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Board of Aldermen Page 9
September 27, 2016

Donchess. So many of my fellow friends and colleagues have already eloquently put many of the points
that | wanted to make tonight but I’d like to emphasize that the United Way’s support for participating in
One Greater Nashua and the step you would be taking as a municipality in joining the Welcoming City
and Counties Initiative. We are an organization of two staff people with dozens of Board members and
more than dozens of volunteers and hundreds of donors that work and fight every day for the health,
education, and economic mobility of every person in every community in the eleven communities that
surround Nashua. We have recognized the value of partnering with the Welcoming America Initiative to
address concerns about social inclusion and integration which is the first step in creating opportunities to
break down social barriers that help hold people back from achieving their best potential. We are not a
partisan organization. We see our work in not only helping the people who get to improve their lives
through the United Way’s work but also the communities become stronger and we view this Welcoming
Initiative from the municipality standpoint as an opportunity for us to put a stake in the ground that says
we are the kind of community that is taking this work seriously and we know that corporations will be
looking to that short list of cities that sign on to the Welcoming Initiative to place their future businesses
and we will, as service providers, continue to work to make sure that our residents are ready to fill those
jobs when they come. We are hoping that you will strongly consider partnering with us, the service
provider community and moving forward in this step to make our community the best that it can be.

Ms. Sandi Cotter, Ascentria Care Alliance Services for New Americans

We are one of the two agencies that does refugee resettlement here in Nashua. Nobody wants to be a
refugee. The people that we work with came from countries where they were born, raised families, built
homes, had careers and owned their own businesses. Because of the outcome of a political election, a
change in religious leadership or military violence, they were forced to leave those homes. They
appreciate the opportunity to be here in Nashua. With their refugee status come tremendous demands
and they rise to meet those demands. They quickly become employees, consumers, taxpayers and
contributing members of your communities. As a first generation American myself, | urge you all to think
about where your mother and father came from and where their mother and father came from.
Somebody made them feel welcome when they came and on behalf of my clients, | would like to thank
what Nashua does to make them feel welcome and urge you to adopt the original resolution.

Owise, 46 Whitney Street

| am still learning English and | am a refuge and | came here three months ago. | would like to thank
America and the American people for having us and giving us an opportunity to live as a human again
and | would like to support this resolution and thank everyone for giving me the chance to speak here.
Thank you very much.

Mr. Mohammad Mustak, 12 East Pearl Street, Apt. 3

Thank you for giving me this opportunity. | am originally from Birma. | am here as a refugee and I’ve
been living in Nashua for almost 4 % years. | would like to thank you on behalf of my community. We
have here around 85 in my community. We thank you for hosting us here. We also support the
resolution.

Mr. Mohammad Nurkarian, 33 % Amherst Street

My family and | have lived in Nashua for about 1 % years. | also support the Mayor’s resolution as a
Welcoming City, not to mention that | am also a student from Nashua High School North. Nashua is a
peaceful city with harmony. We immigrated here as refugees; my parents were born in Myanmar and me
and my little brother were in Malaysia. We were raised in Malaysia and stayed there for a long time so
we had an opportunity to come to America and find a peaceful place to live and that’s why we decided to
stay in Nashua. Also, thank you so much to the mayor, president and government for letting us stay in
Nashua.

Board of Aldermen Page 10
September 27, 2016

Mr. Krishna Mangipudi, 20 Salmon Brook Road

My wife Latha and | have lived in this town since 1990 and we’ve made this our home and brought up
two children in this community. | have worked in this community in various technology companies, some
of which were start-ups and as a first generation immigrant we made this our home and a place to work
and live and in those start-ups | was responsible for giving an opportunity to several individuals to work in
high paying jobs. My story is similar to hundreds of others immigrants of this town who have opened up
their arms and welcomed. The other thing that I’d like to mention is that | am also here on behalf of one
of the sponsors of this legislation, the Nashua Chamber of Commerce. As a member of the Board of
Directors | have watched Tracy Hatch lead an initiative this year to change the direction of what and how
the policies will be set for the Nashua Chamber of Commerce. She wants to make Nashua a Welcoming
City for every citizen. | can see that this will be very effective. Also in hearing and listening to several
people that have preceded me, several non-profit organizations and community organizations are deeply
involved in this effort to make the Nashua community a Welcoming City so given that | propose that
affirming that the City of Nashua as a Welcoming City and to participate in the Welcoming America
Initiative is something that you should all consider affirming and in doing so | will also suggest that you
are ratifying what is already happening in this city and what the citizenry is already engaged in.

Sushma, 47 Royal Crest Drive, #3
| am a student at Rivier University and | support the original resolution.

Mr. Kyle Schneck, 26 Chester Street

| am a commercial banker in the community of Nashua and | have many for profit and non-profit clients
and when | think about this issue it should not be a political issue. This is an economic issue. | speak to
a number of businesses here in Nashua and | say to them what do you need to help your business grow.
They say they need help, they need labor; there is a major labor shortage here and it’s hitting all
industries across the board and it’s impeding our growth. The other thing is that | see a lot of vacant
storefronts on Main Street and other areas of Nashua. Those storefronts could have entrepreneurial
businesses come in and be paying tax dollars and growing our City of Nashua. Let’s not make this a
political issue, let’s think about this as an economic issue. When | look at the Welcoming America
Initiative, and I’ve done a lot of research looking through this website, what it is really about is immigrant
integration. It’s taking people in our community, perhaps underserved and under voiced people, giving
them the tools that they need to help them out to make them more productive citizens. In no way is this
going to hurt our community, it’s only going to help our community. | do ask for all of you to strongly
consider making a vote to support the growth of Nashua.

Ms. Padma Vootkur, 5 Jonquil Lane

| have been a resident of Nashua for almost 20 years. The best part of Nashua is that it is inclusive and
very friendly. Since | first came here Nashua has only grown and improved and | am here tonight to
support the original resolution because Nashua is my home right now.

Mr. Rich Boehler, CFO of St. Joseph’s Hospital

| am here to support the resolution. We have submitted a letter of support and | also happen to be a
member of the Board of the United Way. | speak this evening on behalf of my Board of Director’s at the
hospital and certainly my personal views resonate very strongly with those that | have heard this evening.
Our hospital was formed 108 years ago to address the need of immigrants and in that case it was French
Canadian mill workers who came to Nashua. Over the last 108 years our doors have been open and
supportive of individuals who have come to this community. Let me first sway any fears that you might
have about who will care for these people when they come, we are here and ready to help. As both an
employer and an educator | think it’s very important that you understand some of the challenges we face

Board of Aldermen Page 11
September 27, 2016

in terms of the work force. | am on the Board of the Huntington as well so | hear about their challenges
and what it means. We have a great struggle in bringing in people who can meet the needs of our
patients and we’ve had a great history in our organization of educating people who are coming up
through the ranks and being very productive. There is a family, the Lopez-Grasper Family, and | employ
eleven of those individuals. They are from Boliva and they have started out many of them as nurse’s
aides and in other roles and have risen up to the ranks of nursing and into leadership roles because of
their industrious efforts. | know when | walk on a unit and | see one of them | feel good, my A team is
there. | can tell you many stories about individuals who have come to our community and made a huge
difference in expanded access to services here. | hope you will vote wisely and support the resolution
that the Mayor has put forth.

Mr. Dan Weeks, 7 Shattuck Street

| am a proud 12™ generation granite stater but even more proud to be married to a brand new U.S.
citizen, my wife, who emigrated here from South Africa. She is a Ph.D., a human rights lawyer and an
academic and she is glad to be offering her skills to our communities. We recently bought a home in a
neighborhood that was named after immigrants, French Hill. According to recent studies, immigrants in
New Hampshire, not only counter the rapid aging of our population and out migration of our youth but
they also make incredible contributions to our tax base and to the well-being of our communities. The
National Academy released a landmark study on the effects of immigration in this country and found here
in New Hampshire that immigrants contribute 3X in tax revenue more than they receive in public benefits.
My wife and | found that Nashua is the most diverse city in New Hampshire and that is why we decided
to buy a home here and raise our two kids here and we are glad that we did. Even though politics are in
just about everything these things, | understand that, but it’s my view that we are already a Welcoming
City and we can do no wrong and only do good by affirming that publicly and making a statement to the
rest of the state joining Manchester and Concord and following the encouragement of our own Chamber
of Commerce and the United Way and the ACLU and St. Joseph’s Hospital and others to publicly affirm
what we already are and ought to be more and more; a Welcoming City.

PETITIONS — None
NOMINATIONS, APPOINTMENTS AND ELECTIONS — None

REPORTS OF COMMITTEE

Budget Review Committee .............. cece cccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 09/20/16

There being no objection, President McCarthy declared the report of the September 20, 2016
Budget Review Committee accepted and placed on file.

Finance Committee ..0......... cece cece eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 09/21/16
There being no objection, President McCarthy declared the report of the September 21, 2016
Finance Committee accepted and placed on file.

Committee on Infrastructure ....0... ccc ccecccecccececececececesecseceeectereverseeaters 09/19/16

There being no objection, President McCarthy declared the report of the September 19, 2016
Committee on Infrastructure accepted and placed on file.

Human Affairs Committee 20.0... cc cecceccceecceceeeceeeceseeeeaeeeaeereeereeeaees 09/12/16

There being no objection, President McCarthy declared the report of the September 12, 2016
Human Affairs Committee accepted and placed on file.

Board of Aldermen Page 12
September 27, 2016

Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee ..0...0..... cc cecceceeeeeeeeeeeeeeee 09/19/16

There being no objection, President McCarthy declared the report of the August 19, 2016
Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee accepted and placed on file.

WRITTEN REPORTS FROM LIAISONS — None
CONFIRMATION OF MAYOR'S APPOINTMENTS
Mine Falls Park Advisory Committee

MOTION BY ALDERMAN CARON TO CONFIRM BY VOICE VOTE THE FOLLOWING INDIVIDUALS
TO THE MINE FALLS PARK ADVISORY COMMITTEE: JEFF HANNIGAN, 32 HOUDE STREET,
NASHUA, AND PAULA G. LOCHHEAD, 4 WESTBROOK DRIVE, NASHUA, FOR TERMS TO
EXPIRE AUGUST 31, 2019; AND, PAMELA J. ANDERSON, 9 PLAINFIELD LANE, NASHUA, FOR A
TERM TO EXPIRE MARCH 1, 2019

MOTION CARRIED

President McCarthy declared Jeff Hannigan, Paula Lochhead and Pamela Anderson duly appointed to
the Mine Falls Park Advisory Committee for the aforementioned terms.

Oath of Office administered by Corporation Counsel to Jeff Hannigan.
Nashua Airport Authority

MOTION BY ALDERMAN SCHONEMAN TO CONFIRM BY VOICE VOTE THE FOLLOWING
INDIVIDUALS TO THE NASHUA AIRPORT AUTHORITY: JOSEPH R. DUQUETTE, 38 HILLS FERRY
ROAD, NASHUA, FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE AUGUST 31, 2021; AND FARRELL T. WOODS, 162
BUSH HILL ROAD, HUDSON, FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE AUGUST 31, 2017

MOTION CARRIED

President McCarthy declared Joseph Duquette and Farrell Woods duly appointed to the Nashua Airport
Authority for terms to expire August 31, 2021, and August 31, 2017, respectively.

Oath of Office administered by Corporation Counsel.
Nashua Arts Commission

MOTION BY ALDERMAN SIEGEL TO CONFIRM BY VOICE VOTE THE APPOINTMENT OF JOHN

F. EGAN, 7 BEVERLEE DRIVE, NASHUA, TO THE NASHUA ARTS COMMISSION FOR A TERM TO
EXPIRE SEPTEMBER 1, 2019

MOTION CARRIED

President McCarthy declared John F. Egan duly appointed to the Nashua Arts Commission for a term to
expire September 1, 2019.

Zoning Board of Adjustment

MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO CONFIRM BY VOICE VOTE THE APPOINTMENT OF JACK
M. CURRIER, 6 NEW SEARLES ROAD, NASHUA, TO THE ZONING BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT FOR
A TERM TO EXPIRE SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

MOTION CARRIED

Board of Aldermen Page 13
September 27, 2016

President McCarthy declared Jack M. Currier duly appointed to the Zoning Board of Adjustment for a
term to expire September 11, 2019.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS — RESOLUTIONS

R-16-054
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien
Alderwoman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja
Alderman June M. Caron
Alderman Tom Lopez
RELATIVE TO THE ACCEPTANCE AND APPROPRIATION OF $50,000 FROM THE NEW
HAMPSHIRE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES INTO PUBLIC HEALTH AND
COMMUNITY SERVICES GRANT ACTIVITY “HEALTHY HOMES AND LEAD POISONING CASE
MANAGEMENT”
Given its second reading;

MOTION BY ALDERMAN WILSHIRE FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF R-16-054
MOTION CARRIED

Resolution R-16-054 declared duly adopted.

R-16-062
Endorsers: Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman Ben Clemons
Alderwoman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
APPROVING THE COST ITEMS OF A COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT BETWEEN
THE NASHUA BOARD OF EDUCATION AND THE NASHUA TEACHERS’ UNION, LOCAL 1044,
AFT, AFL-CIO, UNIT C, SECRETARIES FROM JULY 1, 2016, THROUGH JUNE 30, 2018, AND
RELATED TRANSFERS
Given its second reading;

MOTION BY ALDERMAN DOWD FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF R-16-062

ON THE QUESTION

Alderman Dowd

For those of you that have reviewed the cost sheet you will see that the increases from a base salary
standpoint are 1% for FY ’17 and 1.25% for FY 18. The other numbers are recorded on that. This group
is definitely not overpaid for the services that they perform and | think that the budget committee
recommended final passage and | would ask that we pass this tonight.

MOTION CARRIED

Resolution R-16-062 declared duly adopted.

Board of Aldermen Page 14
September 27, 2016

R-16-063
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman David Schoneman
ESTABLISHING THE USE OF FUND BALANCE FOR TAX RATE
Given its second reading;

MOTION BY ALDERMAN DOWD FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF R-16-063 BY ROLL CALL
ON THE QUESTION

Alderman Dowd

This received the endorsement of the budget committee and it passed rather substantially.
A viva voce roll call was taken which resulted as follows:

Yea: Alderman Wilshire, Alderman Clemons, Alderman Deane, 15
Alderman Cookson, Alderman Dowd, Alderman Caron,
Alderman Siegel, Alderman Schoneman, Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja,
Alderman McGuinness, Alderman LeBrun, Alderman Moriarty,
Alderman O’Brien, Alderman Lopez, Alderman McCarthy

Nay: 0
MOTION CARRIED
Resolution R-16-063 declared duly adopted.

R-16-066
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman June M. Caron
Alderman Ken Siegel
Alderwoman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
ESTABLISHING AN EXPENDABLE TRUST FUND FOR DONATIONS FOR PAVING
Given its second reading;

MOTION BY ALDERWOMAN MELIZZI-GOLJA FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF R-16-066
MOTION CARRIED

Resolution R-16-066 declared duly adopted.

Board of Aldermen Page 15
September 27, 2016

R-16-067
Endorsers: Alderman David Schoneman
Alderman Ben Clemons
Alderman Ken Siegel
Alderwoman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja
Alderman Don LeBrun
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
AUTHORIZING THE EXPENDITURE OF THIRTY-THREE THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED
FOURTEEN DOLLARS ($33,614) FROM THE CONSERVATION FUND FOR LONG-TERM
MAINTENANCE, REPAIRS AND ADJUSTMENTS TO THE SOUTHWEST TRAILS
Given its second reading;

MOTION BY ALDERMAN SCHONEMAN FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF R-16-067
MOTION CARRIED

Resolution R-16-067 declared duly adopted.

R-16-068
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman Thomas Lopez
Alderwoman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja
Alderman-at-Large Brian S. McCarthy
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
Alderman Ben Clemons
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
AFFIRMING THE CITY OF NASHUA, NEW HAMPSHIRE AS A WELCOMING CITY AND
TO PARTICIPATE IN THE WELCOMING AMERICA INITIATIVE
Given its second reading;

MOTION BY ALDERMAN LOPEZ TO AMEND R-16-068 IN ITS ENTIRETY BY REPLACING IT WITH
THE COPY PROVIDED BY THE MAYOR

ON THE QUESTION

Alderman Lopez

| was one of the original proposers of the initial legislation, the sponsors and then during the
Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee meeting concerns were raised about the attachment of the
Welcoming America Initiative. Personally | have worked with the Welcoming America Initiative through
my work with One Greater Nashua, through my time on the Cultural Connections Committee and working
at the soup kitchen. | did not share my fellow Alderman’s concerns but | felt it was important to recognize
them because in the spirit of being a Welcoming City it is also important to recognize that some people
may have certain fears or concerns. | proposed the golden rod amendment to that initial legislation. In
the intervening time, however, | think the Mayor’s office has made a very concertive effort to articulate
exactly what we are agreeing to and to illuminate for the rest of the Board what the Welcoming America
Initiative is doing and what they stand for. | am satisfied that they are not a shadow organization or
underground campaign mechanism. | think it is evident that even if we don’t necessarily agree on the
politics, participating in the larger movement with Concord and Manchester is a benefit to our city. | am
conscience of all of the letters of support and the testimony we heard tonight assuring us that this is
something that is good for the city. | can’t make myself believe that all of those people could suddenly so
easily be misled as to not understand it and | think we should look at the turn out tonight as an
opportunity. It’s indicative of the strength that is inherent in our community. This is what every Board of
Aldermen should look like in terms of community turnout. | think a cause that brought so many people

Board of Aldermen Page 16
September 27, 2016

out in favor of it and not a single comment against it, by the public, is something that galvanizes the city
in a positive way. | am very much in support of this and | hope my fellow Aldermen will consider this.

Alderman Clemons

| just want to echo Alderman Lopez’s statements. | also want to thank the several citizens and
organizations that reached out to me to tell me their opinion on the matter. | certainly will be supporting
the Mayor's amendment.

Alderman Siegel

| came fully prepared to discuss the legislation as amended out of committee. There was a lengthy
discussion in committee. | thought at times it wandered a little bit off track but nonetheless | thought that
it seemed like there was some resolution that made a lot of sense. We now have something before us
which is effectively a different piece of legislation which ignores whatever happened before the
committee and is asking us, the full Board, to basically debate something which should be vetted in
committee. So, if you want to take this piece of legislation as proposed by the Mayor, my suggestion,
well not my suggestion because | won’t vote for it at the full Board, but | would be happy to send it to
committee if that is the desire to vote on that. However, let’s remember that part of the argument was
the “optics” of kicking this thing around. To me, when that showed up in my e-mail, | got to tell you that |
was a little annoyed because if we really cared about the optics and we went through such an effort to
come to some sort of what | thought was a reasonable compromise, it was fine. | personally resent a lot
of the strong man arguments that have been presented like presenting this is somehow against
immigrants and arguing against that as though there was ever any effort to propose that or to say that
was the case. All of the arguments, although some of them | don’t agree with how they were presented,
basically were associated with the particular organization and not the spirit of the legislation. | will be the
first to tell you that | can’t stand virtue signaling legislation. | hate this stuff but, | also know that we are at
a point where we do have to pass something like this because it would look troubling and the Chamber of
Commerce for one, | would certainly understand why they would have a problem or any business, it just
wouldn’t be acceptable, which is fine. Now | don’t have to virtue signal for anyone, | wake up every
morning next to somebody who is an immigrant. My wife fled the Knmer Rouge. She didn’t come under
pleasant circumstances; she came because she found out the night before that her family was going to
be murdered. Her legacy playground was the bodies that you see in the killing fields. That was
her experience. So her diversity is a little bit different than the safe space diversity that we see
infesting our country this day. She really did need a safe space, and this country was that safe
space. And, | do appreciate the perspectives that her point of view coming out of that and her
experiences provide for me. | don’t need anyone to tell me that somehow by not supporting this other
add-on organization that somehow | am rejecting immigrants. That’s ludicrous and it’s insulting to me
and everyone on the Board. Again, if we want to look at the Mayor’s proposal then it’s got to go back to
committee. We don’t debate legislation that hasn’t been vetted before the committee before the full
Board. That’s always been the case. We even called a special meeting to make sure that we didn’t do
the wrong thing over the summer and that was much more straight-forward. You guys just had an over
one hour meeting at the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee to discuss this legislation. That’s
going to be ignored and we are going to have something new and pretend that never happened and
that’s not okay. If you really want to support the Mayor's initiative then send it back to committee, don’t
vote for it here.

Alderman Clemons

We did have a long conversation at the committee level about the resolution and many points were
stated. There was a golden rod copy that the committee had come with as an alternative. We could vote
on that alternative if we wanted to, somebody could make a motion to amend the legislation so that it
looks like the golden rod copy, however, there are approximately 100 people in the audience right now
and I’ve gotten several e-mails and phone calls from people asking me to not do the legislation that we

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September 27, 2016

did in the committee and to instead endorse the Mayor’s version or the original version. We heard from
28 people tonight and they all stated that they wanted the Mayor's version or the original version. To
send it back to committee is wasting their time, wasting their organizations time, it’s wasting our time and
I’m not going to do it. | think we should pass this tonight in one form or another and move it along
because it’s an embarrassment at this point to send it back to the committee. The Mayor's amendment
doesn’t add anything significant to what the original legislation was except for the fact that it adds in the
document that he would be signing to join the initiative. | would suggest that my colleagues pass one
version of this and forget about sending it back to committee.

Alderman Siegel

In response to Alderman Clemons | would say that there are two options and we don’t have to accept the
Mayor’s amendment. If there is a desire to pass something this evening we have two alternatives. We
have either the recommendation by the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee to accept the
legislation as amended which we can vote on or failing the amended version before us will be the un-
amended version which we can then vote on. | don’t see that there is a requirement to send it back to
committee if in fact we want to pass something this evening. We have two options before us. My
colleague, Alderman Clemons, has said that there isn’t much material difference between the two so |
would assume that he would be more than content to deal with either one of those. | would suggest that
we debate at the full Board the legislation that has been referred by committee in its present form, accept
it or reject it in that form and then proceed on to the legislation that has originally appeared, if in fact the
amended legislation does not pass.

Alderman Lopez

| just wanted to point out that the changes that the Mayor made were...one of the strategies that was
discussed in the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee meeting was one response that we could
have done was to literally just take out everything that mentions the Welcoming America Initiative. | also
suggested in the meeting specifying exactly what we are committing to and | think the Mayor has done
exactly that. | think this is more of a middle ground than any other presentation because the amended
version that came out of the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee was in response to the fears
that it was a partisan effort or there were concerns that we didn’t know what the Welcoming America
Initiative was versus the original form which we could have just agreed to in the first place. The same
night that we introduced this resolution and then referred it to committee; we suspended the rules so that
we could congratulate the baseball team on their stunning season. Some virtue signaling is apparently
okay but others are not. We did not suspend that rule because it was important to discuss in committee
anything that was particularly important but we did suspend the rules for the baseball team. | think
sometimes we need to look at the situation that is right in front of us and not follow the process explicitly
every single time when the process that is before us is sufficient.

Alderman Cookson

| would like to thank all of the members of the public who came out this evening to speak to us and share
their thoughts on this piece of legislation. | learned a lot from them this evening. | learned more from
them this evening than the Mayors administration was prepared to present to us at the
Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee meeting. There were pieces of the Welcoming America
Initiative, their website, the documentation that was presented on that website; and the Mayor and his
staff had absolutely no idea that the city had any obligation to. | appreciate that the Mayor at this point
adding that to the piece of legislation because it was me who identified it to the members of the
committee, again, who had not seen it at all. Alderman McCarthy was searching for it that evening
having no idea that it existed. The chairman of the committee had no idea that it existed. | don’t think
there was one member of that committee that evening that understood that there were obligations that
were set upon the city for it. You can approve it potentially by including it and making everybody aware
of it now. My question would be at this point, what else is there? There is a document that we sign but

Board of Aldermen Page 18
September 27, 2016

again, I’m not sure that is complete of everything that the city would be asked to do and the Services that
we would ultimately have to provide. Again, what | heard this evening was very similar to what | heard at
the last meeting and that was that we as the City of Nashua have been welcoming for years. You came
to this country for whatever reason, for opportunity and you feel welcome and | think that we as a
community attempt to have that pervade everything that we do, we want to be welcoming and in fact, in
2002, there was a piece of legislation that was introduced, it was an ordinance, O-2-03; former Alderman
Fred Britton, Alderman Deane was a co-sponsor, Alderman Bolton at the time was a co-sponsor,
Alderman McCarthy a co-sponsor, Alderman Cote, Alderman Tollner, Alderman Plamondon and
Alderman Rootovich were all co-sponsors of a piece of legislation is 2002 that said Nashua is a proud,
vibrant, welcoming community. Nashua offers its people opportunities for personal growth, prosperity,
education, culture, heritage and recreation. Nashua is a city which responds to the needs of its citizens,
continuing to examining its processes to enable efficient delivery of services that enrich the quality of life.
2002, ladies and gentlemen is when we looked at that piece and we adopted it and we said that is what
we want our community to be and | think that we have lived up to it and | think we have done a great job.
Now, we also see the idea of economics and | think that is a very valid point. | think we do need to look
at economics. | think we look at how welcoming our community has been over the past three or four
years as Mayor Donchess has stated saying that our immigration population has increased over those
three to four years to negate any persons who have left the city. Our population is stagnant right now. |
think we are a Welcoming City and | think we continue to be a Welcoming City and | think we have the
services, the personnel, the staff and the schools but what was not necessarily said which | think is an
economic driver are the grants that are potentially available to our schools, our adult learning center and
our police. Nothing was discussed, we have zero information on what grants might be available to the
organizations within our community to help with our immigration population. | am personally of the
mindset, and while Alderman Siegel may be fine with taking this and having a discussion this evening
about it, | think this warrants going back to committee. | think it warrants having a discussion about all of
the different aspects of the legislation and what it does mean because that hasn’t been shared with the
committee or the Board of Aldermen. Again, | have learned a significant amount about this piece of
legislation, additional information from you; the public this evening so thank you for that, | truly appreciate
it. | will not support this legislation in its current form and | would urge the members of this Board to send
it back to committee so that we can have a thoughtful discussion about the entire merits of this piece of
legislation.

Alderman LeBrun

There was a member of that committee that stated the commitment that we would be making and | was
that member. We debated this for well over an hour and in the end we decided that the original
legislation was not the way to go and we amended it to state that Nashua would proclaim itself a
Welcoming City by Mayoral proclamation only and that’s what came to this Board and that’s what we
seem to be not understanding and not taking up this evening.

Alderman Lopez

With respect to Alderman Cookson, | feel like we are not really living up to the last part of the resolution
that you mentioned earlier. We are not being responsive to the community right now and we are not
looking at the process that we are employing in any way to make sure that it’s responsive. We have a
huge community turn-out saying do something tonight, pass the Mayor's original version, even in my
case, pass a version which is the original version but very clearly delineates what we are actually
agreeing to and a version that was also vetted by our own corporation counsel. Yet we are still saying
what more, what else could there possibly be? Have we thought about every grant opportunity for every
organization that could be on this list? No, we haven't and I’m not sure that is actually our responsibility.
| think our responsibility is to be receptive to the community that’s saying we support this and we want
this. | think it’s a little bit transparent to turn to the audience and say you have taught me so much
tonight when they are trying to tell you something different. They are trying to tell you that they want you
to pass this tonight and they don’t want you to stall it or wait any longer. It was proposed by Alderman