Quincy Quarry News Weekly Fish Wrap: Statues, Sue, Spank, Whatever …

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— Quincy Massachusetts News by Quincy Quarry News – News, Opinion and Commentary.

The Koch Maladministration was slapped around in recent days.

Not that this is anything new, however.

Time to finally balance the scale of justice?
A law library image

What is new or at least somewhat new is that this time outside entities are looking likely to soon be taking names, numbers, and probably no prisoners.

First up, on Tuesday the long expected as well as previously reported by Quincy Quarry News as soon to be hitting the fan lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, The Freedom From Religion Foundation, and a number of local taxpayers hit the fan over Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch’s long secret plans to install statues of Roman Catholic patron saints on the impending new public safety building.

“Facts are stubborn things” — John Adams
An Asher B,-Durand-portrait image

So what, apparently, for the fact that Mayor Koch’s actions are not only at odds with the US Constitution’s mandate for upholding a separation of church and state, but also that the mayor is arguably even further at odds with Article 3 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights and which was oh so ironically authored by the far more consequential then-Braintree homeboy John Adams.

Further problematic legally for Quincy’s peerless mayor, the two statues.were secretly paid for with local taxpayers’ money and which in turn so poses further problems for the mayor as he is on record as saying via the local weekly tabloid that he and he alone made the decisions to do so. 

How problematic tor the mayor?

Potentially variously as well as very problematic.

A Stumpy statue
A Parthenon stature care of the Guardian

There are rumblings that both the Massachusetts Inspector General and State Ethics Commission are pondering this dispute, one can only assume that the clear appearance of the misappropriation of upwards of a million or more in public funds is all but assuredly among the things under consideration.

Especially given Mayor Koch’s latest manifestation of his likely suffering from Agalmatophilia as well as yet again tapping the city’s exchequer so as to feed the need.

Follow the money. ALWAYS FIND THE MONEY!
An oxycom.com image

And speaking of finances, Quincy Quarry News broke word of a Open Meeting Law compliant filing over Mayor Koch’s Director of Municipal Finance flat out mistaken assertion that Standard and Poor’s hung a “Negative Outlook” on the City of Quincy’s credit rating was a ding that has been pervasively hung on municipalities nationwide care of ongoing turmoil in our nation’s capital and thus by at least implication that the City of Quincy was blameless.

Au contraire, however.

Yet again taking it on the chin …
A file photo

Reality, the Standard and Poor credit report clearly stated that the Negative Outlook was hung on Quincy over its outsized debt service, slim reserves and growing much faster than inflation annual budgets, not to mention that no such macro Negative Outlook has been imposed on municipalities pervasively nationwide as mistakenly asserted by the City of Quincy’s finance director.. 

Further, when asked, Standard and Poor analyst covering Quincy reiterated his concerns about the problematic state of Quincy’s finances as well as in no uncertain terms.

City of Quincy finance director in happier times
Still image via a QATV YouTube

In turn, how is the City of Quincy Municipal Finance director’s clear misstatement of fact a problem?

Simply put, he is in a fiduciary role and thus is obligated to speak candidly as well as accurately when pressed with questions in a formal context.

For example, at a recent city council meeting during which he flat out as well as unarguably misspoke on a profoundly significant matter: the state of City of Quincy’s finances.

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