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Quincy council declines to advance $22.5 million ENC appropriation amid debt and transparency concerns
Summary
After extended questioning about the city’s debt, financing details and past property-management issues, the finance committee and then the full City Council declined to advance the administration’s proposal to appropriate $22.5 million for the purchase of the 27‑acre Eastern Nazarene College campus. Councilors cited insufficient detail and a need for broader fiscal transparency.
A divided City Council on June 15 declined to move forward with the administration’s plan to appropriate $22,500,000 for the purchase of the 27‑acre Eastern Nazarene College (ENC) campus, citing lingering questions about debt exposure, project detail and past outcomes of city property acquisitions.
Mister Walker, the mayor’s chief of staff, opened the meeting with a presentation of supplemental materials and described a financing plan the administration said would avoid long‑term city debt. He told the finance committee the administration had assembled appraisal material, an E&C team and a financing package it believed limited the city’s long‑term borrowing obligations and included potential sales of city properties to offset costs.
But several councilors said they did not have enough detail to support the appropriation. Councilor Mahoney urged the administration to produce a complete, multiyear debt and capital plan before approving additional obligations, saying, “Taxpayers deserve a complete understanding of the city's financial position” and noting recent credit‑rating downgrades cited by S&P and Moody’s.
Councilor McKee, who called the RFP and scoring framework a useful way to compare bidders, said the administration’s packet left unanswered questions about operating costs and whether saleable properties would actually free up credit capacity. She said she would vote no on the purchase as presented but suggested the council could exercise control through zoning and further oversight.
Councilor DeBona, who moved the appropriation in committee, cited broad neighborhood and former‑official support and said the property offered opportunities for libraries, senior services and stormwater mitigation. Several residents who addressed the full council during open forum urged the purchase to preserve neighborhood assets and address flooding.
The finance committee voted and the motion to forward the appropriation with a favorable recommendation failed in committee (committee tally recorded as 3 in favor, 6 opposed). The full council later held separate roll‑call votes on the acquisition and the appropriation; both measures failed in the council.
The council’s deliberations emphasized process and transparency as much as the proposed uses of the ENC campus. Several members urged the administration to return with more detailed project economics, explicit timelines and a clearer breakdown of which city properties would be sold and how sales proceeds would be applied.
What comes next: the council can revisit negotiations if the administration supplies the requested financial details and project controls. For now, the city will not move forward with the ENC purchase as proposed to the council on June 15.
