Quincy--so where is your money going? Bad enough that the headquarters is costing us $175 million ($320 million with interest). The building already has an overly expensive copper roof. Now we have two 10-foot statues going up in front of the building. The statues cost $850,000 (and will likely go over a million with site preparation). Is this the right use of taxpayer money? Is the separation of church and state dead? This is ridiculous. This is a diverse city--bringing in what appears to be religious symbolism is not appropriate.
What next? We have a mayoral 79% raise and a federal indictment of the head of the Elder Services department for stealing from the elderly. We are over a billion dollars in debt. So, what will your property taxes be? Higher, much higher….. And once again, only one City Councilor has stood up, Dan Minton - retired from the Quincy Police Department.
Come to the City Council meeting Monday night, 2/24/2025, 6:30PM. Earlier if you would like to talk with like-minded people. Or make a sign (we will provide materials). The first item on the agenda is an update about the Public Safety Headquarters.
Please consider signing the petition (prepared by Claire Fitzmaurice) demanding that Mayor Koch withdraw the artist's commission for the new statues in front of the Public Safety Headquarters on Sea Street. Thank you. https://chng.it/JWp8BvDTzn Over a thousand signatures so far!
Stay tuned for the report on the WeVoters' survey.
See you Monday!
Kathy, Susan and Ginny
WeVoters.org
22 January 2025
Hi to all and stay warm!
We Voters is proud to work together with other like-minded activist groups in Quincy to build a stronger city. Collaboration is key to making Quincy government more accountable and transparent. We are collaborating with Quincy Votes, who work towards promoting voting in municipal elections. A mission that connects with We Voters mission. Quincy Votes is having a fundraising event on Friday, January 31st. A fun event that supports an important mission.
Ginny, Kathy, and Susan
WeVoters.org
QuincyVotes Fundraising Event Flyer
15 January 2025
Dear Mayor and City Councilors:
I am writing to express my disappointment and disgust regarding the ongoing financial mismanagement and ethical lapses in the City of Quincy.
The latest revelation–the indictment of Thomas Clasby, the former head of the Elder Services Department. This is a truly egregious betrayal of trust. According to the indictment, he is alleged to have falsified Kennedy Center invoices and even stolen from the Kennedy Center donation box. His alleged buying spree included time at a music studio (to record HIS singing), a self-portrait, steak tips, and even monogrammed fleece vests for Mayor Koch’s men’s prayer group. I wonder how much of that stolen money could have gone towards renovating that poor dilapidated Kennedy Center building. How could such behavior go unchecked in a city department tasked with protecting some of the most vulnerable members of our community? This has been going on for years! None of you has expressed outrage, nor have you recommended steps to be taken to prevent this from happening again. Instead, we have heard that Mayor Koch is sad.
This is only the latest in a disturbing pattern of financial management. Previously, $3.5 million disappeared from the pension fund (and was undetected for months), and close to half a billion dollars had to be borrowed to cover a pension shortfall. The combination paints a troubling picture of fiscal irresponsibility and mismanagement. We have debt of about $1.5 billion.
The city’s penchant for vanity projects only add to the city-wide disillusionment. How are taxpayers served with these extravagant displays? You are not meeting the real needs of Quincy taxpayers. Many question whether these projects align with community priorities, yet they proceed with limited transparency and accountability.
These issues (and more) collectively reflect poorly on the city’s leadership. I urge you to take immediate and decisive action to restore accountability, transparency, and fiscal discipline in Quincy’s governance. This includes a robust audit (and not a weak financial examination conducted by a long-term, favored contractor). Quincy must “clean house”, by removing criminal and/or unqualified staff and establishing systems that work. This must include Key Performance Indicators to better catch malfeasance, poor performance, and systemic failures.
As a concerned resident and taxpayer, I believe that we Quincy citizens deserve better from elected and appointed officials. I hope to see meaningful action to address these critical issues and restore confidence in our city’s leadership.
Sincerely,
Kathy Thrun (Nason)
Cc. Quincy Sun
Patriot Ledger
Boston Globe
City Auditor
Massachusetts Attorney General
State Ethics Committee
Quincy Deferral - Just Not Good Enough
The City Council and Mayor seem to believe that deferring the raises would silence us. Good first step, but they need to take a couple of more steps.
On October 15th, we had a rally. Since the City Council President has said on several occasions that signs were not allowed in the City Council chambers, we decided to wear our messages. We wrote messages on t-shirts and masks. One of our members made labels saying Hello-I’m distraction. Some of our members held signs and talked to people in front of the City Hall.
We proudly wore our messages into City Hall, where our City Councillors did their best not to even look at us. But----we are here, we are not going away—WE ARE NOT DISTRACTIONS-we are voters, taxpayers, and proud citizens of Quincy.
We are not finished—October 26th at 2PM, in front of the City Hall. A Halloween Celebration for getting the Mayor’s and City Councilors’ attention. Prizes for the best costumes and signs.
October 13, 2024
ONE STEP FOR DEMOCRACY
BUT
THERE ARE MORE STEPS AND QUESTIONS:
On Friday, we sent out the email "Breaking News!!! Fantastic News!!!" celebrating our first win- the mayor and councilors have announced they are deferring their unjust pay raises. Without the collective effort of each and every one of you, they would have pocketed that unfair money in just over two months, on 1/1/2025. We’ve bought ourselves some time!
Now that we have taken a small victory dance, we need to understand what deferring the Quincy City Council and Mayor raises means. An ordinance will need to be written in order to amend the ordinance for the raises passed in the Spring (MA GL,Part I, Ch 43, Section 21). You should ask–will that ordinance amend the preposterous salaries? By just deferring when the salaries go into effect, the issue of the amount of those salaries is kicked down the road. Do we want the city councilors to receive a 50% salary increase in about a year’s time? Do we want the mayor to receive a 79% increase in 3 years?
Deferring the raises until after the next election cycle brings us one step closer to being in compliance with our City Charter (Chapter C, Section 17A). The Charter also calls for a public vote. Will we see a public hearing? Will we see a public vote? On any future salary raises? In a statement to the Quincy Sun - “Koch and Cain both expressed their commitment to maintaining transparency and ensuring that any future salary adjustments are fair and thoughtful.” We hope so.
This positive announcement was tainted by our mayor noting that we are distractions. ‘“There’s a lot of important work ahead and we don’t need “distractions.” Koch said’
Excuse us–we are not distractions, we are the taxpayers, you are our representatives. It is a good thing for you to listen to us.
Yes, we will have the rally on October 15th at 5:30 PM in front of the City Hall—with t-shirts and masks. We moved the start time from 6 PM to 5:30 PM since there will likely be plenty of discussion about the deferred raises and our next steps. Also, the Halloween event is still on. Let’s be sure that the mayor and city council continue to listen.
Kathy and Susan
WeVoters.org
October 10, 2024
Dear All,
At the last three council meetings, councilors have banned signs in the chamber—a sharp contrast to previous meetings before this summer and a clear violation of our First Amendment rights. At the 9/9 meeting, a community member was singled out and scolded by Council Chair Ian Cain. Then, at the 10/7 meeting, Councilor Nina Liang rudely cut off another community member during the hearing section. The Quincy Sun’s 9/26 article made it clear that the council is unlikely to reconsider the mayor’s grotesque pay raise. To top it off, Ian Cain is pushing for annual raises on top of this increase through a proposed ordinance. And for reasons unknown, the Quincy Sun has introduced new guidelines that limit the publication of public letters. All of this is evidence that Mayor Koch’s machine is pushing back against the people.
They think they can intimidate us into silence. They’re wrong.
First, WeVoters is organizing a White T-Shirt/Mask Sit-In at the 10/15 council meeting. We’ve got 50 T-shirts and 100 masks ready. We’ll meet at City Hall Plaza at 6 PM to write messages on the shirts and masks before heading into the meeting. They took our signs, they tried to silence us by threatening to escort us out, but they can’t erase our presence! We wear our messages now! We, Quincyites, will not back down.
Second, WeVoters has launched a voter registration and turnout drive. Since the council continues to ignore public demands to rescind the raises, our vote is our final say. We’ve put up flyers (see attached) around Quincy Center and posted them on wevoters.org and social media. Our flyer on NextDoor has gotten almost 6,000 views! Starting next week, WeVoters will go door-to-door for voter registration. Our message? “Are you happy with the councilors approving a 79% pay raise for the mayor to $285,000, and a 50% raise for themselves to $44,500? If not, register now and vote—your vote is your say!” We aim to increase voter turnout from last year’s 30% to 50% in next year’s councilor election. We hope you’ll join us in achieving this ambitious goal. Thanks to QuincyVotes for sharing valuable data on voter turnout disparities https://www.quincyvotes.org/notesfromquincyvotes/reducing-disparities-in-voter-turnout, we’ll be starting in areas that are underserved and have the lowest turnout.
Third, Join us on Saturday, 10/26, at 2pm at City Hall Plaza, for a Halloween Sign-Holding Event. Dress up yourself and your pets and bring your best signs! There will be prizes for the best costumes and signs. We’ll also be recruiting volunteers for our voter registration drive on the spot.
Fourth, our outreach will help us find strong candidates for next year’s councilor elections. Holding Quincy’s government accountable and transparent is a goal we share with AJustQuincy, who is working on supporting a slate of candidates. WeVoters will collaborate with them to support new candidates who embody our vision for change.
We hope to see you at the White T-Shirt/Mask Sit-In on Tuesday, 10/15 at P.M. Let’s make a statement!
Sincerely,
Susan and Kathy
WeVoters.org
October 5, 2024
Two articles in the Quincy Sun got me thinking about republics and democracy. The first was a quote from Mayor Koch (9/19). His quote was about being in favor of shortening the time for the school committee public forum. “Speaking in favor of the change, Koch said while he had seen comments regarding democracy, the country is a republic with an elected form of government.”
The second was a quote from Councilor Cain (9/26) with regard to the unlikelihood that the city council would reconsider their eye-popping raises and the lack of a public forum on the topic. “Cain said Quincy’s form of government does not require such an open forum.”
Interesting. America is a representative democracy or democratic republic, meaning that we elect our leaders to govern on our behalf within the framework of our Constitution. But do we have a representative democracy in Quincy? The Mayor has been in office for 16 years. In the 2023 election, he became the Mayor, again, with 16.2 % of the votes from registered voters. He outspent his opponent by a ratio of close to 10:1. Does Mr. Koch really represent Quincy?
Councilor Ian Cain has been the Ward 3 City Councilor for 9 years. In the 2023 election, he became the Ward 3 City Councilor, again, with 22.2% of Ward 3 registered voters. Ian Cain ran unopposed, however, Blank (aka. No one) received a vote of 6.5% of Ward 3 registered voters. Does Mr. Cain represent Quincy Ward 3?
Now consider the phrase ‘within the framework of our Constitution’. A City Charter is considered a constitution for a city government. Quincy has a City Charter that called for a public vote on any raises for elected officials (Section 17A). Further, those raises could not go into effect until after the final term of that elected official. The Quincy City Solicitor found that the City Charter was superseded by a State Law requiring neither. Amendment XXVII of the U.S. Constitution states- “No law, varying the compensation for the services of Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.” The Quincy City Charter and our Constitution appear to be trying to protect its citizens from elected officials lining their own pockets.
We need term limits. We also need to take a lot more responsibility to vote. It is a precious commodity. We are only a democracy if we participate in elections. Without voting—we can’t have a representative democracy and our city will continue to be represented by few and neither be a republic nor a democracy.
Kathleen E. Thrun
WeVoters.org
The Quincy City Council wants to give the Mayor and themselves a 3% (estimated CPI) annual raise on top of the 79% and 50% they already gave themselves. What do you think? - Kathy