Quincy residents say mayor's $285K salary is just too high

Boston Globe

4 days ago

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Perdios and Salvatore Balsamo are behind the community group, which must collect 6,000 signatures by Sept. 23 to possibly add a ballot question re-setting the mayor's salary at $183,000.
That figure would give Koch a 2 percent cost-of-living raise for each year since his last salary increase. Perdios said it's fairer than the 'egregious' $285,000 the Quincy mayor is scheduled to receive three years from now whether Koch or someone else is in the position.
'We really believe that people should have reasonable pay raises,' Perdios added. '[$183,000] is far more than the average person in Quincy makes.'
Koch has held the office since 2008, making him Quincy's longest-serving mayor. He has governed as an independent since he left the Democratic Party in 2018 due to his anti-abortion stance. Most recently, Koch has come under fire for planning to install 10-foot statues of Catholic saints on the city's new public safety building. Residents have sued to block the plan in
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Koch defended the scheduled salary increase as reflective of the extraordinary work the role requires, including logging 80 hours a week and administering a city budget of nearly half a billion dollars.
'It's not somebody that just shows up and cuts a ribbon for a new business,' Koch said in a phone interview with the Globe on Thursday.
The mayor drew comparisons between his job and that of a private sector chief executive officer, both of whom he said have to manage personnel, negotiate investment deals, and generate wealth — in his example, for Quincy homeowners. He also pointed to his record across his 17-year tenure of constructing new housing and schools, as well as rebuilding parks and seawalls.
'I would do this job for free, because I love what I do. But in reality, I'm the CEO,' Koch said. 'If you looked at the CEO role of this job against the private sector, it'd be a half a million dollar salary and it'd be bonuses every year based on what you produce.'
He acknowledged that elected officials sign up to be paid less.
Koch has been criticized for taking a pay raise that will put the mayor of the seventh-largest city in Massachusetts high on
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'I think the mayor of Boston is underpaid. I think every major city, if you look at the salary, they're all underpaid,' Koch said.
He added that the mayor of Boston's salary should be higher than that of the Quincy mayor, because she manages a larger staff and budget.
The compensation for most members of Congress is $174,000 and Vice President JD Vance will take home $289,400 this year — just a few thousand dollars more than the Quincy mayor will earn in 2028, data from the National Taxpayers Union Foundation shows.
Mayors are often among the few people who can initiate changes to their salaries. Quincy residents interviewed by the Globe said
on Monday that the solution to that dilemma is simple: leave the matter for constituents to decide.
'We're the boss, they work for us,' Perdios said. 'We, as their employer, should set their salary.'
Perdios's proposed ballot question would include a measure to give citizens the exclusive right to alter elected officials' salaries.
Rose Merry, a 33-year-old resident who works in the food industry, said it 'should be up to the people' to decide elected officials' salaries. She believes a modest cost-of-living increase is appropriate while the city still has roads it needs to fix.
'I just feel like the raise is taking away from the other things that Quincy needs,' Merry, who has lived in the city for 13 years, said.
She added that she is uncomfortable seeing Koch take a pay raise while local businesses close.
'Seeing a lot of these buildings with businesses that've been here for a long time getting torn down and not being able to open back up again is really sad,' Merry said.
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Solomon Yilma, who has lived in Quincy for 23 years and owned a coffee shop there for seven more, expressed concern for what comes next for residents.
'They pay their raise, they ask people for more in taxes,' he said. 'It's a circle.'
The future of the petition to lower the Quincy mayor's pay raise is uncertain, however.
Perdios and Balsamo's effort falls into a legal hole for the Commonwealth. Even if the petitioners collect 6,000 signatures, the Quincy solicitor believes that under Massachusetts state law, the public
may not be allowed to change an elected official's salary, according to minutes of a Monday meeting of city officials and community organizers that was shared with the Globe.
That right is reserved for city councils, possibly setting up the community group for a future legal fight.
'We haven't seen anything clear, and he hasn't given us anything clear,' Perdios said. 'We'll address it as it comes up.'
A different community group, 'A Just Quincy,' attempted to cancel Koch's pay raise after it was passed last summer, but fell short of the 6,000-signature requirement to revoke the law within 20 days of passage.
The City Council ordinance also increased city councilors' salaries from about $30,000 to $47,500 and introduced annual salary adjustments, performance-based changes, and an independent committee that will review the mayor's salary every five years.
Jade Lozada can be reached at