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Image via Flynn Auctions
— News and commentary about elsewhere covered by Quincy Quarry News
Land shark, candy gram — whatever …
A file photo
Late in the week the Koch Maladministration rolled out is plan for the City of Quincy buying the former Eastern Nazarene College campus for redevelopment.
The plan is about what was to be expected, especially in the wake of a social media fear campaign which was rolled and poses an unlikely potential of outside sinister interests surely lurking about and at the ready to buy and then exploit the property such that the neighborhood would be overrun by development full of problematic residents.
Truth be told, it is local insiders who pose greater to far greater risks.
Heavy lifting for Sancho
An old etching
Accordingly, the Koch Machine is endeavoring to set up its peerless leader to ride to the rescue of the Wollaston flats even if serious heavy lifting or at least a Department of Public Works snorkel truck will be needed to see him both on top of as as well as astride a white charger to then lead the charge of the white brigade.
What has been posed seems to be a rational and viable plan in spite of the fact that Koch Machine has a suspect record on redevelopment as well as also a blatant one as regards favoring special interests.
The money is not so easy. Not For local tazpayers anyway
An Easy Money Associates/Orion Pictures image
For example, for all the recent construction in Quincy Center and the mayor’s claims that his grand plan would pay for itself with new tax revenue, this venture is on record as looking to run $25 million in the red in coming years before positive revenue starts to chip away at the negative — a negative taxpayers citywide will have to subsidize over decades yet to come.
Even worse, a far greater negative would likely be confirmed given a proper audit but which has yet to happen. Not yet anyway.
As for buying the former Eastern Nazarene campus, a huge concern spotted by Quincy Quarry’s financial and other affairs desk is how the machine’s proposing to use interest only playing Bond Anticipation Note (“BAN”) financing.
For starters, no bank would so cheaply finance a private developer.
Further, going with BAN financing heads off the city undergoing a full credit review at a time when the city’s finances are already under fire for cause.
Also problematic is how the Administration plans to help fund buying ENC by selling off two parcels within the Quincy Center District Improvement Fund special tax district (“DIF”).
(“Need a card?”)
A Cassius Marcellus Coolidge image
Granted, while such would reduce overall city debt, the DIF is a wholly separate proposition and thus the Administration is posing a manner of arguable commingling.
Additionally, the projected sales prices for the two properties are less than half their all in costs, not to mention that the Administration has been trying to sell these parcels for years.
Next up, published reports indicate the mayor has seen over 70 properties bought by the city at a total cost north of $100 million, far more bought than any other municipality in the Commonwealth, including Boston.
A bit over the top …
A file photo
Needless to say, a potential hoarding jones comes to mind.
Granted, some such properties purchased have been put to good use, however, the additional costs needed to utilize other properties as proposed would run into hundreds of millions and yet the mayor now wants to first take on yet another expensive venture.
Speaking of earlier plans, look to the Adams Academy building just down the street from City Hall.
The building was taken via an adverse eminent domain taking five years ago to be the anchor for an Adams family museum; however, as Quincy Mayor Koch did not concurrently take the land underneath the building as he had mistakenly believed the land belonged to the city even though such had already otherwise been decided all the way up to the Supreme Judicial Court.
No. A hard no.
A Paramount Television image
In short, while not quite grand theft land, close enough.
In turn, a whole new round of litigation so resulted and again the mayor lost upon appeal with the matter now in Superior Court to effect a resolution.
Given the length of time the city has illegally tied up the land, $10 million in damages is a solid projection as what local taxpayers are going to have to also cover.
Bottom line: the Quincy City Council should press the mayor to resolve this mess before its consider any more land takings.
Time to Defund the Hacks:
Quincy’s Municipal Farce Needs a Reset. I sat through another Quincy City Council meeting the other night, and the usual theater played out like clockwork. Questions about municipal law, procedure, and basic governance met with the familiar blend of bluster and uncertainty from the City Solicitor’s office. And it got me thinking: why are we still pretending this setup makes sense?
Here’s a modest proposal: defund the full-time City Solicitor positions and contract the work out to an actual firm that specializes in municipal law —- like KP Law. You know, the experts the city already calls in every time the in-house team clearly has no idea what they’re doing. At least this way the Mayor and Council could get genuinely independent counsel instead of the current arrangement, where the Solicitor and his crew owe their jobs to the Mayor. Guess whose interests they prioritize when push comes to shove?
The current dynamic is almost comical. The Solicitor’s office operates with all the independence of a palace guard, and the Mayor struts accordingly. Timmins can play smart-ass with the Council because, well, the boss has his back. It’s not governance; it’s a cozy little mutual protection society. Hacks galore, taxpayer-funded. But why stop at the Solicitor?
The real structural rot runs deeper. Quincy —- and plenty of other cities stuck in the same tired model -— should seriously explore a Town Manager form of government. Gather the signatures. Put it on the ballot. Let the professionals make their case.
Under this system, the mayor wouldn’t automatically inherit a throne with a built-in $285,000 salary (plus automatic cost-of-living raises). Instead, the city would hire a qualified Town Manager based on credentials, not campaign yard signs. Imagine that: actual competition.
Let Mayor Koch throw his hat in the ring and stack his résumé against people who actually specialize in running municipalities -— lawyers, accountants, and administrators with real track records. Worcester and Cambridge figured this out. Quincy still treats the Mayor’s office like a lifetime lottery ticket.
Let’s be brutally honest about the current setup. The “strong mayor” model hands someone with a high school diploma —- who was cutting lawns not that long ago -— a six-figure executive salary for running a major city, complete with automatic raises. If that same person walked into any competent private company, dropped their North Quincy High School credentials on the table, and demanded $285k, they’d be politely shown the door. Or laughed out of the building. In politics, though: Automatic jackpot.
This isn’t about any one individual. It’s about a system that rewards political connections over competence and treats taxpayer money like an unlimited slush fund for insiders. Quincy deserves better than this revolving door of mediocrity dressed up as leadership.Time to stop rewarding the insiders and start demanding results. Defund the in-house echo chamber. Push for real structural reform. The residents have nothing to lose but more of the same.
Solid argument for contracting out City of Quincy legal services.
KP Law, however, looks to already be more of the same, if not also proscribed from consideration for cause — multiple instances of cause.
Specifically, KP was retained by the Koch Machine to fight the ballot question petition to let voters weigh in on the mayor’s stupendous grifted pay raise and LOST the case to a legal team consisting of a Harvard Law School prof and a handful of law school students.
DiBona’s Still Campaigning for His Bronze Statue!
I caught the latest Quincy City Council meeting and, sure enough, Councilor DiBona was back at it — twice in one month now — recounting his epic journey across the dike during the Houghs Neck storm of 2017.
The man sounds like he’s auditioning for a bronze statue: think George Washington crossing the Delaware, except with more posing and zero actual achievement. Buddy, we get it. You walked through some rain and wind. Hang the trophy already.
DiBona did serve a purpose last night. When those citizens spoke about the lack of funding in Early Childhood Intervention Programs, who better to use as Exhibit A – to show the results of inadequate funding of early childhood programs and the results thereof later in life. I think the Council is likely to double the funding.
I say we in honor of Councilor DiBona and his heroic journey across the dike during the storm worse than Dorothy endured in Kansas, we call the Early Intervention Program the “No Councilor Left Behind” program.
Kudos to Councilor Jacobs for his comments about/to a “certain councilor” for publicly insulting other councilors (by name) at this meeting. And kudos to Councilor Mahoney for gavelling DiBoner for his lack of decorum. DiBoner should be censured for his childish and unprofessional behavior and he should publicly apologize.
DiBona should step down. His repetitive autobiography doesn’t add anything constructive to the current state of affairs in our overextended city.
“Late in the week the Koch Maladministration rolled out is plan for the City of Quincy buying the former Eastern Nazarene College campus for redevelopment.”
So, are we to understand that the Lord Mayor unveiled his plan (how many pages?) late last week and that the Council is being pressured to push it through by June 15th?
Does the administration pretend that all the details are provided — the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed? Did the plan take only a couple weeks to assemble? We’re talking about at least $15 million. Listening to the Finance Committee hearing it seems that many of the given answers could be interpreted as platitudes, many were artfully evasive, and that there is a way to go before sufficient information is provided to come to a proper conclusion.
As the saying goes: Haste makes merde.
Timmons shows his disdain for the Council every time he speaks with them. It’s palpable. He is a Guard for the Mayor, as are all the Appointed Department Heads.
The Council can’t get real answers because he cannot serve two Masters. Hell, he can’t build a small condominiums project.
Why do you think Quincy pays for so many outside attorneys? It’s because Timmins can’t dance. He certainly wasn’t #1 in class where he went to law school. He just does what he is told by Tommy, regardless of if it’s right or not.
I say cut the Department along with The Department of Coastal Resiliency and Sustainability. Make them all defend their phony baloney jobs.
The public comment portion of the council meetings has turned into a local cable access version of Saturday Night Live. For example, the individual who dresses as a clown, Clint ‘look at my shirt’ Eastwood is always good for a laugh, the ‘mayor of Hough’s Neck’ who states the debt will take care of itself ‘at the end of the rainbow’ while his contracting business profits from the development of properties in the city…
There would have been a musical act but Keytar Bear was outside the building.
Ha!
Yes, the public comment segment seems to have attracted an obnoxious array of cuckoos, cockamamies and Kochsuckers. Their antics detract — both in time and attention — from the serious people who have legitimate commentary and questions to contribute.
Agree, the folks fighting to keep the space they have for the early intervention program have a valid concern, unlike some hater who cannot accept the election results and threatens women with menacing finger pointing as well as the irate out of town influencer who has no skin in the game.
The Public Comments have turned into the Koch Show. His ignorant and disgraceful minions are just lost. Their only goal is to hate on the Council. Hank the threatener, and his daughter are just there to intimidate. The Council needs a Sergeant at Arms and the Chair should insist on respectful banter.
Quin,
You know that things are bad when the rainbow hair-colored clown who wears a red clown nose who has been speaking during open mike time at city council meetings isn’t even close to as big of a clown as are the krypto Koch klowns
I agree, an SNL skit type atmosphere with hints of a Jerry Springer audience.
The only thing missing was a Slim Pickens type commenter asking, “What in the Wide World of Sports is a goin’ on here? “
Dr Loveless,
Respectfully, more like SNL doing skit on the Jerry Springer show.
Mig, have you noticed how Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch could well be Governor William J. Le Petomane’s also moronic identical twin brother?
The time has come to set some rules with the open forum. This is the Quincy City Council meeting, why are loud mouths from another town allowed to get up and insult elected officials?
Exception to the rule would be an actual city employee who may have a vested interest in a subject matter.
Allowing a person from Weymouth to spread her hate and falsehoods is uncalled for and she has no place at this forum. This only feeds the hate cult she has been charged with creating for political reasons.
And as for the individual in the front row each week his act, his comments continue to drive any potential customers from the family business in the Monroe Building.
Rules need to be implemented restricting the attacks on the councilors, mayor or any city official in attendance and so keep the residents input on topic.
How Mayor Koch is Spending Quincy Into a Financial Hole.
Quincy taxpayers are learning a very painful lesson in high-finance management—or rather, the total lack of it. While Mayor Thomas Koch continues to praise his own leadership and tell the City Council how phenomenal the city is doing, the independent financial world is ringing the alarm bells.
The reality of the Koch administration isn’t a success story; it is a textbook example of out-of-control ego, reckless legal spending, and absolute disregard for taxpayer dollars.If you want to know how a city with an economy as strong as Quincy’s gets its credit downgraded twice, you only have to look at where the money goes.
A Trail of Million-Dollar Legal Losses.
Mayor Koch treats the city’s checkbook like an endless legal defense fund for his personal political crusades. He has built a reputation for picking fights he cannot win, losing them in court, and sticking Quincy residents with the massive bills:
The Long Island Bridge Battle: Koch has blown well over $1 million in taxpayer funds attempting to block Boston from rebuilding the bridge. Despite his aggressive stall tactics, state environmental agencies and the state Supreme Judicial Court have repeatedly handed him losses, systematically dismantling his arguments.
The Woodward School Disaster: In one of the most egregious cases of fiduciary mismanagement in municipal history, courts found that the city mismanaged a historical trust meant to benefit The Woodward School for Girls. By the time the dust settled on this decade-long ego trip, the city was forced to cough up over $5.2 million in damages, statutory interest penalties, and legal fees.
Silencing Voters (The Signature Gatherers Case): After granting himself a jaw-dropping $126,000 pay raise to push his salary to $285,000—making him one of the highest-paid mayors in the country—local advocacy groups stepped up. When citizens gathered signatures to put a rollback of his massive raise on the ballot, city officials aggressively moved to disqualify hundreds of valid names, dragging the city into yet another shameful courtroom fight to protect Koch’s personal wallet.
Vanity Projects and “Jobs for Friends”When Koch isn’t losing in court, he is quietly writing checks for vanity items. He unilaterally commissioned $850,000 worth of 10-foot-tall bronze patron saint statues to adorn the facade of the new public safety building. The decision was made completely behind closed doors without consulting the City Council or the public, sparking an immediate ACLU lawsuit and a judicial injunction that has left the expensive statues locked away in storage.While taxpayers are told to tighten their belts, the city’s payroll has functionally turned into a safety net for political allies. Critics have long pointed out a pattern of patronage, where unqualified friends and relatives—including a former city councilor booted by voters—conveniently land high-paying city gigs.
It is a system built on loyalty to the mayor rather than competence.
The Bottom Line: Double Credit Downgrades
You can only spend like a drunken sailor for so long before the bills come due. While the administration claims everything is fine, the major credit rating agencies disagree:S&P Global officially downgraded Quincy’s long-term debt rating from AA to AA-, citing a steep drop in city reserves from 8.2% down to a dangerously low 3.6%.Moody’s Ratings followed suit with its own downgrade to A1, explicitly pointing out Quincy’s towering $1.8 billion in debt and dwindling cash reserves.These downgrades mean it will now cost Quincy significantly more money just to borrow funds for basic infrastructure, roads, and schools
Mayor Koch wants the paycheck and the prestige of a Fortune 500 executive, but his actual record is a financial house of cards. Managing a city requires fiscal discipline, transparency, and a respect for public funds—qualities that are entirely absent in a mayor who puts his own ego above the city’s financial survival.
Can we include the battle with the EPA and the U.S. Attorney’s Office which required the city (taxpayers) to invest $100 million into upgrading its aging storm water and sewer systems by 2034 and to pay a $115,000 penalty? Although at a city council meeting long time City Solicitor Timmins stated it was ‘important to understand that this is not a penalty, it’s a settlement.’ I don’t know how much was spent for legal representation on that “L”.
Absolutely! As has happened repeatedly, Quincy somehow ends up shooting itself in the foot. Quincy was at the forefront, was pivotal, in suing both the MDC (since renamed DCR) and Boston Water and Sewer Commission (now MWRA) for violating the Clean Water Act. Subsequently, the Boston Harbor cleanup effort ensued and is still ongoing. A good thing.
The $100 million irony was/is that Quincy failed over the course of many years to clean up its own house and was dumping waste into Boston Harbor AFTER it sued MDC and Boston Water and Sewer to stop polluting Boston Harbor. It boggles the mind — then again, such seems to be SOP for Quincy.
And so, Quincy continues to replace leaking sewer and storm drains throughout the city.
Is there any tabulation available that indicates — in addition to the $100 million “settlement” — what has been the cost for the city’s taxpayers (of course …) given ongoing work and compliance legal expenses.
Dom, let’s not forget that MassDEP spanked the city with a roughly million dollar fix it ticket over the DPW spilling waste water into the harbor. See https://www.patriotledger.com/story/news/2013/01/02/quincy-faces-fine-over-dpw/40076874007/?gnt-cfr=1&gca-cat=p&gca-uir=true&gca-epti=z114905e006900v114905d–54–b–54–&gca-ft=223&gca-ds=sophi
Mr. Dough,
The city solicitor can shovel what he may, however, not only is a $115k penalty a penalty as well as a big one to be imposed on a municipality, the concurrent $100 million remediation fix it ticket imposed ain’t chump change.
Divide and conquer. The Mayor and his Admin. have been feeding neighborhoods their little fill, so they sit down and shut up.
You want turtles, you get turtles (I really think Sailor’s Pond was way overdue restoration). All this is absent of real financial planning, however. We all love parks but how many do we need? The old Verc at Southern Artery and Furnace Brook and now a green space pocket park diagonally opposite Merrymount Park is a perfect example of dumb. It cannot meet ADA. Who cares, however, and it will become a needle drop.
ALL of these parks come off of the tax rolls. Tommy has fired all his ammo and has no more tax munitions, without placing the City in a dangerous death spiral. But not to worry: Danny FlynnFlam is surely advising.
That and Koch drives around and says “that should be a public space and I should control it.” He doesn’t consider the cost, In his small mind, he thinks he is doing best and God Damn the cost. It has to be the Koch way. His Dad was the same with baseball. It was all fed from Sacred Heart.
“The old Verc at Southern Artery and Furnace Brook and now a green space pocket park diagonally opposite Merrymount Park is a perfect example of dumb.”
It certainly is.
A bit of history: This “park” is named “Heritage Tree Park”: the heritage of this park is that in the early 1950’s it was an ESSO gas station named Mike’s. Then, at some point, the property was sold and it became a VERC vehicle rental facility with it a complete waste of TAX dollars to subsequently buy the property as well as cost even more TAX dollars in perpetuity to maintain it — not to mention that yet another business was removed from the tax rolls.
Heritage my ass.
Speaking of pulling a fast one Louie, Quincy Mayor Koch taking the property probably saved the seller from having to pay for an expensive hazmat remediation given that underground motor vehicle fuel tanks were long in place on the property along with the potential that a pollution plume has reached nearby Blacks Creek.
I was on Quincy Shore Drive at Furnace Brook yesterday (Thursday). Quincy police cruiser 772 came down Furnace Brook and took a left on QSD towards Boston with the siren blaring at about 40 mph. Behind her was a black funeral family car and a white car but no hearse. They traveled weaving in and out of Traffic and at times crossing the double line onto the opposite lane of traffic.
These funeral details need to CEASE. A Trooper just got killed for a one way driver but Koch and Kennedy are allowing Quincy Police to race through communities at taxpayer expense to get funerals to a cemetery. A funeral procession is supposed to be slow and solemn. It is not supposed to look like a response to a prison riot. This is all done so that Koch can score points and donations with influential people in the City.
I can tell you the QPD is going to cause an accident with these unsafe escorts and the citizens will be forced to pay the victims. Someone PLEASE tell me why lights, sirens as well as also police cruisers and motorcycles racing at high rates of speed are needed to get the DEAD into the grave — Take a look at the overtime we are paying for this!
“…McKee said she engaged a private attorney to review her raise repeals after discussions with Timmins reached an impasse.
Timmins responded by accusing McKee of violating the state’s open meeting law. The law does not explicitly forbid individual councilors from consulting independent experts such as attorneys.
Asked why he thinks McKee violated open meeting law, Timmins wouldn’t say, telling The Patriot Ledger that the matter is still pending. Four people filed open meeting law complaints against McKee in the wake of Timmins’ accusation.”
The law does not explicitly forbid individual councilors from consulting independent experts such as attorneys yet four people filed open meeting law complaints against McKee in the wake of Timmins’ accusation. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.
John,
FYI: if anyone is looking at trouble, it is Timmins.
C/o a Public Records request dropped on him by one of the groundless Open Meeting Law complainants, Timmins wrongly provided as well as in surely record time email correspondence with McKee which was clearly attorney/client privilege and thus was not a Public Record.
In turn, time will thus tell if he is banged with a complaint filed with the Bureau of Bar overseers and/or is hit with a civil suit.
There was no quorum with her and her attorney unless 4 more councillors were involved.
None of the complaints say other councilors were involved.
Fan,
Also note that none of the complaints noted an actual violation of Massachusetts Open Meeting Law as well as posed patently invalid requests for sanctions.
Timmons is having a bad year or two. Give him a break.
Pretending to be a real estate developer and the City Solicitor, without knowledge of either, takes some no small of effort to appear to be competent, however, when he gets to a $550-$650 per square foot asking price for a condo, his building will rot and the interest expense will eat the deal. How much is anyone willing to pay for a unit on the Quincy Turnpike that is Sea Street?
Plus, right turns only on the way out until you can (legally) band a U at Quincy Shore Drive. Getting out in the morning is especially as people are leaving the Neck and have to contend with U-Turn people or the renters have to use the Merrymount-go-round.
Do we now have a traffic engineer (with a license)? Do city peeps know that AI exists in the traffic world? If you are reading the intersections, you should be able to time them properly. I am sure the newest Traffic Cone/Engineer can solve this — NOT!!! Fat Larry and Skinny Graz have no background for their phony baloney jobs.
Plus, MBTA buses, MWRA vehicles as well as City of Quincy DPW and police rides, that travel Southern Artery and Sea Street are getting destroyed on the poor payment at the taxpayers’ expense. Why doesn’t Tommy do Timmy a solid and pave the disaster in front of his site? Graz must hate Timmons.
This is so fun to watch. I can only wish to be a fly to the weekly meetings. Walker, Timmins, Hinds, Flynn, Shea, Fatseas, Fat Larry, Graz….. Who is the biggest liar? This is where our seemingly corrupt City is.
I hope the Dictator/Mayor chooses to respond. Face it Tommy, you’re an empty suit. Nothing more. You can dream your world away but you really put the finances of this City in a bind, due to your EGO. Live with it and leave your “out of towners at home.”
Also, please get Walker some mental therapy, he looks like he needs it. This is a very sorry excuse for an City Administration.
Maybe Walker’s hair implants went a little too deep and the hair roots are strangling his brain.
Fredzo,
More likely “wet head.”
Quinfluencer,
The guy is living a lie and thus therapy isn’t likely to work. Same/same with his boss btw.
Quinfluencer,
When did Timmins ever have a good year? Asking for a friend.
The Cost of Quincy:
Where is OUR Tax Money Actually Going?
The recent Quincy city payroll numbers should make every taxpayer stop and think. Police Captain James Flaherty took home $336,327 and so making him the city’s highest-paid employee. To put that in perspective, we are paying a single captain in a city of 100,000 people more than many specialized surgeons make. Meanwhile, teachers entrusted with our children are making a fraction of that amount.
When Mayor Koch’s supporters jump on Facebook and local blogs telling you “It’s only $20 more on your tax rate for this project,” look at who is talking. It is often the very people — or family members of people — benefiting directly from these massive municipal payouts. They want you to just shut up and pay your property taxes.
The $336,000 salary is only part of the story. Taxpayers are also funding a take-home vehicle and paying for his gas. This is just one employee. Think about the massive pensions these top earners will lock in for life AND the life of their beneficiary! If you think Quincy’s $1.8 billion debt is high now, just wait. If these salaries and benefits keep climbing, that $1.8 billion will look like pocket change.
The cycle keeps repeating. As more apartment buildings go up, the administration claims we desperately need more police captains, deputy chiefs, firefighters, and city workers. Why? Because it expands patronage jobs for donors, friends, and family members who vote exactly how they are told.
It is time for real transparency. The public deserves to know what towns these high earners actually live in while collecting Quincy taxpayer money. It is well past time for federal investigators to look into Quincy’s spending and follow the money.
A principal in the QPS makes about $135,00 a year midpoint. A police captain is making about 200,000 more than her. Something is desperately wrong.