Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Check in with Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch and get our weekly City hall update. How are you today, Mayor?
[00:00:05] Speaker B: I'm doing fine. Beautiful morning, Joe.
[00:00:07] Speaker A: It's just sparkling for sure. These are the days we wait for in February.
And thankfully the weather cooperated beautifully for Flag Day.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: Yeah, it was a boy, it was a great night. The crowds were great.
The parade was a lot of fun, a lot of good bands and specialty units.
Obviously the good weather helped us with the fireworks display up at Padgett.
I think it was a 10, you know, truly all around was tremendous.
[00:00:35] Speaker A: Yeah. It had Special features for America 250, some floats I hadn't seen before, which was kind of neat to see.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. You know, we try to, you know, appropriately celebrate these things. You know, as we said last year, after coming off land, it would be tough to top that. But do what we can to remind people about the 250 and how important it is and how grateful we should be.
[00:00:59] Speaker A: So. And as I mentioned Saturday night, that's really not the end. It's just the beginning of celebrations this year. We've got World cup watch parties. Kids Fest is this weekend. There's a tall ship coming, the Maritime Festival, Pride Festival, you name it.
[00:01:15] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a busy month, real busy time of year, which is great. And you know, I hear that from people all the time about how they love all the events, you know, pretty amazing.
They tell me that the amount of stuff we're able to put on for the public and it's an active city and a vibrant city and that's what you get.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: I encourage folks to go to the city website for all the details or discoverquinsy.com as well. Has a complete list calendar to print out and stick on your refrigerator so you don't miss any of them.
[00:01:44] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:01:46] Speaker A: Mayor, we need to talk this morning, if you don't mind, about your reaction to the city council's vote last night turning down the proposal to purchase the former Eastern Nazarene College.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I simply put, I'm disappointed, Joe. I think it's very short sighted.
You know, I see a body that has their eyes on the rearview mirror looking back 5, 10 years and the rearview mirror is very small compared to the windshield. We should be looking forward. This is one of those once in a lifetime opportunities to protect those neighborhoods. So I am concerned at what goes in there after the fact.
And you know, it's interesting, one of the issues Councilor McKee ran on was that the lack of meetings and public meetings. And I was shocked that she did not hold one meeting in her Ward about EMC at the heart of Ward 5.
That was quite surprising to me.
But at any rate, they're duly elected. They came to their decision and you know, we'll, we'll move on.
[00:02:47] Speaker A: Many of the, the councilors who voted against it cited concerns about the city's debts. How do you feel about that?
[00:02:54] Speaker B: Yeah, they've been, they've been, they're one one hit wonders. I mean, that's all they've been talking about. Our debt is again, I've said it a hundred times. Either it doesn't penetrate with them or they don't want to listen. They have their own narrative. The reality is a big chunk of the debt is the pension obligation bond we did, which took a unfunded liability away. So when communities compared to other communities, they need to compare what those other communities unfunded liability is and add that to that number because we solve that issue. So it gets very frustrating.
It does, it gets frustrating. I find what's fascinating, Joe, is they accused former counselors of being a rubber stamp for me.
These six members do exactly what the council president wants. They're the rubber stamp for her.
[00:03:42] Speaker A: Do you think you could have made a different presentation to convince other counselors to support this?
[00:03:48] Speaker B: I don't think so. I don't think they went with an open mind at all. I don't think. Didn't matter what we presented. I mean the comprehensive plan we presented was pretty amazing right out of the box. Raised 10, $12 million for the sale of the homes, you know, the 55 and over. We could have got this debt at neutral.
So no, I don't think they're, I don't think they have an open mind about much, quite frankly.
And some of them have said publicly, well, I don't even care if I get reelected again or if I even run again. I'm just going to be, you know, obstruct every day. It's too bad it shouldn't have to be that way because there's a case of some of them, many of them, claiming the body wasn't listening to the residents. Well, this party wasn't listening to these residents because the residents were overwhelmingly for this.
So it's fascinating the dynamics of local politics.
[00:04:39] Speaker A: Joe, I know that the president of enc, the chairman also was in the city yesterday. Have they indicated what they'll do now?
[00:04:48] Speaker B: No, I haven't had that conversation with them.
You know, we've talked leading up to this. I was told there were two people behind us wanted to purchase it. They obviously want to do the right thing with the city, but they also have debt on that property. They got to move on it and unload that debt because in addition to the debt, there's carrying costs, of course, to the place, maintaining it and security, et cetera. So I'm sure there'll be a conversation held with us trying to get a better feel of what's behind us as far as purchase.
[00:05:24] Speaker A: Is this something you think you might try again if the opportunity arises?
[00:05:29] Speaker B: I don't see how I try again with a 6 to 3 vote, quite frankly, Joe. I mean, you know, I not it's certainly not with a vote required by the city council. So I don't know of any other other other way.
So but we're going to regroup this morning, my team, and just go over things and probably have that conversation with the anc, if not today, tomorrow, and then figure where we go from here.
[00:05:54] Speaker A: What, what controls does the city have over that property right now?
[00:05:57] Speaker B: Mayor well, I mean the you know, there is a zoning being down there in place.
Very few developers could go in and make any money with that zoning. Therefore they would be looking for relief.
You know, the last proposal that was theirs was 600 units, which was extremely dense.
So I mean, if there's something more reasonable, we could look at relief.
But then they don't, you know, if the job doesn't pencil, they're not going to go forward. So what I do fear is those organizations that are protected by the Dover Amendment, Dover Amendment is pretty much exempt from local control of zoning. So that is a concern.
But we'll monitor it very closely
[00:06:40] Speaker A: going forward. Mayor Anything we should be on the lookout for in terms of city activities, purchases, changes in the departments?
[00:06:51] Speaker B: No, I don't think so. I mean, we're, you know, we'll steam ahead. We've got some incredible department heads and department managers. I mean, this city is operating on all eight cylinders.
I see people all the time, they comment how beautiful the city looks, how clean it is.
You know, they go to the library, they are at Kennedy Center. They get services from veteran services that could go on and on.
I always get comments about 911 calls and how wonderful the police in fire were.
You know, this city has outstanding services and we got a great team of people that really puts it on the line every day and delivers for the people of the city. So I'm proud of our operation. I think we're head and shoulders above most communities around us.
[00:07:38] Speaker A: Do you think that the budget cuts, the council has made so far will have any impact on services.
[00:07:44] Speaker B: Well, I haven't done that deep dive yet, Joe. I know the budget isn't finally passed yet, so I think there's some more budgets this week and hopefully we get to that final vote.
So we'll take a good look at that. I know that FEMA and me were both very concerned about the elimination of the director's job.
So, you know, we're looking at all the options.
[00:08:10] Speaker A: Speaking of, it looks like the old police station's just about gone now.
[00:08:14] Speaker B: Yeah, it's incredible how that opens up that whole corner. Yes, really cool. So when that gets finished up, of course, with the green space that the hansom wall that's being built around the property, there'll be a little nice impact on the intersection. It's going to give a little more breathing room for that right hand turn on the C street.
But at the end of the day, it just frees up the view of the brand new building, which is just magnificent. And I hear that from people all the time, how impressive it is. The building's gonna be there a long time. Built well built, quality and very aesthetically pleasing. So looking forward to getting that whole corner finished up for sure.
[00:08:49] Speaker A: Yeah. There was initially plans for maybe a park there for first responders. Is that still in the works?
[00:08:55] Speaker B: Well, there'll definitely be a park there.
You know, what we do, what kind of elements we could incorporate for first responders, I think is something we still have to kick around.
But yes, I'm still inclined to name it for our first responders who do an incredible job for the people of our city.
[00:09:14] Speaker A: Has there been a kind of a public grand opening planned yet for the new complex?
[00:09:20] Speaker B: I want to get everything done, Joe. You know, we were looking, we thought the building would be down a month ago, but you're really going to have to have it outside.
So you need that new park space to pull it off because I do think it'll be a big draw with people. And then we'll do tours, an open house, entire facility. So I'm still weeks away.
[00:09:42] Speaker A: Okay, very good.
Appreciate your time. Mayor, always great to talk to you.
[00:09:47] Speaker B: My pleasure, Joe. Have a good day.
[00:09:48] Speaker A: Thank you. You too.
