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News, Opinion, and Commentary about Quincy Massachusetts by Quincy Quarry News
Give a little, get a lot in return …
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For the second week in a row, the Quincy City Council held a public hearing and for the second week in a row local citizens lined up to give council members ears full.
Wicked full as a matter of fact.
This week’s hearing was over Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch’s second attempt to extend a ground lease of city land for use by a high-end golf course, a lease that has roughly thirty years left to go before it runs out, by an additional fifty years as well as without putting the lease up for bid (among other anomalies) and so doing a serious solid for major contributors to the Mayor Koch’s campaign fund.
After all, we are talking Quincy and thus the true Quincy Way!
A puppet master doing his thing
A meme
Fortunately for council members, those in favor of the proposed sweet deal went first.
Curiously, however, while some who spoke in favor of the connected peeps who are seeking the lease extension were North Quincy High School and Quincy High School golf team members, many to perhaps most of the others who spoke in favor noted that they are from out of town.
In fact, it was noted to Quincy Quarry News by observers that many of those speaking on behalf of the favored leaseholder were reading from prepared text with much of what was put on the record sounding, well, similar in timbre.
That and it was also opined to the Quarry that perhaps they were on the clock.
Granted, the golf course operator is generous to a number of worthy causes and such, however, such is not of prime interest to the lease extension.
“Jake, it’s Chinatown.”
A Cassius Marcellus Coolidge image
Rather, what is germane is why extend a lease with over thirty years to go and if the lessee has been a good tenant.
In all honesty, no compelling reasons were offered to justify extending the current lease which has over a generation to instead go until solidly into the twenty-second century and thus working out to over three generations’ time for what is ultimately family business.
Conversely, criticisms tendered by local residents and typically taxpayers addressed how the lessee had variously failed to honor various lease obligations over the years.
Further, one public hearing commenter only properly noting that not only had the lessee not offered compensation for the shortcomings, typical practice given defaults on consequential lease obligations is to terminate of the lease or at least notice that the lease would not be renewed upon its expiration.
Hammer down that gavel!!!
A Patriot Ledger image
Further, as was the case at the public hearing last week, the council member chairing the public hearing this week on multiple occasions become snippy herself when commenters civilly posed only reasonable questions to the council and to which the chair then threatened to close the hearing and without offering answers.
In fact, the meeting chair did gavel the public hearing closed in a final fit of pique during the last person’s endeavoring to offer up comment.
The council then shifted to the posing of comments by councillors wishing to pay homage to the powers that be, if not also troll for new gigs after next fall’s city council elections.
Things do not look at least one city councillor come the elections next fall
A file photo
Particular amusing was how the City Council President called the land largely used by the golf course’s well-heeled patrons a dump rather than the well-tended bucolic Open Space that it is.
In any event, to make up one’s own mind about how things went down, Quincy Quarry News strongly recommends that the Quarry’s ever-growing legions of loyal readers stream the video of the public hearing and make their own calls.
Once again, the Council has shown its disdain for the citizens of Quincy. Anyone who offers a differing opinion is gaveled down or muted. The hubris is palpable.
The entire Council should be replaced in the next election. They have worn out their welcome. Who are they to gavel down opposing opinions? We are not allowed to speak ill of our Councilors or their actions? What happened to the 1st Amendment?
Yet they arrogantly vote themselves a raise and tell us they deserve it. I pray the State Ethics Commission sees to clawing back their previous law breaking authorizations for pay raises. I Would so love to see them have to work for free for a bit.
I also noticed that Milk Carton McCarthy has been very quiet lately. Did the Mayor tell him to shut up?
The Lord Mayor wants to fast-track this boondoggle — he knows that his time as Lord Mayor may be coming to a close and he wants to ensure that the QHA gang has as sweet a sweetheart deal as possible before he departs the corner office.
The rubber stampers are complicit and will bow down to sign whatever the hell Koch wants. Funny business as usual in Quincy.
Does anyone know were Harris was, maybe working overtime in his State Hack job. Once again DiBona embarrassed himself and the council talking in circles and coming off like he built the dug outs with the O’Connells at the ball fields. DiBona knows he is in serious trouble in next years election, or has been told.
If you’re talking about the baseball and soccer fields in Quarry Hills, they were built poorly. They flood every time it rains.
The access road to the fields’ parking lot isn’t two cars wide so when one game ends and another starts it’s gridlocked getting in and out.
It’s like someone slapped up some fields for cheapest price.
I wouldn’t brag about those fields.
The fields and related facilities are a disgrace.
Jack,
Harris was in but mostly out during Monday’s council meeting. No idea why he was out, however.
In an aside, ward 4 Councillor Devine has recused himself from the lease extension ask as he is part time bartender at Granite Links a la Harris at the Nickerson VFW post.
Next, Boner is Boner. With his long ongoing pipe dream of succeeding Koch as mayor or at least election to some sort of other lesser full time gig someday as unlikely as property tax relief in Quincy for low suffering local homeowners, the city council’s longtime emptiest suit now looks to perhaps be sucking up for a Hannon grade gig with the O’Connell’s.
So what for any appreciation that they run a family shop and expect competence unless Boner can deliver up a seriously koched-up solid, however, pimping and then voting for this giveaway of a so-called lease wouldn’t cut the mustard.
Since when does the tenant dictate the terms of a lease?
Fredzo – To answer your question, the tenant dictates the terms of the lease when the Lessor is stupid enough to let them do so. The Lessor in this case is the City of Quincy. In other words, the lessor is the Citizens of Quincy represented by our esteemed Mayor and City Council Members!
No Lessor in their right mind would allow a tenant to submit a commercial lease contract for approval by a lessor. If our Mayor and City Council Members had any brains at all, they certainly would have at least retained a specialist commercial lease legal firm to review the lease before approving it.
Our Mayor hired a legal firm to fight the Long Island Bridge proposal by the City of Boston. A brand new Long Island Bridge, if allowed to be built, would likely disintegrate and collapse into Quincy Bay before the proposed Granite Links Golf Course lease extension expires in 82 years.
It seems the chairs of the Quincy City Council meetings have been taking their ‘Snippy’ vitamins with an extra dose of condescension. Who needs HBO when you’ve got live-streamed municipal drama? Watching our elected officials spar over motions and manners feels less like civic engagement and more like an audition for Real Housewives of Norfolk County.
At this point, you almost expect the chair to end a tirade with, ‘And another thing, you’re all out of order!’
Honestly, the only thing missing is someone flipping a desk. Stay tuned for next week, when a snippy chair will likely remind everyone again whose gavel it is. Maybe we should just start selling popcorn and tickets to these meetings — might as well monetize the drama.