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Board of Aldermen 07-13-2021

Planning Board

Adam Varley (reappointment)
3 Scotia Way

Nashua, NH 03062

Tax Increment Financing Advisory Board

Michael Cerato (reappointment)
4 Water Street
Nashua, NH 03060

Tim Cummings, Economic Develop. Director (reappointment)
229 Main Street
Nashua, NH 03060

Eric Drouart (reappointment)
52 Main Street #206
Nashua, NH 03060

David Fredette, City Treasurer (reappointment)
229 Main Street
Nashua, NH 03060

Chris Lewis (reappointment)
670 North Commercial Street
Manchester, NH 03101

Sarah Marchant, Community Develop. Director (reappointment)
229 Main Street
Nashua, NH 03060

Tia Phillips (reappointment)
2 Clocktower Place
Nashua, NH 03060

Angelina Spillos (reappointment)
15 Technology Way
Nashua, NH 03062

Zoning Board of Adjustment

Efstathia Booras (reappointment)
44 Balcom Street
Nashua, NH 03062

Mariellen MacKay (reappointment)
9 Webster Street
Nashua, NH 03064

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Page 12

March 31, 2024

September 30, 2022

September 30, 2022

September 30, 2022

September 30, 2022

September 30, 2022

September 30, 2022

September 30, 2022

September 30, 2022

October 1, 2024

September 11, 2024

There being no objection, President Wilshire accepted the Appointments by the Mayor as read and

referred them to the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee.

Board of Aldermen 07-13-2021 Page 13

REPORTS OF COMMITTEE

Budget Review Committee «0.0.0.0... ccc cee cee cee cece tenet tes eetietee tsetse etree eee ses 06/17/2021

There being no objection, President Wilshire declared the report of the June 17, 2021 Budget Review
Committee accepted and placed on file.

Committee on Infrastructure 20.0000... ccc cee cece eee cee ee cee cee ter teeete steer tertetateteteretersrs s+, 06/23/2021

There being no objection, President Wilshire declared the report of the June 23, 2021 Committee on
Infrastructure accepted and placed on file.

Budget Review Committee «0.0.0.0... ccc cee cee cee cece tenes teste tienes tttetieeteeee ees ses 06/28/2021

There being no objection, President Wilshire declared the report of the June 28, 2021 Budget Review
Committee accepted and placed on file.

Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee 2.00.00... 00 coc cece cee ece cee eee verter ererererevarsreere OF/06/2021

There being no objection, President Wilshire declared the report of the July 06, 2021 Personnel/Administrative
Affairs Committee accepted and placed on file.

CONFIRMATION OF MAYOR’S APPOINTMENTS

Planning Board

There being no objection, President Wilshire confirmed the appointment of Mark Meehan, 65 Walden
Pond Drive, Nashua, to the Nashua Planning Board with a term to expire May 31, 2024.

Oath of Office will be administered at a later date by City Clerk.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS — RESOLUTIONS

R-21-142
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
RELATIVE TO THE ADOPTION OF THE FISCAL YEAR 2022 PROPOSED BUDGET FOR THE
CITY OF NASHUA GENERAL, ENTERPRISE, AND SPECIAL REVENUE FUND
Given its third reading;

MOTION BY ALDERMAN DOWD TO RECONSIDER R-21-142
A viva voce roll call was taken which resulted as follows:
Yea: Alderman O’Brien, Alderman Klee, Alderwoman Kelly, Alderman Dowd,

Alderman Caron, Alderman Clemons, Alderman Lopez, Alderman Tencza,

Alderwoman Lu, Alderman Jette, Alderman Schmidt, Alderman Laws,

Alderman Cleaver, Alderwoman Harriott-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire 14
Nay: Alderman Jette 1
MOTION CARRIED

MOTION BY ALDERMAN DOWD TO OVERRIDE THE MAYOR’S VETO OF R-21-142 AS AMENDED, BY
ROLL CALL

Board of Aldermen 07-13-2021 Page 14

ON THE QUESTION
President Wilshire
Alderman Dowd?
Alderman Dowd

And I'd like to speak to it. | understand the complexity surrounding this year’s City Budget and the issues that
the State has caused relative to a large reduction in State Revenues to Nashua. | also understand the Mayor
is trying to keep the tax rate as low as possible. But | cannot support this veto for the following reasons. First
it does not change any of the reasons we voted to increase budgets of the Police and the Fire Department
when we passed the FY’22 Budget. | would like to reiterate the reasons we unanimously approved the budget
before us.

First, the Police formulated a budget for the Mayor that did not increase or decrease anything they provided in
FY 2021. But he cut their budget to meet an arbitrary number. His veto cut again this evening will force them
to provide less service to Nashua than last year since their budget will not support what they were able to do
last year. Couple that with a recent increase in the sale and distribution of fentanyl recently in Nashua and
need to the (inaudible) to continue their efforts to thwart this new and expanded threat. The Police have
always said that they will provide the services we fund them to do. But Police, like the Nashua Fire
Department, are driven by personnel costs. All they want to do is keep the same force level they had last year.

Having said that, they along with the Fire Department have made Nashua one of the safest cities in the United
States to live and contributed highly to us being selected as the 4"" best run city in the United States in FY
2021. Are we willing to sacrifice that for the amount of money we are discussing tonight? Switching to the Fire
Department, this compromise the Mayor has presented still does not resolve the loss of a fire company and
taking one engine or ladder off line. This not only puts the residents of Nashua in harm’s way but it is
physically irresponsible. Imagine having an $800,000.00 or $1 million dollar piece of equipment sitting in an
idle in a station when needed to save lives in Nashua. Imagine you or someone you loved trapped in a vehicle
crash and you must wait longer for the men with the vehicle to rescue you and probably save your life.

Imagine you or someone you love having a medical emergency and not having the firemen there to provide
immediate urgent care until the ambulance arrives.

And your house or business burning to the ground due to slower response times due to the possible actions
that we could take this evening. The one add to the Fire Department budget is the half year of a vacant
position of the Fire Marshal’s office caused by a former Mayor’s cut as was explained earlier. This missing
body is the person who should be doing the twice a year inspection of our City schools mandated by the State
for safety reasons. By the way, we have 18 schools in Nashua; that’s 36 inspections. This person will also be
responsible for ensuring proper levels of occupancy in restaurants, theaters, auditoriums as well as training for
the Fire Department. If we override the Mayor’s veto tonight it will only add .16 to the tax rate which boils down
to less than $1.00 a month to a homeowner with a $300,000.00 home. | had John Griffin run these numbers
today.

| for one will not put the citizens of Nashua’s lives and properties at risk for less than the cost of a cup of coffee
per month. In addition, | will also not put citizens of Nashua lives and property in harm’s way because we were
forced to try and reduce property taxes due to the actions of the governor and the State Legislation excluded
all Nashua Reps that voted the right way for the budget. We all know that the millions of dollars we lost as was
explained by the Mayor from the State in the FY’22 budget. We should not be forced to reduce the safety to
our citizens based on those actions. In closing, | implore my fellow aldermen to do what is right for the citizens
of Nashua and keep Nashua one of the safest cities to live in. Thank you.

Board of Aldermen 07-13-2021 Page 15
President Wilshire

Alderman Lopez?

Alderman Lopez

| want to echo some of what my colleague said. | don’t consider the number to be arbitrary | appreciate Mayor
Donchess trying to keep the tax rate down and trying to apply a fair number to programs across the City but |
think as we said in the previous meeting it is not necessarily — equity doesn’t equal equality. So the Fire
Department and the Police Department may have greater needs, they are much more essential services, we
can’t afford to cut back on them. None of that has changed from our last meeting. | mean we don’t have
enough ice creams to call the alarm whenever a fire kicks in, so we need our fire department to be well
equipped, capable of responding. We need our firefighters to be well-trained and up-to-date on all of the
procedures that they need and we need to make sure that their equipment is not out-of-date as well.

With regards to the position the Mayor is in | definitely empathize because | feel like he’s getting both sides of
the stick here where his opponents will say that he needs to cut back on the Fire and the Police but they are
also lobbying pretty heavily to not do anything about the Police Commission who make decisions about how to
spend money and what their policies are. It seems like he’s in a position where people will blame him for
decisions for budgetary reasons that are out of his control. | think it is pretty well understood that the State has
increased our costs and the portion of our budget that is dedicated to their decrees and the money came from
somewhere. So as Alderman Dowd said, the impact to the taxpayer being around approximately $1.00 per
taxpayer, | think the risk of having an impacted response or a minimal response is much greater than the cost
of paying of $1.00 and | continue to support the budget that we passed.

President Wilshire
Alderman Clemons?
Alderman Clemons

Thank you Madam President, forgive my voice this evening, | am a bit under the weather so | will try to keep
this brief. | agree with everything that Alderman Dowd had said; | agree with some of what Alderman Lopez
said. | will be supporting overriding the Mayor's veto because | have never voted for a budget nor will | ever
vote for a budget that simultaneously raises taxes and cuts service. | don’t think that that’s right, | don’t think
that’s what people pay their property taxes for. | think we should always be at least trying to maintain what we
have and by overriding the veto that’s what we will be doing. So thank you.

President Wilshire
Anyone else? Alderman Jette?
Alderman Jette

Thank you Madam President. So just to put things into perspective, | was on the Budget Committee and | was
at every meeting and | listened to the presentations by especially the Fire Department and the Police
Department which we were left with hopefully after tonight we will be done with the budget, until next year. But
you have to remember that the Police, their budget is $35 million dollars. And the Fire Department is $28
million dollars. And what the Mayor had asked them to do was to in the Police Department’s case reduce their
ask by $241,000 plus dollars. And the Fire Department $495,000.00 plus dollars which are compared to their
overall budgets is not all that much money. They refused and they argued, they made very good arguments as
to why the money that they requested should be given to them. And | understand when the Police Chief or the
Deputy Chief come and make their case and the Fire Chief and his Deputy come and the Commissioners for
both organizations. | understand, they are advocating for their departments and so they are making arguments
that are to their credit they are well-designed to hit us where it hurts.

Board of Aldermen 07-13-2021 Page 16

Alderman Dowd made another eloquent argument in favor of restoring the money that they requested and
again, you know, he’s touching upon things hurt, talking about somebody dying because the response time is
low. Someone said to me that the response time in my Ward is going to be less and am | going to be
responsible for someone’s house burning down because of this. | understand how important this is to these
people and they are making the best argument they can. But we now we are talking about the Mayor asking —
can this Board increase the Fire Department and the Police Department to back to what they asked for and
increase the budget from what the Mayor was proposing $660,000.00. And this Board voted for that the last
time. Now the Mayor is asking us to reduce it by half of that, approximately $300,000.00. We are talking $35
million dollars; $28 million dollars — you know - $100,000.00 / $200,000.00 is not that much money so on the
one hand you could argue well why is the Mayor even bothering with this? But on the other hand | don’t think
with all due respect reducing the Fire Department by $200,000.00 is going to require them to put a fire truck
out of service. When they made that argument during the budget hearings | challenged them and | challenged
the Police when the Police wanted to reduce Police Officers as a result and the numbers just didn’t add up.
And with all due respect, they didn’t have answers for that.

Later the Police Department said, well we came up with that number of Police Officers because we were using
the lowest level of police officer, you Know, the lowest pay grade assuming that that officer is single, has no
family, he is getting health insurance from his parents. So they came up with the lowest number they could per
police officer in order to increase the number of police officers that would be eliminated as a result of these
cuts. Mr. Donovan from the School Department said to us that, | can’t remember what his number was but it
was a lot higher than this and he said, if | can’t find that number in my budget | shouldn’t be doing this job. So
| think my feeling is the same about these cuts. These cuts are really small compared to their overall budgets
and | am going to vote and support the Mayor in his effort to try to keep the inevitable tax increase that we are
going to be facing as low as possible. And | don’t think in reducing the Police Department by $100,000.00 or
the Fire Department by $200,000.00 is going to result in the drastic reduction in services that the argument is
being made tonight, with all due respect. So thank you.

President Wilshire
Anyone else? Alderman Dowd.
Alderman Dowd

Just a couple clarification points. | don’t think the Police or the Fire are asking for more money just so they can
have additional things they can add. They have asked for that money so they can provide the same services
that they are continuing to supply to the City from last year. | have gone over their budgets in much more
detail (audio cuts out) came out in that $50,000.00 study we did on the Fire Department that they are not
asking for. It says we should add 2 more fire stations and another fire company and it can’t be related to the
school department. Mr. Donovan said he could manage $100,000.00 because he’s got $166 million dollar
budget. Under the same rationale that you use for the Police Department, we should be asking the School
Department for well over a million bucks. No. They could use more money too that they wanted to ask for that
they didn’t. But when you manage a $166 million dollars, trust me, you don’t get to within a $100,000.00 at the
end of the year because you can’t overspend.

It is much more difficult when you have, for instance, the Police Department that has no idea how many cases
they are going to be handling during the year and we are still going to have to add money to their overtime
reserve account. Because if we have a major crime, all bets are out the window. The money we are giving
them right now will not cover that. And the Fire Department, they base it on an average number of fires. We
are adding a number of high story buildings to the City in the next year or two, probably in the next year,
including a new school. And we have to ensure that we have the response times and the staffing to make sure
that we can put those fires out in a timely manner. When you man a fire company there is a lot more to it than
just saying, OK well for 3 shifts we won’t have a fourth guy on the truck. You can’t do that for a number of
reasons and we don’t need to get into it. But | implore the Board to make sure that we stay a safe City. And

Board of Aldermen 07-13-2021 Page 17

that’s what they are asking for, they want to be able to say that we’ve got a safe City and they want to be able
to do the job that we are paying them to do and that’s all they are asking for.

President Wilshire

Alderman Schmidt?
Alderman Schmidt

Thank you Madam President. Through you to Alderman Dowd, how much extra was it for a $300,000.00
home?

Alderman Dowd

It was less than $1.00 a month.

Alderman Schmidt

$12.00.

Alderman Dowd

Yeah it was actually $10.00 and something for a year.

Alderman Schmidt

Thank you.

President Wilshire

Alderwoman Lu?

Alderwoman Lu

Thank you. | am not surprised that we are at (audio cuts out) and this Board feels another because it all, these
two items, these two departments boil down to the collective bargaining contracts that we approved as a body.
| believe that the Mayor was not in favor of, | don’t know, but we approved as a body. So when | looked at the
cost in the budget, what | found is that the Police payroll change, it went up and by payroll | mean number 51,
52 and 53 it went up $2.2 million. But the entire Police increase went up $2.18 million. So what that tells me
that the Police except for the uncontrollable cost, you know, the contractual costs that increased because we
approved a contract. If it weren’t for that they would have actually gone down.

And when | look at the Fire Department, | see that the payroll went up $1.84 million but the entire fire budget
only went up $1.66 million. So what that tells me is that they actually did cut back but they can’t cut back their
contracted payments. So | would support overriding the veto.

President Wilshire

Alderman Lopez.

Alderman Lopez

If | could add to what Alderman Lu had just said. | don’t know if the Mayor wants to comment on this but it is
actually my recollection that this is literally what the Mayor told us would happen both times that he vetoed the
contracts and we overrode it. The reasoning that we had in pushing to support the Fire and Police contracts
that were there was to maintain the integrity of the service to maintain competitive rates and neither of those

Board of Aldermen 07-13-2021 Page 18

contracts went easily. The Fire Department ones went back to the bargaining table and | thought they came
back with a good faith attempt to try to lower their healthcare costs. But this is the situation that the Mayor had
said we would get into where we start to have unsustainable budgets. But! would point out that, again, while it
is a situation we are feeling right now because of looking at the taxpayer’s bottom line, we are also feeling it
because there is an additional expense that was imposed on us by the State which if nothing else, accelerated
the situation.

President Wilshire
Anyone else? Alderman Klee?
Alderman Klee

Thank you Madam President. | have got to be honest with you, | truly struggled with this. At one point | was
going to sustain the Mayor's veto, then it was agree to override it and so on. | received a number of calls from
constituents who told me very specifically to sustain the Mayor’s override. And | looked at it and said, well it’s
a compromise, he went halfway. | have listened to what everybody here has to say and especially with what
Alderman Dowd had to say about the safety first. I’ve always supported the Fire, I’ve always supported the
Police. And | know it’s only $12.00 a year or $10.00 and some odd cents for a $300,000.00 home. | don’t live in
a very high cost area but it is getting harder and harder to find $300,000.00 homes in my area. They are going
up because of the price of homes going up which means that $12.00 is going up. | know it’s less than the cost
of a coffee, but | guess | also have to look at it as we have got to make some cuts somewhere. And this is truly
one of the hardest ones that | have had to do. I'll know my answer when my name is called. So thank you.

President Wilshire

Anyone else? | just want to make a comment that’s something that came up tonight about the Police having a
$35 million dollar budget; Fire having a $28 million dollar budget and Schools having $166 million dollar
budget. That’s because that’s what it cost to run those departments. That’s what it costs, | mean it sounds like
a high number and it is but that’s what it costs to run them. So the fact that they have $35 million and $28
million and we are only cutting a small portion, we ask year after year to cut small portions and we ask them to
cut back on line items that they don’t need. So | don’t think there’s any fat in any of these budgets. So | just
want to comment that yeah $35 million / $28 million is a lot of money but that’s what it costs to protect our City.

The motion before us by Alderman Dowd was to override the Mayor’s veto of Resolution 21-142 as amended
by roll call. Is there further discussion on that motion? Seeing none, would the Clerk please call the roll?

A viva voce roll call was taken which resulted as follows:

Yea: Alderman O’Brien, Alderwoman Kelly, Alderman Dowd,
Alderman Caron, Alderman Clemons, Alderman Lopez, Alderman Tencza,
Alderwoman Lu, Alderman Schmidt, Alderman Laws,
Alderman Cleaver, Alderwoman Harriott-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire 13

Nay: Alderman Klee, Alderman Jette 2

MOTION CARRIED

Mayor’s Veto of R-21-142 as amended declared overridden.

Board of Aldermen 07-13-2021 Page 19
R-21-147
Endorsers: Alderman Ernest Jette
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderwoman Elizabeth Lu

AUTHORIZING THE CONVEYANCE OF DISCONTINUED PORTIONS OF (OLD) GROTON ROAD
Given its second reading;

MOTION BY ALDERMAN JETTE TO AMEND R-21-147 BY REPLACING IT WITH THE GOLDENROD
COPY WITH AMENDMENTS TO THE DEED WHICH WAS RECOMMENDED AT THE COMMITTEE ON
INFRASTRUCTURE, BY ROLL CALL

ON THE QUESTION

President Wilshire

Alderman Jette.

Alderman Jette

And I'd like to speak to it. So | won’t repeat what Attorney Westgate said but basically these amendments are
an agreement by the developer with a request by the Planning Board and negotiated by Attorney Leonard to
add easements for sidewalks on the property abutting Groton Road.

President Wilshire

You've heard the motion by Alderman Jette. The motion is to amend. Further discussion on the motion to
amend?

A viva voce roll call was taken which resulted as follows:
Yea: Alderman O’Brien, Alderman Klee, Alderwoman Kelly, Alderman Dowd,
Alderman Caron, Alderman Clemons, Alderman Lopez, Alderman Tencza,
Alderwoman Lu, Alderman Jette, Alderman Schmidt, Alderman Laws,
Alderman Cleaver, Alderwoman Harriott-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire 15
Nay: 0
MOTION CARRIED
MOTION BY ALDERMAN JETTE FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF R-21-147 AS AMENDED, BY ROLL CALL
ON THE QUESTION
President Wilshire
Alderman Jette?
Alderman Jette
So as Attorney Westgate explained Groton Road was originally laid out in back in 1847 | think it was and then
again, excuse me, and then in 1938 | think the State repositioned it because there was an “S” curve in the road
and they straightened and so the original road as laid out was no longer needed because of this new straighter

road. So those pieces of the road that have no longer been used and so it is only right that the title revert back
to the original owner and now its successor in title and | ask that you support it.

Board of Aldermen 07-13-2021 Page 20
President Wilshire

The motion is for final passage of Resolution 21-147 as amended. Further discussion on that motion? Seeing
none, would the Clerk please call the roll?

A viva voce roll call was taken which resulted as follows:

Yea: Alderman O’Brien, Alderman Klee, Alderwoman Kelly, Alderman Dowd,
Alderman Caron, Alderman Clemons, Alderman Lopez, Alderman Tencza,
Alderwoman Lu, Alderman Jette, Alderman Schmidt, Alderman Laws,
Alderman Cleaver, Alderwoman Harriott-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire 15

Nay: 0
MOTION CARRIED

Resolution R-21-147 declared duly adopted as amended.

R-21-148
Endorsers: Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman Thomas Lopez
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman Jan Schmidt
Alderman-at-Large Ben Clemons
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
Alderman Skip Cleaver
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderwoman-at-Large Shoshanna Kelly
Alderman-at-Large Brandon Michael Laws
AUTHORIZING THE ACQUISITION OF A PORTION OF PROPERTY AT 44 BUCKMEADOW ROAD, TAX
MAP C, LOT 25
Given its second reading;

MOTION BY ALDERMAN DOWD FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF R-21-148, BY ROLL CALL

ON THE QUESTION

President Wilshire

Alderman Dowd.

Alderman Dowd

And I'd like to speak to it. Yes we are in final negotiations and | can thank Attorney Celia Leonard for marching
this through. | think we are there and we take the motion tonight so that we have the approval to buy it and we
should be all set, | hope.

President Wilshire

The motion is for final passage. Further discussion on that motion? Seeing none, would the Clerk please call
the roll?

Board of Aldermen 07-13-2021 Page 21
A viva voce roll call was taken which resulted as follows:

Yea: Alderman O’Brien, Alderman Klee, Alderwoman Kelly, Alderman Dowd,
Alderman Caron, Alderman Clemons, Alderman Lopez, Alderman Tencza,
Alderwoman Lu, Alderman Jette, Alderman Schmidt, Alderman Laws,
Alderman Cleaver, Alderwoman Harriott-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire 15

Nay: 0
MOTION CARRIED
Resolution R-21-148 declared duly adopted.

R-21-151
Endorsers: Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman-at-Large Ben Clemons
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman Jan Schmidt
Alderman-at-Large David C. Tencza
Alderman Thomas Lopez
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
Alderman-at-Large Brandon Michael Laws
Alderman Skip Cleaver
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
RELATIVE TO A BALLOT REFERENDUM CONCERNING SPORTS BETTING WITHIN THE CITY OF
NASHUA
Given its second reading;

MOTION BY ALDERMAN O’BRIEN FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF R-21-151, BY ROLL CALL

ON THE QUESTION

President Wilshire

Alderman O’Brien.

Alderman O’Brien

And may | speak briefly to the matter? Thank you Madam President. | feel this is important to get this on the
ballot. As many of you know and | state this for the folks at home, both Boston Billiards and the River really
contribute an awful lot of money to the charities of our community. It alleviates us, as you Know, as we just got
through budget season. We look at the budget book and we still help out charities but this really dulls the knife
sort to speak and kind of makes it easier for worthwhile charities to get this. Does this sports betting go to the
charities? The answer is no. But it’s part of the door opener, people that will come into these establishments
hopefully will play a game of chance and take some of their disposable income in which entices the charities.
So therefore, | think it goes hand-in-hand and | urge you all to support this matter. Thank you.

President Wilshire

Alderman Lopez and then (audio cuts out).