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Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 6/21/2021 - P8

By dnadmin on Mon, 11/07/2022 - 07:00
Document Date
Mon, 06/21/2021 - 00:00
Meeting Description
Board Of Aldermen
Document Type
Minutes
Meeting Date
Mon, 06/21/2021 - 00:00
Page Number
8
Image URL
https://nashuameetingsstorage.blob.core.windows.net/nm-docs-pages/boa_m__062120…

Special Board of Aldermen

06-21-2021

Page 8

144

EDGWEOOD & SUBURBAN
CEMETERIES

42

217

PUBLIC LIBRARY

179

PUBLIC LIBRARY

43

224

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
DIVISION

153

BUILDING INSPECTION

44

230

155

CODE ENFORCEMENT

234

170

WATERWAYS/HYDROELECTRIC
OPERATIONS

44

238

181

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

44, 45

242

182

PLANNING & ZONING

45

245

184

URBAN PROGRAMS

250

250

186

TRANSPORTATION

256

256

EDUCATION

191

SCHOOL

317 - 331

263

DEBT SERVICE, CONTINGENCY &
INTERFUND TRANSFERS

193

DEBT SERVICE

267

194

CONTINGENCY

271

198

INTERFUND TRANSFERS

272

CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS

1001

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT

274

ENTERPRISE FUNDS-REVENUE &
APPROPRIATIONS

6000

SOLID WASTE FUND ESTIMATED
REVENUES

281

6000

SOLID WASTE FUND
APPROPRIATIONS

282

WASTEWATER

6200

WASTEWATER FUND ESTIMATED
REVENUES

291

6200

WASTEWATER FUND
APPROPRIATIONS

292

SPECIAL REVENUE FUNDS-
REVENUE & APPROPRIATIONS

City Special Revenue Funds

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Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 6/21/2021 - P8

Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 6/21/2021 - P9

By dnadmin on Mon, 11/07/2022 - 07:00
Document Date
Mon, 06/21/2021 - 00:00
Meeting Description
Board Of Aldermen
Document Type
Minutes
Meeting Date
Mon, 06/21/2021 - 00:00
Page Number
9
Image URL
https://nashuameetingsstorage.blob.core.windows.net/nm-docs-pages/boa_m__062120…

Special Board of Aldermen 06-21-2021 Page 9

2501 | PUBLIC HEALTH CLIENT FEES FUND 299

2502 | LAW ENFORCEMENT TRAINING 300
FUND

2503 | PARKS & RECREATION PROGRAMS 301
FUND

2504 | HOLMAN STADIUM EVENTS FUND 302

2505 | PEG ACCESS CHANNELS FUND 307

2506 | HUNT BUILDING FACILTY RENTAL 309
FUND

2507 | FIRE TRAINING FACILTY RENTAL 311
FUND

2508 | SPECIAL ROAD & HIGHWAY FUND 312

2510 | PENNICHUCK ACQUISITION BOND 314
FUND

School Special Revenue Funds

2100 | FOOD SERVICES 317
2120 | SUMMER FEEDING PROGRAM 319
2201 | DRIVER’S EDUCATION 320
2204 | SUMMER SCHOOL 321
2207 | ADULT CONTINUING EDUCATION 322
2212 | ATHLETIC REVENUE FUND 323
2217 | SCHOOL FACILITIES RENTAL 324
2222 | AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM 325
2227 | NORTH STUDENT SHOP 326
2232 | SOUTH STUDENT SHOP 327
2247 | CULINARY ARTS 328
2252 | DAY CARE 329
2257 | SPECIAL EDUCATION-LOCAL 330
TUITION
2258 | SCHOOL CTE TUITION FUND 331

SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION

NASHUA AIRPORT AUTHORITY 357

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT RESERVE 359
(CERF) PLANNED REPLACEMENTS

EXPENDABLE TRUST & RESERVE 360
FUNDS-FUNDED BY
APPROPRIATIONS

EXPANDABLE TRUST FUNDS- 363
FUNDED BY CONTRIBUTIONS

Chairman Dowd

Ok the first Division that we are going to cover is the General Government Division. It is Department 101 —
the Mayor’s Office; 102 — the Board of Aldermen; 103 — the Legal Department; 107 — the City Clerk’s

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Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 6/21/2021 - P9

Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 6/21/2021 - P10

By dnadmin on Mon, 11/07/2022 - 07:00
Document Date
Mon, 06/21/2021 - 00:00
Meeting Description
Board Of Aldermen
Document Type
Minutes
Meeting Date
Mon, 06/21/2021 - 00:00
Page Number
10
Image URL
https://nashuameetingsstorage.blob.core.windows.net/nm-docs-pages/boa_m__062120…

Special Board of Aldermen 06-21-2021 Page 10

Office; 108 — Energy Management; 109 — Civic Community Activities; 131 — Hunt Building; 158 — Parking
Enforcement; 166 - Parking Operations and 183 - Economic Development. That particular Division has a
lot of Departments but most of them are relatively small and you can ask a question on Revenue or
Appropriations. Is there anyone that has any questions on General Government Division? Please give
your name and address for the record?

Fred Teeboom 24 Cheyenne, former Alderman-at-Large, elected twice. First of all, where does this 3
minutes come from? I’ve never heard of that before?

Chairman Dowd
Itis by Legislation passed by the Board of Aldermen.
Mr. Teeboom — Of Public Hearings?

Chairman Dowd
Yes.

Mr. Teeboom — Well that makes it very a very difficult public hearing. | thought there was no limit on the
public hearing.

Chairman Dowd

Well we found that at all the public hearings that we’ve had that 3 minutes doesn’t seem to limit people if
they have a question.

Mr. Teeboom — We will have to change that, get around to change that. What | want to do is skip to page
54 but | want to skip to an earlier page like page 10. | know that Mayor Donchess made a presentation
which | could hardly read. But on Page 10 and | think Page 10 gets interesting. He compared the
departments taking out the pensions and Medicare and social security. That’s a very unusual way to
compare departments, maybe you do that for internal purposes, but | am a taxpayer. | have no interest, |
don’t have that much interest in how you manage things internally. What | am interested in is how you pay,
how many taxes | have to pay. Now when | look at the Budget what | did is | took the current budget, | had
to go to City Hall to get a copy of the budget, | don’t see there’s any of them here. And then | got my
(inaudible) budget out, which is (inaudible) and | made that comparison. | come up, Mayor, with a
completely different conclusion than you did. First of all, the Police Department increase between this
budget and last year’s budget is 6.6%. The Fire Department, 9.1% increase. The School Department a
3.5% increase. All you do is take the budget for that department this year and the budget for that
department year, take the difference and compute the percentage increase. That’s not 1% it’s 6% for the
Police; 9% for the Fire; 3% for the schools; City Hall 2% only. And DPW took a hit they only show 1%. So
there’s nothing equitable about this budget. The General Fund increase is 2.6% which is about the
percentage over the inflation rate. There’s no cap right now but | just got notice today that Governor
Sununu signed the cap. The cap is back.

Chairman Dowd

30 seconds.

Mr. Teeboom The Cap is back. By the way when | come back, you’ve only got 30 seconds, | can come
back a second time, and a third time and a fourth time, correct? The total appropriations is a combination

of taxes and fees. That went up 4.7%, not 2.6% which is the General Fund but you take into account
Enterprise Funds, (inaudible) funds the total appropriations went up $15 million dollars about 4.7%.

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Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 6/21/2021 - P10

Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 6/21/2021 - P11

By dnadmin on Mon, 11/07/2022 - 07:00
Document Date
Mon, 06/21/2021 - 00:00
Meeting Description
Board Of Aldermen
Document Type
Minutes
Meeting Date
Mon, 06/21/2021 - 00:00
Page Number
11
Image URL
https://nashuameetingsstorage.blob.core.windows.net/nm-docs-pages/boa_m__062120…

Special Board of Aldermen 06-21-2021 Page 11
Chairman Dowd
Your 3 minutes are up. Do you want to finish with a question?

Mr. Teeboom_ No I'll come back with a question.

Mayor Donchess

| don’t agree with your numbers really. But the reason for segregating the pensions is that we don’t control
that. So we are trying to isolate and look at City controlled cost. | made it pretty clear we are being hit by
$4.4 million and that’s part of the budget, no question about it. And the $29 million dollar pension budget is
part of the budget. So when you add the pension figures in, yeah those departments are going up more
than the figures that look at what the City can control. The reason Public Works would be down under that
scenario is that Public Works is the only group of employees that’s not under the State Pension System.
So their cost didn’t go up equivalent to this $4 million dollars. Mr. Griffin and the whole budget team has
gone over the numbers pretty carefully and | don’t think that some of the numbers you gave were accurate.

Mr. Teeboom They are very accurate (inaudible audio).
Chairman Dowd
Next speaker, name and address for the record please?

Laurie Ortolano — 41 Berkeley Street. | am here and when | come to the microphone | am going to be
addressing positions. | understand your budget increase is small but | really think you have positions in this
budget that need to be removed. And in the Legal Department this Right-to-Know Coordinator has got to
go. It is a $75,000.00 position that did not produce the results we had wanted. | really feel that there
shouldn’t of been a dedicated position for Right-to-Know and | don’t think it is a viable position for you to
fund. You are not going to get an attorney in there who is going to come in as a Right-to-Know Coordinator
and stay. The Attorney you hired punched out after 6 months and it’s going to be a roll out ground for
anyone. It really is a mascaraed position if you just want to add an attorney. In the time that the attorney
was here, we had 3 lawsuits on Right-to-Know largely because of his work. And | can tell you there are
several more that are going to roll in. So | am not a fan of this Right-to-Know Coordinator Legal Position. |
think what you want to fund is a taxpayer’s attorney that is there to serve us. So that when our City wants
to go after us with these frivolous lawsuits, we have some means of being funded so people who can’t
afford lawyers to come in on a Right-to-Know request issue which is standard Right-to-Know, basic Right-
to-Know costs a citizen $5,000.00 to take into Court. That’s not cheap. So instead of using the system to
abuse your citizens, let’s roll it the other way. And | think this Right-to-Know Coordinator should be taken
out of the budget, there’s $100,00.00 savings there, very misguided position. Thank you.

Chairman Dowd
Thank you. Miss Johnson can you just lower the mic a little bit?

Paula Johnson — Good evening Mayor, Members of the Board of Aldermen and members of the City. My
name is Paula Johnson, | am a member of the Board of Education and | ran this by Legal to make sure that
| had the right to speak here tonight as a citizen and a taxpayer of this City. So | am going to speak here
and tell you how outrageous | am about what has gone on in this last year. City Hall was shut down at
taxpayer’s expense. Yes, we had a pandemic. | went to work last June in retail with a mask on to make a
living to be able to put a roof over my head and food on the table although the Governor deemed me non-
essential; how dare he do that. And how dare you keep the citizens out of City Hall but you arrest them but
they can’t go in there. So | am proposing right now that the Mayor’s Office loses his staff because | went
there the other day and | went through City Hall and took pictures of the renovations, great job with
taxpayer’s money, doesn’t matter which pot it comes from, it came from us the taxpayers. And you talk
about people who haven't worked, that’s right. A lot of us lost a job or took deep decreases in salary rather
than increases. | went to your office Mayor and | had this little conversation, you invited me to come into

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Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 6/21/2021 - P11

Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 6/21/2021 - P12

By dnadmin on Mon, 11/07/2022 - 07:00
Document Date
Mon, 06/21/2021 - 00:00
Meeting Description
Board Of Aldermen
Document Type
Minutes
Meeting Date
Mon, 06/21/2021 - 00:00
Page Number
12
Image URL
https://nashuameetingsstorage.blob.core.windows.net/nm-docs-pages/boa_m__062120…

Special Board of Aldermen 06-21-2021 Page 12

City Hall because | hadn’t been there and | want to tell everybody what a beautiful graduation we had in
both schools and | applaud that we were able to get our students graduated this year. | went in there, it’s
like the Taj Mahal. We have bullet proof glass and to see the Mayor | had to ring the doorbell, had to ring
the doorbell.

The renovations through the Board of Aldermen, well | hope we don’t have another pandemic, because
there’s no social distancing in there now, which it was before. You spent money after dollars after dollars.
So here’s my proposal, | propose we eliminate the Mayor’s staff, all of them at City Hall because none of
them were there during the COVID pandemic, because | asked your secretary and she told me when |
came in on Friday you weren't there which | didn’t expect, | was hoping maybe | would run into you at
Whole Foods again but the question is, they weren’t there. | made calls, none of the return calls, many
people in the City still talk to me like | was an Alderman and they said nobody calls back. So if nobody can
call back then we don’t need them, we can eliminate your whole department. There’s a big savings right
there. And | am just kind of concerned and | am kind of...

Chairman Dowd
30 seconds.

Ms. Johnson - ... and don’t understand what is considered fair price housing. Because when | was on the
board the last time, Alderman Wilshire | am sure would tell you that when we had spoke to (inaudible) |
asked what was affordable housing and the difference was like $200.00 a month. Somebody please define
what is affordable housing and what is going to be the housing for downtown. I'll come back again for more
questions. Thank you.

Chairman Dowd

Thank you.

Mayor Donchess

Well | would like to respond on City Hall. First of all the pandemic was real. People in City Hall got the
virus, some got very sick. No one died in City Hall but someone in Public Works did and if you listen to the
medical experts, public health experts, part of the reason to prevent congregation of people in a place like
City Hall, it’s not to protect the City Employees necessarily it is to protect the public. We had City
Employees with COVID-19 and had people been flowing through the building, some of those people would
have gotten COVID-19 and might have died. So this was a measure recommended by all public health
experts, medical experts to protect the public and the employees from the virus. And | think it was effective
because we never found a case where a member of the public caught it from one of the contagious, one of
the positive City Employees.

Beyond that, all of the City Employees worked during the pandemic. You are on the School Department:
the teachers worked remotely just because they weren’t — and your schools were closed — and just
because they were closed doesn’t mean that people weren’t working, in fact, many worked harder to try to
connect via on-line and the internet, remotely. So | think we did a good job during the pandemic of
registering cars, collecting revenue and delivering City services despite this disruption caused by a real
public health emergency.

Chairman Dowd

Thank you. Next speaker?

Laura Colquhoun | would like the City to do away with the Economic Development Department. This
Department is responsible for the submission of part of the bond official statement that goes to Standard &

Poors in order for the City to get their Triple AAA rating. The problem here is the Economic Development
Department is basically submitting the same report since 2016 and everybody knows that the City is not the

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Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 6/21/2021 - P12

Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 6/21/2021 - P13

By dnadmin on Mon, 11/07/2022 - 07:00
Document Date
Mon, 06/21/2021 - 00:00
Meeting Description
Board Of Aldermen
Document Type
Minutes
Meeting Date
Mon, 06/21/2021 - 00:00
Page Number
13
Image URL
https://nashuameetingsstorage.blob.core.windows.net/nm-docs-pages/boa_m__062120…

Special Board of Aldermen 06-21-2021 Page 13

same as it was back in 2016. The report still states that Pennichuck was purchased to reduce rates but
does not mention that this has never happened. It did not mention that Pennichuck has just given a 5.78
increase to their bills; did not mention that both the Solid Waste and Waste Water Budgets went up $8
million dollars in 2022. It did not mention that the Nashua taxpayers will be paying out of their taxes $5.7
million for the shortage of the Solid Waste Funds that is not supportive, did not mention that the sewer rates
went up 35%. This report also stated that the City vacancy is 7%. | happened to call the Economic
Development Department in early 2020 and they told me they didn’t keep this information but apparently
they can still put it in the report. The report also states that the PAC bond is $15.5 million, | guess he didn’t
get the Memo that we got another $5 million dollars.

Most importantly this report mentioned nothing about the commercial property and their submitting
abatements. This is not a subject the City likes to bring up; however these abatements of 2018 and 19 and
the City new this information when submitting this report but they made no mention of it. | am therefore
asking the City to eliminate this Department. Thank you.

Chairman Dowd
Thank you.

Paula Johnson — 15 Wesborn Drive. Mayor, when everybody had to wear masks, motor vehicle did not in
August on the 3% floor because | went up there to register my car. So when we talk about what is fair and
equitable, we had and | keep apologizing for this that | didn’t realize about Executive Order 74 andl ama
member of the Board of Ed that’s been fighting to get these kids back in school, to get the masks off these
kids in school to try to get some normalcy back to these kids in school, but Executive Order 74 and | read it
that night at the meeting, nothing in this order shall be construed, and | know we are not wearing masks
anymore, but this is the point to prevent municipalities within the State of New Hampshire from enacting
their own ordinances related to the wearing of masks or face coverings that contained stricter provisions
than those contained within the order. This order shall not apply to the following, shall not, we know what
shall not means. We write it in every piece of Legislation just about “shall”, that word “shall” educate a
student and staff within K through 12. Any person with a medical condition or disability that prevents
wearing masks or over the face or covering.

It talks here about physical activity, but the bottom line is really the killer and also | am trying to find out
from Risk Management, you have all these barriers downtown, all of them. Where’s the handicap parking
under ADA? And that’s really this last paragraph says, any person who declines to wear a mask or face
covering because of a medical or developmental issue or difficulty breathing shall not, shall not be required
to produce documentation which is unlawful, unconstitutional, and so is six feet evident verifying the
condition. So | ask here when | was in City Hall and we had to wear masks, your employees didn’t wear
masks up in motor vehicle. And you are dictating to the citizens of this City and most of us had lost their
jobs and couldn't afford anything, and you are dictating to us about masks when Executive 74, this order
here said that people who couldn’t wear it, couldn’t wear it and you made your businesses become the
nasty ones here. The Police, wrong.

Chairman Dowd
30 seconds.

Ms. Johnson And | am glad | got 30 seconds less because | am going to bite my tongue on this one, thank
you.

Chairman Dowd
Name and address?

Dan Richardson 70 Berkeley Street, Nashua, New Hampshire. First | want to comment that the Mayor
made the assertion that there was a lot of public input on the Master Plan. | would like to challenge that

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Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 6/21/2021 - P13

Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 6/21/2021 - P14

By dnadmin on Mon, 11/07/2022 - 07:00
Document Date
Mon, 06/21/2021 - 00:00
Meeting Description
Board Of Aldermen
Document Type
Minutes
Meeting Date
Mon, 06/21/2021 - 00:00
Page Number
14
Image URL
https://nashuameetingsstorage.blob.core.windows.net/nm-docs-pages/boa_m__062120…

Special Board of Aldermen 06-21-2021 Page 14

assertion. | believe that he would hard pressed to provide any evidence of that at all. | watched several of
those meetings and | know that there were very few participants on line. Moving on to Page 9 it’s
essentially here saying backward that the Mayor put on the screen however it was hardly legible. Fire, over
6 years 27% increase over 6 years. 21% increase for the Police. 18% for school. City Hall 16%. DPW
15%. During that time the past 6 years essentially this Board of Aldermen has essentially been the same,
essentially the same people, there are a few changes. But these are the people that have been approving
these increases all the while people have been losing their jobs, people have been actually not looking for
jobs anymore because they could not find one. These are people that can’t pay their taxes and yet over
the past 6 years, we have been hiding the cost of government. |’d like to tell you that local government is
not an aristocracy. You don’t deserve it. You are public servants. And this Board of Aldermen has been
negligent in controlling the costs of City Government. And also it is the Mayor’s budget, you bear some of
that responsibility.

Now we have a correction in the State Law which reinstitutes Nashua’s spending cap, thank god, we have
some means of controlling this at least limiting the amount since the Board of Aldermen and City Hall does
not seem to have the capability...

Chairman Dowd
30 seconds.

Mr. Richardson ... to limit its spending. Thank you.

Mayor Donchess

Now the reason | say that there was more participation in the Master Plan is, you can get the details and
the numbers from Community Development Director Sarah Marchant. But we have 1,000 people
registered that have put input, it might even be 2,000 but she can give the exact numbers. But that’s why |
am saying that. We did not have that level of participation in the past. People could participate remotely
outside the public meetings.

Chairman Dowd
Next? Name and address?

Gary Hoffman 38 (?) Street, Unit D. A couple of things | just wanted to point out. First of all, | did
participate in the Master Plan and was one of those 1,000 people and | have to say it was more accessible.
| had never actually participated in it before and | think it is something the City should certainly continue. |
also want to stick up a little bit for the employees in City Hall. | registered my car recently by appointment
and | think that it was actually the smoothest that it had ever been. | made an appointment online, | got right
up there and it was actually the quickest it had ever — the process had ever been and | think it might be
something the City should really continue.

As for the tax increase, | understand it is a steep increase but we — and | agree people should be upset and
angry about it — but | think we are picking the wrong people to be angry about. | think we should be angry
at the State. They are the ones that are choosing to fully fund the pension system at 100% when almost
every expert out there says 80% is fine. If they did that, we would be — the last time we checked the State
Pension System was close to 70% funded — they did their investments a little bit better, you know, probably
it would be even more than that. They are choosing to downshift this cost onto the Nashua taxpayers and
every other municipality in the State. So | guess my question Mayor Donchess is the City of Nashua joining
with other municipalities in this State to kind of bring this issue forward to the State Legislature so they don’t
keep doing things like this.

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Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 6/21/2021 - P14

Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 6/21/2021 - P15

By dnadmin on Mon, 11/07/2022 - 07:00
Document Date
Mon, 06/21/2021 - 00:00
Meeting Description
Board Of Aldermen
Document Type
Minutes
Meeting Date
Mon, 06/21/2021 - 00:00
Page Number
15
Image URL
https://nashuameetingsstorage.blob.core.windows.net/nm-docs-pages/boa_m__062120…

Special Board of Aldermen 06-21-2021 Page 15

Mayor Donchess

The answer is yes. | mean our delegation, five members which are on the Board of Aldermen advanced
various Bills to try to change the pension situation in various ways. All were unsuccessful largely on party
line votes. Going back, | should have made it clear that as a result of these actions taken at the local level
to cut costs, | mentioned despite the $11.8 million dollars imposed by the State, the taxes — if this budget is
adopted — we don’t project will go up 5 %%, it will be more — somewhere in the 3’s probably. More than
we'd like, again, if the State would leave us alone it would actually go down. But we think we can deliver
something in the 3’s despite the hosing we are taking from the State of New Hampshire.

Chairman Dowd
OK.

Laurie Ortolano 41 Berkeley Street. | just want to address the Economic Development position in budget
You know, | have a lot of concerns about this position. It seems to me City Hall is run by three individuals;
Economic Development, Community Development, and Administrator / Director of Administrative Services.
That’s our trifecta, that’s our brain trust and honestly | think it's missing a good bit of the brain side. Itis a
disappointment to me across the board and it’s because these are appointed positions largely by the
Mayor. And | am underwhelmed by these appointments because we seem to pick people who don’t have
qualifications and we promote them into positions that they are really overdone on. And the one thing |
would say with the Economic Development position is my interface with this individual is they are very non-
responsive to public issues. And as Ms. Colquhoun said, they produce reports that are just made up
information that go out to Standard & Poors typed in, 7 years old telling us we don’t do numbers to get
vacancy rates. | have been after vacancy rates for well over a year because it is a legitimate concern for
what is going to happen to the tax rate when we run the new assessment next year.

What happened in 2020 to these commercial properties is relevant because the model run by Vision is
being based on 2020 and 2021 sales on commercial properties — 2 years. And | am not certain that it is
weighted and if it isn’t then you have to look at what the distribution is going to be and the weight that
residential properties are going to carry if there’s a shift off of the commercial properties because of what
happened in the pandemic. And | haven't been able to get anyone to answer that or speak to the vacancy
numbers. | have been told you would, | have been told there would be a discussion and there was no
discussion. And when | see the Economic Development Director producing reports that are largely false
and when you send a Right-to-Know to him you get snubbed, treated rudely, doesn’t e-mail it, sends it
through snail mail and mails it back to you so you’ve got a 10 day waiting period. He’s the only individual |
ever knew to do that. | am not overly supportive of that and | am really tired of seeing positions promoted
with people who are not qualified. | am underwhelmed by your picks Mr. Mayor. And you can bet your
bibby | am not stoked about your picking Commissioners.

Fred Teeboom — 24 Cheyenne. All the figures Mayor | have checked, double checked, (inaudible) the
spread sheets and | will send you my spread sheets and I'll send Mr. Griffin my spread sheets. | would like
to say to the Aldermen spending is going in the wrong direction. The Mayor did an interesting thing, he did
a six year average. Well | did a six year average also the traditional way, taking the budgets of six years
and compare with the budgets now, not taking out any amounts for pensions. The Police over six years
have an average of 4.4% a year. So now it’s 6.6% this year. Fire, had an average of 4.6% over six years,
because now we are 9.1%. And the School Department had an average of 3.1% over six years, 2016 2022
same years as you used Mr. Mayor. And the School was up 3.1% to 3.5%. It’s going in the wrong direction.
Now everybody keeps talking about pension funds. Let’s have a look at the pension funds. It’s true that
the State mismanaged over a billion dollars, they mismanaged by a billion dollars a few years ago. They
are trying to make that up. They also tried to get 100% vestings, this is madness. If the Federal
Government did 100% vested, they would owe over $130 trillion dollars. Nobody does 100% vesting,
especially the government, it makes no sense. Why this (inaudible) system is beyond me. Nashua
delegates the 30 representatives you can make a change, you made a change in the spending cap and
went back to the State and said the State did something wrong, they have got to correct it. It can be done,
you can’t keep making excuses and say, taxpayers we tried, go pay the bill. There’s another reason but

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Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 6/21/2021 - P15

Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 6/21/2021 - P16

By dnadmin on Mon, 11/07/2022 - 07:00
Document Date
Mon, 06/21/2021 - 00:00
Meeting Description
Board Of Aldermen
Document Type
Minutes
Meeting Date
Mon, 06/21/2021 - 00:00
Page Number
16
Image URL
https://nashuameetingsstorage.blob.core.windows.net/nm-docs-pages/boa_m__062120…

Special Board of Aldermen 06-21-2021 Page 16

(audio feedback). | won’t mention the name as you asked, Mr. Chairman. There’s an Alderman, as an
example, just an example, this particular Alderman retired in the year 2015.

Chairman Dowd
30 seconds.

Mr. Teeboom — |’ll come back if | can’t finish this. He got a severance of $65,000.00 and annual retirement
of $94,000.00. His final salary was $93,000.00 his annual pay the first year he retired was lower than his
annual salary, $94,000.00 an guess what? The following year 2016 he got $121,000.00.

Chairman Dowd
Time has expired.

Mr. Teeboom I'll be back.

Mayor Donchess

Let me just say | agree with you definitely that the pensions don’t need to go to 100% that things have been
mismanaged and | think our analysis of the pension situation is similar or the same. But our delegation did
work hard to change those things. There is whole another facet to this we haven't gotten into. The State
agreed always to pay 35% of our cost and they broke that promise a few years ago that’s who they got us
into this whole system. There were Bills to restore part of the 35%, Bills to push off the deadline by which
100% had to be reached. Bills to address the so-called assumed rate of return. All those Bills were
defeated but our delegation supported all of them and we’ve got 27 members out of 400 but that’s it. Those
were party line votes actually. They did their best but there was a solid majority in the Legislature that just
said “absolutely not we are not going to help the cities and towns — period”. And discipline was enforced
and the cities and towns lost out.

Chairman Dowd
Next? Name and address?

Christina McKinney 6 Southgate Drive. My overarching question really is this, what exactly does we are all
in this together mean to our City employees? And my comments are to follow, all of this in together kind of
implies | think that we are sort of sharing the suffering. But to the best of my knowledge there’s not a single
City employee that lost any money over the last 2 years. There was no salary reduction, people weren't let
go. None of those things happened to anyone in the City. So exactly what was the shared suffering? And if
we are now looking at what is now no longer a State Funded Pension what percentage of the people who
have been for decades paying for City Employee’s pensions, what percentage of those people have
pensions themselves? So we are continuing to ask City residents to make sacrifices beyond what they
have for their own coverage, be it health care or pensions and | again ask where is the shared suffering?
Where is this we are in this together? It would seem reasonable to me at this juncture given that we are
now responsible for those pensions, that City employees to cover their pensions, it’s not my pension, their
own pensions that they take salary cuts over the next decade in order to cover their long-term benefits.
This should not be left up to citizens who don’t have those pensions, it should be covered by the people
who are going to benefit and that is certainly not most of the citizens in our City.

| spoke with John Griffin on March 25" had a wonderful conversation, quite a lengthy one and it is my
understanding ...

Chairman Dowd

30 seconds.

Page Image
Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 6/21/2021 - P16

Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 6/21/2021 - P17

By dnadmin on Mon, 11/07/2022 - 07:00
Document Date
Mon, 06/21/2021 - 00:00
Meeting Description
Board Of Aldermen
Document Type
Minutes
Meeting Date
Mon, 06/21/2021 - 00:00
Page Number
17
Image URL
https://nashuameetingsstorage.blob.core.windows.net/nm-docs-pages/boa_m__062120…

Special Board of Aldermen 06-21-2021 Page 17

Ms. McKinney ... that in September you look at surplus relief. And that you have an opportunity to make
changes. | hope you will and | hope you will consider what | just said.

Chairman Dowd
Thank you.

Daniel Richardson 70 Berkeley Street, Nashua, New Hampshire. Getting back to Page 9 which shows the
exorbitant increases over the past 6 years. It is a slap in the face to the citizens of Nashua. I’ve known that
for a long time, but | am glad that you put that in the budget book so that everybody who wants to can look
at Page 9 of the budget book, it’s on line too, to see what has been happening to wages and costs of the
different departments in the city. It is outrageous. Given that, | would still like to know, just the same, about
Human Service Agencies. In here it shows the funding from last year for a number of Human Service
Agencies in Nashua.

Chairman Dowd

That’s not part of this Division.

Mr. Richardson It’s not. | will save it.
Chairman Dowd

Thank you.

Paula Johnson 15 Westborn Drive. | have just got to bring something up here. Listening to this whole thing
about insurance and pensions. Alderman Wilshire can attend basically with me when we have meetings
with then back then Mayor Streeter and probably Attorney Bolton back then, when we were talking about
the rising costs of healthcare, this was back when | was on the Board, | got on the Board on 2002 when |
stepped down from the Board of Education to become an Aldermen. So we are talking about the same
things we talked about in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, about the rising cost of health care. And at this point in
time, 2021, we are still talking about the rising cost of healthcare, because we the public always paid for
employee’s healthcare and they always had better healthcare than we the taxpayers do. They are just now
getting the high deductibles which my husband and | had for years and years and years prior to.

And also, what we talked about back then was not just the healthcare, when | stepped down from the Board
at the end of 2005 when | chose not to run again, | came into the Chamber and | don’t know, Ms. Lovering
might remember but you probably can find the minutes buried somewhere, | came in and talked about that
the baby boomers, like | am, although | don’t like to admit it sometimes but | am a baby boomer. When the
pensions had to be paid that local state and federal were not going to have enough money to pay out baby
boomers because the money was mismanaged and not funded correctly. Isn’t this what we are hearing
right now about mismanagement from the State or whatever. Whoever mismanaged it, why don’t these
people ever be held accountable and we the people, remember it’s always we the people, we the taxpayers
whatever level because we pay taxes to the federal government they bring it back here and then we still
pay more taxes locally but we pay taxes. We the people, literally, get screwed in this City on these taxes.
So it wasn’t funded properly and it wasn’t always a Republican held House between now and when this
management, because | remember Mayor | had that conversation with you that in 2005 / 2006 it was 2
prominent Representatives that asked me to run for the State House...

Chairman Dowd
30 seconds.
Ms. Johnson ... and | was at the State House as a Democrat on that side of the aisle. And so it wasn’t

always and that’s when the Democrats held the House. So it wasn’t always just the Republicans, so what
has the Democrats done to correct this when they held the House. Thank you.

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