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— Quincy Massachusetts News by Quincy Quarry News – News, Opinion and Commentary.
Suffering a haircut to his plans
An old Facebook image
Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch’s attempt to endeavor to perhaps score himself a fat raise continues to rise to massive as well as unrelenting push back by locals, including their opting to pursue litigation over the City Clerk’s curious rejection of many hundreds of signatures calling for a ballot question challenging the outsized amount of the raise he initially all but unilaterally scored, if not also grifted for himself.
The pushback grew even greater when Mayor Koch posed shortly before the recent local elections given his an attempt to walkback the raise to a lesser figure which he thought he could finesse which has instead raised even more stink given his latest violation of “The First Rule of Holes” by trying to pose his so-called “compromise” proposal which is on the order of 50% greater than what rank and file city employees have received over the same time frame.
An fed-up taxpayer
A file photo
Particularly galling was how the mayor then also proposed to submit his revised raise proposal after all but one of his obsequious vassals on the City Council were not reelected.
His apparent goal with this sleight of hand?
See the lame ducks on the City Council approve his revised raise proposal before the incoming new super majority of Rebel Alliance council members are swore into office on fast approaching New Year’s Day and might be of a different mind about his proposal.
So outraged where locals that someone poked around and found that per Massachusetts General Law such a lame duck ducking of taxpayers is proscribed.
The Massachusetts Statehouse
A file photo
Specifically, Chapter 43, Section 17A, states that “(n)o increase or reduction in the salaries of mayor or city councillors shall take effect during the year in which such increase or reduction is voted, and no change in such salaries shall be made between the election of a new council and the qualification of the new council.”
In turn, an independent first term city councillor broached this statute to the Koch Maladministration and it had no choice but to halt its plans to press the lame ducks to gift the mayor with a significantly greater raise than what many thousands of local taxpayers and voters are on record as approving.
Mr. Smith started out on a City Council
Image via Colombia Pictures
Needless to say, it will surely prove interesting to see if and how the mayor may next proceed with his latest scheme to endeavor to score himself an outsized raise once the new super majority of opponents to his doings and misdoing things are swore into office as city councillors come the start of 2026.
Surely wicked amusing to watch.
I wonder how it is that a citizen in Ward 5 was able to find the statute that makes it ILLEGAL for the current lame duck city council to vote on the mayor’s new raise proposal but the City Solicitor didn’t know the law or stand up and say, “wait a minute, we can’t do this!”
Oh, and earlier when citizens behind the signature petition about the big fat raise sued, the city paid an outside law firm (KP Law) to defend the mayor’s big fat raise.
If the mayor wants a big fat raise why didn’t he use his own money instead of using TAXPAYERS money to pay a couple of in the bag consultants who “determined” he was worth even more money in spite of his only having a high school diploma.
Imagine a city of 100,000 people paying a man with just a high school diploma upwards of as much as a recommended $400k to run it?
Oh, and why should the citizens who used their own money to sue the city over the mayor’s big fat raise only to see the mayor not the TAXPAYERS-paid City Solicitor and – again — instead used taxpayers’ money to hire an outside firm KP LAW to fight the taxpayers who called bullsh*t on his scammed raise.
I think the new Council needs to look at a whole new procedure on who can hire outside firms and consultants using taxpayer funds and for what purposes they can be retained.
The incoming new city council also needs to start reviewing all department head salaries.
Plus in a City of 100,000 people various good ole boy builders are getting tax breaks for 40 years and we are paying inflated salaries and pensions.
Do the math! If someone is getting $280,000 to $ 300,000 thousand per year and then gets 72 percent of it as pension at retirement, city taxpayers will be paying through the nose until this person dies and then paying their beneficiary until their death.
Quincy should look at getting out of the pension system like some of Connecticut has done and doing a 401-K program. (the type the lowly taxpayers get – at best).
If the incoming new city council really wants to figure out waste and abuse they need to spend some money to bring in real experts who are not connected to the Koch Machine and then start cutting wasteful spending.
Local taxpayers just can’t put up with the corruption any longer what with our bond rating now trashed, we can’t fund our pension system and yet the mayor’s answer is let spend many millions more on new fire trucks and give me an 80 percent raise and yet that’s his answer to a $1.6 billion in city debt!!!
Further appalling is our mayor giving tax breaks to his rich business donors – wink, wink – and so sticking mostly homeowners to shoulder the burden for the debt, raises, equipment, statues and promotions.
Maybe it’s just me, but I think the Citizens of Quincy are ready for a new mayor.
Keep the momentum going!
High school diploma. He sat behind me and cheated off me, too lazy to do homework, his name got him to graduate, SAT score the 3rd lowest in his class, didn’t even earn his diploma.
I hope the rumors prove true: that whistleblowers (“canaries”) are already cooperating with the right agencies to expose corruption and so hold the Koch Machine in Quincy accountable through legal channels.
A quick scan of blog and Facebook comments reveals city firefighters and other city employees rallying behind Koch — he secured their jobs, promotions, and even shielded some from trouble. Rest assured, investigators likely know who benefited. It’s no secret: trace campaign donations to city payrolls, then cross-reference with those fervent defenses online, and the quid pro quo becomes glaringly obvious.
I implore the new council to alert the State OIG, the State Auditor, and Massachusetts Ethics Commission. Scrutinize appointments, promotions, political contributions, Zoning Board decisions, and the stark favoritism shown to Koch allies versus the raw deal for those without the “right” checks or connections.
Whitey, as we both know, the first dirty rat to rat out other rats all but invariably scores the best deal.
We all know that our property taxes are going to have a huge increase in 2026. How is Honorable Mayor Thomas P. Koch going to afford the future property taxes on his own Quincy residence if he is not granted a huge pay raise to pay for the increase?