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Special Board of Aldermen 12-21-2020 Page 32

Alderwoman Kelly

Thank you. So as | said that | felt that the Board of Public Health should be speaking on this before we
even debate it.

Alderman Harriott-Gathright
Thank you.

Alderwoman Kelly

We pulled it out of Committee, where we would have talked to it and if it wasn’t talked to we would table it
and they haven't spoken on it. So if they are not prepared to speak on it, | want to move to table because |
want to know what their point of view is before we even talk about this.

President Wilshire

Mayor Donchess, is there anyone on the meeting tonight from the Board of Health that we haven’t heard
from?

Alderwoman Kelly

Director Bagley was on just a minute ago.

Bobbie Bagley, Director Division of Public Health & Community Services

Bobbie Bagley, Director for the Division of Public Health & Community Services. We actually did have a
presentation that Angela Consentino spoke through during the Public Comment. Did you want that
presentation. We weren't sure that that was going to be presented this evening, but we were prepared for it.
President Wilshire

If you have a presentation, | would welcome that.

Director Bagley

Angela are you still there?

Angela Consentino

Sure, I'll just go ahead and share my screen.

Director Bagley

Thank you.
Ms. Consentino

So we really what we have today in our presentation is a brief situational report on COVID-19 and then also
the discussion of the cluster outbreak and watch list data that | reviewed in my public comment. So to start
off with our situational report, in regards to our case activity, last week in Nashua we had 394 new cases for
an average of 56 new cases a day. There are currently 3,299 cumulative cases in Nashua. Of those cases,
approximately 855 are currently active and infectious and DPHCS is currently following 716. We have had 5
additional deaths in Nashua since last Monday for 49 total deaths and a case municipality rate of 1.4%.

Special Board of Aldermen 12-21-2020 Page 33

Unidentified person speaking over Ms. Consentino

Ms. Consentino
Our hospitalization rate in Nashua is at 3.3% compared to the State’s rate of (inaudible).

Unidentified person continues to speak over Ms. Consentino

Ms. Consentino

So in regards to community level transmission, the entire State is experiencing substantial community level
transmission and is considered in the red. In Nashua we are currently exceeding two out of three indicators
that push us into substantial transmission. Over the past 14 days we have had 830.3 new cases per
100,000 people. We passed into substantial in this category when we surpassed 100 new cases per
100,000 people back in October. We are also considered substantial in the percent positivity category. In
the past week there has been 446 tests conducted on average each day in Nashua and 54 of those tests
have been positive each day which gives us a percent positivity rate of 12.3% up about 2% since last week.

For comparisons, the State’s percent positivity rate is at 8.7%. This past week we pushed from minimal into
moderate in regards to new hospitalizations. Last week we had 2.2 new hospitalizations per 100,000 over
two weeks; this week we have had 10.1 new hospitalizations for 100,000 over two weeks and we will be
pushed into substantial in this category if we surpass 20 new standardized hospitalizations. Bobbie would
you like to add anything about the capacity of the hospitals and our joint partner calls?

Director Bagley

Yes thank you Angela. So with our joint partners and our information that we had been receiving from the
hospitals, we have learned that they are being challenged with their staffing capacity to be able to maintain
certain services. They have cut back on elective surgeries and have discontinued those because of staffing
capacity and because of the increase in spread of COVID. We have learned that our ICU’s continually are
challenged. We heard today that in one of our hospitals, 10 out of their 11 ICU beds are filled and last week
they actually had to open up their second ICU Unit because of the number of cases that were in their ICU.

The hospitals are also reporting ventilation use. What we have learned is that they are able to as much as
they can, maintain the surge of what they are seeing in-house, but we have been hearing constantly about
the challenges that they are having with staffing. And those challenges are because they, again, you know
with the staff that have been reported as having COVID has been picked up in the community, which then
means that they have to go on either isolation and then once in isolation all of their contacts or staff that
work with them either have to go on quarantine themselves and so that decreases that amount of staffing
that is available in the hospitals.

So when we look at Community Transmission, the impact is impacting the hospitals to the point now where
they have been seeking support and workers from outside of the hospitals to help them maintain their
services. Our Emergency Departments continually see increases in numbers of patients coming in to the
ED with an increase in the number of patients that are presenting with COVID illnesses. And so, as a result
of this with this metrics that we see here, we’ve met two out of the three substantial measures. If the
hospitals rate goes up about 20, then that will also be in the red as well and it puts our State in a very
precarious predicament. Thank you Angela.

Ms. Consentino
Thanks Bobbie. So this is a graph that | talked through earlier but this is, so in New Hampshire, all of our

COVID-19 infections are categorized by transmission type which is defined by where or how an individual
believes that they got sick. So you can see the highest percent of cases have no idea where they may have

Special Board of Aldermen 12-21-2020 Page 34

gotten sick from and then after that contact with someone with COVID-19 is the second, followed by clusters
associated, followed by community transmission.

So a lot of the unclear, unknown bar is going to be the community based transmission. It is people who
have no idea where they may have gotten sick from. They don’t have a family member with COVID-19.
They have only gone about their regular community business. And they just can’t pinpoint an exact target
as to where they got sick. And this is the vast majority of our cases. | see it in our disease investigations
every day, many people have no idea where they got sick from. So this isn’t just happening in families, it is
happening out in community just regular people walking by others and it’s not just in living rooms, it’s
everywhere.

So this is the watchlist data that | also talked through. So this is — we track all of the cases in Nashua and
these are all the facilities that have either experienced an outbreak, cluster or exposure with potential for
community spread. So these are categorized into these six separate facility types. So we have our
community groups which are churches, clubs, sports or gyms, healthcare facilities, housing facilities,
restaurants, bars and clubs, school or child care facility and then workplace or businesses. So you can see
that the majority of reports are from workplaces and businesses and then also healthcare facilities. This
makes sense because our healthcare facilities, they are high risk exposures and we put those at a high
priority at both the Health Department and the staff from the healthcare facilities put those at high priority.
So reporting these exposures is a high priority for both us and the staff at the facilities. And then also
workplace and businesses, these are general workplaces and businesses in Nashua. Any place that does
business and employs people would be on this category.

| also would just like to mention that any patron case, whether it be at a workplace or business or a
restaurant or club, or at a community group is going to be underreported because the patron has to be
aware of the exposure in order to identify that they were associated with the cluster or outbreak. So if the
patron doesn’t know that there was an exposure at the facility, they cannot identify themselves as part of
the outbreak when we do the investigation. So this is just that information summarized, so on the left we
have the breakdown of the number of reported cases per facility in the past three months and then on the
right we have the percentage breakdown of exposure reports to DPHCS. So our most highly reported
sector in general is workplaces and businesses but these do tend to have less cases associated with each
report. Another highly reported facility is healthcare, 26% of our exposure reports are associated with the
healthcare facility and like | said before, this makes sense because any case at a long-term care facilities or
hospitals is high risk and prioritized.

And then in regards to restaurants, bars and clubs, 13% of our total outbreak cluster and exposure reports
are for these facilities and the majority of cases that are in the restaurants are associated with staff
members, about 25% are in patrons likely because of the underreporting in patrons. That’s what we have
for the presentation, Bobbie. Did you want to add anything else to this?

Director Bagley

Based on this presentation that is presented here from October to December, it is also where we have seen
the exponential increase in the number of cases that have occurred here, not just in Nashua and our region
and the state, we do know when there are activities that allow for people to come together in closer settings
where their masks are not being used is where are seeing an increase in exposure. And this is what we
are trying to prevent, going into you Know this next few months, of this pandemic. We do realize that a
vaccine, a couple vaccines in fact, are going to be administered over the next probably 4 to 6 months, but
we still have this three month period where it’s going to be really important for vigilance to be underway
with everyone because even after folks get that first vaccine, there is still a 28 days period before the next
vaccine is given. And then in-between that time the vaccine doesn’t really start to kick in to work effectively
until after that second dose is received.

Special Board of Aldermen 12-21-2020 Page 35

So you can see that we still are at a critical period. We do and have heard from our hospitals over the past
at least 3 weeks that the number of cases is starting to impact their ability to provide the services. The
thing about the hospitals is that if elective surgeries or people can’t get in for other things, that creates a
bigger problem in our community with individuals. If the emergency rooms are full of individuals going there
for COVID, if a person has a heart attack or there’s some other accidents, we are compromising our ability
to be able to provide those services when we are not doing what we can do to prevent COVID in the way
and the measures that we have outlined previously.

So with the idea of cutting back on those activities that allow for the masks to be removed, which we know
do prevent the spread of infection, that’s what we are focused on; activities where people gather together,
even in small groups are considered now high risk activities. And so that’s what we are focused on; how do
we make sure that people can have a future for their families and | Know we are talking about the economic
impact of this. If we were to do a cost benefit analysis on the cost of the hospital stay, the ICU stays, the
Emergency Room visits, and the long number of days that people stay in the hospitals, that’s going to
impact economic situations for individuals and their families as well. This is not an easy decision or
conversation to be had, but it is something that’s important and we need to think about the safety and the
wellbeing of our members in our community. Thank you President.

President Wilshire
Thank you Bobbie and thanks for the presentation, very much appreciate it. OK. So! am going to ask the

Attorney, Attorney Clarke, if we want to pass this we need to suspend the rules for a second reading, is that
correct?

Attorney Clarke

Yes | think that would be your normal procedure. And | apologize for before, | think there was just some
general confusion if this was meant to be sort of a Committee Meeting that was going to send a
recommendation to the Full Board tomorrow or if this was meant to be the actual substantive meeting and
vote on the Legislation. | think | just didn’t understand originally what the intent was.

President Wilshire

OK Alderman Clemons?

Alderman Clemons

Thank you, | move to —| am changing my motion to move to suspend the rules to allow for a second
reading.

MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO SUSPEND THE RULES TO ALLOW FOR A SECOND
READING BY ROLL CALL

ON THE QUESTION
President Wilshire
Alderman Klee?
Alderman Klee

Thank you Madam President. | just want to make sure (audio cuts out) and that would mean that we would
vote on it this evening, is that correct if we do a second reading tonight? OK thank you.

Special Board of Aldermen 12-21-2020 Page 36
President Wilshire

Would the Clerk please call the roll?

Alderman Jette

Madam President?

President Wilshire

Alderman Jette, sorry.

Alderman Jette

| agree with Attorney Clarke and | think some of the other Aldermen as well about the confusion. This was,
| believe this was advertised as a meeting before the Full Board for a discussion. And it certainly left me
and | am sure others with the impression that this would be an opportunity for the public to weigh in. | too
thought that there would be a presentation from the Board of Health and that after hearing from everyone
we would have a chance to think about this and then take it up at tomorrow night’s meeting.

President Wilshire

That was the intent Alderman Jette.

Alderman Jette

That was the intent, ok.

President Wilshire

That was the intent.

Alderman Jette

So | think moving to try to vote on this tonight is against the intent and | think in good faith, we should follow
what we advertised. We said this was going to be a meeting where we would have discussion and then the
implication was that we would pick it up tomorrow night and vote on it tomorrow night. So | question why we
would be suspending the rules to have a second reading tonight and not just have a second reading
tomorrow night and vote on it tomorrow night and give people who also couldn’t attend tonight and wanted
to express opinions and an opportunity to do so as well tomorrow night.

So | am wondering, | know that Alderman Clemons is a great believer in full discussion of matters and
would not want to use parliamentary procedure to try to cut off discussion or debate. | am wondering if he
would withdraw his motion and that we would just, you know, | thought Alderman Lopez’s original motion
which frankly Madam President you didn’t either understand what he was saying or gave him a hard time
about. His original motion was to refer this to full board tomorrow night for a vote, | thought. So | am
wondering if Alderman Clemons would be willing to withdraw his motion and we could just refer it to the full
board for a vote or a second reading tomorrow night and a vote tomorrow night.

President Wilshire

Alderman Clemons?

Special Board of Aldermen 12-21-2020 Page 37
Alderman Clemons

No | am not going to do that, | would encourage you to vote yes or no whether or not you want to vote on
this tonight or tomorrow.

President Wilshire

Alderman Lopez?

Alderman Lopez

So | just wanted to clarify that that was what my confusion was is because when we typically take business
up before the Board it gets read and then the President just announces where it’s going. So | thought you
were going to be announcing it to go to tomorrow. On the script it says that | am sponsoring it and | wasn’t
sure whether you wanted me to do that or whether we were opening it for discussion, so that’s why |
opened discussion.

President Wilshire

Ok so the motion before us now is to suspend the rules to allow for a second reading. You can vote yea or
nay and then we can take it up after that, whatever comes from the vote.

Alderman Lopez

If we vote nay though does that automatically bump it to the next meeting? Because Alderman Clemons
did just make a motion to indefinitely postpone it.

Alderman Harriott-Gathright

No he corrected that motion.

Alderman Schmiat

He withdrew it.

President Wilshire

Ok so you withdrew that motion.

Alderman Lopez

OK.

Alderman Jette

So Madam President, would it be in order for me to make a motion to table until tomorrow night?
President Wilshire

It would be in order, it depends on how the Board feels.

Special Board of Aldermen 12-21-2020 Page 38
Alderman Jette

If that’s in order then | make that motion.

MOTION BY ALDERMAN JETTE TO TABLE O-20-044 BY ROLL CALL

ON THE QUESTION

Alderman Dowd

Attorney Clarke?

President Wilshire

Can you please wait to be recognized.

Alderman Dowd

| am trying to get recognized.

President Wilshire

OK so your motion is to table which is not debatable. So would the Clerk please call the roll?
A viva voce roll call was taken which resulted as follows:

Yea: Alderman Lopez, Alderwoman Lu, Alderman Jette, Alderman Schmidt,
Alderman Cleaver, Alderman Harriott-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire 7

Nay: Alderman O’Brien, Alderman Klee, Alderwoman Kelly, Alderman Dowd,
Alderman Caron, Alderman Clemons, Alderman Tencza,
Alderman Laws 8

MOTION FAILED
President Wilshire

That motion failed and we are back to the motion to suspend the rules to allow for a second reading.
Further discussion on that motion, Alderman Dowd.

Alderman Dowd

Quite frankly, | am not sure we had a first reading of the motion, although | think it was the motion that was
read by City Clerk Lovering. So that was the first motion. In order to do anything with this before tomorrow
night it would have to have had a second reading. So what Alderman Clemons is doing now is suspending
the rules to allow for a second reading tonight. And if that passes then there would have to be another
motion, correct me if | am wrong Attorney Clarke, to have a final vote on final passage which could occur
tonight or tomorrow night. And | thought that we should probably go around the room and have every
Alderman speak once before anybody spoke more than once.

President Wilshire

I’m OK with running the meeting, Alderman Dowd.

Special Board of Aldermen 12-21-2020 Page 39
Alderman Dowd

Excuse me?

President Wilshire

I’m good.

Alderman Dowd

And then see where everybody stands and whether it makes sense to even address that motion. But go
ahead.

President Wilshire

Anyone else on the motion to suspend the rules for a second reading? Alderman Tencza, do you have
your hand up?

Alderman Tencza
No, Madam President, sorry.
President Wilshire

Oh you had your pen up, I’m sorry. Alderman Lopez.

Alderman Lopez

| am opposed to the second reading because | think as Alderman Klee pointed out, if people are expecting
to be here, but chose to go to the Board of Education Meeting, | don’t think it’s fair to just run this right
through. We barely even had the public health department speak. And | appreciate that they were allowed
to after we brought it up and pointed it out. But that’s not a normal means of doing business. Normally we
have a presentation and then public comment on issues when we are having the public hearing format and
| think this has been kind of disorganized tonight. So | mean | am opposed to it just because | think people
should have more time to digest what was presented to them tonight and the public really doesn’t even
know what we are doing at this point.

President Wilshire
OK, anyone else? Alderman O’Brien.
Alderman O’Brien

Thank you, Madam President. | think what we had here was some confusion from an Alderman. Our
procedure should have been when it was under its first reading, all one Alderman had to do and usually
traditionally by our procedure is the sponsoring Alderman to make the recommendation of final passage.
That never was done. And then we got into this cling, cut, roundtable kind of debate on it. So now we are
kind of spinning our wheels. But | just want to make that point that | think, Madam President, you ran the
meeting well. Somebody just did not do their due diligence and make the proper recommendation of final
passage and open it to discussion and we discuss it. So thank you, Madam President.

Alderman Lopez

As a point of personal privilege, we have never recommended final passage without a second reading.

Special Board of Aldermen 12-21-2020 Page 40
President Wilshire

Ok anyone else? Would the Clerk please call the roll?

Alderwoman Kelly

Alright, Alderman Wilshire. | had my hand raised.

President Wilshire

| didn’t see you, I’m sorry.

Alderwoman Kelly

| might have not had my video on so that might be ... so | just wanted to respond to some of the things that
were said. | think that there are multiple people who were confused about this format and | think it would be
unfair of us to push this forward if there were other people who want to weigh in. | did just look back at the
outline and it did say that it was “anticipated referral” for tomorrow evening. So | don’t think anyone was out
of order in trying to figure out where that was going and | will not be supporting suspending the rules at this
time.

President Wilshire

Ok, anyone else, before | call the .... Alderman Gathright? Alderman Gathright did you have your hand up?
You are on mute.

Alderman Harriott-Gathright
| Know | saw it. Ditto to Alderwoman Kelly.
President Wilshire
OK. The motion is to suspend the rules to allow for a second reading. Would the Clerk please call the roll?
A viva voce roll call was taken which resulted as follows:
Yea: Alderman O’Brien, Alderman Clemons, Alderman Tencza 3
Nay: Alderman Klee, Alderwoman Kelly, Alderman Dowd, Alderman Caron,
Alderman Lopez, Alderwoman Lu, Alderman Jette, Alderman Schmidt,
Alderman Laws, Alderman Cleaver, Alderman Harriott-Gathright,
Alderman Wilshire 12
MOTION FAILED
President Wilshire
Motion fails; Alderman Dowd?
Alderman Dowd
Yes | think that it would be in our best interest if we continue the discussion with the Aldermen to get their

views if we are going to carry this forward to tomorrow night so we don’t have to have a complete reiteration
of all of the testimony again. If there is somebody new that likes to speak in public tomorrow that’s fine, but |

Special Board of Aldermen 12-21-2020 Page 41

think this is the meeting that we should have all the Aldermen give their views on the Legislation so that
tomorrow night, we are not having to go through another 2 hours of discussion.

President Wilshire

That was the original intent, this evening, Alderman Dowd.
Alderman Dowd

If it’s OK, I’d like to give my opinion.

President Wilshire

You're up.

Alderman Dowd

Alright. | am going to start by saying that | am opposed to passing this Legislation. And | will say that |
always support or most always support the Public Health Department. And when we discussed the mask
ordinance, | made the comment that if we didn’t support the Public Health, why do we have them. In this
instance though the Board of Aldermen has to take a bigger role. The reason being that we are talking
about individuals suffering loss of income, loss of home, not being able to feed their kids and also we put
rules in place at the beginning of the pandemic that these establishments are actually abiding by and to a
great degree. And | have not seen, you know, | worked in logistics for four years, | have not seen enough
data pushing it to a curfew as opposed to enforcing the rules we already have in place. And | can tell you if
we pass this Ordinance, who is going to enforce it.

| can tell you that the Police Department on the second and third shift are short-handed. They can’t be out
going into every restaurant to see if they are open and serving liquor or not. And | think we have already
heard from the Board of Health that they don’t have people, they are working hard all day doing testing and
all the other types of things for the pandemic. | think we are punishing too many businesses and individuals
that have already suffered enough. They have followed all of the guidelines that we have given them up to
date as far as outside dining, masks, putting up separating barriers. But now to shut them down completely
is something even more severe. And somebody would have to tell me what is the difference between 9:00
at night and 9:30 at night. None. If they are doing the same guidelines all day long, a couple more hours at
night is not going to make a difference. | think this was a concern that people were coming up from
Massachusetts and I’ve heard from a number of the establishments that’s not the case.

Another thing is if we close these people down at 9:30 besides losing their jobs and their homes and
everything else, the people from Nashua that want to be out after 9:30 are going to go to Manchester. And
we have already heard that their outbreak is even bigger and you are more likely to have people coming
back from Manchester with COVID than if they went in our establishments that are playing by the rules. So
for all those reasons and many more, | do not support this curfew. There may be some additional steps we
can take without closing these establishments, but as far as an out and out curfew | think that’s too far, too
much at this time.

President Wilshire

Further discussion? Alderman Jette?

Alderman Jette

Thank you, Madam President. | would encourage my fellow Aldermen to think about the fact that we have a

Public Health Department, we have a Board of Health. The Board of Health has three doctors on it. The
Department of Health has — the medical director is an infectious disease specialist.