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} THE CITY OF NASHUA “The Gate City"

Administrative Services Division

Date: March 26, 2021
To: Mayor Donchess
Board of Aldermen
From: Kimberly Kleiner, Administrative Services Director
Subject: Board of Aldermen Meeting — March 23, 2021

During the Board of Aldermen meeting on Tuesday, March 23, 2021, some statements were made which I feel
need clarification.

On the afternoon of March 23, 2021 I received an email from Alderwoman Lu inquiring on how to view her
property file. I informed her that you may email assesshelp@mnashuanh. gov or call 589-3040 and staff can set up
an appointment for you.

At approximately 2 pm, a member from the Assessing department received a call from a taxpayer wanting to
look at their property record file in hopes to review it for a potential addition. The Assessing employee
explained many files are off site as part of the property record scanning project and she would check to see if it
was in the vault before scheduling an appointment.

The caller was put on hold, and the staff member quickly determined the file was within a stack of 27 pre-
packed boxes waiting to be picked up for the off-site scanning project. The taxpayer was asked if the staff
member could call him back as it was going to take some time to move all the boxes.

Moments later, after the file was obtained, the staff member called the taxpayer back to schedule an
appointment for review. He asked to come in right away and the staff member informed him they were not able
to meet with him that afternoon. An appointment was then scheduled for Friday the 26th at 9am. Shortly after,
the taxpayer called back and said that appointment would not work, the appointment was deleted and the
taxpayer said he would have to call back.

Very shortly thereafter, he called again and it was determined that it was not the assessing file information he
was in search of but the information within the Building Department files. The staff member either transferred
his call or gave him the phone number, and was thanked for their time and the conversation ended.

The temporary practice for Assessing has been to not schedule same day appointments while the customer
service area for Assessing is still under renovation. Staff is meeting one on one with taxpayers in the Assessing
conference room and practicing social distancing. Multiple staff members meet with taxpayers for a variety of
services and they need to coordinate the sharing of one space.

Transaction windows are being installed in the customer service area and we hope to have the area open shortly.
Property record cards are available online. If requested, information can be sent by email. The staff within
Assessing is very professional, accommodating and has provided our residents with exceptional customer
service, throughout this pandemic and during very difficult times.

Page lofi

Board of Aldermen

City of Nashua
229 Main Street
Nashua, NH 03061-2019

(603) 589-3030

MEMORANDUM

TO: Board of Aldermen

FROM: Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager VAK
DATE: April 8, 2021

SUBJ.: Communication Received from the Public

Attached please find communications received from the public as follows:
From: Laurie Ortolano
Re: Letter to Department of Revenue Administration regarding Colquhoun request for Pilots

From: Laurie Ortolano
Re: Remove RTK position from the Upcoming Budget

Laurie Ortolano
41 Berkeley St
Nashua, NH 03064
603-930-2853

Director James Gerry

Department of Revenue Administration
109 Pleasant St.

Concord, NH 03301

Cc Commissioner Lindsey Stepp, Attorney Peter Roth, Nashua Chief Rick Vincent, Attorney Jesse
Neumann, Attorney Rick Lehmann

March 27, 2021
Dear Director Gerry,

| am writing to address concerns that our New Assessing Chief, Mr. Rick Vincent is not performing his
duties when responding to information requests as specified by Asb regulations and DRA guidance to
provide assessing information to the public. Code of Ethics Standard of Professional Conduct ER 1-4
states:

“It is unethical for DRA certified Personnel to refuse (by intent or omission) to make available all
public records in their custody for public review...Assessing officers must make every reasonable
effort to inform the public about their rights and responsibilities under the law and the property tax
system.”

The responses to public requests written by Attorney Neumann, Right-to-Know coordinator of the Nashua
Legal Office, are deceiving and misrepresenting the searches done by the Assessing staff and the
Assessing Chief. Mr. Vincent is either not seeing the responses until they are released or not correcting the
misinformation thereby hindering the publics’ right to an open, transparent and responsive assessing office.

| have written a number of times, in PA-71’s and general communications, that the City is usurping the
Assessors ability to respond to public questions and requests.

We are trying to turn around a contentious situation here in Nashua and this will not happen if the
Assessing Chief and his staff allow Attorney Neumann to misrepresent the searches for documents thereby
restricting access to open public records. We will vocally respond fo this as we simply cannot tolerate the
same pattern of behavior that we have been dealing with for over two years now.

As you are aware, Ms. Colquhoun has been actively seeking assessing information. My concerns with the
responses from Attorney Neumann on behalf of Mr. Vincent are illustrated with a specific event regarding
an information request from Mrs. Colquhoun,

Ms. Colquhoun began studying PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) properties as the Mayor has been
proposing these initiatives in Board of Aldermen meetings.

On March 8, 2021, Mrs. Colquhoun submitted a Right-to-Know request to Mr. Vincent that read,

Laurie Ortolano
41 Berkeley St
Nashua, NH 03064
603-930-2853

“Please provide me with a copy of the spreadsheet listing all the PILOTS with their taxable
assessed value and what they were each taxed for 2021 (in tax dollars).”

On March 15, 2021, Attorney Neumann, our new Right-to-Know legal coordinator, responded for the
Nashua Legal Department on behalf of the Assessing Office:

“The Chief Assessor and the Assessing Department have searched their files and have not found
any documents matching the above description.”

Mrs. Colquhoun then spoke with the former Assessing Clerk, Ms. Cheryl Walley and Ms. Walley explained
there was, in fact, an excel spreadsheet that she updated when she worked in the assessing office. Ms.
Walley provided Mrs. Colquhoun with details of the spreadsheet.

On March 16, 2021, Ms. Colquhoun resubmitted the request written as follows:

“please provide me with a list of properties on which their property taxes are based on RSA 72:73K
or RS 72:23 -n. This list should show the amount paid in 2020 for property taxes and an
explanation of how the property taxes were calculated. Some of these properties are managed by
Southern NH Service and HINEC., like Will St. & 110 Coliseum Ave., the elderly condos and
Temple St. This information is within the Assessing Department.”

On March 23, 2021, Attorney Neumann responded back. This time he reiterates Mrs. Colquhoun's first
request of March 8, 2021, now providing clarification, and writes;

“The information you requested in not presently kept for 2021.”
So, two weeks after the original request, eight (8) days after Attorney Neumann’s denial and a resubmittal
by Mrs. Colquhoun, he now lets her know that the 2021 data is not yet available but, in fact, the
spreadsheet (list) does exist.
This is a very underhanded and deceptive maneuver from Chief Vincent and Attorney Neumann who
worked his linguistic legalese to preventing the public from accessing the records they are interested in.
This violates Part 1, Article 8 of the New Hampshire Constitution.
And now Attorney Neumann is willing to respond to her request and writes:

“Attached is a list of the 2020 PILOT calculations in satisfaction of your revised request.
Attorney Neumann sent the 2020 PILOT information in PDF format and not the excel format originally
requested, He sought no clarification on this. Mrs. Colquhoun submitted a third request for the spreadsheet
format as it contained the calculations.

| called Mr. Vincent on March 25, 2021 to address the response Attorney Neumann gave to Ms. Colquhoun
on March 15, 2021. Mr. Vincent stated that while he is new here, he did locate the spreadsheet on the

Laurie Ortolano
41 Berkeley St
Nashua, NH 03064
603-930-2853

computer but that the 2021 year had not yet been done. Mr. Vincent, with hesitation, did state that he
conveyed this information to Attorney Neumann. | explained to Mr. Vincent that Attorney Neumann's
response was misleading and violated Part |, Article 8 of the NH Constitution. | explained to Mr. Vincent
that he carries a responsibility to be sure that the written responses are accurate and forthright.

Part |, Article 8 of the New Hampshire Constitution provides that:

All power residing originally in, and being derived from, the people, all the magistrates and officers
of government are their substitutes and agents, and at all times accountable to them. Government,
therefore, should be open, accessible, accountable and responsive. To that end, the public's right

of access to governmental proceedings and records shall not be unreasonably restricted

Chief Vincent should be performing his duties in a manner expected of a 25 year assessing veteran. He
should call or email Ms. Colquhoun with the format of this existing document. Mrs. Colquhoun would have
simply requested a copy of the 2020 sheet and the matter would be closed. But instead, both Chief Vincent
and Attorney Neumann enacts the narrowest possible interpretation of the request and deny it outright.
This is clearly not the intent of RSA 91-A or Part | Article 8 of the New Hampshire Constitution.

To the requester, Attorney Neumann’s original denial was clear that no document existed in the assessing
office in the form of a PILOT spreadsheet. But once Ms. Colquhoun clarified this with the fired clerk and an
iterative process, the problem with the request was with the date. Please note, there is no information in the
assessing manual or any internal policy that describes the process for updating the PILOTS and the date
for such updates. The year is 2021, so itis reasonable to believe that your average citizen would believe
that a 2021 document exists.

Nashua City Hall presently has very restricted access and is requiring appointments for most visits. Unlike
other City Halls in the state, citizens are not able access city hall freely and query employees about
information they are seeking. This situation should make our government more receptive to clarifying
requests rather than more restrictive.

Chief Vincent tried to explain that he had nothing to do with the legal write-up. | disagree. Attorney
Neumann is capturing Mr. Vincent's search of the documents and findings into a letter that represents both
him and the work of his office. If the information is not forthright or in any way misleading, Mr. Vincent
should be correcting the response because it represents the work of his department and his name.

The following example of the cockamamie practices the legal and assessing office are taking in addressing
information requests ties into the response Mrs. Colquhoun received.

In September 2020, | submitted a Right-To-Know request to obtain the name of the consultant assigned to
my 2019 abatement.

“provide me with the invoice and payment for the consultant who worked on my 2019 abatement.”

Laurie Ortolano
41 Berkeley St
Nashua, NH 03064
603-930-2853

Attorney Leonard responded with an invoice for the 2018 abatement appeal rather than the invoice for my
2019 abatement. The invoice was dated February 11, 2020; | had not submitted my 2019 abatement until
February 14, 2020.

After almost 10 back and forth communications, | wrote a complaint to Attorney Bolton against Attorney
Leonard for failing to answer the question, Attorney Bolton responds on October 21, 2020 with the
following:

Mrs. Ortolano:

We now understand that you are distinguishing between your abatement application to the Nashua
Board of Assessors and your abatement appeal to the NH Board of Tax and Land Appeals for tax
year 2019. That being the case, there are no documents conforming to your request. We regret
that in our zeal to be as responsive as we could, we read your request broadly and provided
more than you desired.

Steven A. Bolton
City Corporation Counsel

It took nearly 30 days and many back and forth communications. Not once did Attorney Leonard, who was
Clearly confused and unable to understand this simple request, according to Bolton's response above, pick
up the phone or attempt to clarify the search. The legal office is incompetent at addressing assessing
matiers, does not possess the knowledge on these matiers and is unwilling to reasonably seek out answers
to resolve these information requests.

lt appears when it is to the City's advantage to not provide the correct information, it reverts to prior year
data to satisfy the request, falsely creating the appearance of transparency, openness, and a broad view
but in the case of Mrs. Colquhoun’s request, the City simply outright denies the request rather than provide
the 2020 PILOT spreadsheet. In this case, the legal office and assessing office appear to not want the
public to research these initiatives, so they invoke the narrowest possible interpretation to prevent public
access.

There is some irony in this matter as Chief Vincent serves as Chairman of the Ethics Board of the New
Hampshire Association of Assessing Officials. He ruled on an ethics complaint | filed against Nashua
assessors for failing to be open and forthright in responding to my 2018 information requests in the Nashua
Assessing Office. The NHAAO board ruled that the two assessors were in violation for not providing open
public records. Now, Mr. Vincent is responding in a similar manner as did these noncompliant Assessors.

| would ask the DRA to emphasize to Chief Vincent and the Nashua Assessing employees to follow the
regulations set forth by the DRA, Asb, and [AAO when it comes to responding to information requests. If
the legal office wishes fo provide written responses on behalf of the Assessing Office, Chief Vincent should
verify that the letter represents his search and findings of the requested documents.

Laurie Ortolano
41 Berkeley St
Nashua, NH 03064
603-930-2853

In the Board of Tax and Land Appeals order regarding the City of Berlin (docket No.; 29285-1908), the
Board acknowledges a statement from Director Gerry quoting the Asb, “Transparency, openness and
responsiveness to the public's concerns must be integral to our (assessing community) behavior.”

| have long been a proponent of letting those most knowledgeable in the information sought be responsible
for searching and responding to requests. The Nashua legal office has chosen a different approach that |
believe has set up a litigious and contentious situation between the public and city employees.

lf Chief Vincent is going to be successful here in Nashua, he cannot be pinched between the public and

City management. He must perform his duties in compliance with the regulations specified by the DRA and
the Asb.

Sincerely

Laurie Ortolano

Graham, Donna

en al
From: Laurie Ortolanc <a>
Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2021 12:33 PM
To: Board of Assessors; Graham, Donna
Cc: Vincent, Richard; Neumann, Jesse; Skip; Kim Houghton; Laura Colquhoun
Subject: Remove the RTK position from the Upcoming Budget

CAUTION: This email came from outside of the organization. Do not click links/open attachments if source is
unknown.

(Mrs. Graham, please accept this letter for submission as a communication in a Board of Aldermen Packet.)
April 7, 2021,

Dear Board Members,

Below is an email that I sent to Mr. Neumann today. I want you all to carefully read the response he provided to
a simple request for assesshelp emails, documents that have always been available to the public in the past. This

is the absurdity of the process we are now facing.

Assessehelp is the general website address where citizens can send questions for responses related to property
matters.

I believe this City created this position to assist the public in requests for documents, instead this Right-to-
Know Coordinator is the city's clown to make a mockery of 91-A and abuse its citizens.

I am stunned by what I see happening; there should be a vote of no confidence in the Nashua Office of
Corporate Counsel as Attorney Bolton appears to be taking much of this personally.

Please eliminate this position from the budget and shut down this type of citizen abuse.
Laurie Ortolano

April 7, 2021,

Mr. Neumann,

I want to provide a response to your statement in the April 1, 2021 response #2021-515 request for
assesshelp emails.

You wrote, "It is worth noting that despite your claims to want to minimize your burden on the City, you have
declined to provide answers to clarify questions raised in our previous response. Instead, you have chosen to
request, yet again, a personal phone call with the Office of Corporate Counsel for the City of Nashua."

My request to you written on March 31, 2021, which included clarification stated:
1, Please provide electronic copies of all Assesshelp emails from January 1, 2021 to March 5, 2021.
Please provide the responses to these emails. According to Ms. Walley, these emails and responses have

been historically maintained in binders stored in the Assessing Office. She was required to print and
place in a binder all assesshelp emails and the department responses.

In the March 31, 2021 you responded to my request with the following:

Overall, this request for governmental records is unclear, overbroad, and not reasonably described. For
example: Does your request intend to subsume all emails received by the assesshelp emails address,
regardless of the intent or purpose of the sender (e.g. junk mail, incorrectly addressed correspondence,
personal correspondence, unrequested commercial solicitations, etc)? Is you request only for those
emails which are readily available (e.g: not subject to initial and legal deletion, file corruption, etc,) or is
the request made with the presumption that it can and should be satisfied verbatim?

Frankly, I was dumbfounded by this response. I was so confused that I contacted a member of the NH RTK
coalition and they suggested I schedule a phone call. I contacted another attorney involved with RTK (not Rick
Lehmann) and he did not agree with that response. I do not understand the response you provided to me and
therefore I cannot reduce the burden given the explanation above.

You are forcing me to go back and forth with pages and pages of explanation that would slow the process down
on obtaining the records. You are claiming that you are unable to speak with me on the phone unless prior
arrangements are made through your legal counsel. Attorney Lehmann sent you a letter, dated, I believe,
February 19, 2021, granting that permission. I don't know how to communicate effectively with you so you are
just going to have to produce the records with the broadest interpretation that RSA 91-A affords its citizens.

In a nutshell, I was at one point simply able to review the assesshelp binder without redaction several years ago,
then I submitted a RTK( in similar language to the request above except I was able to specify the binder,) for
the assesshelp binder and received about 450, appropriately redacted pages, and now I wrote the request as a
straightforwared assesshelp email request because at the time with COVID I was unsure if the Binder was being
maintained. Mr. Vincent has identified that it was not and will no longer be. Now you are asking complex,
indiscernible questions about the emails I want. I am now thinking we should bring back the binder or be certain
the responses are sent back into the assesshelp website.

The City is making public access to public records far too complex, costly and difficult.
Very disappointing,

Laurie Ortolano

V2 PENNICHUCK®

March 31, 2021

Ms. Lori Wilshire

President, Board of Aldermen
City of Nashua

229 Main Street

Nashua, NH 03060

Dear President Wilshire:

25 WALNUT STREET
PO BOX 428
NASHUA, NH 03061-0428

(603) 882-5191
FAX (603) 913-2305

WWW.PENNICHUCK.COM

Enclosed for your information is the Pennichuck Corporation Quarterly Report to the Sole

Shareholder for the Quarter Ended September 30, 2020.

My apologies for sending this Quarterly Report so late. It was inadvertently forgotten during the

Company’s move to its new headquarters.

Please contact me at 603-913-2312 if you have any questions relative to the report.

Sincerely,

Larry D. Goodhue
Chief Executive Officer

ce. Board of Aldermen
Mayor James Donchess
Steven Bolton, City Corporation Counsel
John Griffin, City Chief Financial Officer