Here comes the Sun ☀️
Turtles, beer gardens, and council discussions on City property transactions, revenues, debt, and spending
Toodles, terrapins!
On Saturday, May 16, a big crowd met at Sailors Home Pond on Rice Road to help return turtles of all sizes to the pond following its dredging last year.
The City’s environmental scientist, Heather Lis (below), had overseen the pond project, including the turtles’ removal and transfer to the New England Wildlife Center in Weymouth. There, staff and volunteers led by father-son duo Greg and Zak Mertz (below, right) cared for them until their recent return. It was wonderful to see all the families who came out on Saturday for the homecoming, and I look forward to seeing the turtles basking on branches and logs in the pond again!
Wollaston Gardens
Friday, May 15, saw the grand opening of Wollaston Gardens, an outdoor community space featuring food, fire pits, live music, and games at the site of the long-gone Wollaston Theater on Beale Street. Seeing an empty, overgrown lot turned into a vibrant gathering spot made my heart happy (see the transformation here). Ward 1 Councilor David Jacobs and I got to enjoy the grand opening, where we ran into old and new friends!
May 11 council committee meetings
Monday was an epic, 6.5-hour night at the council, starting with an oversight committee discussion of some of the city’s property purchases. In early April, in response to the administration’s stated desire to purchase the 27-acre Eastern Nazarene College campus, I formally requested a spreadsheet of the City’s property transactions (purchases, sales, and leases) since 2010. This spreadsheet was sent to councilors on May 11, and that evening we discussed some of the 73 property purchases listed.
Councilors raised concerns about some properties that had been bought for a particular use but not acted on for years, and I asked if the administration would consider selling off some City properties to pay the $22.5 million requested to buy ENC (short answer from the mayor’s chief of staff: yes).
After the oversight meeting, there was a public hearing on the mayor’s proposed 2027 budget, which the mayor had presented the previous week and which the council can reject or reduce but cannot increase. Representatives from the fire and police departments made the case for fully funding their budgets, pointing out that additions to their staff and budgets, including 100 new firefighter positions in the last 16 years, had led to improvements in service. Residents raised questions they hoped the council would ask in upcoming budget talks, including: why the fire department has overspent its overtime budget by a million and a half dollars in each of the last four years, how much the City-owned Quincy College costs taxpayers, and whether the City-owned Furnace Brook Golf Course is bringing in enough money to account for its expenses and recent construction costs.
Following the public hearing, there was a finance committee meeting where City representatives discussed the following items in the FY27 proposed budget: revenues, reserve funds, long- and short-term debt, unemployment compensation, medicare, retirement and pensions, tax title, and department budgets for municipal finance, treasurer, assessor, clerk, elections, licensing, census, and purchasing.
So much was discussed that I can’t cover all of it, but I’ll highlight a few points of interest below.
Revenues: Property taxes (on the value of land, buildings, and vehicles) account for three-quarters of the money the City takes in, with funding from the state accounting for the next-biggest revenue source (16%). The smallest revenue stream comes from “local receipts” – that is, taxes (to register a vehicle, rent a hotel room, or eat at a restaurant) and fees (for licenses to marry, have a dog, or sell tobacco, for example).
I pointed out that the third revenue stream could probably bring in more money – something I’ve raised with some department heads in recent weeks. For example, state finance data shows that Quincy ranks near the bottom of the 50 largest Massachusetts communities in terms of the service charges (#46) and license and permit fees (#33) it collects. Happily, the finance director responded that the treasurer has just started a review of these fees, so if any adjustments are made, that should help ease budget pressures going forward.
City’s DIF accounting process not “best practice”: After education, payments on Quincy’s $1.8 billion debt make up the City’s largest expense ($95 million in the FY27 budget proposal).
Some of that debt comes from a state program called District Improvement Financing (DIF), which allows cities that opt into it, like Quincy did in 2006, to borrow money to fund infrastructure work in a particular area to spur economic growth there. The idea is that any added value enabled by that infrastructure work would be taxed, and that additional tax money would go towards paying off the program’s loans so that the program would pay for itself.
But does the program pay for itself? Unfortunately, the answer is anything but clear. In recent years, the administration stopped putting revenues from the DIF program into a separate account, or “sinking” fund, and instead mixed them in with the City’s main pot of money (the “general” fund). At the meeting on May 11, councilors asked Erik Woyciesjes of RKG Associates, a DIF consultant for the City, about “commingling” DIF and other money and whether the City should return to keeping distinct accounts. “Guidelines from the state suggest that tracking that separately is best practice,” he said. “It’s probably a good rule of thumb to follow best practices.”
Related news from last week: “The city’s credit rating has been downgraded by a second agency in less than a year due to elevated debt and shrinking reserves.” (Patriot Ledger)
Budget talks: Finally, at the May 11 meeting, several department heads came before the council to answer questions about their FY27 budget requests. Councilors flagged line items that had changed significantly since the last budget request and asked the City auditor to look into how much had actually been spent on those and other line items of interest in the last five years. When that history showed that spending had never reached the requested amount, councilors suggested cuts to an amount above the previous-highest spend but below the current request. By doing that repeatedly over the course of hours, the council was able to vote through about $240,000 of cuts to the FY27 proposal. That’s a small fraction of the City’s half-a-billion-dollar budget, but it’s a start. Over the next month, the council will hear from most of the rest of the City’s departments and will attempt to reduce as much spending as possible – without cutting essential services – to help relieve the tax burden on residents. Stay tuned!
Upcoming events and reminders
Coming weeks: Nominate a local business for a free executive training program! The program, designed to help small businesses in under-resourced communities, starts on June 24 at an in-person meeting at Quincy College, then continues with digital learning and one-on-one coaching. Nomination form.
Monday, May 18, 11:30 am @ 80 Clay Street: Public hearing on Quincy Housing Authority’s Draft Annual Plan. Submit written comments or direct questions to jmarathas@quincyha.com.
Tuesday, May 19, 6 pm @ Granite Links Golf Club (100 Quarry Hills Drive): Fashion for Compassion fundraiser to support affordable mental health care by Maria Droste Counseling Services.
Monday, May 18 @ Second floor of Old City Hall (1305 Hancock):
6:30 pm: Utility hearing
6:35 pm: Ordinance committee meeting will include discussion of repeals of mayoral and council raises.
7:30 pm: Main council meeting (agenda)
Tuesday, May 19, 7 pm @ Second floor of Old City Hall (1305 Hancock): Council finance committee meeting on proposed FY2027 budget. Departments include: human resources, education, public safety, library, health, downtown maintenance, grants, and planning.
Wednesday, May 20, 10 am – 2 pm @ 440 East Squantum Street: Free skin cancer screening in van. Call 617.376.1023 to register.
Tuesday, June 2, 7 pm @ Second floor of Old City Hall (1305 Hancock): Council finance committee meeting on proposed FY27 budget. Departments include: public works, traffic, inspectional services, IT, and public buildings.
Wednesday, June 10, 7:30 pm @ Second floor of Old City Hall (1305 Hancock): Council finance committee meeting on proposed FY27 budget. Departments include: natural resources, veterans services, council on aging, tourism, legal, mayor, council, and celebrations.
Saturday, June 13 @ 7 pm: Flag Day parade, followed by fireworks.
Resources and ways to plug in
Council news: Keep up to date with councilors’ thoughts by tuning into Council President Anne Mahoney and husband Kevin’s podcast (back after a two-year hiatus), listening to the president’s synopsis of council and committee meetings the next morning on AM Quincy, or signing up for newsletters from ward councilors (W1: David Jacobs, W2: Richard Ash, W3: Walter Hubley, W4: Virginia Ryan (email vryan@quincyma.gov), W5: yours truly).
Anyone interested in serving as a volunteer on a city board or commission can send a note with your interest and background to the mayor’s chief of staff, Chris Walker, at cwalker@quincyma.gov. Please cc me at mmckee@quincyma.gov if you’d like me to follow up on your application.
Resident council is a way for people in any ward to work together on issues they care about and then bring their proposals to city council meetings for consideration. To sign up for a resident council, fill out this form.
To learn about local organizations you can join and volunteer with, go here (and feel free to add any that are missing!).
City’s Community Resource Guide.
Report a pothole: Call 617-376-1914 or email potholehotline@quincyma.gov.
Report streetlight outages: Call 617-376-1478
The City’s Department of Elder Services offers FREE transportation to medical appointments for Quincy adults aged 60 and over. Call 617-376-1242 to register and schedule rides.
Free legal help: Lawyers Clearinghouse offers three legal clinics to help connect people with free legal help: (1) low-income and homeless clinic (they take a variety of cases but not immigration or family law); (2) record sealing and expungement (since people’s records often keep them out of jobs and housing); (3) tax lien foreclosure (for people who are facing foreclosure by the city because they haven’t paid their property taxes). If you or anyone you know could use their help, please contact Sean Thekkeparayil (sthekkeparayil@lawyersclearinghouse.org).
If you see federal agents in Quincy, please stay a safe distance away and call LUCE Immigrant Justice Network of Massachusetts with as much information as you can so they can verify the sightings: (617) 370-5023.
Coming weeks: Nominate a local business for a free executive training program! The program, designed to help small businesses in under-resourced communities, starts on June 24 at an in-person meeting at Quincy College, then continues with digital learning and one-on-one coaching. Nomination form.
Recent Quincy headlines
A true taste of the Mediterranean and Middle East in Quincy
What Quincy chef Laurence Louie has won so far on ‘Top Chef’
Quincy council may soon repeal mayor’s huge raise ‒ and their own
Here’s what each Quincy city councilor is doing with $14,700 raise
Quincy man ID’d as kayaker pulled from Boston Harbor. What we know
Moody’s downgrades Quincy credit rating, cites high debt, low reserves
Quincy City Council cuts $238,750 from Mayor Tom Koch’s budget
Could Quincy’s controversial saint statues go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court?
Keeping our eye on Quincy’s British Redcoat through the years
New Wollaston Gardens beer garden set to open this weekend in Quincy