Moore says ‘toxic culture’ at City Hall ‘starts at the top’ as she unveils plan for mayoral candidacy

QUINCY — Linda Moore, an independent candidate for mayor of Quincy, shared her “Fix and Grow” plan during a press conference Wednesday afternoon at the Western Catholic Union Hall, 516 Maine.

The highlights of her plan include fixing potholes within 100 days, fixing communication problems within the city and creating incentive programs for neighborhoods. However, she emphasized the need to address what she called a “toxic culture” at City Hall under Mike Troup, the incumbent mayor.

“I was there for seven years (as city treasurer), and I saw it getting worse and worse and worse,” Moore said. “We need to fix that, and that starts at the top. It starts by building trust and empowering front-line workers to make a difference.

“Right now, we have a lot of workers who have to wait for a work order to fix a pothole. They fix one pothole, but 10 feet away there’s another pothole. They say they can’t fix it because they don’t have a work order. That’s just wrong. If you see something, fix it. If I see a city worker who walks by and doesn’t pick up trash, I’m going to remind them that’s their job. We all have to pitch in and help, and we all have to do our part to make it a better city.”

Moore and Troup are the candidates for mayor in the general election on April 1. Troup earned his spot by defeating former alderman Dan Brink in Tuesday’s primary.

Moore said she hopes to meet with Brink soon in an effort to recruit his voters to her side.

“I know last night, he said he was going to support the Republican candidate,” she said. “I respect him for that. I’ve had a lot of Republicans who said publicly, ‘I have to support the Republicans,’ whatever that means. When voters hear both platforms, the Brink voters are going to see that I am closer to their candidate than to the Troup voters,

“I have the city voter list. I don’t know who’s Republican or Democrat, and I like it that way because I don’t care. The R’s and the D’s don’t mean as much to me as maybe it does to some party aficionados. I know that what I want to do serves both the Republicans and the Democrats. If you live in Quincy, my platform is for you.”

Other aspects of her platform are:

• Promising to fix all potholes on city-managed streets within the first 100 days of taking office. “That doesn’t mean the roads are going to be repaired in that 100 days. It means the potholes are going to be fixed so that you won’t lose a child in them,” Moore said. “I’m going to communicate to everybody what the plan is to fix the streets. We know we have to replace the water and sewer lines underneath. We have a lot of roads that need to be replaced or repaired or resurfaced, and I want to share that plan with everybody. I want it on the website where it’s easy to find, easy and accessible.
• Fixing communication problems within the city. “How often do you see on Monday night where a council member says, ‘I just got this when I arrived tonight’?” Moore said. “That’s unacceptable. We need to make sure our council members know first, but then we also share information with the general public so you can review what’s on the agenda for Monday night. You have the weekend to call (your alderman) and let them know how you feel about it. Most people don’t really know what’s going on, because there’s no way to get you the information. Our council agendas and our council packets must be published and available for the public by the end of day on Friday at the very latest, maybe even sooner.”
• Create incentive programs for neighborhoods. Moore said she wants to create an “adopt-a-block” program where a group might help cut the grass, pick up the trash, get rid of weeds or plant some flowers in a one-block area. “I’ve had a number of churches and scouting organizations who came to me and said, ‘I want to help. How can we help in our neighborhoods?’ Neighborhoods need a hand up. They need to know somebody cares about them. … It’s not going to cost the city any money. It may cost us a little time and energy.”

Moore also proposed monthly meetings with all government units to reduce tax burdens, as well as a scorecard system that will tell residents how city government is doing. “We can keep our residents more informed for accountability,” she said.

She said her “Fix and Grow” plan is needed to help create a financially stable model for the city. 

“The city has a number of revenue streams. Some go up in one year and come down in the next year,” Moore said. “Each of the individual revenue streams aren’t necessarily stable, so to speak, so we need a plan that when revenues go up, we have a way to save that money for the next year when we know revenues are going to go down. 

“Over the next couple of years, I see revenue growth being very, very tight. Our sales taxes are not keeping up with inflation. (Troup) can say that the dollar amount has increased, but it’s increased less than the inflation rate.”

Moore concluded her press conference by taking questions from the two dozen people in attendance. One was about how to get more people to vote. Moore said more candidates — and a larger variety of candidates — would run if the city had non-partisan elections. She said she’s running as an independent because she doesn’t agree with the Republican or Democratic party platforms.

“It would have been a lot easier for me to say, ‘Oh, I’m a Democrat,’ because then I would have had lots of funding coming my way from (Illinois Gov. JB) Pritzker and (U.S. Sen. Dick) Durbin and (U.S. Sen Tammy) Duckworth, and maybe even (former President Joe) Biden and (former Vice President Kamala) Harris, but I didn’t agree with their platform.

“I also don’t agree 100 percent with the Republican platform. I love some of the things that Donald Trump is doing. I don’t necessarily like some of his tactics, so I didn’t fit in either place. Where I’m at, and where I’ve always been, is in that middle. I think a lot of people are in the middle. So often it’s the middle that feels like they don’t matter and that they don’t have a say. I believe the independents probably have a greater say than either of the parties because more people are independent than either party.”