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Cummings, Tim <CummingsT@nashuanh.gov>
03/23/2022 at 01:17 PM

From: Cummings, Tim <CummingsT@nashuanh.gov>
Sent: 03/23/2022 at 01:17 PM

To: Teferski, Noah <telerskin@nashuanh.gov>

Ce:

® 2 Attachment(s) Total3.2MB View ~«
Alex Chen Report 08-12-21 pdf (29.6 KB) Data From DIC Summer Inter 2021.pdf (3 1 MB)

The attachment titled "Alex Chen Report 08- 12-2 L.pdf" can be found on the following page.

The attachment titled “Data From DIC Summer Intern 2021.pdt" is a PDF version of the
responsive Excel spreadsheet attached to this email. As it contains the same information,
the PDF has not been attached.

https:/Mogin-us.mimecast.coin/m/poltalapp/print. jsp?7sid=LK37bnigsnLsu3WKYhMSQeyJhbGciOWOOkVT Mi11Uzi1 NBM TI4S10L CHbmMiOWBMTI4 "I

Barrier Report — Alex Chen 8-12-2021

While talking to businesses, patrons, and individuals simply walking through downtown, | have gained
some insights into how everyone views the outdoor seating. The biggest proponents of the outdoor
seating were not the restaurants with this additional seating, but the people who were using it. After
talking to hundreds of people, the large majority of the downtown population and those who frequent it
love the outdoor seating. | have listened to people rant about how amazing it is to have endlessly, with
occasional comments about traffic being a little worse but not unbearable, the inside of the barriers
needing to be painted as beautifully as the outside of the barriers, and suggestions about which
restaurants need more space for it and which need less. Every day at 1pm, 3pm, 5pm, and 7pm, | have
kept track of how many people were sitting outside at each restaurant. The following are some key
points from that data, and the data collected from talking to the downtown merchants.

- The overall average number of people using the outdoor seating at any given time is 68 people, but
that fluctuates heavily depending on the time of day, and the day itself.

- At 7pm on July 10th there were 264 people sitting outside, then the following afternoon at 1pm there
were only 6.

- Martha's exchange alone averages at 21 customers using outdoor seating at any given time, and often
peaks late at night around 65.

- Surf, MT's, Stella Blu, Fratello's, and Oddfellows can see anywhere from 10 to 30 customers sitting
outside at one time during peak hours.

- San Francisco Kitchen claims 80% of all customers choose outdoor seating if the weather Is nice.

- Casa Vieja and Fratello's claim that almost if not all customers choose to sit outside if the weather is
nice.

-MT's, Oddfellows, and The Flight Center ail claim to have an outdoor seating pick rate of 75%.

The largest complaints from businesses have been a lack of parking, an unusually high frequency of
homeless individuals bothering customers, and a general decline in overall customers, especially during
the height of COVID-19. The biggest complaints from patrons have been slightly more traffic on Main
Street (although most follow that up by saying that if you know the side streets well enough you can
avoid the traffic), less parking, not enough outdoor seating at some of the restaurants, and the fact that
the cones to create bike lanes are often in the way of traffic, or knocked over and blocking a bike lane.

At the end of the month | will finalize ail spreadsheets and graphs, and make sure it is distributed to
anyone who would like a copy. This will include all data from counting how many people are sitting
outside each day, along with a graph for each restaurant with outdoor seating showing its trends,
average users, etc.

Graham, Donna

ee ae

From: Laurie Ortolanc Qin

Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2022 10:05 PM

To: Board of Aldermen

Cc: Board of Assessors; Graham, Donna; Legal Dept; Stepp, Lindsey; Denoncour, Adam;
Gerry, James; Mayors Office Email

Subject: Please DO NOT support ArcGIS $82,040 contract for Assessing Dashboard Consulting
Services

Attachments: Gmail - 2020-10-20 Using the Cornell dashboard software to teach data.pdf

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

Donna,
If this can make it into the packet, I would appreciate it.
Laurie

Dear Honorable Board members,

I am requesting that the Board not approve the $82,040 ArcGIS Proposal to develop an integrated
Assessing dashboard interface for property owners. This is not a necessary expense or an
emergency need.

Ms. Kleiner presented this expenditure to the finance committee on April 6, 2021. She claimed the
legal office believes that this can be financed from the bond money from the Vision Government
Solutions revaluation contract. I do not agree that this is the appropriate use of the bond money for
several reasons and will be sending this to the DRA and BTLA for review.

The bond money should not be used to create tools that Ms. Kleiner is calling a transparency
enhancement. We already have all the tools and in the last two years, we invested over $200,000 in
these tools. Currently, cards are accessible online at home and we upgraded the Patriot Property
software at significant costs to taxpayers. Abatement applications are online and the sales search
tools were recreated at a significant cost, and available online. While I had difficulties initially with
the interface, I figured it out and think it works well for sales data. Ms. Kleiner emailed me on
October 20, 2020 to let me know that citizens found the interface easy.

"Many residents have been able to drill down on the dashboards and find the information
they were requesting. These dashboards are pulling specific data from the CAMA system.
Some directions are found in the left hand corner of each dashboard."

Why are we spending bond money to develop tools we don't need? The purpose of the bond is to
equalize all properties and the contract required Vision to hold informal hearings to review the
new assessment with any concerned property owner. What Nashua needs are qualified, credible

people that run a competent assessing office. We don't have a software problem, we have a
people problem.

Ms. Kleiner seemed to present this as an immediate need to couple with the new Vision assessment
numbers due to be released at the end of August 2022. If the Board hurries up and passes this, the
tool should be ready by August. Nashua's history with software tools and upgrades within the
Assessing office would show significant delays and problems with the delivery of services.

[1] The Patriot software upgrade approved in 2019, was supposed to be running in a matter of
months. By November 2020, property record cards were still not online for the 2020 abatement tax
year and citizens had to go to City Hall to access data as home access was not available. Prior to
this, the next year's property record cards were always updated and available in November, with
November 2019 representing the first year that home access was available. In the fall of 2020,
citizens were still finding errors on the property record cards and data fields missing, which
required additional troubleshooting.

[2] The property record cards were again not available for home access in November 2021 to
coincide with abatement season due to undisclosed software issues. This software problem
coincided at the time the assessing office was under construction so citizens could only email in
requests for property record cards.

[3] The Inception Technology digital scanning project approved in July 2020 was supposed to be
completed in about a year. It was presented to the Finance Committee with a total cost of $60K, but
we now know the scanning costs are approximately $100K. And we need to dedicate staff or hire
staff to review and redact 900,000 pages of documents before they come online. This could easily

drive the cost of this project up to $250K.

[4] The public was never told that OUR public records were going to be inaccessible for years with
no way of easily knowing what files are inhouse and what files are out of house.

[5] The $20,000 Cornell Dashboard, taxpayers funded, was late in delivery and was not user
friendly only because the city offered no documentation on the interface or a simple training video.
When the Dashboard went live, I emailed Ms. Kleiner and asked if the assessors had been trained
on using the tool. Ms. Kleiner responded that the staff had training. When I requested to meet with
an assessor to get a quick training tutorial, I was denied a meeting, even just a phone call, with an
assessor. And as you can see above, Ms. Kleiner appears to have received more compliments than
complaints on the new platform. Apparently, I was just showing my age. (see my attached email
exchange in Oct 2020.)

[6] In 2019, the City spent about $6,000 on new tablets for the assessor to take into the field to visit
properties and capture data electronically that can be directly coupled to the Patriot Assessing
software. These are largely unused because Vision took over all property reviews in 2020 and is
performing the inspections, the permit capture and sales reviews. Our assessors are not doing this
work. It was a waste of money to buy tablets in 2019.

I am actually concerned that the Mayor and Ms. Kleiner are deliberately proposing this project to
sabotage the access to public records in the assessing office when new assessments are released by
Vision. With our history of deadline failures, why would the city believe that an $82,040 rushed
investment will cure all that ails our assessing office and create better transparency for citizens?
The software isn't broken, so don't fix it. It makes absolutely no sense to rush an interface that
involves almost 29,000 property record files. The City legal office and leadership constantly call
out the 29,000 Nashua properties as a reason to not be able to quickly find records or address
information requests.

Finally, at the end of the Finance Committee meeting, Ms. Kleiner spoke with me about this
project. I had no idea this project was coming forward and wanted to make clear to the Board that I
did not request or hint at this need for the creation of a new software interface. She seemed to be of
the belief that I was requesting a better interface for abatments. This is simply not true. We got into
a discussion about the Cornell Dashboard and she highlighted that I had complained about the
interface. She is correct; however, my complaint was because the assessor was trained on the
dashboard but the public was not and she would not allow her assessor to assist the public on the
interface - or - more correctly - me. She would not allow me to speak to a trained assessor. This
was completely absurd. I watched assessing clerks constantly work with the public during
abatement season to assist them with the sales search tool to find comparable sales. It was
considered the clerk's job. Ms. Kleiner shut that down. Again, Ms. Kleiner believed I was the only
one having difficulties. It would appear that citizens really like the tool, so please don't change it.

Please vote No on this project and do not permit bond money to be expended for this type of
"transparency" upgrade. And please ask questions about this when it is brought before the board. If
you vote to go through with it, please make sure that the existing assessing webpage with all the
features, will still be available to the public when the new numbers are released. If you don't create
a redundant system, you could have a big problem. And let's stop fixing problems and spending
money on problems that don't exist.

Sincerely,
Laurie Ortolano
41 Berkeley St.

Gmai. - Using the Cornefl dashboard software to teach data 4/6/22, 8:54 PM

RY Gmail Laurie Ortolano <laurieortolano@gmail.com>
Using the Cornell dashboard software to teach data

5 messages

Laurie Ortolano <laurieortolano@gmail.com> Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 8:16 AM

To: "Mandile, Michael" <mandileM@nashuanh.gov>, "Turgiss, Gary" <GaryT@nashuanh.gov>, "Dame, Douglas"
<dameD@nashuanh.gov>, "Norman, Rex" <normanr@nashuanh.gov>

Goodmorning,

| have been attempting to use the dashboard set up by David Comell. Ms. Kleiner informed me that all of you had
training on the dashboard. Could | set up an appointment with one of you to go over how to use this dashboard. Our
tax dollars paid for it, it is not self explanatory, and we should be able to understand and use it. There is a lot of data in
there that looks like it could be helpful.

| am available this week, except possibly on Thursday. | can work with whatever time someone has available. | would
imagine 30 minutes would go a long way to understanding this dashboard.

Thank you,
Laurie

Laurie Ortolano <laurieortolano@gmail.com> Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 8:17 AM
To: "Mandile, Michael" <mandileM@nashuanh.gov>, "Turgiss, Gary" <GaryT@nashuanh.gov>, "Dame, Douglas"
<dameD@nashuanh.gov>, “Norman, Rex” <normanr@nashuanh.gov>

| am comfortable with a phone call to work this platform. There is no need for a face to face interaction.

On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 8:16 AM Laurie Ortolano <laurieortolano@gmail.com> wrote:
Goodmorning,

| have been attempting to use the dashboard set up by David Comell. Ms. Kleiner informed me that ail of you had
training on the dashboard. Could | set up an appointment with one of you to go over how to use this dashboard. Our
tax dollars paid for it, it is not self explanatory, and we should be able to understand and use it. There is a lot of data
in there that looks like it could be helpful.

| am available this week, except possibly on Thursday. | can work with whatever time someone has available. |
would imagine 30 minutes would go a long way to understanding this dashboard.

Thank you,
Laurie

Kleiner, Kimberly <kleinerk@nashuanh.gov> Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 8:56 AM
To: Laurie Ortolano <laurieortolano@gmail.com>

Cc: "Mandile, Michael" <MandileM@nashuanh.gov>, “Turgiss, Greg” <GregT@nashuanh.gov>, "Turgiss, Gary"
<GaryT@nashuanh.gov>, "Dame, Douglas" <DameD@nashuanh.gov>, "Norman, Rex" <NormanR@nashuanh.gov>

Good Morning Ms. Ortolano,

https://mail.google.com/maif/u/0/7ik=dl75de6e5 4view=pt&search...g-a%3Ar-60804749803824666264&simpl=msg-a%3Ar1 47833 2480013937720 Page 1 of 6

Gmail - Using the Cornell dashboard software to teach data 4/6/22, 8:54 PM

The assessors received a brief training on how to use the Dashboards for our internal needs. As I have
communicated to you prior, we will work on instructions for the website. Since you are the only resident who
has requested instructions, it would be helpful if you would send me your questions so we could make sure they
are addressed in the instructions. There are many tutorials such as: https:/Awww.youtube.com/watch?
v=AuY2sfXKkbM that can also assist.

Thank you,

Kim

Kim Kleiner | Administrative Services Director

City of Nashua — Administrative Services Division
Assessing, GIS, HR, iT, Purchasing, Risk Mgmt.
229 Main Street, Nashua, NH 03060
Tel. (603) 589-3025

From: Laurie Ortolano [mailto:laurieortolano@gmail.com]

Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2020 8:16 AM

To: Mandile, Michael; Turgiss, Gary; Dame, Douglas; Norman, Rex
Subject: Using the Cornell dashboard software to teach data

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

Goodmorning,

| have been attempting to use the dashboard set up by David Cornell. Ms. Kleiner informed me that all of you had
training on the dashboard. Could | set up an appointment with one of you to go over how to use this dashboard. Our
tax dollars paid for it, it is not self explanatory, and we should be able to understand and use it. There is a lot of data in

there that looks like it could be helpful.

https://mail.google.com/mall/u/O/7ik=dtt76dc6e5&view <pt&search...g-a%3Ar-80804749603824666 26&simpl=msg-a%3Ar1476332480013937720 Page 20f8

Gmai - Using the Cornt| dashboard software to teach data 4/6/22, 8:54 PM

| am available this week, except possibly on Thursday. | can work with whatever time someone has available. | would
imagine 30 minutes would go a long way to understanding this dashboard.

Thank you,

Laurie

Laurie Ortolano <laurieortolano@gmail.com> Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 12:18 PM
To: "Norman, Rex" <normanr@nashuanh.gov>

Cc: “Mandile, Michael" <MandileM@nashuanh.gov>, "Turgiss, Greg" <GregT@nashuanh.gov>, "Turgiss, Gary"
<GaryT@nashuanh.gov>, “Dame, Douglas" <DameD@nashuanh.gov>, "Gerry, James" <James.Gerry@dra.nh.gov>

| am uncertain why Ms. Kleiner gets to dictate who the public can speak with in the assessing office. Mr. Norman, what
role do you play as the certified Supervisor assessor in allowing the public to speak with an assessor? Why is a
director shutting this down? The BI tutorial might be helpful, but | am unsure if it will answer the specific questions
regarding assessing data. Her first response to me stated that all received training, not that it was brief. | am sure it
was not brief. | hope it was thorough as we paid a lot of money for that feature. | would like to know by speaking with
an assessor what your internal needs are with the information and would the public benefit externally as well.

Someone please give me a call. | don't believe Ms. Kleiner can dictate who an assessor speaks with on an assessing
matter. | know that this dashboard has all the qualified sales data and | am particularly interested in speaking about
that for the abatement process that will quickly be upon us.

On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 8:56 AM Kleiner, Kimberly <kleinerk@nashuanh.gov> wrote:

Good Morning Ms. Ortolano,

The assessors received a brief training on how to use the Dashboards for our internal needs. As |
have communicated to you prior, we will work on instructions for the website. Since you are the only
resident who has requested instructions, it would be helpful if you would send me your questions so
we could make sure they are addressed in the instructions. There are many tutorials such as:
https:/Avww. youtube.com/watch?v=AuYzsfXKkbM that can also assist.

Thank you,
Kim

Kim Kleiner | Administrative Services Director

City of Nashua — Administrative Services Division

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ik- ¢d t75dc6e5 &v iew= pt&search...g-a%3Ar-60804 74980 3824666268sim pl=m sg-a%3Ar1478332480013937720 Page 3 of 6

Gmail - Using the Cornell dashboard software to teach data 4/6/22, 8:54 PM

Assessing, GIS, HR, IT, Purchasing, Risk Mgmt.
229 Main Street, Nashua, NH 03060
Tel. (603) 589-3025

From: Laurie Ortolano [mailto:laurieortolano@gmail.com]

Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2020 8:16 AM

To: Mandile, Michael; Turgiss, Gary; Dame, Douglas; Norman, Rex
Subject: Using the Cornell dashboard software to teach data

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

Goodmorning,

| have been attempting to use the dashboard set up by David Cornell. Ms. Kleiner informed me that all of you had
training on the dashboard. Could | set up an appointment with one of you to go over how to use this dashboard. Our
tax dollars paid for it, it is not self explanatory, and we should be able to understand and use it. There is a lot of data

in there that looks like it could be helpful.

| am available this week, except possibly on Thursday. | can work with whatever time someone has available. |
would imagine 30 minutes would go a long way to understanding this dashboard.

Thank you,

Laurie

Laurie Ortolano <laurieortolano@gmail.com> Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 12:49 PM

To: “Norman, Rex" <normanr@nashuanh.gov>
Cc: “Mandile, Michael" <MandileM@nashuanh.gov>, “Turgiss, Greg" <GregT@nashuanh.gov>, “Turgiss, Gary”
<GaryT@nashuanh.gov>, "Dame, Douglas" <DameD @nashuanh.gov>, "Gerry, James” <James.Gerry@dra.nh.gov>

It is my understanding that the Assessor has an ethical obligation to speak with members of the public regarding
assessing matters. In this case, this is an educational discussion due to new software loaded into the City website. |
believe this falls right within the obligations of an assessor to communicate with the public on this matter. | would like

the Supervisors interpretation of these ethical standards.

On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 12:18 PM Laurie Ortolano <laurieortolano@gmail.com> wrote:

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/7ik- dtf75dc6e$ &view = pt&search...g-a%3Ar-6080474980 382466626 &simnpl=msg-a%3Ar1478332480013937720 Page 4 of 6

Gmail - Using the Cornell dashboard software to teach data 4/6/22, 8:54 PM

| am uncertain why Ms. Kleiner gets to dictate who the public can speak with in the assessing office. Mr. Norman,
what role do you play as the certified Supervisor assessor in allowing the public to speak with an assessor? Why is
a director shutting this down? The BI tutorial might be helpful, but | am unsure if it will answer the specific questions
regarding assessing data. Her first response to me stated that all received training, not that it was brief. | am sure it
was not brief. | hope it was thorough as we paid a lot of money for that feature. | would like to know by speaking
with an assessor what your internal needs are with the information and would the public benefit externally as well.

Someone please give me a call. | don't believe Ms. Kleiner can dictate who an assessor speaks with on an
assessing matter. | know that this dashboard has all the qualified sales data and | am particularly interested in
speaking about that for the abatement process that will quickly be upon us.

On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 8:56 AM Kleiner, Kimberly <kleinerk@nashuanh.gov> wrote:

Good Morning Ms. Ortolano,

The assessors received a brief training on how to use the Dashboards for our internal needs. As |
have communicated to you prior, we will work on instructions for the website. Since you are the
only resident who has requested instructions, it would be helpful if you would send me your
questions so we could make sure they are addressed in the instructions. There are many tutorials
such as: https:/Avww.youtube.com/watch?v=AuYzsfXKkbM that can also assist.

Thank you,

Kim

Kim Kleiner | Administrative Services Director

City of Nashua — Administrative Services Division
Assessing, GIS, HR, IT, Purchasing, Risk Mgmt.
229 Main Street, Nashua, NH 03060
Tel. (603) 589-3025

From: Laurie Ortolano [mailto:laurieortolano@gmail.com]

hitps://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ik= dfl 75dcGe5aview> pt&saarch...g-a%3Ar-60804749803824666268sim pl=msg-a%9Ar147833248001 3937720 Page 5 of 6