan at the Imperial Terrace Site. Dave McCarthy, Ward One Counselor, spoke against his gathered constituents and in favor of granting a variance to build fifteen units (despite the fact that the lot is zoned for six or seven). I’m so grateful for your previous coverage of this issue. I’m (sincerely) starting to wonder whether there’s a bigger story here?
Molly,
No argument, McCarthy has been giving his ward heeling predecessor a run for her money when it comes to sucking up and whodathunk that was even but merely theoretically possible.
The ongoing expectation has been that he has been playing the role of a tool on a stool so as to audition for a well-paying but no heavy lifting City gig so as to massively pop his high three years for pension calculation purposes. The problem, however, is waiting for an opening to open up is looking to make waiting for a membership opening to open up at the Town River Yacht Club look like but day at the beach.
Now, however, given McCarthy’s championing both yet another try to score the mayor’s consiglieri Vito “DIm” TImmin’s outrageous variance grift AND his announced plans to press for another try at seeing the City Council approve the massive giveaway lease extension of the city land underneath the Granite Links Golf Course for another local crime family, one cannot help but suspect something more is afoot.
For example, perhaps the Mayor’s insiders and outside special interests are in a hurry as they may have concerns about how much longer our peerless mayor is going to be around and thus are pressing for all the grifts they can before he goes away as opposed to just becoming ever more increasingly brazen.
Between just seeing the mayor recently as well as rapidly going the way of The Picture of Dorian Gray and all of the rumblings about the feds circling the Q alone, one cannot help but wonder if Karma is finally going to come a-calling.
In any event, so long as the Merrymount community keeps showing up in force at ZBA meetings to decry the Dim’s outsized plans for the site of the former Imperial Gardens, two things are likely. One, the ZBA Chair will likely not support the ask.
And the other: Dim’s bank will likely keep increasing the interest rate on his redevelopment funding line of credit.
And as for worse case contingency planning re the variance grift sought, the neighborhood might want to set plans in place to drag a possible outsized variance approval into Land Court as Dim’s ask looks to be readily challenged successfully.
Now that Mayor Koch has signed to give small raises to Quincy’s teachers, he now has plenty of money to give big raises to his senior employees.
If we can lower Mayor Koch’s salary, will he really go looking for another better-paying job somewhere else?
Goobs,
1) If only, if only …
2) Are your familiar with the concept of “alternative revenue models?”