QUINCY − What do the mayors of San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Boston all have in common? Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch will make more than all of them if city council follows the recommendations of a consulting firm hired by the city.
Koch’s current $159,00 salary should increase to as much as $370,000, the consulting firm Dorminson says. Koch’s last raise was $36,271 in 2015, a 28% raise.
The recommended salary for the mayor of Quincy, Dorminson says, is $298,957 to $370,000. Koch was paid $159,141 in 2023. Dorminson’s recommendation would be a raise of $139,816 at the lower end and $210,859 or an 88% to 133% raise. If city council OK’d the high-end recommendation of $370,000, Koch could be the highest paid mayor in the country.
How much do mayors in America’s biggest cities make?
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
Where does Koch’s pay rank among Quincy employees?
The study took two months to complete and cost the city $9,500, Municipal Finance Director Eric Mason said. It was presented to the city council’s finance committee Monday night.
Koch received $159,141 in 2023, making him the 204th highest paid Quincy employee. Now-retired Police Chief Paul Keenan topped the list at $386,796, but that includes a payout for unused sick days and vacation time.
Some department heads make more than Koch, including the commissioner of natural resources and the commissioner of public buildings, both of whom make about $171,000.
All the Quincy salaries:Check out our searchable database of the Quincy payroll
City councilors have authority over the mayor’s salary.
The recommendation comes one year after the city-hired consulting firm Gallagher recommended pay raises for several high-level city officials and department heads, which the city council approved as part of the 2023-2024 budget.
Among the larger raises approved last year were a $30,000 hike for Chief of Staff Chris Walker, $26,000 raises for Mason and Building Commissioner Paul Hines and $34,000 more for Director of Operations Helen Murphy.
When asked, Walker said the 2023 election was not a factor in not asking for a mayoral pay raise in an election year.
“(Koch) decided that last year would focus on the management team and those jobs, and the chief executive salary would be revisited,” Walker said.
Determining Koch’s pay. The method behind the recommendation
Dorminson arrived at its recommendation by examining a 2019 national survey of salaries for chief administrative officers of local governments serving populations between 100,000 and 250,000. It adjusted the median salary of these positions for inflation in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton area, which produced the low end of its recommendation, just under $299,000.
Dorminson then weighed the amount of executive responsibility exercised by Quincy’s mayor relative to executives of other Massachusetts cities, concluding that Quincy has “a strong mayoral form of government.” The report also considers Koch’s 16 years in office..
Asked why Koch should receive up to 80% more than Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, who earns $207,000 to helm a city six times as populous as Quincy, Mason said that Boston’s government places less administrative burden on its mayor than Quincy. Technically, though, both Boston and Quincy are the same Plan A form of government, considered to be a strong mayor-council governments.
Mason said that Boston has 13 full-time city councilors who make over $100,000 each and share executive responsibility with the mayor to a greater degree than do Quincy’s city councilors, who make just under $30,000.
Quincy’s mayor proposes and implements policies, influences city and school budgets and oversees public services, according to a report by the Department of Municipal Finance.
Initial response from city councilors
Councilor-at-large Noel DiBona said he does not have any comment on the recommendation right now, but he hopes councilors’ pay will be studied and modified as well.
Committee Chair and Ward 1 Councilor David McCarthy said that some town managers of communities one-tenth as populous as Quincy’s have salaries comparable or larger than Quincy’s mayor. McCarthy cited data provided by the Municipal Finance Department.
To McCarthy’s point: the town of Bolton, population 5,675, pays its town manager $170,000, according to the data.
Ward 4 Councilor James Devine said he has always thought Koch was underpaid given his responsibility level and the size of the city.
“I’ve always wondered why (Koch) never went for a raise,” Devine said. “There are so many people in city government that get paid more than he does.”
Devine said the mayor’s salary needs to be adjusted if Quincy hopes to entice the most qualified candidates after Koch’s long tenure eventually comes to an end. However, while Devine said that $160,000 is too low, he did not initially commit to a figure within the recommended range.
“That’s just a recommendation,” he said. “I don’t know if that’s what we’re going to do.”
Salaries for leaders of Massachusetts most populous cities
With 101,727 residents, Quincy is the seventh most populous city in the state. Of the cities larger than Quincy, only Cambridge’s chief executive falls into the pay range recommended by Dorminson.
- Michelle Wu, mayor of Boston, population 665,945: $207,000
- Eric Batista, city manager of Worcester, population 204,191: $273,939
- Domenic Sarno, mayor of Springfield, population 155,305: $175,000
- Yi-An Huang, city manager of Cambridge, population 117,962: $344,274
- Eilleen Donaghue, city manager of Lowell, population 114,737: $235,765, according to GovSalaries.com.
- Robert Sullivan, mayor of Brockton, population 104,713: $165,357, according to GovSalaries.com.
Who is the highest paid mayor in the country?
A 2018 report by Money Talks New named San Francisco’s Mark E. Farrell as America’s highest-paid mayor, with a salary of $300,977. Five years later, the San Francisco Chronicle reported the city’s current mayor, London Breed, made $357,000 in 2022.
However, Eric Olson of Dorminson said some city managers in California make more than $400,000 in base salary. For example, Sacramento’s city council approved a base salary of $400,052 for its city manager, Howard Chan, according to a June 2023 report by the Sacramento Bee. The Mercury News reported in January that Santa Clara City Manager Jovan Grogan will make $418,220.76 annually.
City managers act as chief executive officers of their cities, but unlike mayors, they are unelected and are hired and fired by a city council, according to the International City Management Association, much like town managers in Massachusetts.
Thanks to our subscribers, who help make this coverage possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider supporting quality local journalism with a Patriot Ledger subscription. Here is our latest offer.
