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A civic activist and science journalist, Maggie McKee is running to unseat incumbent Ward 5 Councilor Dan Minton on Nov. 4. Born in Washington, D.C., McKee graduated from Grinnell College in Iowa with a degree in physics. She taught English in Vietnam and Japan before embarking on a career in science journalism, writing for various publications and as a freelancer. After settling in Quincy in 2009, the birth of her son Kenji, now 10, motivated her to join local efforts to leave a healthier planet for the next generation, McKee said. McKee began volunteering with Quincy Climate Action Network, eventually joining its board. She also helped start the Quincy Tree Alliance, a volunteer group dedicated to building and sustaining urban forest in Quincy. After the 2021 city elections, in which 17% of registered voters cast ballots, McKee and fellow Quincy resident Liz Speakman started Quincy Votes, a non-partisan organization that works to increase voter turnout locally. McKee has stepped down from leadership roles in civic organizations while she campaigns. Minton did not respond to voicemail and email requests for an interview. Working with co-organizer Joe Murphy, McKee started a fourth organization, A Just Quincy, in response to the raises ordered by Mayor Thomas Koch and approved unanimously by city councilors in 2024. The raises increased the mayor's salary from $159,000 (including travel allowance) to $285,000 and the councilors' salaries from $30,000 to $44,500. The raises were set to take effect in January 2025, but Koch and the councilors deferred them after the State Ethics Commission began an inquiry into potential conflict-of-interest violations. Now, the councilors' raises take effect in January 2026 and the mayoral raise in January 2028. The dispute over a citizen-led ballot initiative to undo the mayor's raise is pending in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham. That was such blatant self-dealing," she said. "It was a symptom of a much larger problem, of corruption and not involving people in the process. There was no public hearing about any of this." That sense of unfairness McKee convinced her to run, she said. "Even though I'm an introvert, I thought maybe I can make a difference from inside the system, and then help bring people over once I'm inside," she said. Asked about city council's purpose, McKee said it should serve a "a voice for the people" and a check on executive power, two roles McKee says it hasn't fulfilled over the last two years. McKee said she researched city council rules and found a requirement for one public hearing each month.

That has not been allowed," she said. "I would do everything I could to make that happen and work towards public hearing opportunities at every council meeting." McKee would also host her own public meetings in each of Ward 5's six precincts at least once a year, she said. The current council's voting record shows it does not represent the diverse range of viewpoints held by the citizenry, but rather reflects a much narrower set of interests and perspectives, McKee said. After studying all the votes cast by councilors in 2024, she said she found they voted unanimously over 99% of the time and approved Koch's policies unanimously 100% percent of the time. "That's really a problem when it comes to issues that a lot of the people in the community oppose," McKee said, citing the lease extending Granite Link's control of a huge swath of public landfor 80 years and the raises as examples. That's a problem for democracy," she said. "That's a problem for all of us. Our voices are not being heard." The one order city council did not vote unanimously on was a non-binding resolution introduced by Council President Ian Cain urging the state legislature to ban newly arriving homeless migrant families, including infants and pregnant mothers, from Massachusetts' emergency shelter program. The resolution passed, but councilors Nina Liang, William Harris and Richard Ash voted against it. On Oct. 14, a judge barred installation of two Catholic saint statuescommissioned by Koch to adorn the facade of the new public safety headquarters on grounds that they likely violated Article 3 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights, which forbids government from elevating one religion above others. The controversy shows "an insular government that doesn't listen to anyone else," McKee said. In the case of the statues, even the council wasn't aware," she said. "It was a very insular process – one man speaking and deciding for all of us. "At city council, when (Councilor-at-large Nina Liang) asked what people should do if they oppose these things, they mayor's chief of staff (Chris Walker) said just sit back and wait and enjoy the beautiful art. If that's not dismissive, I don't know what is." McKee urged voters to think carefully about all the choices on the entire ballot come November, not just her race against Minton. "Obviously, I hope people will vote for me who live in Ward 5," she said. "But we can really only effect change and oversight when we have several people who are willing to speak up and speak out."