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Board of Aldermen 3-24-2020 Page 3
REMARKS BY THE MAYOR

Yes Madam President. First thank you for arranging this meeting so that many people could participate
remotely. This is consistent with what we are trying to do throughout the community. And | had a couple of
things that | wanted to address tonight. The first being the Coronavirus and the City response, our
community’s response to this pandemic. Of course our goal along with social distancing we are talking
about and all of the other steps we are taking is to limit or contain the spread of Coronavirus, protect as
many people in our community as we possibly can, keep people safe and disease free. So we have
instituted a number of measures. First of all, Madam President, right here the Board of Aldermen is having
a remote meeting so that people do not get exposed to others. But we also have taken the steps which we
discussed before of the City Hall that is closed to the public, is working remotely, most employees are
working remotely, except for essential employees who are coming and working on the job. Those, of
course, include Police Fire, First Responders, as well as our Street Department picking up the garbage and
the people plowing snow like this morning and people who work at the sewage treatment plant.

We have also taken other steps and we are working very closely now with a number of people in the City.
First of all with our hospitals; Southern New Hampshire Medical Center and St. Joe’s and the medical
people there and the National Guard which | will detail in a moment as well as, of course, our own
employees, our Public Health Director Bobbie Bagley and Emergency Management Director Justin Kates
and their respective staffs. We attended a meeting yesterday at Nashua High School South involving all of
these participants including the hospitals and doctors and medical people. The purpose there was 1) with
the State of New Hampshire, the Department of Health & Human Services to open up an alternative care
site at Nashua High School South where people could stay if the hospitals become overwhelmed. And that
will be a site and the second site will be Nashua High School North.

Now what the Medical Director of Southern laid out at the time, | think he’s just telling us what is within the
realm of possibility, maybe probability but probably just possibility, he pointed out that there is some
modeling down out of the University of Pennsylvania suggesting that Nashua could get, the Nashua Region
could get 2,500 cases of people who need to be hospitalized because of severe symptoms, mostly
pulmonary distress. These people would all be at risk because if breathing stops obviously, a person can’t
survive that. The two hospitals are gearing up as much as they possibly can and increasing their bed
counts. Once they do that, Southern will have about 200 beds and St. Joe’s about 175. So 375 people, it
would be possible to take care of 375 people in the two hospitals, assuming no one else is there for any
other serious and acute emergencies. Dr. Scherer the Medical Director pointed out that the hospitals could
never care for 2,500 people at the same time. Now this may sound extreme and maybe it is. But as we
have seen what is happening in Italy where the death count went up again today, Tuesday they are a little
ahead of us and in New York where the number of cases has been doubling every 3 days and is up to
25,000 and climbing rapidly. If we don’t take steps to contain the disease and it begins to spread freely,
the number or the impact on the community can be very, very dire. So we are trying to avoid that.

Hence the steps to work remotely from City Hall, closing City Hall and the like, the Governor has ordered
all restaurants and bars to be closed. That, of course, has worked a great hardship on a number of people
but we are trying to save people’s lives. Also our schools are closed and the School Department, Dr.
Mosley, is instating remote learning, which involves computer and also hand out of paper homework and
lesson plans and the like. Now here in New Hampshire right now, we have 101 cases, that’s as of
yesterday but the testing is behind; only one positive case so far in Nashua. There are seven in
Manchester. But the testing is behind because some of the people in Nashua, there’s a couple a family of
the person that has the virus, when the tests were taken on Thursday the results aren’t in yet. So the
testing is definitely behind. The 101 number comes from yesterday and we don’t know what the number is
today; | don’t think it has been announced today. A number of other people in Nashua have been tested
and we will have to see.

Again it is very important that we limit public gatherings according to the Government no more than 10; so
a step that after meeting with all of these medical people that | felt we needed to take was to suspend the
fixed route bus system because as we talk this through, the buses are a relatively small space where there

Board of Aldermen 3-24-2020 Page 4

can be a lot of people gathered together. If any one person on the bus happens to be infected, and we
know that people can be infected without having symptoms or mild symptoms, they could potentially infect
a lot of other people. There have been cases down in Connecticut where one person attends a gathering,
spreads it to others, it gets to others, so we suspended the fixed route bus system until the epidemic
passes a bit. We have though beefed up on the paratransit or call for ride system so that people who need
to get to an essential appointment which would include medical, pharmacy, going to the grocery can call
and get a ride and they would be charged. So expanding that number of people who are eligible for this
service; usually it is just ADA or disability qualified. It will be expanded to include the essential trips that |
mentioned and people would be charged normal price of $1.25 per trip. So we hope that will help with the
need for people who really have to get ... in order to limit the disease and limit the spread of the disease. It
just seemed like contained buses which carried a number of people could be a very likely place where the
virus could spread.

We have many people who are working very hard on this in addition to all of those that | mentioned, | mean
we definitely have heroes in Nashua and those include, of course, our medical workers who are going to
work every day and potentially get exposed to the virus and have to come home and wonder about how
their family would fare if they did get the virus. We have our First Responders, Police, Fire, we have
people working in the pharmacies, even the people who work in the grocery stores, because the
supermarkets we see many, many people, the essential service, of course, to keep the supermarkets open.

So those are some of the steps we are taking, Madam President. And we are praying that the steps |
described and the others that we may take in the future will help keep the number of infections in the City
of Nashua and this entire area to a manageable level. | would just urge everybody to take care of
themselves like we are here, please wash your hands, use hand sanitizer which | will do right now and
keep your distance; no hand shaking, try to work remotely, do anything you can to limit contact with a lot of
other people. So | think that concludes what | had intended to say about the City’s response to
Coronavirus. We owe thanks to a lot of people, we have volunteers, | didn’t mention this yet, but we have
many volunteers who are working hard to reach out to the students who don’t have enough to eat and who
are distributing hundreds of meals every day at various schools around the City. And in addition, some of
the fixed route buses will be used to go to three locations beyond where or away from any short trip to the
school and that is going to start | think sometime this week, so there will be three additional sites using the
fixed route buses to carry the food.

So again, thank you to everyone who is involved. It has been a huge community effort, everybody is
pitching in and it is just wonderful to see that happening.

Madam President, the other item that | wanted to address is one that | wouldn’t normally get into in great
detail but | know that the Board of Aldermen is not holding many Committee Meetings during this time and
therefore | at least wanted to outline the details of O-20-011. The reason | need to do this tonight is to give
those who are attending either in-person or remotely a sense of what it is that we are trying to accomplish
here. As you all know and we have discussed this many times, City Health Care costs have gone up
considerably, $3.3 million the current fiscal year and are projected to go up $3 million next year. This $6
million dollar increase is a major expense, a major increase in itself; it represents a 3% tax increase. The
causes are multiple, increased claims, increased prescription drug cost, a workforce that is aging and other
price increases. So | asked the Administrative Service Division and Financial Services to come up and
work with our consultants, Work Place Benefit Solutions to come up with what are called Plan Design
Changes to see if we could bring costs down or reduce the rate of increase.

So they have met and they have come up with recommendations that could save considerable money for
the City and for the Employees as well. The first group that we are proposing that we ask to meet these
plan design changes for are the unaffiliated or the so-called merit employees. These are a group of
employees that, we did pass merit legislation, in the last couple of years and they benefited significantly
from it. We met with them about the changes that | am going to prescribe back earlier in the month on
March 12" here in the Auditorium and it was attended by many people and there were very few comments
and it seemed that all questions were successfully answered.

Board of Aldermen 3-24-2020 Page 5

The primary goal is actually to get people to switch to the high deducible because if you know somebody
on that plan you can benefit significantly. You get paid to be on the plan, and that’s $3,000.00 a year; you
have a $4,000.00 deductible, family deductible and pay very little after that. But the gap between what you
save in cash and the deductible is only $1,000.00 but it creates great incentives to try to ensure quality
care while at the same time paying more affordable rates for things like lab tests and things like that.

In any event, if you talk with people who have the high deducible plan right here in City Hall, some of them
have been able to accumulate thousands of dollars, $10,000.00 or more over a period of 5 or 6 years and
that is money that you can take with us to another employer or if you leave ultimately it is treated like a
retirement plan. So there’s a lot to be gained. But for those who stay with the HMO once the plan changes
are incorporated, their working rates would actually go down by 15%, meaning monthly amount would
come out of your check and would go down by about 15%. The changes are relatively simple; pharmacy
co-pays are increased from $5/$15 and $35 to $10 / $30 and $50, those are the deductibles. The major
increase is the increase in the deductible for the people who have in-patient hospital visits or out-patient
hospital or urgent care visits. Those deductibles would go from $250.00 for an individual and $500.00 for a
two person or family plan to $1,500.00 and $3,000.00 respectively. But again, this accomplishes two
things. First of all for the employees it encourages them to go to the high deducible plan, which even
though the title of it sounds very negative, it’s not. If you look into the details people really benefit from it.
There are certain groups of employees we have where 50% of the employees are on the high deductible
plan. Number two, even if you stay with the HMO’s your weekly deduction from your paycheck, the
employee’s paycheck would go down by 15%. And the City would also save money.

The reason | am mentioning this at length tonight is the enrollment period for the unaffiliated employees
and all employees is Mid-April, so if we are going to institute this we need to do it by the first meeting in
April, | know that we have limited Committee Meetings. There are other groups of employees that are
probably going to accept, at least one group of employees is going to accept this in the near future as well
through negotiations and | think it is something that we have to incorporate in all of our labor contracts.

In any event, | apologize for the length of this, Madam President, but again | knew that you are not holding
a lot of Committee Meetings and | think it is something that will benefit the City Budget as well as bring
working rates down and encourage people to move into a more advantageous plan, the high deducible
plan. So | am hoping the Board of Aldermen will adopt this within the month, in other words, two weeks
from now. And | wanted to give the details so people would hear about it because of limited committee
meetings or if they are remote or if people can’t attend those meetings.

In any event, thank you for your indulgence, Madam President. That concludes my remarks.

President Wilshire

Thank you Mayor. Did | hear you say that you don’t need this until our second meeting in April?

Mayor Donchess

The first meeting, two meetings from now. Two meetings from now.

President Wilshire

Two meetings from now. No you mean our next meeting. One meeting.

Mayor Donchess

We need it at the next meeting, | am sorry.

Board of Aldermen 3-24-2020 Page 6
President Wilshire

Very good. Responses to the remarks of the Mayor?

RESPONSE TO REMARKS OF THE MAYOR

Alderman Lopez

| just wanted to thank the Mayor for all of his efforts in addressing the Coronavirus and making sure that we
are flattening the curve as much as possible in advance of the event. | think a really effective and early
action and | think the public may not have fully understood the magnitude of what we were facing. So it
took a lot of courage and willpower to say well we are listening to the experts.

President Wilshire

Tom, can you speak a little louder or close to your mic? Thank you.

Alderman Lopez

Sure. | think it took a lot of courage to say we are listening to our Public Health Officials and we are doing
what is right for our constituents and our residents whether or not is it popular or not. So | just wanted to
thank the Mayor for taking that.

President Wilshire

All set Alderman Lopez?

Alderman Lopez

Yeah.

President Wilshire

Thank you. Anyone else, response to the Mayor? Alderman Dowd?

Alderman Dowd

Yes Jim | know you are extremely busy right now but could you, in the next couple of days, touch base with
me by phone so we can talk about the Budget Meetings?

Mayor Donchess

Yes, of course, no problem.
Alderman Dowd

Thank you.

President Wilshire

Anyone else, response to the Mayor?
Alderwoman Lu

Thank you. There was a lot | couldn’t hear Mayor Donchess. Can you hear me OK?

Board of Aldermen 3-24-2020 Page 7
Mayor Donchess

| can, | am sorry if you couldn’t hear me.

Alderwoman Lu

No that’s OK, | was just checking before | started. Did you say this represents a 3% decrease to
something, | didn’t ... or an increase?

Mayor Donchess

(inaudible)

President Wilshire

Jim is your mic, are you unmuted?

Mayor Donchess

| said that the amounts, that the employee pays, the so-called working rate for the employee will likely
decline 15%. That was the decline | was speaking of.

Alderwoman Lu

Thank you, | guess that is it.

RECOGNITION PERIOD - None

READING MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS

There being no objection, President Wilshire declared the minutes of the Board of Aldermen
meetings of March 10, 2020 and March 16, 2020 accepted, placed on file, and the reading

suspended.

COMMUNICATIONS REQUIRING ONLY PROCEDURAL ACTIONS AND WRITTEN REPORTS
FROM LIAISONS

From: Alderwoman Elizabeth Lu
Re: Boards and Commissions the Aldermen are Members of and which they are Liaisons

There being no objection, President Wilshire accepted the communication, placed it on file.

From: Alderwoman Elizabeth Lu
Re: Liaison Report on the Nashua Arts Commission

There being no objection, President Wilshire suspended the rules and accepted a communication
from Alderman Lu regarding her Liaison Report on the Nashua Arts Commission.

PERIOD FOR PUBLIC COMMENT RELATIVE TO ITEMS EXPECTED TO BE ACTED UPON THIS
EVENING - None

COMMUNICATIONS REQUIRING FINAL APPROVAL - None

PETITIONS - None

Board of Aldermen 3-24-2020 Page 8
NOMINATIONS, APPOINTMENTS AND ELECTIONS - None

REPORTS OF COMMITTEE

Human Affairs Committee... 2... 0.0... cece cee cee cee cee eee eee cee tee eee cee eeeae cee tee see eeeeer anes 03/09/2020

There being no objection, President Wilshire declared the report of the March 9, 2020 Human Affairs
Committee accepted and placed on file.

CONFIRMATION OF MAYOR'S APPOINTMENTS - None
UNFINISHED BUSINESS — RESOLUTIONS - None
UNFINISHED BUSINESS — ORDINANCES - None

NEW BUSINESS — RESOLUTIONS

R-20-025
Endorser: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman-at-Large Michael O’Brien
Alderman Jan Schmidt
Alderman Richard Dowd
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
RELATIVE TO THE APPROVAL OF FUNDING FOR THE REBUILD OF THE SOLID WASTE CAT
COMPACTOR FROM THE CAPITAL EQUIPMENT RESERVE FUND (“CERF”) DURING FY2020 IN
AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS ($500,000)
Given its first reading; assigned to the BUDGET REVIEW COMMITTEE by President Wilshire

R-20-026
Endorser: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman Linda Gathright
Alderman-at-Large Michael O’Brien
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderwoman-at-Large Shoshanna Kelly
Alderman Jan Schmidt
Alderman Richard Dowd
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
ADOPTING THE 2020 CONSOLIDATED PLAN AND AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO APPLY FOR
AND EXPEND THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT (“CDBG”) AND HOME
INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM FUNDS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2021
Given its first reading; assigned to the HUMAN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE by President Wilshire

NEW BUSINESS — ORDINANCES

O-20-011
Endorser: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman-at-Large Michael O’Brien
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman-at-Large Shoshanna Kelly
Alderman Richard Dowd
REVISIONS TO THE HEALTH PLAN SECTION OF THE UNAFFILIATED EMPLOYEES
PERSONNEL POLICIES
Given its first reading; assigned to the PERSONNEL/ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE by
President Wilshire

Board of Aldermen 3-24-2020 Page 9
President Wilshire

What is the Committee’s pleasure? This is something that the Mayor has brought up to us a couple of
times that this needs to be passed expediently in order to have the open enrollment and everything for the
month of April. | am wondering if anyone has any desire to pass this forward tonight.

Alderman O’Brien

Would | be in order to make a motion for final passage?

President Wilshire

| think we have to suspend the rules to allow for a second reading.

Alderman O’Brien

Can | make a motion to suspend the rules so that we can have a second reading?

MOTION BY ALDERMAN O’BRIEN TO SUSPEND THE RULES FOR A SECOND READING OF
O-20-011

ON THE QUESTION

Alderwoman Lu

| haven’t heard this discussed in detail and from — | think it’s the first reading, you folks, it may have been
samitied or brought to the Board before but it is the first reading so | would like to review it before voting on
President Wilshire

Ok further discussion, Alderwoman Kelly?

Alderwoman Kelly

Thank you. | appreciate the City going back and looking at this and giving us some revisions because |
know this was a big item from a budgetary standpoint. | do echo that | would like to hear a little bit more
than just the Mayor’s remarks in terms of what the changes are before we just make a decision on this.
President Wilshire

Very good. Alderman Klee?

Alderman Klee

We are just suspending the rules to have the discussion, is that correct?

President Wilshire

Correct, yes.

Alderman Jette

| too agree this is a significant change and it may be very meritorious but | think to suspend the rules to
allow a second reading and avoid sending this to a Committee for a full exploration of what it means and

Board of Aldermen 3-24-2020 Page 10
what it provides for and provide for an opportunity for people to weigh in on this; | am opposed to that. |
would be opposed to suspending the rules to allow for a second reading tonight. | think it ought to be
referred to a Committee and if that Committee has to meet remotely like we are tonight, that’s fine. But |
think it deserves an opportunity for the Mayor to explain in detail what this is for. And also an opportunity
for anyone who might be opposed to it to voice their opinion. So | would be against suspending the rules to
have a second reading tonight.

President Wilshire

Very good. Alderman O’Brien?

Alderman O’Brien

Yes.

Alderman Harriott-Gathright

Don't forget Linda.

Alderman O’Brien

Oh Linda.

Alderman Gathright

| agree with all that sooke before me and that was my thought pattern, my thought was that we really need
someone to weigh in, we heard our Mayor and | respect him, truly respect him, but | also would like to
make sure that others, that that would affect, would have an opportunity to speak to it as well.

President Wilshire

Ok. Alderman O’Brien.

Alderman O’Brien

Thank you. | would like to ask a question of the Mayor through the Chair if that’s ok?

President Wilshire

It is.

Alderman O’Brien

My question to the Mayor is that this is not a new-fangled idea. There are people currently that do have the
high deductible and so it is just basically limiting the choices that are out there. This is not a new program
it is already.

Mayor Donchess

For the in-patient hospital visits being for out-patient surgery and the like and urgent care, does increase
the cost of the deductible considerably to $250.00 to $1,500.00 or $500.00 / $3,000.00. But it keeps
people’s working rates down. Now it is something we have talked about, at least some people. But this is
the first reding tonight. We do need to get this past in early April, the first meeting in April. It doesn’t need
to be passed tonight. It is the same thing that Manchester offers; | believe. We have worked closely with
Manchester to try to develop design changes that could save money. But | think the employees have a lot

Board of Aldermen 3-24-2020 Page 11

to gain but can we go back to the buses because something just came in on e-mail. The announcement
from the State, it is pretty interesting. When the Governor was talking today or whoever had their press
conference, it turns out that an individual rode on a Concord Coach Line and was infected by Coronavirus
and rode from Concord to Logan and a couple of other trips. It has been discovered that this person had
Corona virus. So now any person who is on those buses and has developed symptoms should stay away
from all other people and immediately contact their healthcare provider.

Now the point is that they might know who are on these Concord buses but in our case, on the fixed route
system, we would have no way of knowing who was on, it would be impossible to track. So | just wanted to
add that Madam President, just to demonstrate why this bus step | think was the right thing to do. In any
event, | apologize for digressing. But | think | answered Alderman O’Brien’s question.

President Wilshire
Anyone further, any discussion further on suspending the rules for a second reading?
Alderwoman Lu

Thank you. | understand my colleague addressing what it may be limited to but | think without careful
review of how the contract stands as it is as opposed to the 3 pages of changes, ok the one page of
changes that it involves, | don’t want to recap it as it is just a change to this or it is just a change to only
that. And | don’t feel comfortable | think we all know that we can have meetings remotely now. If it comes
in for first reading, | would think it would be somewhat of an unusual thing to go to a second reading in the
same night. And | just feel strongly that people that want to weigh in should be able to read in on this.
Thank you.

President Wilshire

You are welcome. Alderman Klee.

Alderman Klee

My question is to Attorney Bolton, can you hear me? You can hear me, OK, | can’t hear me, so my
question to you is this still has to be a Public Meeting, even though they are doing it remotely, we still have
to allow the public in so we would have to set something up like this or is that not?

Steve Bolton Corporation Counsel

| hope | am audible now. This is a public meeting. If you send this to a Committee, the Committee Meeting
would have to be done in public, which it could be done in a similar manner that we are using this evening.
You can table it at the Board level and discuss it at the next Full Board Meeting. It is really up to the Board
how it wants to proceed from here. | guess some of you are inclined to pass it this evening and that would
be appropriate also.

President Wilshire

Alderman Klee, did you have something further?

Alderman Klee

No | just wanted to make it clear that we would have to a public, so someone physically would have to be

here so that the public, if they did choose to come, could speak. Because it sounds like my colleagues are
looking to hear from those people.

Board of Aldermen 3-24-2020 Page 12
President Wilshire

Further discussion on the motion to suspend the rules?

Alderman Harriott-Gathright

This is Linda and | just have a question. If we suspend the rules tonight, does that mean that it doesn’t go
to the Committee?

President Wilshire

Yes if we pass it tonight, it doesn’t go to Committee.

Alderman Harriott-Gathright

Right and then it will come before the Full Board correct?

President Wilshire

It will be before the Full Board this evening and that will be, if we pass it tonight that’s the end of it for us.
Alderman Harriott-Gathright

OK you have answered the question, thank you.

President Wilshire

You are welcome. The motion is to suspend the rules to allow for a second reading of Ordinance 20-011.

Alderman Lopez

| just wanted to second reluctance that was needed to just move forward with this. | Know it is a pandemic
and we are all kind of bunkering down. At the same time, we don’t want to make decisions now that we
can’t take back later. We are going to introduce processes that aren’t well-vetted and | think a lot of that
includes public trust. So it is a little precarious right now where we need to make it very clear that we are
not doing anything without planning it out or really vetting it. So | am not really comfortable trying to
approve a plan that | have barely seen at all.

President Wilshire

That’s fair. Further discussion on suspending the rules?

Alderman Dowd

Since we are having a discussion that seems to be steering away from the motion on the floor, | think that if
we defer this to a Committee that everybody that is concerned about this particular Legislation should
review it thoroughly before that Committee Meeting so that Committee Meeting is not elongated by
discussion that could be answered by researching the Legislation.

President Wilshire

The Motion is to suspend the rules. Anyone further.