An appeal for state oversight of golf course deal

Note: I gave these comments virtually at a public hearing held on June 24, 2025, by the Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government. The committee, made up of state legislators from the House and Senate, is weighing whether to approve a “home rule petition” by the City of Quincy to allow it to waive state rules on lease lengths and competitive bidding processes in order to give a longer lease to the Granite Links Golf Club to operate its for-profit business on public land.

If you’d like to submit written comments to the joint committee, you can do so here (reference bill number H.3897). The deadline for comments is Tuesday, July 1, at 5 pm.

Good afternoon chairs and committee members. My name is Maggie McKee, and I live in Quincy. With so many home rule petitions before you, I imagine this one might seem like a no-brainer. It sailed – unanimously – through the Quincy City Council in December so quickly that it included errors that had to be corrected in a second, also unanimous, council vote the following month. With that kind of momentum, the new, longer lease must represent a mandate from Quincy residents, right? Wrong.

An earlier iteration of the lease extension became a campaign issue in the 2023 city election, since the mayor and most of the incumbent councilors had taken thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from golf-club-related donors. But just weeks before voters were set to cast their ballots, the issue had become so unpopular that the golf course developer withdrew the lease proposal from consideration.

Following that election, the developer resubmitted a lease extension proposal that was shorter by 17 years but still wildly unpopular. Only one of 23 speakers at a public meeting at the golf course in December expressed unwavering support for the proposed lease, with many folks asking why the proposal was being rushed through when there were still more than three decades left on the current lease. In response, the mayor’s chief of staff said the home rule petition still had many more hurdles to clear even if it passed the council, explaining that it had to go before the state legislature and then be signed by the governor. “It’s a pretty far cry from a done deal,” he reassured concerned residents.

I hope that’s true, and that you all seriously consider the issue before you: whether it’s in Quincy residents’ best interest to waive state laws that require competitive bids and limit the lease of public land. The unanimous city council votes did not represent the will of the people of Quincy, and those of us who still have faith in the democratic process are counting on you to do your due diligence and ensure that this petition gets the scrutiny it deserves at the state level. Thank you for representing us.