Thomas P. Koch

Thomas P. Koch ( ; born January 22, 1963) is the thirty-third and current mayor of Quincy, Massachusetts.

Biography

Mayor Koch was born and raised in Quincy, the sixth of seven children to Simone and Richard J. Koch. He is 1981 a graduate of North Quincy High School and was the class president. He took classes at the University of Massachusetts Boston but does not have a college degree. Quincy Mayor James Sheets appointed him his top aide in 1990. In 1995, he was appointed commissioner of the city's Park Department.

Political career

In February 2007, Koch resigned and challenged Sheets' successor, William J. Phelan. Koch defeated Phelan 54% to 46% in that year's election. Koch defeated Phelan by a similar margin in a rematch two years later. Koch defeated Phelan once again in 2015, winning the first four-year mayoral term in Quincy's history. Koch also defeated then school committeewoman Anne Mahoney in 2011. Koch and Mahoney, then a city councilor, faced off again 2023, with Koch winning again.

A Democrat at the time, Koch endorsed Republican Charlie Baker in the 2014 Massachusetts gubernatorial election. Baker's opponent, Democrat Martha Coakley, alleged Koch endorsed Baker because Coakley unsuccessfully prosecuted Koch ally Tim Cahill two years prior. Koch left the Democratic Party in 2018 because of his anti-abortion views. Later that year, he endorsed Baker's bid for re-election in the 2018 Massachusetts gubernatorial election.

Koch has served as chairman of the MBTA Advisory Board since 2011. In August 2021, the MBTA Advisory Board selected Koch to serve as its representative on the MBTA Board of Directors.

During 2018, Koch was interim president of the municipally-affiliated Quincy College.

In June 2024, city councilors approved Koch's request to raise his salary from $159,000 to $285,000, which would make him one of the highest-paid mayors in the United States. Following public outcry, in October Koch said the raise would be deferred until after the 2027 mayoral election. Later that month, Koch said the raise had been deferred in part due to an investigation by the State Ethics Commission.

In May 2025, a group of Quincy residents sued to prevent Koch from installing statues of Saint Michael the Archangel and Saint Florian
on Quincy's public safety building, alleging that the statutes would "unduly entangle the government with religion" and violate the Massachusetts Constitution by elevating one religion above others. The lawsuit is backed by the ACLU, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Koch has justified the statues by saying that they “transcend religion and have a deep, long-held symbolic meaning of protection for our first responders. This is about them.”

Personal life

Koch is Roman Catholic. Koch is the brother-in-law of Massachusetts State Senator John F. Keenan.

References

External links

Official page of Mayor Koch

City's web site

1963 births
Living people
Massachusetts Democrats
Mayors of Quincy, Massachusetts
North Quincy High School alumni
21st-century Massachusetts politicians

{{Massachusetts-mayor-stub