Proposed $125,000 pay raise for mayor has some seeing red, asking many questions

QUINCY ‒ About two dozen residents rallied outside City Hall this week, holding signs and chanting slogans in opposition to the 79% raise Mayor Thomas Koch proposed for himself at the May 20 council meeting. Councilors are expected to vote on the raise, which would boost Koch's pay from $159,000 to $285,000, at the next council meeting on Monday, June 3.

Through a small speaker, protesters on Wednesday questioned the fairness and even legality of the raises, while criticizing city councilors for not responding to their emails and requests for information.

Protesters question reports behind Quincy Mayor Koch pay raise recommendation

Kathy Thrun questioned a compensation review by the city's finance department, which Thrun characterized as "a database that didn't have any mayors in it." The report includes a survey of salaries for the chief administrative officers of over 40 Massachusetts towns and cities. The town managers, town administrators and city managers on the list received between $98,000 (South Hampton) and $293,398 (Plymouth).

Maggie McKee elaborated on Thrun's charge that the report compares apples to oranges. She said that none of the 42 communities in the finance department's survey have the Quincy's form of government with a mayor and city council.

Plymouth, whose town manager tops the list, has a five-member select board who appoints the town manager, according to McKee. The select board "sets the desired experience and qualifications for the position and can remove the manager at any time" if performance doesn't meet expectations, McKee said.

By contrast, in cities like Quincy, the mayoral candidate with the most votes wins regardless of education and experience, according to McKee. She said she surveyed the Massachusetts communities that share Quincy's form of government, finding an average population of 108,000 (Quincy's is just under 102,000) and average salary of $140,000.

McKee said that figure is in line with the mayor's current compensation of around $159,000. If approved by city council, the $285,000 salary would be "egregious," according to McKee, raising Koch's pay well above Gov. Maura Healey and the senators representing Massachusetts, Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren.

The finance department's report contrasts sharply with McKee's assessment. It states that mayors in "Form A" governments like Quincy play a more comprehensive role than town or city managers because they have a "democratic mandate," "implement council policy," "set agendas, propose legislation and make unilateral decisions that can shape the city's future."

A "Plan A" form of government is commonly known as a "strong mayor-weak council" form of government.

Does the mayor's pay raise violate Quincy's charter?

Both Thrun and McKee questioned the legality of Koch's proposed pay hike, which would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025. Both women cited Section 17A of the city's charter, which stipulates that a raises for mayors and city councilor cannot go into effect during the term in which they are adopted. It also says the voters must approve the raises at the ballot.

City Solicitor Jim Timmins told The Patriot Ledger that a state law supersedes Section 17A of the city charter. Chapter 39, section 6A of Massachusetts General Laws gives the city council authority to determine salaries for the mayor and themselves. It adds that the any change shall not take place during the year it is approved.

Timmins points to the opening phrase of the law as proof that it overrides the charter, which reads "Notwithstanding the provisions of any city charter to the contrary ... ."

Is there a conflict of interest with the Quincy mayor pay recommendations?

Another protester, Quincy Point resident Steve Douillette, said the city's hiring of economists Eric Olsen and Jack Dorminey, principals of the consulting firm Dorminsen, to recommend an adequate compensation for Koch presents a conflict of interest because both men taught at West Virginia University, where Quincy's Municipal Finance Director Eric Mason once studied and now teaches.

Dorminson's report, presented to city councilors in April, suggested Koch should earn anywhere between $300,000 and $370,000.

Mason said he took one class taught by Olsen at West Virginia and did not know Dorminey as a student.

Mason said Quincy abided by the state's Chapter 30B procurement law, which "ensures open and fair competition for contracts paid with public money," according to an Office of the Inspector General webpage.

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Mason and Olsen both currently hold unpaid positions on an advisory board for the Center for Energy Studies at the University of Tulsa, Mason said.

Dorminson was the only contractor who submitted a bid to the city's request for proposals, which was handled not by Municipal Finance but by the city's purchasing department, according to Mason.

Pay raise recommendation comes in a non-election year

Spenser Henderson, a Quincy resident for more than 20 years, said he doesn't like the timing of the raise, coming a year after a contested election. Henderson characterized the move as Koch securing for himself a "golden parachute," given that annual pension payments are a percentage of an employee's highest paying three years of employment, according to the Quincy retirement board.

Pamela Brennan said that $285,000 is "an egregious amount of money" and pressed the city council to vote against the order June 3. Brennan said and others have sent emails to city councilors but have heard nothing in return.

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"I'm very disappointed," she said. "We have a very weak city council right now."

Brennan also said she's concerned about how the mayor's raise was introduced at the same time as raises for city councilors, which would boost their pay from about $30,000 to $47,500.

"It's incentive for them to vote on (the mayor's raise)," she said.

The city council meets Monday. Voting on the proposed mayor's raise is on the agenda, but the council's own raise is not.

Mayoral salaries in largest U.S. cities

The mayor's of America's two most populous cities, New York and Los Angeles, both come well short of the Quincy recommendation's upper limit. Here are the top four:

• Eric Adams, mayor of New York, population 8.34 million: $258,041

• Karen Bass, mayor of Los Angeles, population 3.8 million: $301,000

• Brandon Johnson, mayor of Chicago, population 2.67 million: $221,052

• John Whitmire, mayor of Houston, population 2.3 million: $236,189

Peter Blandino covers Quincy for The Patriot Ledger. Contact him at pblandino@patriotledger.com.

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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Mayor Koch's proposed pay raise: Protesters rally in opposition