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Board of Aldermen 03-16-2020 Page 39

Alderman Dowd

Because of the timing, | would like to cancel the Thursday meeting and move the meetings off and I'll
consult with Alderman Wilshire and Donna on how we will set up the new schedule.

President Wilshire
OK so Thursday’s meeting of the Budget Committee has been cancelled.

Donna Graham, Legislative Manager

Also another point on Monday and Wednesday of next week, we have two public hearings, one for
Budget and two for Infrastructure.

President Wilshire

OK well we will get back to you by the end of the week. Thank you.

ADJOURNMENT

MOTION BY ALDERMAN O’BRIEN THAT THE MARCH 16, 2020, SPECIAL MEETING OF THE
BOARD OF ALDERMEN BE ADJOURNED

MOTION CARRIED

The meeting was declared adjourned at 9:20 p.m.

Attest: Susan K. Lovering, City Clerk

Dy THE CITY OF N ASHUA "The Gate City"

To: Board of Aldermen
From: Jim Donchess, Mayor
Date: March 16, 2020

Subject: Coronavirus Disease COVID-19 Emergency

To the Honorable Board of Aldermen:

Given the exigencies of the emergency we face I, together with the Division of Public Health and
Community Services, Office of Emergency Management, and all Division Directors, am
considering all necessary precautions that we may wish to institute in the days to come. One of
these would be to close City Hall and perhaps other city buildings to the public. Therefore, |
request you approve the following:

1. That the Mayor is authorized, at such time and for such duration as he deems necessary, to
close City Hall and other city buildings over which the Board of Aldermen or the Mayor
exercise jurisdiction, to the public and to institute such substitute access to city services as
he deems appropriate. Further, the Mayor is authorized to determine which employees will
be urged to remain home, work from home, be on an on-call basis, or continue working.

2. That the accompanying Temporary Policy on Shutdowns and Emergency Leave due to
Coronavirus Disease COVID-19 is adopted.

My current intention is that effective Wednesday March 18, many City buildings, including City
Hall, should be closed to public access, and that beginning Monday March 23, all but essential
employees will be asked to remain home until further notice. I have been working with Division
Directors to enact plans for some employees to be able to work remotely.

Thank you for your swift action as we all seek to deal with this emergency in the best interests of
all our residents and employees.

S2)\ THE CITY OF NASHUA Se eeteene

Temporary Policy on Shutdowns and Emergency Leave due to Coronavirus Disease COVID-19

Starting Monday, March 23, 2020, most employees will be asked to stay home. Employees may
be required to perform work remotely, as directed by their supervisor, and to the extent they are
able todoso. Essential employees will be identified by their Division Director and will be
required to continue to work. Work may entail continuation of normal duties, it may entail
working remotely, or it may entail special assignments that result from the current public
emergency. All employees will be paid their regular wages without requiring the use of personal
leave time, such as vacation, sick, or earned time.

Effective Monday March 16, any employees, including essential employees, who should isolate
or quarantine themselves due to potential exposure to, or the potential presence of, COVID-19,
or cannot make necessary child care arrangements, should do so, and the City will continue to
pay that employee their regular wages without requiring them to use any personal leave

time. Employees who are isolated or quarantined may be required to perform work remotely, as
directed by their supervisor, and to the extent they are able to do so. Guidance to help
employees decide if they should isolate or quarantine can be found on the City’s website @
https://www.nashuanh.gov/1332/COVID-19.

This policy will be effective immediately, regardless of contractual obligations or lack
thereof. City administration will work towards approval by each employer board and union. The
Mayor is authorized to set an end date for this temporary policy.

Approved by the Board of Aldermen on March 16, 2020.

Jim Donchess, Mayor Date

2) THE CITY OF NASHUA The te i

Administrative Services Division 603-389-3040
Assessing Department Fax 603-589-3079
229 Main Street, PO Box 2019

Nashua, NH 03061-2019

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 16, 2020
Contact: Kim Kleiner, Administrative Services Director

(603) 589-3025
kleinerk@nashuanh.gov

The City of Nashua temporarily suspends Interior Inspections

The City of Nashua continues to actively monitor the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation and is
committed to the continued health and optimal safety of our residents. Based upon the recommended social
distancing protocols established by the Center for Disease Control, the City amended the contract with
Vision Government Solutions for the 2020-2022 Full Revaluation and suspended interior inspections
effectively immediately.

As the data collection continues in Nashua, data collectors will go to each property and will physically
inspect the exterior only, to verify the measurements of each building. The data collector will note a
building’s size, age, condition, quality of construction, improvements, topography, utilities, and numerous
other characteristics.

Nashua will continue to suspend all interior inspections, until the Nashua Department of Public Health
and local officials have advised that special precautions to limit the exposure of the novel corona virus are
no longer necessary.

Once restrictions are lifted, Vision Government Solutions will send a letter to the property owner of
properties having received an exterior inspection during this period requesting that the property owner call
to arrange for an interior inspection.

If you have any questions about the revaluation process or need additional information, please contact the
Assessor’s Office at (603) 589-3040. You may also gather more information about the project on a direct
link at https://www.nashuanh.gov/1285/2022-Full-Measure-List-Appraisal-and-Rev located on the
Assessor’s page of the City website.

For more information on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), please visit the city website,
https:/Awww.nashuanh. gow/1332/COVID-19.

RESOLUTION

R-20-024

RELATIVE TO THE TRANSFER OF $105,000 FROM DEPARTMENT 192 “DEBT
SERVICE”, ACCOUNT 75200 “INTEREST EXPENSE” INTO VARIOUS ACCOUNTS

CITY OF NASHUA

In the Year Two Thousand and Twenty

RESOLVED by the Board of Aldermen of the City of Nashua that $105,000 be

transferred from Department 192 “Debt Service”, Account 75200 “Interest Expense” into the
following Departments and accounts.

Dept# _ Department Account Purpose Amount
128 Risk Management 68360 —“Loss Prevention” | To provide funding $100,000
for purchases related
to the COVID-19
pandemic
109 Civic & Community | 56367—“United Way” Contribution to the 5,000

Activities

United Way “Urgent

Needs Community
Fund”

Total:

$105,000

LEGISLATIVE YEAR 2020

RESOLUTION: R-20-024

PURPOSE: Relative to the transfer of $105,000 from Department 192
“Debt Service”, Account 75200 “Interest Expense” inte various
accounts

SPONSOR(S): Mayor Jim Donchess

COMMITTEE

ASSIGNMENT:

FISCAL NOTJTE: Reduces fiscal year 2020 surplus appropriations.

ANALYSIS

This resolution authorizes a transfer from debt service interest expense in the amount of
$100,000 for the funding of purchases related to the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). This
resolution also authorizes a contribution of $5,000 to the United Way’s “Urgent Needs
Community Fund”, established to support local non-profits who experience extraordinary
expenses related to the pandemic.

Charter Sec. 53 permits the Board of Aldermen to transfer any unencumbered appropriation
balance or any portion from one department, fund or agency to another.

NRO 5-130, H provides that “when proposed legislation to transfer or re-appropriate a particular
appropriation or purpose thereof has had its first reading, such funds shall not be expended or
transferred while the legislation is pending”.

Approved as to account Finanei vices Division
structure, numbers and

amount: By: f Ln Mh. 5

Wi ry

Approved as to form: Office of Corporation Counsel
By: Preston C Por Kee,
Date: N\A OA CN (o Boo-O
f

SPECIAL BOARD OF ALDERMEN
MARCH 16, 2020
7:00 p.m.
PRESIDENT LORI WILSHIRE CALLS ASSEMBLY TO ORDER

PRAYER OFFERED BY CITY CLERK SUSAN LOVERING
PLEDGE TO THE FLAG LED BY ALDERMAN PATRICIA KLEE

ROLL CALL

DISCUSSION

Coronavirus (COVID-19)

ADJOURNMENT

City Hall Auditorium

A regular meeting of the Board of Aldermen was held Tuesday, March 10, 2020, at 7:30 p.m. in the
classroom at the Nashua Police Department, Nashua.

President Lori Wilshire presided; City Clerk Susan Lovering recorded.

Prayer was offered by City Clerk Susan Lovering; Alderman Michael B. O’Brien, Sr. led in the Pledge to the
Flag.

The roll call was taken with 15 members of the Board of Aldermen present.
Mayor James W. Donchess, Corporation Counsel Steven A. Bolton were also in attendance.

REMARKS BY THE MAYOR

Mayor Donchess

First thank you again to the Police Department for hosting us here at the Police Station while City Hall is being
fixed, sol want to thank P.D. | have a couple of items this evening, Madam President. First | wanted to ask
you to consider passing R-20-022 which is on the Agenda a suspension of rules. What this would do, is provide
funds for the City to deal with the Coronavirus situation. Bobbie Bagley, the Director of Public Health &
Community Services is here and has been very active in terms of helping us along with Justin Kates to develop
an Action Plan addressing all the health issues that are currently pending, trying to make decisions about how
we should proceed.

As we have seen events of the last few days, Harvard and MIT both closed; we’ve seen other changes made
with respect to scheduling, a lot of cancellations. We are trying to foresee events that the City may have to deal
with. First, we do need to buy supplemental cleaning supplies, things we don’t usually do; wipe down all City
Services in City Hall and things like that. But also we have to think about the possibility that City Hall could be
closed or that a number of people are not at work and need to work remotely. Justin Kates and all of the
Department Division Heads are defining the City’s essential services. Some of those include, for example,
payroll, at City Hall we need to meet payroll no matter what. So in order to fulfill those essential functions, we
may need to have people work remotely. Now that really doesn’t happen that often. A few of the Division
Directors typically work remotely but that is not done on a large scale, especially a whole group of people doing
it at the same time.

We have a limited number of Citrix Licenses, which is the software license that enables someone to get on the
system remotely. We may need to acquire more Citrix licenses. In addition we may need to acquire additional
laptops for people to take home and work from home if they are needed for essential functions. | have asked in
R-20-022 for you to on a suspension of the rules basis, pass that Resolution which would transfer $50,000.00
for the use of the City in terms of dealing with the Coronavirus issues. This may not be enough, hopefully we
won't need it, but it at least will help us defray some of the expenses if some events that could happen do
happen in the next few weeks. So | would ask that you consider passing that under suspension of the rules.

Now the next item is one that you see on your desks which in this case | would ask just that you accept the
Budget Resolution which is our normal procedure under suspension and refer it of course to the Budget
Committee. It’s the full Budget is not on your desk yet but they tell me it is going to be here by 10 to 8:00; they
are binding it right now. You should have it by the end of the meeting. But overall | can give you an outline of
what is contained therein. The Budget as proposed, the core Budget is $284,000,000.00, which is up 3.25%
over last year. As we have discussed a number of times, the main issue in the Budget is the $3 million dollar
increase of healthcare costs this year; 8.6% after, as you will recall, a $3.3 million dollar increase last year.
Those two years together, $6 million dollars, equate to a 3% increase in the tax rate, just on that line item alone.

Putting aside healthcare, the Budget is up about 2.1%. The Budget also allocated and proposes the
expenditure of the $4.7 million dollars in temporary aid; this will be the last year of that unless it is somehow
renewed, that the State Legislature provided us in the last session.

Board of Aldermen 3-10-2020 Page 2

| have, following the recommendations of the School Department and some of our own, have proposed that
those funds be used to fund one-time, non-recurring items so that we don’t devote money that we know or we
suspect may not come again to Operating Budgets, Building Operating Budgets that we wouldn’t be able to
sustain in the future.

Now we have the Waste Water and the Enterprise Funds, those are up $500,000.00 and the Waste Water and
Solid Waste Enterprise Funds, those are up $500,000.00 and $1 million dollars respectively. Those are
separately dealt with in the Budget as always. Those are not truly discretionary budgets because all of those
expenditures are required by regulations, both from the State DES and the Federal EPA. So we are continuing
to meet our obligations with respect to environmental regulation.

Overall the objective of the Budget is to try to balance a few things; number one to pay the healthcare costs,
number two to provide quality services for our citizens and number three, to keep, under these circumstances,
property tax increases to a minimum. Now Nashua’s economy is growing and has been healthy and strong but
we do know that it could be affected by the Coronavirus situation, so many things are happening that that is
another reason for caution here. We do know that many people are living paycheck-to-paycheck, having
difficulty making ends meet. Therefore, at the beginning of the Budget process back in January, the financial
team and | proposed Budget guidelines of 2.25% for the Police Department, for the Fire Department and for the
School Department and 2% for all other Departments. Working together, all of us, we have limited tax increases
over the last four years to an average of 2.6%. But this year, given the challenges that we are facing, the
financial team is projecting that if the Budget is passed as proposed, that taxes will go up no more than 4.5%
which is of course more than we would wish, more than we would like.

Looking at some of the individual budgets, the School Department has proposed an increase of 2.8% which is
about $600,000.00 over the 2.25% guideline. The Police Department 3.2% which is about $200,000.00 over
the guideline, and the Fire Department 5.1% which is about a half million dollars over the 2.25% guideline.
Given the considerations that | have mentioned, the tax rate and the other things we are trying to balance, |
have reduced the budgets accordingly, down to the 2.25% level to try to manage the situation that we have.
There are two exceptions to that statement; one — the overtime cost in the P.D. for uniformed officers and for
civilian dispatchers who are necessary to fill vacant dispatch and communication positions. There is a lot of
overtime being spent there because we have a number of vacant communications and dispatcher positions.
The underlying problem is the low level of pay that is provided to these employees so we have been working
with the Police Department through the Chief and Deputy Testaverde to talk about how to raise those wages to
fill the positions and therefore stop using so much overtime. There are funds there for in contingency for the
Police Department in addition to the 2.25% to handle those raises and in the end, that may save money
because by reducing overtime we may save more on that in that we spend on the additional wages.

Number two, within the one-time funds allocated for the School Department, | have followed most of their
recommendations, but | have proposed that we spend $200,000.00 for the pay and benefits for at least three
ELL Teachers. We, as you know, the School Department is under a Department of Justice Audit with respect to
the ELL Program and that is certainly something we want to address; we want to make sure we are serving our
students who come to school not speaking English and we also want to help the School Department make sure
that they succeed with respect to that audit. So that would be an exception and is over and above the 2.25% for
the School Department.

We are taking aggressive steps to bend the curve on the rising healthcare cost. We have developed a plan
design changes which, if rolled out to all of the employees through all of the Union Contracts and Non-Union
Employees, would save considerable money. They also would encourage people to go into the high deductible
plans, which is a very good option for people because the City pays them to go into the high deductible plan and
therefore creates a lot of incentive for them to manage and save on healthcare costs. That money gets rolled
over year-to-year so there is a lot to be gained by the employee going to the high deductible plan. In any event,
you will be hearing more about those details in the near future.

Board of Aldermen 3-10-2020 Page 3

In terms of the one-time temporary aid expenditures, following the recommendations of the School Department,
there is $700,000.00 to replace all of the Chrome Books for the students which are becoming obsolete. There
are $415,000.00 for the startup expenses to move Pre-K into the former Christian School Building on Franklin
Street as well as to create the possibility that that building could also later house the Brentwood Facility, which
we pay rent for. So in the end, this would be a very strong step for the School Department. There is also
money proposed for technology upgrades at the Elementary and High Schools that are needed for good
Internet access and there’s $175,000.00 for an upgrade of the Middle School Science Curriculum.

| did make a couple of changes. First! did increase the amount for school furniture because of reports that we
have desks and chairs in many schools that are broken, from $60 to $250,000.00. As | have suggested, |
allocated the $200,000.00 for salaries and benefits for three more ELL Teachers. With respect to the one-time
aid that we are receiving with respect to City Projects, the main allocations are to the Library Plaza Park that is
partially funded at this time as well as to the Capital Equipment Reserve Fund or CERF. Of course, the Budget
continues, a lot of our longer term projects, the Paving Plan of Action which would reach about 25 to 30 miles of
streets with paving this year plus crack sealing of another 30 or 40 miles. We are continuing to upgrade the
Waste Water Treatment Plant and replace aging sewer lines. Of course, we are working on the replacement of
the Elm Street Middle School with the new school down on Buck Meadow Road. Again | mentioned the Library
Plaza Project which is one of the things that would be funded through the one-time aid.

So that’s the overall picture of the Budget. Of course | will come to the Budget Committee and talk through the
details of when that is appropriate. You should be receiving the Budget books before the end of the meeting,
they told me by 10 to 8:00. It is now 13 to 8:00 so hopefully they will be here.

Steve Bolton, Corporation Counsel

Donna just got called.

Mayor Donchess
What?

Attorney Bolton
Donna just got called.

Mayor Donchess

So maybe they are here now. Finally, Madam President one issue that has come up is the Eaton Street Bridge
along the Rail Trail. Public Works believes that that will be finished within two weeks. That is an important
bridge for people getting around downtown and Alderman Lopez has been asking about that. So we do believe
it will be finished in fairly short order. Madam President, that concludes my remarks.

President Wilshire
Thank you Mayor. Response to the Remarks of the Mayor.

RESPONSE TO REMARKS OF THE MAYOR

Alderwoman Lu

Could you just explain why we approve this Budget at this point?