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

Liars, damnable liars, and wannabe politicians
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Quincy Quarry News has long had an informal policy of not running political candidate endorsements even if ifs ever-growing legions of loyal readers can usually suss out who the Quarry likes and who all it does not.  

In terms of what the Quarry does not care for in this instance is the gobsmacking range of muddy falsehoods hurled in the final days of this fall’s local election season for all city council seats and half of the School Committee.

In turn, such outrages fueled Quincy Quarry News’ first official condemnation of a candidate over his posing of a thoroughly false narrative even per the lowly standards of today’s so-called political discourse on social media.

In this instance, the social media conduit used is a local Facebook page which is well-known to ban anyone who question its sentiments and most especially poses if anyone poses any demurs — however well-warranted — about Quincy’s peerless mayor.

The false narrative smear follows.

Quincy Is EVERYTHING (QIE)                                                                                                                                 . Alie Shaughnessy 

Something for the Quincy Voter to Think About.

Voters, it’s been 14 days since I walked into the Clerk’s Office at Holbrook Town Hall. I formally submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for all information concerning Holbrook’s town administrator, Anne Mahoney.  By law, the town has 10 days to produce all documents I requested.  Included in the request, among other things, was a copy of Anne Mahoney’s current contract, any previous contracts, strikethroughs or omissions within those contracts, past salary, current salary, current restrictions, and responsibilities and duties of the administrator.

I have since returned to the clerk’s office in Holbrook twice to check on the progress of my legal request, and both times I was advised that I could contact William Galvin’s Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Office to ask them to help.  That is not the answer I wanted to hear—I expected more from Anne Mahoney.  Full disclosure: I supported Anne when she was a Councilor-at-Large, and I supported her in two mayoral races against Mayor Koch.  I applaud her dedication and her work ethic.  It is not easy to put yourself in the public eye. And I congratulate her on her new full-time job as Holbrook’s town administrator.  However, I cannot understand how she believes there is no conflict of interest in being the full-time $181,000/yr town administrator for Holbrook while simultaneously becoming a Quincy Councilor-at-Large for $45,000/yr.  This screams loud and clear: CONFLICT OF INTEREST. It may be ethically legal; however, in my opinion, it is a total pension grab.

Now I am only speculating here with the estimated pension because I CANNOT get Anne Mahoney to release the information I requested under the FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT request.

So, in the spirit of guessing, I believe that if Anne Mahoney gets elected to the Quincy Councilor-at-Large position and accepts the $45,000/yr salary while staying Holbrook town administrator for 3 years, her lifetime pension would be around $180,000/yr!  Which—incredibly—would be more than the current salary of Quincy’s Mayor Koch from his full-time job, which Anne so meticulously criticizes.  If I am wrong about these numbers, I apologize, Anne, but you wouldn’t release the information to me.  That is what I would call hypocrisy, Anne.  Plain and simple.

Last week, the South Shore Building Trades met to vet political candidates for possible endorsement by the association.  For the first time, the members voted not to endorse Anne Mahoney.  Why?  Because when they discovered that Anne is the full-time town administrator of Holbrook and is hoping to become a Councilor-at-Large in Quincy, they were all in disbelief.  And when asked what she would do when put in a position to vote on topics of controversy or potential conflicts of interest, she stated she would recuse herself from voting!  So please ask yourselves before you cast your votes on November 4th: Who will BEST represent the citizens of Quincy?  Holbrook town administrator Anne Mahoney—who will recuse herself from voting—or a candidate that fully represents Quincy with no strings attached.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Sincerely,

Herbert “Alie” Shaughnessy III                                                                                                                              .  Candidate for Quincy Councilor-at-Large

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Fingers crossed don’t cut it
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Problems with what was posed above include a serious misunderstanding that in Massachusetts requests for government information are called Public Records Requests as opposed to Freedom of Information Act requests.  

That and how the asked entity is supposed to acknowledge receipt of a public record request within 10 (business) days of its receipt but providing the information sought can take awhile longer as well as that some items are exempt from providing absent — for example — a court order. 

Nothing to see her
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A further problem is a vague yet still patently flawed misrepresentation of something as a conflict of interest. 

Specifically, in the context of the above, the author floated the potential for a conflict of interest for a Town of Holbrook employee who is also a City of Quincy elected official.

Granted, conflicts of interests can and do happen, however, no valid conflict was posed, not to mention in the hard to image case of a conflict of interest as a person facing an actual conflict can simply opt to recuse from engaging in it.

For example, a collusion between a Holbrook police cruiser on its way to or from Quincy District Court and a City of Quincy ride would likely as well as simply be turned over to a Massachusetts State trooper to resolve by issuing an accident report and/or a citation which assigned fault and then proceed accordingly as regards who or what entity was noted as responsible to then cover or perhaps share the cost of the damages.

While unclear if the false claims hurled are the result of ignorance, laziness, perhaps desperation after running fifth in the primary in what is a three horse race in the general election, other reasons or perhaps a mix of some or all of the preceding, a proper and full apology over hurling the false assertions should be tendered as soon as possible.

Actually be tendered, however, is a whole other matter.

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