Quincy Mayor Koch hit with campaign finance violation amid pay raise scrutiny

Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch, who is pushing for a hefty raise, was slapped with multiple state campaign finance violations and ordered to pay $55,000 to settle the matter.

William Campbell, director of the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance, wrote a letter to Koch last week, informing the embattled Quincy mayor that a routine audit of his campaign finances and several complaints led the OCPF to determine “that the Koch Committee … did not comply with the requirements” of “the Massachusetts campaign finance law.”

“To resolve this matter, the Committee has made payments totaling $55,000, with $15,000 payable to the Commonwealth, and $40,000 payable to charitable entities of the Committee’s choice,” Campbell’s letter states. “Further the Committee has agreed to implement internal accounting procedures to more closely review contributions received prior to depositing them.”

While Campbell said the OCPF considers the matter “closed at this time,” in light of repayment, he warned that the Koch Committee may be referred to the Attorney General should there be “further instances of noncompliance with the campaign finance law.”

The penalty came after the OCPF determined that the Koch Committee violated several provisions of state campaign finance law, by taking thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions.

The OCPF found that multiple individuals made contributions to the Koch Committee and were reimbursed by another for those contributions, which raised suspicions of “true source violations,” per Campbell’s letter.

Campbell wrote that campaign finance law prohibits any person from “directly or indirectly mak(ing) a campaign contribution in any name except his own nor in any manner for the purpose of disguising the true origin of the contributions nor unless he makes his name and residential address known to the person receiving such contribution at the time such contribution is made.”

“Although circumstances may make it difficult for a committee to ascertain at the time a contribution is received that the true source is not accurate, once this fact is known the committee cannot retain and benefit from such funds,” Campbell wrote. “Further, in its reports, the Committee did not accurately reflect contributor information for multiple contributions it received.”

The OCPF further concluded that the Koch Committee improperly accepted multiple treasurer’s checks, bank checks, or other similar instruments, each of which were in excess of $100, and totaled $6,550, the letter states.

Receipt and deposit of those “excess tender type contributions” violated campaign finance law, which prohibits political committees from accepting contributions made via money order, treasurer’s check, or other similar tender types in excess of $100 in the aggregate from an individual in a calendar year, Campbell wrote.

The OCPF also found that the Koch Committee received prohibited corporate contributions that totaled at least $7,750. Campaign finance law prohibits businesses, corporations and the like, or individuals acting on behalf of those entities, from contributing money for the purpose of aiding the election of a person to elected office, or aiding or antagonizing the interest of a political party.

The law further prevents political committees or a person acting under the authority of such committees, other than those organized on behalf of a ballot question, from accepting such corporate gifts, payments or promises.

Campaign finance law also prohibits political committees from accepting anonymous contributions.

“During our review, the Committee acknowledged that it received $3,091.34 in contributions via PayPal, for which it did not have contributor information,” Campbell wrote, adding that as the Koch Committee was unable to track down that information, the contributions are considered anonymous and may not be retained.

In response to the letter, the Koch Committee said it “became aware of issues concerning compliance with the campaign finance law when OCPF brought them to our attention, and we worked quickly to resolve them,” in a statement provided to the Herald Wednesday by Koch’s chief of staff, Chris Walker.

“OCPF’s letter does not assert any intent to violate the law by the Committee and we are grateful to OCPF for identifying issues and working collaboratively with the Committee for a resolution to these issues,” the Koch Committee said. “The Committee has always worked to comply with the law and all applicable regulations and address any issues as they arise.

“The Committee will take further steps to ensure compliance with all OCPF regulations and we are pleased that this innovative resolution allowed us to support Quincy’s Asian-American community through charitable contributions.”

The OCPF violations and $55,000 settlement payment come as Koch has been taking heat for attempts to give himself a whopping raise as mayor of Quincy, while at the same time allocating $850,000 of taxpayer money for statues of two Catholic saints at a public safety building.

After seeing his 79% raise proposal rebuffed, Koch has since revised his requested pay hike from $285,000 down to $225,000. He is now paid $159,141, and, if approved by the City Council, the new salary would take effect in the next mayoral term, in 2028, per a prior statement from his office.

“To be clear, this is about the position of the mayor, and not just about me,” Koch said in a statement last week. “I haven’t even decided to run again.”