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Board of Aldermen 02-22-2022 Page 32
Paula Johnson
Oh, there was just one of the thing | had to say. Just give me this one second.

President Wilshire

| have other people waiting to speak. Your time is up.

Paula Johnson

Okay. Alderman Klee - $250 more for the veteran’s tax that was voted on.
Karen Bill

Karen Bill, 95 Parnell Place, Nashua. Alderman Sullivan thank you for objecting to accepting whatever the committee
minutes were earlier. I'm speaking against the continuation of the downtown barrier project. The citizens of Nashua have
been voicing their concerns about this for months. Perhaps today is the day that you actually hear us. It's not only about the
businesses downtown. Residents have the right to walk on the sidewalk and have enough room between outside dining
tables and the street. Last week | sent an email to Tim Cummings asking for meeting notes of the Downtown Improvement
Committee. The first three e-mails were ignored. In e-mail number four, | stated my request in a Right to Know law.
Imagine having to do this in this city to a city official to get an answer to an e-mail — a Right to Know law. His five word reply
to me asking about information about the minutes, who was on the committee, the meetings. “I have no such record.” Are
you kidding me? Such disregard, such disrespect. Do you think if President Wilshire had asked this, she would have
received the same curt, dismissive message? Is there not a code of conduct that states that you must reply to a resident
within a certain amount of time in a professional and polite manner? If not, obviously there should be.

Having run a nonprofit in this city myself, many organizations have that as part of their operating procedures. Maybe it's time
for the city to follow suit. Mr. Cummings has a dismissive tone. These e-mails were not responded to. It's unfathomable to
think that you could just be dismissed without saying “Right to Know”. Not even Dear Miss Bill, nothing.

Discussions about the barriers on Main Street have resulted in the Nashua Fire Rescue voicing concerns about response
times. Nashua Police unable to pull people over on Main Street due to lack of room to do so. They have to wait until the car
pulls on to a side street or travels further up Main Street.

Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager

30 seconds.

Karen Bill

This is directly from a Police Commission meeting. Imagine the heightened anxiety on both parties. The cost - so what are
we supposed to do, right? | think it's time these barriers go. The cost to install and remove are somewhere around $60,000
per year. Lost revenue parking about as much. So what do we do with the barriers since we're not going to use them all?
Sell them? We bought them. We don't need them anymore. Let's make some money back. Let's sell them.

Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager

Time is up.
Karen Bill
Why not everything else is going up.

President Wilshire
Your time is up Ms. Bill.

Karen Bill

So | ask when do | get the information.

Board of Aldermen 02-22-2022 Page 33

Beth Scaer

Beth Scaer, 111 East Hobart Street. Thank you to the Alderman who voted to remove the mask to rescind the mask
ordinance and | want to especially thank Alderman Moran for bringing up the mental health issues. You know, | think we'll
find out how serious how many people are severely affected by mental health problems and how many people we have and
will lose to suicide because of all the restrictions, and shut downs, and the fear (inaudible).

Also, I'm just very concerned that Alderman O'Brien brought up the case of Typhoid Mary who was imprisoned for 20 years
because she would have Typhoid because she was ill. | don't think that's the kind of example of public policy that people
want to be, you know, held up as a good example.

I'm very concerned that Alderman Timmons said that her opinion is more important than ours. She was elected to represent
us not to lord her opinion over us, so | really hope she rethinks that belief. Thank you.

Sonia Prince

Hi. Sonia Prince, 29 Tufts Drive. I'm a little disappointed about the mask order but | thought you guys were gonna pass it
anyway but especially after the Board of Health specifically said they were worried about a spike after the Super Bowl and
the word about spikes after vacation. That was a little bit surprising. But, oh well. | do wish that you would listen to the Board
of Health. They are the medical professionals and the epidemiologist not us.

As for the complaint about the contractor last meeting, I'm very happy about the transparency. I'd rather know and not know.
So if there is a problem and a contractor is suspicious of somebody calling in, best to get that investigated and get it out of
the way. It looks like it was investigated so I'm glad that you're more transparent, unlike the Board of Education last night
who apparently voted on a Superintendent. When the meeting was like two to three hours long, they went into non-public so
everybody left after the second public the comment and then they came back out and voted because they were too afraid to
do it in front of the public. So that was pretty embarrassing | thought. So thank you for being more transparent that they are.

As for the masks, well this summer, | went to a Board of Aldermen meeting and there was a former police officer and a
former firefighter who weren't obeying the rules with the mask. So it was uncomfortable. I'm immunocompromised so there
is no option for me to go back there. So at least you have Zoom. Unlike the Board of Ed., | have zero voice there because |
can't go to the meetings because they don't enforce the masks there. Last night, there were people not wearing masks and
the Chair said, “Oh could you just like move away from the people with masks?” So what's the point of having a mask order
if you're not going to enforce it in that room? So people don't have a voice at the Board of Ed. meeting, which is
disappointing and kind of offensive. It should be like that. They should have an option to call in. Three of the board
members had to call in so why can't the people call in. | think that was unfair.

As for outdoor dining, | loved the outdoor dining. Last summer and the summer before, the downtown was vibrant. | spoke
to a few business owners who own restaurants done and that | know and they loved the extra seating. They said it saved
them because times were hard and having more seating outside - and people like to be...

Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager

30 seconds
Sonia Prince

So that's all | have. Thank you very much and, again, I'm disappointed but it is what it is and | hope that there's no spikes
coming up because then you'll have to put it back and that will make it look kind of silly. So | hope things go well as expected
and | hope the positivity rate Keeps going down. Thank you.

Brady Owens

Brady Owens, 16 Danbury Road, Nashua, New Hampshire. Speaking on regarding the downtown barriers. I'm definitely not
for the barriers. | know at least two businesses in downtown pretty very well. One’s a restaurant and one’s not. The one
that is not a restaurant definitely does not like the barriers because it just blocks his way. Traffic was very horrible with all the
barriers as many people have already talked about. And | just did just now a quick scan through the agenda for this meeting,
which oddly never comes up in the Board of Aldermen meeting. There's a lot of data on the agenda and there's a lot of
people contacting the city about the agenda. There are many business owners that have voiced their opinion against the
barriers. There were a few restaurants that it really helped and it served a purpose for the time. But as we saw this past year
once indoor dining returned and everything, the amount of usage of those outdoor seating, there were one or two restaurants

Board of Aldermen 02-22-2022 Page 34

that really used it a lot. But even some of the other restaurants such as Martha's, which always had a lot outdoor dining, you
know, their current outdoor dining they have is typically more than adequate. We're the kind of people that go out and like to
eat outdoors. We often noticed, you know, even before the barriers were put up and COVID started, there was always
plenty of outdoor dining for the people that wanted to sit outside, not everybody wants to sit outside, you know, they believe
it's hot. | was born raised in the south to me it never gets really hot up here. So we always sat outside and there's never
been a lack of seating outside at normal times. So I'm definitely not for keeping the barriers up. That's concludes my
statement. So thank you for tonight.

President Wilshire

Thank you. Just so you know, there's a sign-up sheet next time if you come that you have to sign up for public comment
period. It's usually on the back table. Okay. We'll allow it this time. Thank you.

Alicen Hogan

No worries. | thank you very much. | would like to thank the Honorable Tom Lopez for his response reference the
miscommunication and | look forward to having a discussion with you further. I'd like to thank the Honorable Moran for the
points that you brought up in regards to mental health.

| would like to clarify with the two other members that took exception to the sound that | made when Sage was speaking.
Grief is expressed in a couple of different ways. What you heard was a bark of extreme frustration because | have had a 12
year old family friend shoot himself and kill himself because of the fear of going back to school with COVID going on. Okay.
That is the mental health value that's going on right now. So to hear that level of fear in the voice of Sage and other students
that are currently in our schools, they need guidance. They need help in understanding the statistics that they are reading.
The statistics that she was commenting on were absolutely true for the first variant of COVID when it first hit. But this virus
has evolved as viruses do and we have gone through Delta, and we have gone through Omicron - two phases of Omicron.
And at present, those symptoms are stuffy nose, fever, sore throat, cough, and what not but not the level that she thinks they
still are at. And that's serious. That's having a negative effect on not just our children but other people and that's why we
need to have open conversations that discuss the most relevant information and where we are at right now. Because it
matters. Open dialogue matters. Facts do change, signs do change. We all were trying to do the best we possibly could
when this thing hit because we didn't know. No one knew. It could have been the zombie apocalypse and you guys did the
best you could. But we owe it to ourselves and we owe it to our children to not let them continue to spiral downward in an
echo chamber of fear that is fed through algorithms where they are locked in their tick tock, and their Facebook, and they
aren't having conversations...

Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager

30 in seconds

Alicen Hogan

...with people who have lived a little bit longer, who have seen a little bit more. | tell you as a veteran, holy smokes, the risk |
had to take to convince my young airman to go into an air traffic control tower in the middle of a war zone because it was a
target where they were going to get more than shot at, that's risk. That's real risk. That's more than .0099 bla, bla, bla, but
they did it.

Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager

Times up.
Alicen Hogan
Thank you.

Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager

Excuse me, Ma'am. Can you give your name and address please?

Alicen Hogan

I'm sorry. Alicen Hogan, 7 Hardy Street in Nashua, New Hampshire.

Board of Aldermen 02-22-2022 Page 35

Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager

Thank you.

Alicen Hogan

Thank you.

REMARKS BY THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN

Alderwoman Timmons

Thank you President Wilshire. The last speaker spoke about the heckling. | didn't Know who did it because | wasn't
looking over there. That's number one. So | just know that they were being heckled. | don't look over there. | don't care
who have over there.

Secondly, | like to clarify something. When | say my opinion, it wasn't - and I think the person heard it wrong. | didn't say
my opinion was more better than her opinion is that my opinion count. And so to the masses that do not come to the
Board. Their opinions count as well. | get a lot of e-mails from people that refuse to come to the Board meetings because
of certain people that's here at the Board meeting also that will not wear a mask. So that's what | get from the majority of
the people that write me and that's all | have to say.

Alderman Thibeault

Yeah | got a few things to say as always. So | just, you know, as far as Miss Sage goes when she spoke, | hope she's still
on and | hope she heard that because obviously if you can hear the laughing on the phone you don't have the background
any more than we do. So hopefully she heard that. Obviously, you know, I'm sorry for that loss. It's awful. | (inaudible)
with Alderman Moran too. | Know mental health has been a serious problem. It was a serious problem before and it's
even probably more so now. So | get that.

To Miss Johnson, | guess we got a little thing going back two nights in a row here. But last night she said we were
definitely rescinding the order tonight. When a high school student corrected her just to say it wasn't definite. She said
get your facts straight. So when | spoke, | said you know, you don't have a crystal ball but | guess | was wrong. She does
have a crystal ball. We did rescind it. She's got one on me so there you go.

I’m glad masks are gone honestly. Like | said, | was still gonna vote my principle and I'm still gonna vote the way that | felt
for the children of the schools, and my constituents in Ward 8, and with the Board of Health. But at the end of the day, I'm
hoping that the masks going way, obviously it doesn't sound like it with whole barrier issue, but I'm hoping with the mask
issue that we do get some of the nastiness in general on both sides of the coin to go away because it's just, you know, it's
not pleasant for anybody. It's not so much me. | don't care what people say about me or to me, it's more about people
who can't defend themselves. My vote is never going to be or should never be to try to do a good faith effort. It's going to
be what | think is right for my constituents or what | hear. If | don't agree with Alderman Cathey or | don't agree with
Alderman Moran or Alderman Klee, that's okay. It doesn't make me stop getting along with all three of them at the end of
the day. I'm gonna go with what I think is right for my constituents based on the information | have.

And one last thing, | just want to end on a good note. Nashua High School student Anthony Fernandez won the wrestling
title within the last couple of weeks, | think. He was mentioned at the Board of Education last night. | met his father at the
Great Gobbler during Thanksgiving Day and a lot of good ideas about schools. | just want to congratulate Anthony for a
great job. | know he's going on to school to wrestle in college, so congratulations to Anthony.

Alderman Cathey

I'd first like to congratulate Chief Rhodes on his retirement and thank him for his many years of service to the city. | didn't
get to Know them very well but | did meet him before | became an Alderman. According to his service record, he
obviously served the city very well and sacrificed for the city and we appreciate what he's done. Congratulations to, |
guess, Chief Buxton, who will be sworn in in the coming weeks.

I'd also like to thank the Nashua Police Department. | did a ride along | believe it was last week and that was awesome.
I'd like to thank Chief Rourke, Captain Faye, Captain Bolton, and then Sergeants Goodridge and Jones who | got to ride
with. Very happy with the job that they do. They are really professional, really, really good at what they do and I'm happy

Board of Aldermen 02-22-2022 Page 36

to have them on the streets. | really appreciate them inviting me into the station, giving me a tour, and answering a
myriad of questions because | tend to be quite inquisitive.

| think the BOE runs the meeting pretty well. | Know Alderman Thibeault was there last night and people were asked to
put their masks back on. Obviously, it's hard to control a meeting with like 50 people in the audience. It's difficult. We
have a meeting around the meeting was already running along at that point. So you know, we take what we can and we
do our best. So | wouldn't harp on the Board too much about that. They're trying to do the best they can through a
tumultuous season.

| learned this past week about the downtown Infrastructure Committee apparently having meetings in January and in
February without that information being on the city website. Apparently, information was posted on the bulletin boards
and City Hall. That information to my knowledge, and that can be corrected, and that's fine can't be confirmed.
Regardless of it could, the city is now in a pattern or behavior where the citizens look to the website to look up the
agendas, to look at what's going on with the city. I'd be hard pressed to find a lot of people who drive down to City Hall to
look at a bulletin board to see when there's a meeting. | would doubt that anyone does that. | believe that it would be
disingenuous to say, oh we posted on the bulletin board. That's not fair especially considering that they are dealing with
an issue that, let's say at the very least is 50/50. It's controversial to say the least. There's a lot of public input and so |
believe we need to go above and beyond to bring this matter to the public, especially if we're going to be voting on it for
three years. It's a big deal whether you agree or disagree. This is sort of like a relationship that we have to have with the
city because there are going to be some winners and there's gonna be some losers, depending on what side you're on
how you feel about it. And so it would behoove us to do everything we can to make sure as much of the public has an
opportunity to speak at Downtown Improvement Committee meetings, or other committee meetings, or even here at the
Board, which obviously they get a chance to do that. But prior input before it gets to us | believe paramount.

| think moving forward, no | don't know what happened. | can't, you know, | can't ascribe intent to that would be unfair.
That would be wrong but moving forward, we have to do a better job of figuring out when these meetings are, making sure
they're posted, and making sure the public knows. | have constituents call. They ask me when the meetings are and |
need to be able to tell them. If | say look on the website and it’s not there, that's a problem. That's not fair to them. So
moving forward, | think we need to do a better job of informing the public about this barrier issue and making sure that
they have all the input that they can get regarding that issue.

And then finally the last meeting we had regarding the situation with Ms. Ortolano in my mind is unacceptable. There's no
need. Having that communication in the meeting was unnecessary, in my opinion. Also, it could have said “a citizen”. It
didn't have to say anyone's name. It could have just been brought to our attention. It wasn't something we were dealing
with. It wasn't an ordinance. It wasn'ta resolution. It was just information and not information we needed to know that
night, number one.

Number two - to openly accused a citizen, that could be my mother, if you decided to visit from New Jersey, a sister, my
neighbor up there, and | hope that this Board would want to be like alright let's discuss this into nonpublic because this is
not appropriate for public conversation. That at least that's my hope and to accuse a citizen of a crime of which there was
no proof, and that was verified later with the police report which is in the packet from a city employee, how can we have a
good relationship with the citizens? How can we say we have their best interests at heart? How can we say that we
represent them when we have members who work here accusing them of a crime without proof? It's just unacceptable
and | hope in the future the Board would act differently in those situations, or | don't know all the procedural things yet. |
still learning and so maybe that'll come with time but in the future, it's got to go down differently and | believe, in my
opinion, that the city owes Miss Ortolano an apology for that act because it wasn't right. Thank you.

m

Alderman Gouveia

Thank you, Madam President. I'd like to echo what Alderman Cathey said about the situation with Mrs. Ortolano. | feel it
should have been done on a non-public session and I'll leave that at that.

On a lighter note, | wish everybody a happy Tuesday 2-22-22. Saw the very festive door by the HR Department on my
walk up here this evening. | wanted to thank everybody also for speaking tonight either for or against any of the - well
mostly for the mask mandate. It's a very divisive topic. It's one both sides are very passionate about and | think it just
goes to show and | think our Board here has done great with good civil discourse which has been a real positive thing for
the City of Nashua. Thank you.

Alderman Dowd

A couple things related to Zoom. We passed tonight that you can’t Chair a meeting through Zoom. We rescinded the

Board of Aldermen 02-22-2022 Page 37

mask ordinance and hopefully at some point in the not too distant future, you won't have to wear a mask at City Hall. At
that point, | think the Board needs to consider us eliminating Zoom entirely unless an Alderman is ill or something and
can't attend. But as far as anybody else, they should be here in person.

The other thing is the there was questions about Zoom for the Board of Education. There is no capability at Nashua High
North for Zoom and it's about 30 plus $30,000 to put it in. | can tell you the Board of Ed. is not going to spend valuable
money out of their education budget to put that in. Especially where it's probably going to be going away soon. So it's not
because they're trying to avoid public input, it's because they don't have the capability and it's very costly.

Also last night, the television broadcast of the Board of Ed meeting was horrible. It got so bad | just recorded most of it
because every five seconds | was cutting out. That is not good. | don't Know what they need to fix it but somebody needs
to look into that and quickly probably. That’s all.

Alderman Comeau

Thank you, Madam President. | had a couple items but they’re real quick. | just wanted to give Alderman Thibeault some
more details. Anthony Fernandez did just finished first on Saturday in the district. He was one of six students from
Nashua South that placed. There was a first, a second, two thirds, and three fourths, including my son, and helped
Nashua South finish third in the entire tournament. So those six wrestlers are all moving on to meet champions this
coming Saturday. So congratulations, all them.

The two things I'd like to discuss - most of this has already been touched upon so I'll try not to repeat too much. The first
thing is the situation that happened two weeks ago with Ms. Ortolano. | agree that | don't think that that was the
appropriate way to handle that. RSA 91-A allows us to go into non- public for a number of reasons and one of them is
specifically, you know, matters that would adversely affect the reputation of a member of the public. So that's a situation
where | would hope in the future where we go into a non-public session.

Additionally, | think that the whole thing was premature. Somebody else mentioned that that wasn't information we
needed that night. That could have gone through the normal process without the suspension of rules to add it
immediately to the packet. It seems after the fact that it's pretty certain that somebody jumped the gun when you have the
Nashua Police basically saying that the things that were alleged by Direct Kleiner didn't actually happen and that the
gentleman from the company in question did say that Ms. Ortolano never identified yourself as a city employee. So it
seems like that was just one big misunderstanding that the entire thing could have been avoided and her reputation
probably could have been preserved a little bit. So | do agree that she's owed an apology not just from the Board but also
from Director Kleiner.

The second thing I'd like to discuss, which has also been mentioned, is the situation with the barriers and the Downtown
Improvement Committee. | have a number of constituents who have been in contact with me for the last several months
expressing their desire to be involved in the discussion in any committee that's been formed. We did talk in January after
the Committee of Infrastructure about forming a committee and we were told that a committee would be formed and we
would find out later the details about that. Since then, I've had people e-mailing me nonstop asking me when it's going to
be on an agenda, when will we be able to talk about it, and I've been telling them there's nothing coming up. There's
nothing on any agenda. Trust me I'm on the Infrastructure Committee. If we were talking about it, I'd know and now come
to find out that we've been talking about it all along. There was a Downtown Improvement Committee meeting in January.
There was a Downtown Improvement Committee meeting in February. There's no minutes available online. There was
no public notice that these meetings were taking place. We know as a body that there is an opposition voice. How loud
that voice is subject to debate. That could be 50%. It could be 10%. It could be 90% but we do know that there's not
100% support for the barriers.

So | really strongly feel that the process that was used was deceptive. It was used to keep people out of the meetings
that were going to be loud, dissension voices. People were intentionally not told when these meetings were going to take
place because their participation was not welcome. And then for Director Cummings to say that they waited for alternative
solutions and none were presented was not surprised that no one presented because no one was given an opportunity to
present anything. So | would hope going forward that we have a lot more transparency around an issue that is specifically
so divisive. We know there is opposition. We owe it to the public to hear all of their voices and give them the compromise
that was promised in December and that was promised again in January. There is no compromise if we only allow one
side to attend the meeting and we don't allow the other side to give their opinions. Thank you.

Alderman Clemons

Thank you, Madam President. So just to address the issue with that's been brought up about the Downtown

Board of Aldermen 02-22-2022 Page 38

Improvement Committee. I'm the liaison to that committee and the meeting in January | did not attend probably because it
wasn't on the calendar online like everybody else. | actually and for some reason my e-mail was off the distribution list for
the committee members even though I'm the liaison. So there is a huge mix up there to begin with. | think it might have
had something to do with the term changeover from the last Board to the new Board. | don't disagree that, you know, that
a mistake was made where it should have been put on the calendar. | agree with that.

I've been assured and reassured that all committee meetings and everything will be on that calendar moving forward,
people are going to check, double check that type of thing. | don't think that anything was done intentionally because |
know the people involved in this, at least on the committee. They’re volunteers. They're hardworking volunteers. They're
not out to hide anything from people. They're just there to do their job. They look at things that come before them. They
give their opinion on what comes before them and sometimes they advise the Board of Aldermen on different things
depending on what it is that comes before downtown.

In addition to that, they recommend different projects and things that have to do with the downtown. And of course,
everything that they maybe say yes, you know, we would want to do that, or no, or whatever, anything that's going to
come forward has to be approved by this body anyway. They have no real authority as to approving a plan, or not
approving a plan, or anything of that nature. So the real decision for anything like that is made here. That's not to
discount, however, the fact that public participation is important and | always encourage public participation and I'm
disappointed that that happened. That some people feel that they weren't able to go because it wasn't posted on the city
calendar. So | have been reassured that that will not happen in the future and | think that moving forward, | think for all
committees, | think we should have a much more transparency | think and | think we'll do that. | think that's going to
happen because the people demand it when the people want it and it's the right thing to do. Not only that, but it's also the
law. So but I, again, | don't think anything was intentional and | firmly believe that.

Alderman Jette

Thank you, Madam President. So we've rescinded the ordinance requiring wearing of masks. | just want to acknowledge
all of the e-mails that | got on this tissue. | Know that there are people that are very passionate about the number one that
they shouldn't be told that they have to wear a mask. It's a violation of their personal freedom. | understand that they
think that.

Secondly, a lot of people feel that the Coronavirus certainly was never a threat and is certainly not a threat now. | know
there are people who believe that and also that there are people that don't believe the masks work. In fact, not only do
they not work, they think that they're detrimental to their health. | understand that those people believe that and | respect
their belief. Alright, don't believe. | believe that masks are a useful tool along with the other things that have been
recommended. So even though we've eliminated the mask mandate - the ordinance requiring masks - the
recommendation - and | know there are people out there who believe as | do that the Coronavirus is a serious threat and
continues to be such. Even though our numbers have gone down, they are still according to the State table, we're still in
a substantial risk of community transmission. According to the CDC table, we’re in a high level. The State level of
substantial. There is no higher level. That's the top. If it's above 10%, you're in that substantial level as far as the State
is concerned and we're at almost 15% the doctor said.

The CDC has if it’s above 10%, that's the highest level. If it's above 8%, it's substantial. So they say that if it's above 8%,
it's not safe to be in indoor spaces with people that are not part of your family group and that you should wear a mask. So
we've done away with the ordinance so people are free to choose but | hope that most of us will choose to number one
get vaccinated and we've learned that vaccination does not it provides increased protection, but it's not absolute
protection. You continue to watch your distance with people that you're not familiar with. That you stay away from them.
That you wash your hands and that you wear a mask in indoor public spaces until the numbers continue to go down until
they reach a safe level. So | know a lot of people disagree with me on that and | respect their opinion. | hope that you will
respect mine and acknowledge, or | hope you understand that, you know, my vote tonight was | was doing what | thought
was the best for the interest of the public at large based upon | think what is acknowledged to be the consensus of the
medical experts out there.

On the barriers, I've also received a lot of e-mails about that. I'm on the Infrastructure Committee. The Infrastructure
Committee in December what was said before is accurate. There was a meeting - our meeting in December. There was
a group of downtown business owners, professionals, retail people and restaurants and the message they gave us was,
they want to come up with a compromise plan that is agreeable to everyone that doesn't hurt one business and doesn't
favor one type of business over another. We acknowledge that and we said that we were going to allow input, seek public
input, and come up with a plan that hopefully people will agree upon. I'm hoping that that the downtown businesses that
we give them a place to meet, that they can give us some input, and that they can come up with a plan that they all agree
upon. | mean what we're doing is we're trying to help downtown businesses. That's the reason that we came up with this

Board of Aldermen 02-22-2022 Page 39

outdoor dining plan was to help the downtown businesses because of the COVID restrictions did not allow indoor dining.
So to help save the restaurants, we came up with this plan for increasing the outdoor dining by the use of the barriers.
The retail people downtown and the professional people all went along with that because they're all looking out for each
other. In our December meeting, that's the feeling | got that these people they all know each other. They're all friends.
They're not trying to hurt each other. | was hoping that they would have an opportunity to come up with a plan. So
hopefully that will that will still happen.

The introduction of this proposed ordinance that has come before us tonight has been referred to the Infrastructure
Committee. We haven't met as a new Infrastructure Committee yet. We haven't looked at it regarding that issue. I’ve
talked to the Mayor and Director Cummings saying why are you pushing this forward? What happened to the committee
that was Supposed to come up with an agreed upon plan. They said that this was just to stop the ball or get the ball rolling
just to start the conversation. Director Cummings has said in his memo, the language that you pointed out is a mystery to
me what he meant by that as far as no one coming up with a plan. But also in the memo he says, this is the start of the
conversation. He says, and | take him at his word, and the Mayor because the Mayor says the same thing. | take him at
his word that they're looking for, you Know, a plan that's going to be agreed upon by all the downtown businesses that will
be a benefit to everyone downtown. So thank you.

Alderman Lopez

As mentioned a couple of times, mental health acuity and particularly suicide. So | thought this would be a good time to
mention that Nashua has a mobile crisis response team. Their number is 1-833-710-6477. If you are watching this and
you are struggling, you do feel unsafe, you Know somebody who's feeling unsafe, and they're struggling, please have
them talk to somebody have them reach out. Mobile crisis is available 24/7. They're there to listen. One of the nice things
about them is they're not quite as intimidating as calling 911. You can engage mobile crisis. You're going to get a
master's level clinician. That person will assess over the phone and, if necessary, they'll come and meet you. We're
talking about a therapist in a minivan not like flashing lights or anything. When you're feeling unsafe, and you're feeling in
crisis, and you're feeling overwhelmed, a lot of people push away too dramatic a solution. They don't want to comment
911. Either force somebody else or for themselves. This is at least a step before that. There's other alternatives but
ultimately if you're struggling, you should seek help. If there's a crisis and somebody is in danger, then you definitely
should call 911 but if it’s a mental health crisis, then there's the opportunity to maybe forestall that. Don't hesitate to call
mobile crisis.

The rhetoric that we've been seeing is as much a problem as the physical sensation of mask wearing. Children are being
overwhelmed because they're being told many different things. They're being asked to side on many different issues.
While the adults don't exactly know what side they're on yet or don't have a consensus on their facts and information and
often the conversation breaks down into tribalism where my side versus your side is going to win. We'll do whatever we
need to. We'll use whatever tactics we want and that's communication breaking down. It has not made last couple of
years any better for anybody, hasn't improved the conversation either.

| want to echo the statements made that we should be forming a steering committee or a working group of some kind to
oversee the development of the downtown project - the outdoor dining and extended seating. As was pointed out, |
understood the presentation or the proposal that Director Cummings the first | saw was last Friday. | am the alternate
liaison for the Downtown Improvement Committee. | finally went to my first meeting and of course, it turns out to be a
controversial one. But it was an initial presentation. As far as I'm concerned, no action can be taken without legislative
support and it's not appropriate to present anything as final before the Board has even seen it whether it's a vote on
whether we're going to rescind the mask ordinance or whether it's the detailed workings of where we're going to allow 15
minute parking versus, you know, outdoor dining and all that kind of stuff. It's you have to start somewhere. You have to
have at least a rough framework.

| don't think Director Cummings is wrong in that | have not seen anybody present a map with different plans or anything
like that and ultimately, it does have to start somewhere and that really starts tonight. | think with this referrals to the
committee, we can vet it further. As far as | know, there's no plan to introduce it any earlier than May, which is a relief
because | think St. Patrick's Day last year was a little bit of a bust. But that means we have to do our job as Aldermen and
we have to actually vet this issue. We have to listen to public comment. The public has to have equal access to that
comment too. It needs to be on formal meetings, the committee meetings, the aldermanic meetings. They have to have
the representation in the form of their local Ward Aldermen, their at-large Aldermen. If we as Aldermen are stepping on
each other's toes and trying to support the causes we believe are true, or encourage certain people to speak their voice
by giving them special access to information, we need to look at our roles because we're not going to improve the
situation. We're going to increase the tribalism.

Board of Aldermen 02-22-2022 Page 40

At the end of the day, this is not a battle to fight. Both the retail and the restaurant industries are necessary to Nashua’s
downtown. You need businesses operating until 5 pm. You need businesses operating after 5 pm. Either side being a
problem is a problem for both sides. So we need to figure out how to use our space. We need to figure out how to share
our space. We do have to take into account the safety considerations in the strategic planning that Fire and DPW are
gonna to require and that means we're going to have to have some open dialogue. There's going to have to be a lot of
work done on this. So I'm looking forward to that part of this. | am not encouraged by all of the, | guess, prebaked
opinions before people have really gotten to see what we can do, how we can change, what everybody side is. I'm seeing
words thrown around like “I'm feeling discriminated against’, or “I'm feeling that there's underhanded planning going on”,
and all of this stuff which is extremely premature. Everybody does have a voice. Everybody does have their
representatives. If your constituents call you and they have an opinion you don’t like, you do still have to talk to them, and
you just have to accept that.

So it's a challenge doing that but it's going to be important because this year is very important for our downtown
particularly because we don't have Great American Downtown running huge events as we always have. We don't have a
solid history of restaurants that have always been there and are doing the same thing. We have a lot of new restaurants
that don't necessarily know the lay of the land and we have a pretty vulnerable downtown. So | encourage everybody to
focus on the goal here and it's a shared goal. We want downtown to thrive. We don't want to just subscribe to our
opinions of what a thriving downtown looks like because when we focus only on our side versus the other persons, we're
only going to get half of the view.

With respect to what Alderman Jette said about masking, | want to encourage that as well. Masking is very important. As
a health care professional, | Know that. | was working in the ER for much of last year and the year before in the height of
the epidemic and was fine. | practiced the mitigation measures of practicing social distancing. | am anticipating going to
on a trip to Honduras this weekend and | say anticipating because if I'm COVID positive, I'm not going regardless of
whether that country tests or not, | can't expose a population that has limited health care. So that's a decision | have to
make. When I'm in country, there's no mandate making me wear a mask there but I'm gonna wear a mask any time I'm
indoors unless I'm literally stuffing a hamburger in my mouth, which actually came up over the weekend. If it's feasible to
protect people around me by keeping my distance or my facial covering intact, I'm going to do that. So | encourage
anybody who is willing to do it as a matter of conscience to do that. Regardless of the stigma or the finger pointing if you
believe it's the right thing to do, then do it on behalf of other people.

Finally with regard to the comments that were made two weeks prior, | don't recall Director Kleiner making accusations
about a member of the public. | believe she read a statement from a vendor who expressed concerns about that. | think
that was important information for us to know because as Aldermen if we try to contact that vendor ourselves, we need to
know why they're saying no and why they're suddenly circling the wagon and why they're asking us for identifying
information. There are some things that we need to know. Should it have been read in public? | don't think it was that
urgent. | think it should have been sent as a communication. The use of non-public session is a little bit debatable
because in my opinion, and I'm not a lawyer, but | feel like if we have a non-public session about a member of the public,
that member of the public may have a right to attend that. They may have a right to bring representation and that
becomes very complicated. So | would prefer that we handle situations like that with a little more deliberation and
foresight.

| would also encourage members of the public to remember that when they're talking about city staff members week, after
week, after week and they're criticizing their work, they're criticizing their effort, they're criticizing their performance, those
can be construed as personal attacks too and the staff don't like it. There is a long history over the past several years of
staff being identified, shamed, called out in public meetings, and | don't like it. | don't like the public comment can be used
to attack somebody who's just paid to work here and is trying to do what they can.

At times specific Aldermen have been called out, and identified, and described unflatteringly. | believe the Mayor was
perhaps referenced a couple of times as well. At least we can choose that. We're elected to fulfill that role and we know
we're going to get knocked around a little bit. So | recognize the sensitivity towards members of the public and the rights
that they have, | ask that the public recognize the rights to privacy that our employees have. | believe | just heard an
employee being chased out of this meeting who did not wish to speak to somebody and | really would appreciate it if
everybody could focus on what their roles are, and what their boundaries are, and try to restore that décor because we
don't want to be fighting over how the city is run. That turns it into a war zone. We want to be working collaboratively over
what possibilities and what opportunities our city can achieve. Thank you.

Alderman Moran

Thank you, Madam President. One - | want to continue to encourage people to voluntarily wear masks. | do think it's the
right thing to do. | think at this point, like | said earlier, you've been educated enough. It's your choice to do so now.

Board of Aldermen 02-22-2022 Page 41

| want to echo what my colleagues have said. When | did reach out to Alderman Cathey regarding this ordinance, 1)
because he's a decent guy | presumed; 2) he's my neighbor. We both live in Ward 7. If you come to Ward 7 and you've
heard another member of the public from Ward 7 Beth Scaer speak, we have radically different opinions. We hardly ever
agree on anything but you can come down my street when I'm running for election and you can see my sign next to
someone else's sign that's not relatable to me. You would say “wow”, why is that person’s sign on that lawn? | can tell
you why - because | have conversations with my neighbors. When a nor'easter hits, we shovel each other out. We talk
about our kids. We go to football parties together. These are things that neighbors do. These are things that citizens do
together. Like what Alderman Lopez was saying, tribalism will destroy us. It will destroy this country. It will destroy the
city. We have to be able to reach across the aisle. We have to have an olive branch to each other. We have to live our
lives like Americans. Discourse is great. Personal attack is not. I'm prepared for personal attack. | got elected. City
staff, they're just doing their job.

| think, at least for me, you'll see more of this throughout my four years here. Who knows if I'm going past that but | think
whatever happened in the previous boards, whatever grievances there are, you gotta let it go. I'll tell you what | tell my
patients. You let this stuff stew in your brain, it starts to smell. What do you have to do with junk that's running in your
brain, you got to take it out just like take out the trash. You got to hit the reset button. You have to move forward. We
have to move the City of Nashua forward. We cannot get stuck in turf wars. It’s the best thing to do for everyone.

We talked a little bit about mental health. You know when Governor Sununu said shut down the State, he called for
healthcare workers to volunteer. | volunteer for DBAR - the disaster response for crisis clinicians to respond throughout
the State for the mental health needs. It truly is a major part of this pandemic that is overlooked. Some people will say
this is rhetoric from a certain side that you're aligning with but it's true. I've had so many patients kill themselves. That's
just me and my small agency here in Nashua. We don't get the numbers from the State. Why don't we get the numbers
from the State? | can tell you why because I've learned this working in the city. It brings down property values. That's
what the response I've gotten from the State several times. There are so many people be in treatment for depression
right now - kids and adults. | have a waiting list of over 300 people to come to my practice. The Mental Health Center has
a six to eight month waitlist. The majority of those people waiting right now due to COVID isolation and other COVID
factors and we already had a pandemic of mental health and addiction prior to this.

We have to address those secondary concerns. | do respect everyone on the Board of Health but there's one type of
doctor that's not on that Board of Health - a psychiatrist. If there was, we'd be able to hear this perspective more. I'm
literally an expert in mental health. My colleague, Tom, is an expert in mental health. We disagree on certain things but
what we're saying is true. This is happening in the city and it has to be talked about. The crisis team, | used to run it. |
was the Clinical Director. Call them. Call them when you're struggling.

We passed the mask. Hoping to keep that in the past.

The barriers - they're coming to the Infrastructure and the Planning and Economic Development Committee through a joint
committee that both Alderman O'Brien and | will Co-Chair. | promise you we will shine the light of day on all your
concerns. We will take input and | hope city staff that come have a pencil and paper and that they can respond
appropriately talking about steering committees and such.

| also would like to congratulate Chief Rhodes on his retirement. Talk about a class act. | worked with him with the Safe
Station Program to move the crisis there. He really did put in his dues. He is going to be a very missed and valued figure
in the city.

The Downtown Improvement Committee. | would just ask that everything is posted publicly so everyone can have their
input. | think that's all | have.

Oh, yes. There was a conversation about that communication from Ms. Kleiner. | would say my comments regarding that
particular meeting were about the vendor. | don't Know who hashes out who's impersonating who. That's not my job.
That's not something the Board does but the vendor admitted that they were duped. We have to have processes in place
so citizen’s information isn't readily shared. We've already been duped with a cyber-hack with a vendor. Let's just make
sure that vendors know who they're talking to and who the point of contact is.

Alderman Klee
Thank you, Madam Chair and | have to say | feel honored to have to my right here two very good mental health

practitioners. | know I've gone to Alderman Lopez when I've had constituents that have had need and so on and he's
helped me and such.