Attacks between candidates get personal at debate

QUINCY - The two mayoral candidates sharply attacked each other’s integrity in a televised debate that dragged in-laws and campaign supporters into the fray.

Mayor William Phelan said his opponent, Thomas Koch, is part of the city’s “old-boy network” and accused him during Wednesday’s debate of having demonstrated a fear of standing up to the establishment. Phelan repeatedly turned his attention to the camera and vowed to fight for taxpayers, not insiders.

Koch said the mayor is running a disingenuous image crusade. He said Phelan often mentions that he held the line on municipal contracts in the midst of a springtime strike by teachers but fails to acknowledge that he “gave the store away” to highly paid superior officers in the police department, three of whom are the mayor’s in-laws.

The debate, held in the studio at Quincy Access Television, was sponsored by The Patriot Ledger. Jack Sullivan, the newspaper’s editorial page editor, moderated, asking questions submitted by readers and e-mailed by debate viewers.

The hour-long debate was heated, and the candidates, who also questioned each other directly, traded plenty of jabs.

Koch’s first question to Phelan dealt with a waterfront home on Babcock Street, which belongs to the mayor’s wife and in which members of her family lives.

Koch estimated that renovations to the house were worth close to $250,000, even though the figure on a city building permit is $30,000. He said the company that did the work stands to make millions of dollars by selling Quincy downtown property that is needed for construction of a road.

Records show that the work was done by F.X. Messina Enterprises, the Braintree company that owns the Quincy Fair Mall.

Phelan said the house is lived in by his father-in-law, former Mayor Arthur Tobin, who is clerk magistrate of Quincy District Court and one of the “most ethical people” he knows.

“This shows how desperate you are to become mayor,” Phelan said.

Koch pressed Phelan on why the renovation had cost just $30,000.

“I don’t know,” Phelan said.

The two continued an ongoing dispute over whether Koch in the late 1990s was in favor of building a new Quincy High School on top of a former industrial landfill.

According to Phelan, Koch gave public support to the ill-fated site as park commissioner by presenting designs for athletic fields there, despite having opposed the location in a memo.

Phelan said it was emblematic of Koch being a “good soldier doing what you were told to do.”

“Why aren’t you standing up when things are wrong in the city?” Phelan asked Koch. “I’ll tell you why. You’re part of that old-boy network.”

Phelan said Koch’s supporters include individuals and companies linked to crime and illegal contracts during the administration of former Mayor James A. Sheets.

Koch in turn said the mayor has people working for him who would fail a criminal background check. Sullivan asked him to elaborate; Koch declined.

Koch also suggested the mayor recently removed two individuals from the city’s Youth Arena Board because they support Koch’s campaign.

John P. Kelly may be reached at jkelly@ledger.com.