Quincy residents are galvanizing to slash the proposed nearly-80 percent raise for Mayor Thomas Koch and force all future raises for elected officials to be approved through a citywide vote.

“I can’t see how any mayor or city council would have the power to give themselves raises and not have any kind of feedback,” said Salvatore Balsamo, one of the residents organizing the petition. “It’s not a way to run a government.”

Balsamo is part of a group of residents behind a petition to increase the mayor’s salary instead to $183,000, support an annual 2 percent cost of living raise for all elected officials, and require future pay raises to be approved by a vote.

“We’re not against the mayor having a raise… so that’s why we proposed a 2 percent raise for every year he didn’t receive a rais

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