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AMENDED
R-16-065

RESOLUTION

RELATIVE TO THE ACCEPTANCE AND APPROPRIATION OF UP TO $264,168.96
FROM THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND
HUMAN SERVICES INTO TRANSIT GRANT ACTIVITY
“FEDERAL TRANSIT AUTHORITY (“FTA”) OPERATING GRANT”

CITY OF NASHUA

In the Year Two Thousand and Sixteen

RESOLVED by the Board of Aldermen of the City of Nashua that the City of Nashua and
the Division of Community Development are authorized to accept and appropriate up to
$264,168.96 from the State of New Hampshire, Department of Health and Human Services into
Transit Grant Activity “Federal Transit Authority (“FTA”) Operating Grant” for the purpose of
providing fixed route transportation services for individuals ages 60 and up. This funding shall
be in effect from October 1, 2016 through September 30, 2018.

Building Code Board of Appeals

Daniel Bergeron (New Appointment) Term to Expire:

2/7 Webster Street
Nashua, NH 03064

Scott Cote (New Appointment)
39 Tenby Drive
Nashua, NH 03062

Kevin Slattery (Reappointment)
4 Berkeley Street
Nashua, NH 03064

Historic District Commission
Robert Sampson (Reappointment)
18 Sargent Avenue

Nashua, NH 03064

Nashua Arts Commission:

Marc Thayer (New Appointment)

1 Clocktower Place, #416
Nashua, NH 03060

APPOINTMENTS BY THE MAYOR
OCTOBER 11, 2016

Term to Expire:

Term to Expire:

Term to Expire:

Term to Expire:

| respectfully request that these appointments be confirmed.

October 1, 2019

November 1, 2019

September 1, 2018

September 30, 2019

April 1, 2019

Jim Donchess

Mayor

A regular meeting of the Board of Aldermen was held Tuesday, September 27, 2016, at 7:30 p.m. in the
Aldermanic Chamber.

President Brian S. McCarthy presided; City Clerk Patricia D. Piecuch recorded.

Prayer was offered by City Clerk Patricia D. Piecuch; Alderman Sean M. McGuinness 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 and Corporation Counsel Steven A. Bolton were also present.

REMARKS BY THE MAYOR

Mayor Donchess

A number of exciting and good things happened over the last couple of weeks. We had the music
festival on Friday and Saturday which worked out really well. We had the farmer’s dinner on Sunday
night. The Legacy Playground was opened after a long period of working on that. We had the award of
being 16" as the best place to live in United States by Money Magazine. Tonight we have some very
good appointments on.

One very sad thing is that Dominick Giovinazzo, a long-time leader from the Boys and Girls Club, passed
away and his wake is tomorrow.

Because the issue of the Welcoming City is going to be voted on tonight | wanted to spend most of my
time on that. | brought this resolution to join the Welcoming America Initiative on behalf of Nashua at the
request of both the Chamber of Commerce and the United Way who have been involved in the effort to
make new residents of Nashua, both from outside the country and inside the country welcome for a long
time. | thought and still obviously think it is a very strong move for Nashua. | appreciated their
leadership in this area and so | sponsored the resolution that is before you. | think there are a number of
reasons that we should take positive action on this. If we want to build a stronger economy, a stronger
job base, a stronger tax base and a more vibrant community, we need to attract new residents; both from
within the United States and without. New Hampshire is the second oldest city in the country and there
has recently been publicity about Maine and New Hampshire facing the very serious problem of an aging
population with younger people not staying. Now Nashua, fortunately, if you really look at the numbers is
younger, still getting older but younger and more diverse by far than the State of New Hampshire as a
whole and that’s an opportunity and an asset for us. 13.5% of Nashua residents are foreign born and
that does not include the children of foreign born residents who might be school kids or older teenagers
or even adults. The biggest problem that is raised by the Chamber of Commerce and man of the
employers that we have is the inability to find qualified or any employees to fill jobs that are now open.
This is BAE and across the board. We need more people moving to Nashua. As | mentioned a couple
of weeks ago, if you look at the trends for the last four or five years, Nashua would have lost population
were it not for immigration of considerable amounts; 3,000 to 4,000 people. We need new residents,
immigrants from outside the country and elsewhere to help us start businesses to fill jobs and to provide
diversity and vitality for our community and to help us work towards a prosperous future. Take Rivier
University, last week they had a recruiter go to India to recruit Indian graduate students to come to that
university. They are one of our leading college and university level institutions. They attracted 500
students from India and they are hoping to attract that many more to be part of their computer science
program on a constant basis. This is a huge source of revenue for Rivier. Each of those students faces
$445 per credit for 36 credits so this is a major source of their recent success and one that we want to
encourage and promote. If you look to the Money Magazine article which suggests that Nashua is the
16" best to live, they sighted a number of things; low unemployment, downtown Renaissance and one of
the things that they mentioned was diversity and that we have begun to establish ourselves formally as a
Welcoming City and as part of the Welcoming America Initiative. We are trying to, in passing this, trying
to speak to a number of different groups. Number one, to the foreign born residents that we have who

Board of Aldermen Page 2
September 27, 2016

are right here living in Nashua who have established businesses like Zeco, an applications business in
the Millyard or Sally’s Market or who are working for companies or not, people who are here now. If you
think about 13% of the population being foreign born, that’s about 8,000 people in Nashua. We want to
speak to them and we want to say that you are welcome, we are glad you are here and we want to
include you. Number two, | think we want to speak to people that are inside the United States and are
here. The former Mayor of Nashville, which has taken a lot of welcoming initiatives and has become a
very vibrant place, Nashville, TN. He said it is a complement when someone from elsewhere in the
country or somewhere else in the world, maybe Mysore, India or somewhere else. Someone moves to
Nashua and chooses this place, that’s a compliment to us because we want new residents and we want
a growing population and an expanding economy and a growing job base. We are also speaking to
people outside of the country. We are trying to encourage those with contacts outside, Rivier University
and many of the residents that we have here to encourage their friends and their family to also locate
here. Finally, we are speaking to the institutions that we have here in the city that are very supportive of
our efforts to include new Nashuans. | am talking about Rivier University, St. Joe’s Hospital, the United
Way, the Chamber of Commerce; we are trying to say to them that we agree with what you are doing
and we think that’s a good thing and we want to be part of it. On the converse, what message would we
be sending if we reject the Welcoming America Initiative? This has been adopted without controversy in
Manchester and Concord. We, the most diverse community by far in New Hampshire, would serve to
gain more by being a welcoming community than any of the others and yet if the message went out that
well, we are the one city in New Hampshire who just rejected the idea of being part of the Welcoming
America Initiative and the message goes out to all of the groups that | spoke of which is a very negative
message and one that will hurt our long-term future. As | mentioned, the origin of the Welcoming
America Initiative, the idea of joining it did come from the United Way and Chamber of Commerce to their
credit. The United Way has been in the community since 1930 and they are not a partisan organization
in any stretch of the imagination. They have raised millions of dollars for charitable organizations around
their entire region. They have been running for two years based upon a grant awarded to them by the
New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and others, the One Greater Nashua Initiative which is basically
just a parallel to what we are proposing here. Also the Chamber of Commerce has advanced this and
there is no way that the Chamber of Commerce is a partisan organization and the reason that | raise the
issue of partisanship is | think that some people misunderstood the origin of this and thought that it was
some effort to endorse one of the parties or positions of one of the parties, specifically the democrats.
The Chamber of Commerce takes a pro-business position which in their best judgement serves the best
interest of their constituents, their members and the Nashua community. Some of those positions tend to
be the position that the democrats support and probably more of them tend to be the positon that
Republicans are for. They are not a partisan organization in any stretch of the imagination. We also
have received letters of support from St. Joseph’s Hospital which has been in the community for 100
years serving the Nashua based people with quality healthcare for all of that time. They are not engaged
in partisan politics but they strongly support this. We received a letter from Salt Lake City, UT; which is
hardly a blue state or a bastion of the Democrats. They have joined the Welcoming America Initiative
and have been part of it for a long time and they see great, positive aspects for them. | think given the
long history of immigration here in Nashua, there are immigrants from Ireland, Greece, Canada, and
Lithuania who built the mill, built the city and without them really what would Nashua be? Now we have
immigrants from other countries, Asia and other parts of the world and we still need them and they can
still contribute and they are still welcome and we should still make that clear. | did offer or suggest a
possible amendment because a couple of the members of the committee on _ the
Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee had asked the question what are we really committing
ourselves to because the Welcoming America Initiative website is quite extensive and so with the
assistance of the legal department | wrote up an amendment which would simply make that a little
clearer because upon joining the initiative we are simply required to or asked to sign a five statement,
one page letter which says that we will advance a resolution or proclamation and we will find ways to
institutionalize welcoming efforts. We are already doing this. | mean the Chamber of Commerce, One
Greater Nashua, the United Way; we are already engaged in that. To join the cohort of cities and
counties, appoint municipal official staff contact which is easily accomplished, participate in three phone
conference calls per year and participate in annual in-person meeting with other welcoming cities and

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September 27, 2016

counties depending upon the budget. | am not proposing that we spend a lot of money to send people
anywhere. In fact, Jen McCormack, Director of the Nashua Public Library, has already been going to
these things not on city money but on grant money so it’s possible that we would in some way participate
in it but we are not required to. The purpose of this amendment is simply to nail down what it is that we
are really committing to and no more and no less. We are not endorsing an agenda having to do with
illegal immigration or amnesty or anything else. We are simply saying that in our own way be involved in
a welcoming effort in our community. | favor either the original proposal or the one that | wrote up which
adds the words “by executing the attached commitment to participate in the Welcoming Cities and
Counties cohort which sets for the city’s role under the Welcoming America Initiative.” For all of the
reasons that | have mentions and | think we may hear from some others from the community, | think this
is a positive step forward and | would ask all members of the Board to consider supporting this as a
unifying, reaching out type of initiative and effort which in the long run will help benefit our community as
a whole.

RESPONSE TO REMARKS OF THE MAYOR — None
RECOGNITION PERIOD — None
READING MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS

MOTION BY ALDERMAN WILSHIRE THAT THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN
MEETINGS OF SEPTEMBER 14, 2016, BE ACCEPTED, PLACED ON FILE, AND THE READINGS
SUSPENDED

MOTION CARRIED

COMMUNICATIONS

MOTION BY ALDERMAN SIEGEL THAT ALL COMMUNICATIONS BE READ BY TITLE ONLY
MOTION CARRIED

From: Mayor Jim Donchess
Re: Notification of Entry into Contract with a 3 Party Supplier for Natural Gas Supply

MOTION BY ALDERMAN SIEGEL TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE AND AWARD THE MULTI-
YEAR CONTRACT TO DIRECT ENERGY BUSINESS MARKETING, LLC, D/B/A DIRECT
ENERGY BUSINESS

MOTION CARRIED

From: Jennifer McCormack, Director, Nashua Public Library
Re: Welcoming America Initiative

MOTION BY ALDERMAN LOPEZ TO ACCEPT AND PLACE ON FILE
MOTION CARRIED

From: Mayor Jim Donchess
Re: Welcoming City Legislation

MOTION BY ALDERWOMAN MELIZZI-GOLJA TO ACCEPT AND PLACE ON FILE
MOTION CARRIED

From: Mayor Jim Donchess
Re: Welcoming City Proposed Resolution

MOTION BY ALDERMAN O’BRIEN TO ACCEPT AND PLACE ON FILE
MOTION CARRIED

Board of Aldermen Page 4
September 27, 2016

MOTION BY ALDERMAN WILSHIRE THAT THE RULES BE SO FAR SUSPENDED AS TO ALLOW
FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED AFTER THE AGENDA WAS
PREPARED

MOTION CARRIED

From: St. Joseph Hospital
Re: Welcoming City Legislation

MOTION BY ALDERMAN WILSHIRE TO ACCEPT AND PLACE ON FILE
MOTION CARRIED

From: One Greater Nashua
Re: Welcoming City Legislation

MOTION BY ALDERMAN WILSHIRE TO ACCEPT AND PLACE ON FILE
MOTION CARRIED

PERIOD FOR PUBLIC COMMENT RELATIVE TO ITEMS EXPECTED TO BE ACTED
UPON THIS EVENING

Ms. Latha Mangipudi, 20 Salmon Brook Drive

| am here in support of R-16-068, the Welcoming America Initiative. | would strongly urge all of you to
support the original resolution as presented by Mayor Donchess who very eloquently explained what this
initiative is and | think it can only make our Nashua a wonderful city and make everybody a diverse
community to be celebrated with diversity and strength and with that | give my wholehearted support.

Ms. Mary Hulfachor, 15 Salmon Brook Drive
| support the original resolution of Nashua as a Welcoming City.
Ms. Gloria Timmons, 3 Roedean Drive

| have lived in Nashua for 26 years and my ancestors came here because of a forced migration from
Africa. | have met, housed and entertained many immigrants. After 22 years in the military and visiting
over 30 countries | have lived many years among them. In my current development there are many
different groups of people from Asia, India, Africa and they are good people who want and deserve the
same thing that most of our citizens have right now, peace, happiness and to worship without
persecution. As a U.S. born resident and in the spirit of this country, please find it in your heart to
understand that they immigrated the same way that all of you did and should be given the same
opportunities. | am requesting that you consider the Welcoming America Initiative.

Ms. Sylvia Gale, 4 Clergy Circle

Since retiring from 30 years of state service | have been very active as a community advocate and
activist on a number of statewide and local activities including the Cultural Connections Committee, the
state’s Human Resource Commission and a convening member of the Nashua Community Conversation
on Race and Justice. Along the way | have become very familiar with the work of the Welcoming
America Initiative which has served as a non-partisan organization for a number of years to strengthen
and support the communities across our nation that have stepped forward and done the right thing to say
to all who want to become productive citizens in their community, we want you, we welcome you and we
will help you to settle in as best we can. This is our country and we all came from somewhere else
except for the Native Americans. We need to be extending our hands and our resources in whatever
way we can. | am in full support of the original resolution as presented by the Mayor. | was disappointed

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to learn that there was some belief that the Welcoming America Initiative was bringing in a political
agenda. | know that not to be the case. | encourage you all tonight to do the right thing and bring
forward the resolution in either the Mayor’s newly amended form or the original form that he presented a
couple of weeks ago to put Nashua on the map as not only the state’s most diverse city but to really
support the efforts that many people in this community have been making for a very long time and to say
we welcome, we support and we applaud the risks that are taken for people that weren’t born here to
come here and pave a new way and show us all something different and enhance all of our lives as a
result.

Ms. Lauren Osowski, 14A Artillery Lane

| am also here representing the Adult Learning Center. We are asking you to support the Welcoming
America Initiative presented by the Mayor. Not only will it reinforce Nashua as a Welcoming City for our
1,110 students representing 74 different countries, it will open doors for the Adult Learning Center as an
organization. By joining the Welcoming America Initiative network non-profits such as the Adult Learning
Center will be eligible for additional resources, grants and networking opportunities. Please support the
original resolution to make Nashua a Welcoming City and join the Welcoming America Initiative to open
doors for our city.

Ms. Tracy Hatch, 31 Pennichuck Street

| am here representing not just my own personal opinion but that of the Greater Nashua Chamber of
Commerce in strong support of R-16-068. | got an e-mail this evening from Alderman Moriarty asking
me...telling me that he hoped that | had made mistake in sending in the letter of support from the
Chamber of Commerce the first time around and wondering if | truly knew what | was getting involved
with and whether the Chamber knew and | want to say emphatically that yes, we did. We and my Board
have taken a position in strong support of being a Welcoming City. Not because it’s a social service or a
social issue, although we do think that’s important, but because of the economic imperative for our
community. The Welcoming America Initiative, to clarify, is a non-partisan organization. Their goal, if
you look at their website and | have spent an extensive amount of time this evening doing that, not for
the first time, fosters opportunity for all to become a more prosperous community by making everyone
who lives in the community feel like they belong. Transforming communities into vibrant places where
people respect each other and everyone’s talents are valued and cultivated. That is not partisan and
that’s not left wing. This was the first time in my life anyone’s even come close to telling me that | am left
wing. | didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at that one. It doesn’t say anything about illegal immigrants
and amnesty. A few rhetorical questions...does anyone here think our current immigration policy is
working? Does anyone here think that conversations about that issue would be better if we had more
and not fewer people involved in that conversation? Does anyone here really think that adopting this
resolution as introduced means that Nashua is expected to solve that issue or even to take a position on
it because | don’t? This resolution is about being welcoming and opening the doors for economic
opportunity and development in our community. Our Chamber right now is involved in conversations
both with India and with Israel about bringing economic development and opportunities here to our city.
How much more difficult will it be for me to talk to them about that if our Board of Aldermen says we are
sorry, because we think there is some hidden something somewhere on a website of some national
organization we are going to say that we are not welcoming. That’s not what | think you all believe. |
hope that’s not what you all believe and | hope that you will also support the resolution as originally
introduced by our Mayor.

Rev. Tom Woodward, 36 Hampton Drive

| come to you because | kind of reacted very strongly to an e-mail that | got last Tuesday but | see the
Mayor’s motion as being emerging out of what we are as a community and I’ve seen Welcoming America
influence many different things in the community from the Adult Learning Center to the United Way and
the work of the Granite State Organizing Project, all directed towards welcoming and shaping our

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September 27, 2016

community so others feel at home and they can make a contribution and building a stronger Nashua. |
feel that the Board made a very strong motion to accept My Brother's Keeper. That has taken form and
shaped our community and | believe the Mayor’s motion will also supplement that and provide more
emphasis among welcoming people to contribute their lives to the outstanding life that we have here in
the City of Nashua.

Ms. Adelina Hernandez, 56 Chestnut Street

| have lived in Nashua for 36 years and | work for the Nashua School District as para and | am part of
One Greater Nashua and | coordinate the Navigator Program which welcomes newcomers to our city
and help them navigate their way around Nashua. | strongly support the Mayor's resolution proclaiming
Nashua as a Welcoming City.

Ms. Ellen Barr, 5 Dinsmore Street

| want to say that | am part of One Greater Nashua. | work as a cultural navigator and we work together
as a diverse group of people working very hard to welcome newcomers into our community. | support
this resolution on a personal level because | personally am committed to being welcoming. | want to say
that there are so many other reasons to support it. We need to support this because immigrants help to
make our community vital. The economic vitality and cultural spirit of Nashua is enhanced when we
welcome. | know the importance of young immigrants coming to our community, especially in the context
of greying New Hampshire population and | will include myself in that population. | Know the richness of
language and music and art that diversity brings to our city. | also know that our safety is in increased
when the population in our neighborhoods is connected, not when they feel isolated. | ask you please to
vote in favor of the full resolution that affirms Nashua as a Welcoming City and make our city proud.

Ms. Leticia Meehan, 29 Grand Avenue

| am also speaking on behalf of my husband, Mark. We moved to Nashua a little over four years ago
and one of the things we looked at was the diversity. We are New Jersey and New York people but we
route for the Red Sox as long as they don't play the Yankees. We wanted a place with a diverse
community. | teach at Main Dunstable Elementary School and our families who have come from other
places, at least the parents, who were born outside of the United States, are coming in from India,
Pakistan, and Iran; from Latin American countries, Puerto Rico. Not only are these children working hard
and raising our test scores, there parents are working hard. They are in that school after school running
academic clubs for those kids. They are winning awards and going to regional competitions. They are
running track. These people are enriching us and helping my school look better. | am also here because
| am American and | love this country and | love our values and that we value freedom and value
welcoming others from other countries here. | love that we are the land of the free and the home of the
brave. In this day in age let’s not kid ourselves; it takes bravery to be welcoming. | agree with my fellow
Nashuans when they said that we are safer when we are connected. Every morning at Main Dunstable
we Say to our kids, | want to urge you guys that we need to lead by example. “H is for Help others; A,
always do the right thing; W, welcome everyone; K, kindness matters and S, safety first.”

Mr. Paul Racioppi

| represent the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire, a non-profit, non-partisan statewide
organization with hundreds of members here in Nashua. | am here tonight to support all of the Nashua
residents who have spoken out and will be speaking out in support of this resolution. The ACLU
supports their efforts and hopefully Nashua will continue to be a leader in welcoming people of all
cultures and ethnicities and races and backgrounds.

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September 27, 2016

Ms. Susan Farina, 11 Charles Street

| am a life-long Nashua resident and | am here with my son who is a future voter and my dear friend
Kushma Ganagari, a recent Nashua resident. We would like to support the original resolution and hope
you will do the right thing tonight.

Ms. Jennifer Hosking, 31 Twiss Lane, Hollis, Employee at the Nashua Public Library

| would like to read a letter on behalf of the public library in support of Mayor Donchess’ Welcoming
proclamation. This letter was written by Jen McCormack, Library Director, who wasn’t able to attend this
evening.

Dear Mayor Donchess,
RE: Welcoming America initiative

After attending the Personnel and Administrative Affairs committee meeting on Monday, September 18th
| wanted to share with you my own experience the Welcoming America initiative. As an organization the
library has acknowledged in the last several years that the city's population is becoming more diverse
and that we are not adequately reaching the newest residents with our services. Like you we have read
the data from the schools about their ELL programs and the data about the aging of NH's population and
the rapid influx of immigrants into our city and our state. We've also seen the turnout at large events like
Nashua Goes Back to School and seen the variety of faces in that crowd: the most compelling evidence
of the increased diversity of our city. In response to this the library has adopted "Become a Welcoming
Space" as one of our major strategic goals and we are implementing a variety of objectives and activities
toward reaching that goal. Through the Welcoming America initiative we have access to a network of
communities and agencies across the country engaged in the real work of ensuring that the systems,
policies and procedures in place are working to engage newcomers from anywhere in the world. Of
particular relevance to us as a library has been the work done in Nashville and Dayton, and | have been
able to connect directly to people from both of those communities by attending the Immigrant Integration
conference in both 2014 and 2015: a conference supported in part by affiliates of the Welcoming
America initiative. In both years | have returned from that conference energized and committed to
working with other agencies, organizations and individuals in the city who are working to making new
residents feel welcome and engaged in their new community. Joining the Welcoming America initiative
allows Nashua to do more than just state to ourselves how we feel about new comers, it publicly joins us
with the growing network of communities committed to implementing policy and procedural changes that
make our cities and towns are ready to do more than just accept immigrants but to offer them full
participation in every aspect of the life of the city.

Mr. Harvey Keefe, 4 Tamarack Place

Thank you for allowing me to address on the finest Board of Aldermen this city has ever seen. This is
the third time in the history of this country that a city called Nashua, New Hampshire, has been named
one of the best places in America to live to raise a family and they say why? In my opinion, two or three
or four of those reasons to be in the top 20 to be in the best places to live in work in America is first, it’s
outstanding leadership by an almost shy Mayor. The second is an intelligent, dynamic visionary,
community minded and inclusive Aldermanic counsel whose President, Brian McCarthy, not so shy, is a
cut above the rest in ability, trust and duty and human relations and has always welcomed differences
and changes. In the late 70’s or early 80’s | lived on Radcliffe Drive in Nashua, NH, and | got a knock on
my door late one morning and some guy named Brian McCarthy was there and | was loaded with
questions and his answered quickly with a New York accent and | knew he was a stranger just by that
accent but he stated his position so eloquently that | had no further questions. Ladies and gentlemen,
this man is still standing, standing tall in the most beautiful city in America and that’s Brian McCarthy.
First | am here because | love Nashua and | am urging you to join your President by passing the

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September 27, 2016

resolution R-16-068, the Welcoming America Initiative. As we move forward and in an even more
inclusive community change is already here. We cannot invent the future, it is already here. All we have
to do is open our eyes and help recreate what is and what we do not and cannot control. The second
reason that | am here is my short story of passion for Nashua. | was born in Birmingham, AL, under the
feet of the two of the most racist people in America; George Wallace, who was the Governor and the
Police Chief, Will Connor. In 1956, just returning from service, my term and career in conflict, | went to
register to vote in Birmingham, AL, and when | arrived at the place to register to vote, | was asked to tell
the number of jet peas in the jar. | started to react and an armed guard appeared with a hand gun and |
quickly left the building. Obviously, that’s why | am still living. After spending a few years in other cities
in America, | arrived in Nashua, NH. This city welcomed me unconditionally. See my website if you will,
it is HarveyT.com. | became a state representative, own a business here and raised my children. My
youngest daughter know, because she was an immigrant and just coming to this place, wen to Infant
Jesus and Nashua High, is now the Vice Provost at Saint Paul’s School in New Hampshire. That’s what
welcoming people can do for us. I’ve been told that before | got up here | had to sit down real fast and
I’m not going to sit down real fast but I’m going to say thank you so much and | urge you to join this body
to pass this resolution so that we can become, again, the shining city on the hill.

Chief Andrew Lavoie, Nashua Police Department

| am here to support Nashua as a Welcoming City. The Nashua Police Department is a major
stakeholder for inclusion and diversity programs across the city. Inclusion and welcoming strategies
bring a greater understanding between individuals with diverse backgrounds that reduce fear and build
strong neighborhoods, which in turn, help increase safety. We are all but one city and in my opinion
embracing diversity and quite frankly, celebrating diversity makes us stronger together.

Mr. Jared Barbos, 77 Lawrence Road

| am here tonight to speak in favor of the original legislation. | am here representing all of the hats that |
wear in the community, that being president of the Nashua Soccer Council, co-chair of One Greater
Nashua, director of REFA Soccer Club, guidance counselor at Amherst Street Elementary School and a
foster guardian at home, a father to my son, Lucas and a husband to Sarah. | am also here advocating
for our newcomers and our immigrant population and | am the son of an immigrant. Tonight | am going
to speak on behalf on Nashua’s social advocacy workers and the work that we do and what tonight
means tonight. Us, we, who put in countless amount of hours into the work for those that need it most.
I’m speaking about our social workers, our therapists, our guidance counselors, our teachers, our case
managers, our para-professionals, our cultural navigators at One Greater Nashua, our police officers, our
coaches and many more. Those who see no end to advocating for people and their needs, those who
have helped Nashua get back to be the 16" best cities in the country. What exactly does this have to do
with the legislation? | remember two things from my education that | received at our wonderful Rivier
University, one is that | love how our work was referred to being in the helping field and two, our field
calling out for us to advocate even more for our students, our youth and our families. What | have
noticed is that we don’t have a lot talkers in this city but we do have a lot of doers. We know that being in
the helping field that a lot of times it is a thankless job. This is job where success is not measured by how
much we make, it obviously isn’t the priority so what this piece of legislation means to those of us in the
helping field can’t necessarily be put into words. In many ways | guess if this moves forward this is what
would be considered our raise or our promotion. If we do move forward we will celebrate tonight but
know for tomorrow there is still work to be done and we will do it but with a brighter smile on our face.

Ms. Liz Fitzgerald, 20 Broad Street, United Way of Greater Nashua

Thank you for carefully considering this legislation. | am speaking tonight as an employee of the United
Way of Greater Nashua and also co-chair of the One Greater Nashua Coalition. | live in Brookline, NH,
but | consider Nashua my municipal home and the decisions you make as a policy making Board for
Nashua affect my community as well. | strongly urge you to support this legislation presented by Mayor