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Board of Aldermen 12-22-2020 Page 41

R-20-104
Endorser: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
Alderman June M. Caron
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman Skip Cleaver
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman Tom Lopez
Alderman Jan Schmidt
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
RELATIVE TO THE TRANSFER OF $998,132 FROM DEPARTMENT #150 “POLICE”, ACCOUNT
#90530 “EXPENSE TRANSFER TO GRANT FUNDS” INTO THE “GOVERNOR’S OFFICE FOR
EMERGENCY RELIEF AND RECOVERY (GOFERR) GRANT”
Given its first reading; assigned to the BUDGET REVIEW COMMITTEE by President Wilshire

NEW BUSINESS — ORDINANCES

O-20-042
Endorser: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman-at-Large Benjamin Clemons
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman-at-Large David C. Tencza
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
AMENDING THE ORDINANCE ON MAINTAINING ADEQUATE UNASSIGNED GENERAL FUND
BALANCE

Given its first reading; assigned to the BUDGET REVIEW COMMITTEE by President Wilshire

Q-20-043
Endorsers: Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman Patricia Klee
AUTHORIZING A STOP SIGN ON DARTMOUTH STREET AT ITS INTERSECTION WITH
DOUGLAS STREET AND STOP SIGNS ON HILL STREET AT ITS INTERSECTION WITH
DARTMOUTH STREET

Given its first reading; assigned to the COMMITTEE ON INFRASTRUCTURE by President Wilshire
PERIOD FOR GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT

President Wilshire

Again | am going to have to ask you to limit your comments to three minutes and raise your hand in your
app or on your screen to let me know you want to speak. Ms. Ortolano, name and address for the record
please?

Laurie Ortolano Laurie Ortolano, 41 Berkeley Street.

President Wilshire

Thank you.

Board of Aldermen 12-22-2020 Page 42

Ms. Ortolano Just quickly, | am just wondering why the Board didn’t put the AFSME contract on for Public
Works to vote on that. They changed the language in there to eliminate the additional pay that goes in with
snowplowing and contracting and we’ve had a lot of plow days and we are piling a lot of money out that we
wouldn’t have to if you did contract approval. So | think that’s something to vote on or get a vote on that
soon because we are in the winter.

Another thing, | wanted to ask the Board to consider developing some Ordinances to help with the
governance of the Board of Assessors. The Board voted for a public input policy like you folks did, but the
policy included the language for uncivil and rude remarks that Shoshanna Kelly felt didn’t belong in the
policy because it would present a liability issue for the City. And Attorney Bolton agreed and the Board of
Aldermen struck the language. But Attorney Leonard recommended that the Board of Assessors leave the
language in. And when they rewrote their bylaws, they didn’t cover policy. So the Board of Assessors on
their web site had a mission statement that they did policy oversight and enforcement. And | did not realize
until last week that they had removed their mission statement and they no longer do policy oversight and
enforcement. And this is a big issue to me because bylaws and adopting new bylaws which they worked
on in a workshop format but they brought it to a public meeting and approved it in a public meeting. They
didn’t tell the public that they eliminated their mission statement and policy oversight.

They have very stricter rules over there, much stricter than the Board of Aldermen on what you can say and
not say because they are enforcing this unconstitutional language. And | am no longer to address policy
issues with the Board because it’s not their responsibility anymore. And | really think policy has to be
brought on the table and the Board of Aldermen have to be the ones to do that. You know you have
Ordinances and Resolutions that define your work and allow the public to understand what you do. And |
really thing policy and policy development should be what the next level down works on so the public
understands what is going on. And yeah | am just really disturbed that this was taken off the table. | asked
Chairman Hansberry today if in fact the mission statement had been removed and they are no longer doing
policy oversight and he referred me and sent me an email ccing Celia Leonard and noted that Attorney
Leonard is handling policy reviews. Well again this is confusing because Attorney Bolton will tell us that the
Legal Office doesn’t do anything without the permission of the Board. And when | asked the Board if you
removed this stuff, they point to Celia Leonard who is responsible for the removal or the action. And | really
think it’s the Board’s responsibility. But you have to develop Ordinances for that Board, because that’s your
job not theirs. They state that they are governed by State laws, they don’t follow the State Laws. They
state that they are governed by the Charter, the Charter actually has all the language that’s been repealed
and stricken for the Board of Assessors.

President Wilshire
Ms. Ortolano, time please?

Ms. Ortolano The only thing standing in there is the open records clause and that’s not being followed and
now | can’t find any ordinances so | am hoping that the Board of Aldermen will help me with Ordinance
development for the Board of Assessors. Thank you.

President Wilshire
Thank you. Beth Scaer.

Beth Scaer Hi Beth Scaer, 111 East Hobart Street. Thank you very much to the Aldermen that voted
against the curfew. | am very grateful. | was very concerned listening to the restaurant owners and staff
last night talking about the financial difficulties and possible business failures they were facing. Also |
wanted to say | was very concerned to see on Bobbie Bagley’s Public Health Page that Nashua is
welcoming to all genders. And | checked to see how many genders were up to, it’s 112 genders now and
obviously this is scientific nonsense that there’s 112 genders, there may be 112 gender expressions but
there’s only two biological sexes.

Board of Aldermen 12-22-2020 Page 43

And | just want to mention again the Mayor is buying into this nonsense, this anti-scientific nonsense by
taking down my Save Women’s’ Sports Flag and he’s also buying into the scientific nonsense that women
have any chance competing against men in their own sports. They don’t. And | don’t understand why the
Mayor and Alderman Schmidt felt like they had to hide that message that women’s sports are under threat.
Thank you.

President Wilshire
Thank you. Next we have Chris.

Chris Hey thank you for hearing me out. | just want to say one thank you to the Aldermen who voted to not
(audio cuts out). I’d like to point out Alderman Dowd for his rationale comments and | appreciate it and my
own Alderman, Alderman Cleaver. | appreciate it. There was a few things that some of the Aldermen said
during their arguments that (audio cuts out). One it seems to be that there is some assumption that we can
print money and just give it out. Oh if Washington would do this. If we are looking to Washington to solve
our problems, one we are wrong and two | don’t know why this body and this level of Government would
exist. Some of you should probably read the (inaudible) papers because you are straight up failing at our
job and your understanding of your role.

We don’t want Government to work that way and our Legislative and our elected officials exist and rule
because we allow them to. Once again, I'd like to thank all the Aldermen who voted to not bring about this
Government overreach. | don’t want any more Government overreach, | don’t need any of it and | don’t
think it’s what the people of Nashua or the people of New Hampshire are about. So some of you can go
back to Massachusetts. That’s all | got.

Alderman Lopez

Lori, you’re on mute, it’s the slogan of 2020.
President Wilshire

It is. Anyone else from the public that wishes to give public comment? Seeing none, remarks by members
of the Board? Alderwoman Kelly.

REMARKS BY THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN

Alderwoman Kelly

Thank you. I'll Keep things brief, it's been a long couple of days and a really long year. | just want to say
thank you to all of my fellow Aldermen and all of the City Officials for their hard work and dedication in 2020.
It’s our last meeting and | wanted to say Happy Holidays to anyone who will be celebrating the next week or
so and hopefully we can all come back in 2021 refreshed and ready to go.

President Wilshire
Alderman Tencza?
Alderman Tencza

Thank you Madam President. | just wanted to express my, well say Happy Holidays to everyone on the
Board, express my thanks and gratitude again for everything people have done this year, especially Madam
President, wanted to thank you running these meetings over Zoom. It’s difficult enough when we are in the
Chambers trying to coral everybody and manage all the various personalities of the public and the Board. So
thank you very much for leading us through what has been an exceptional year as well as to the Mayor and
the staff at City Hall for everything that they have done. | think that, you know, as much as we get criticism

Board of Aldermen 12-22-2020 Page 44

comes our way, | think there’s a lot of good that’s being done on a daily basis. People have adapted to the
situation and are trying to work together to make sure that everyone in the City is as supported as we can
possibly be. So Happy Holidays to everybody, thank you and Happy New Year.

President Wilshire
Thank you Alderman Tencza. Alderman Clemons?
Alderman Clemons

Thank you. | just want to say | am very happy of the result, not quite what | wanted, but | am happy at the
result of tonight’s vote that we did not move forward with the curfew. | think it was the right decision to make.
| think there’s a lot of people that rely on money that is earned after 9:30 and | am glad that we made the
decision we made.

The other thing | wanted to just say is Happy Holidays to everybody and we will see you in the next year.
Thank you very much.

President Wilshire
Alderman Dowd?
Alderman Dowd

Yes | just want to wish everybody on the Board and everybody in City Hall and all the City Workers, Merry
Christmas and Happy Holidays. Stay safe over these times coming up. Also | just wanted to mention that
having been around the Board for a number of years as Alderman Wilshire has, we have to agree to
disagree. A lot of people think that when we take votes that are unanimous in a full Board of Aldermen
meeting that we agree on everything. That’s not always the case as was shown tonight and a lot of the
discussion takes place and the honing of things in Committees and then it comes to the Full Board for a vote
so sometimes it looks like we just, everybody voting unanimous.

As you saw tonight, we had differences of opinions, everybody has their own reasons for voting the way they
vote. But that’s why we have 15 people on the Board of Aldermen. We all make our own decisions and the
majority rules and sometimes people don’t feel good about that, but | think going forward, | think we just need
to be able to agree to disagree on things and try to do the best we can. Thank you.

President Wilshire

Thank you. Alderman Klee.

Alderman Klee

Thank you, Madam President, yes | want to wish everybody Happy Holidays. | know this is the last full Board
of Aldermen’s meeting before the end of the year but we do still have some meetings next week. But none
before the impending Christmas Holiday. So to everybody | wish you well, please stay safe and I’d like to
reiterate something that Alderman Tencza said. President Wilshire, you do a phenomenal job. You keep us
in line even when we are unruly and | appreciate that and you are fair to the public and so on. And so | wish
you the best of the upcoming year if | don’t get to see you again even if it is just on Zoom and Happy Holidays
to everybody.

President Wilshire

Thank you, Alderman Klee. Alderman Harriott-Gathright?

Board of Aldermen 12-22-2020 Page 45
Alderman Harriott-Gathright

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwanzaa, to all.

President Wilshire

Thank you Linda. Alderman Schmidt?

Alderman Schmidt

Thank you, Madam President. I’m getting responses out in the real world that think this is a really wonderful
thing that we’ve done today. Not so much that we all voted the same way or at that we all voted the way they
wanted to, but we talked about it. We had people who actually called in, showed up and had their voices
heard and this was really a stupendous way to end the year. And you yes did a tremendous job, thank you
for your patience, like a bunch of children sometimes. We are not professional politicians, we don’t
understand all the rules and thank goodness that Celia was here today to help us out a few times. Happy
Holidays to everybody. Stay safe and consider getting some take out during the next couple of weeks, give
those restaurants a little business. Thank you.

President Wilshire

Thank you Alderman Schmidt. Alderman O’Brien.

Alderman O’Brien

Yes | just wanted to wish all my colleagues Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and also to all the citizens of
Nashua. Let’s get rid of 2020 and look for a Happy New Year, 2021. Thank you.

President Wilshire

Thank you Alderman O’Brien. Alderman Cleaver?

Alderman Cleaver

Thank you Madam President, thanks for all the work you have done to make this year a success. Happy
Holidays to my Board Member Colleagues and to the Mayor. And | want to thank and wish very Happy
Holidays to our wonderful City Employees, they don’t get enough credit and they deserve a lot more. So
Happy Holidays to all. Thank you very much.

President Wilshire

Thank you Alderman Cleaver. Alderman Caron.

Alderman Caron

Yes, thank you. I’d like to take the time to wish my colleagues and everyone within the City along with our City
Employees a happy, healthy, safe Holiday if you are going to celebrate, celebrate responsibly and | will be so
happy when we get back into the Chamber because | hate Zoom. Thank you for all your hard work Madam
President.

President Wilshire

Thank you Alderman Caron. Alderman Laws.

Board of Aldermen 12-22-2020 Page 46
Alderman Laws

Thank you Madam President. First off | want to wish Happy Holidays to all of my colleagues. | also want to
say that I’m glad that we had the outcome that we did tonight but | want to speak specifically to any of my
colleagues in the bar and restaurant industry who are still listening. Just because we didn’t vote for a curfew
tonight doesn’t mean that it’s time to relax. We have a tremendous amount of responsibility to the public to
keep them safe even when they don’t believe that’s what we are doing. And trust me, | know how annoying it
is to constantly tell people to pull their mask over their nose and to tell them to sit down at a table and tell
them that they can’t have a party of more than six and they can’t move chairs around. If any of you who
come into the bar that | work in, understand that we are all hanging on barely and | need you to do the same.
| need you to all start focusing on the ordinance that’s in place and start doing everything that you possibly
can to keep people safe because it is our responsibility.

The Board of Aldermen have given us the opportunity to continue working and the only way we are going to
stay in business is if we do the right thing and protect everyone. So thank you, Happy Holidays everyone, |
love you all. Have a good night.

President Wilshire
Thank you Alderman Laws. Alderman Jette?
Alderman Jette

Yes, thank you Madam President. | want to congratulate Joel Ackerman an outstanding citizen here in Ward
5 on his reappointment to the Conservation Commission. | too extend Happy Holidays and especially a
Happy New Year to everyone. Thank you.

President Wilshire

Thank you Alderman Jette. Alderman Lopez.

Alderman Lopez

Yeah | want to wish Happy Holidays to all of my fellow Aldermen and definitely a Happy New Year. | wanted
to, | already spoke at length about the changes we had to make to the homeless vigil. We also had to modify
our usual decorating the Veteran’s Home thing. And so | want to thank Alderman Klee for really stepping up
with all the other thing we have been doing, well personally I’ve been very committed to other things like
mobile crisis and all kinds of stuff like that. And | was concerned that the extra changes we had to make this
year in order to keep it socially distant, in order to make food delivery instead of a party like individually
packaged and safe and all of that kind of stuff would be difficult to overcome but she really stepped up. And
she got a lot of people involved and engaged to support it so we were able to fund raise enough to give the
Veterans all a Christmas Dinner, a ham dinner by Solstice. And then we also have gift cards for the winning
Veteran’s Hallways, they usually get into a competition over who can decorate their hallway the most so |
really want to say thank you to Trish for stepping forward with that. Alderman Jette is the clerk for that
organization so thank you to him too.

And then | was thinking along the same lines as Alderman Laws about needing to comment on what we did
tonight and what we will be doing moving forward. So | think it’s important for the restaurant industry is that
there is no Board of Aldermen meeting for several weeks so this cannot be taken off the table, but in the
event of a crisis, it’s important for the other public members who are concerned about risk of transmission and
outbreak and that kind of stuff to know that we did literally keep in on the table. But based on a lot of the
feedback | think it would be good for me to do a little bit of what | was recommending to the other Aldermen
who were proposing Legislation.

Board of Aldermen 12-22-2020 Page 47

| am going to try to talk to the Board of Health to have them do some kind of workshop meeting so it isn’t such
an austere like we are definitely going to close restaurants at 9:30. | know that at least one member of the
public as a restaurant owner had mentioned that she would be willing to work on coming up with some kind of
phasing plan and if a different time makes more sense then we could look at that. So assuming the worst,
because that’s how | roll and that we will continue to need to address this issue, we can use this time to better
plan it. So the restaurant industry should know that Christmas, New Years, these upcoming Holidays, they
will be able to do what they can with them safely and there isn’t going to be this looming over their head but
then also we can try to request productive input so that if it does need to be addressed again we are a little
more prepared and a little more organized.

So | plan to talk to the Board of Health about that and try to figure it out over the Holidays. So thank you
everybody for indulging me. To the gentleman who spoke earlier and said something to the effect that we all
get 3 minutes to speak and then this asshole can go on. | can’t believe what I’ve become, so thank you for
pointing that out. | used to sit in the exact situation in the Board of Alderman meeting so I'll try to brief but | do
have to be attentive to my responsibilities as a liaison and make sure | actually introduce legislation
effectively. Thank you.

President Wilshire

Thank you. Anyone else? I’d just like to say that my vote tonight on the curfew was about fairness. | could
support enforcement but a curfew just doesn’t sit right with me. It seems punitive given the small number of
restaurants that are actually open between 9:30 and 1:00. | think it’s a handful, I’m not sure how many but it
just didn’t seem fair wnen maybe not enough effort has been put forth in the enforcement piece. So that’s why
| voted the way | did on that. I’d like to thank each and every one of you for you know helping me through this
year, it’s been a rough year for all of us, you Know, special meetings and all the last minute decisions we’ve
had to make. You've all been really, really terrific. So | want to thank you all and | want to wish you all Happy
Holidays and to all our constituents, and everyone in the City, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas.

Committee announcements:

President Wilshire

Oh Alderman Dowd, you had to ruin it.

Alderman Dowd

Well fortunately somebody scheduled a Budget Meeting on the 28"" at 7:00 p.m. so things that were
referred to Budget tonight will be appearing on that Agenda. So as far as | know looking at the Agenda list
that’s the last meeting of the year.

President Wilshire

OK any other Committee announcements?

Board of Aldermen 12-22-2020 Page 48
ADJOURNMENT

MOTION BY ALDERMAN O’BRIEN THAT THE DECEMBER 22, 2020, MEETING OF THE BOARD OF
ALDERMEN BE ADJOURNED, BY ROLL CALL

A viva voce roll call was taken to adjourn the Board of Aldermen meeting which resulted as follows:
Yea: Alderman O’Brien, Alderman Klee, Alderwoman Kelly, Alderman Dowd,

Alderman Caron, Alderman Clemons, Alderman Lopez, Alderman Tencza,

Alderwoman Lu, Alderman Jette, Alderman Schmidt, Alderman Laws,

Alderman Cleaver, Alderwoman Harriott-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire 15
Nay: 0
MOTION CARRIED

The meeting was declared adjourned at 10:30 p.m.

Attest: Susan K. Lovering, City Clerk

AGENDA MEETING OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN DECEMBER 22, 2020
7:30 PM

Meeting is being conducted remotely in accordance with Governor’s Emergency Order #12 pursuant to Executive
Order 2020-04

Join Zoom Meeting: https://usO2web.zoom.us/j/81073538089? pwd=d WkORON6Y2RLQ2IJR2dvZWFDL3YzZz09
Meeting ID: 810 7353 8089 Passcode: 107952
Join by phone: 1-929-205-6099 Meeting ID: 810 7353 8089 Passcode: 107952

If anybody has a problem accessing the meeting or Channel 16, please call 603-821-2049 and they will help you
connect.

1. PRESIDENT LORI WILSHIRE CALLS ASSEMBLY TO ORDER

2. PRAYER OFFERED BY CITY CLERK SUSAN K. LOVERING

3. PLEDGE TO THE FLAG LED BY ALDERMAN-AT-LARGE BRANDON MICHAEL LAWS

=

ROLL CALL

5. REMARKS BY THE MAYOR

©

RESPONSE TO REMARKS OF THE MAYOR
t. RECOGNITIONS
8. READING OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS

Special Board of AIGErMeN.......... 00. cece cc cece eee ceee ee cen eeeee cen en een eneeeneenenens 12/08/2020
Board of AIDGrMen....... 0... ccc ccc ence ee cece nee ee eee needed desea eect den ee eben en eens 12/08/2020

9. COMMUNICATIONS REQUIRING ONLY PROCEDURAL ACTIONS AND WRITTEN REPORTS
FROM LIAISONS

From: Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager
Re: Communications Received from the Public

9(a). PERIOD FOR PUBLIC COMMENT RELATIVE TO ITEMS EXPECTED TO BE ACTED UPON
THIS EVENING

9(b). COMMUNICATIONS REQUIRING FINAL APPROVAL
From: Mayor Jim Donchess

Re: Turbine Removal at Jackson Falls Dam in the amount of $2,664,500 funded from account
R-19-142 Bond

From: Mayor Jim Donchess
Re: Cartegraph Software Expansion in the amount of $17,283.33 funded from account 71228
Computer Software

PETITIONS

NOMINATIONS, APPOINTMENTS AND ELECTIONS
Appointments by the Mayor

10. REPORTS OF COMMITTEE

Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee.......0.0.00000 cece 12/07/2020
Budget Review Committee. ...0. 0000... ccccccce cee cece set cence ene eeeeen ene eed 12/09/2020
Human Affairs Committee.....00.0 00 ee cece cess een eeeee eee eenaeas 12/14/2020
Finance Committee. ..... oo. e ccc cece cee sete tees vate vente vaeai van eanenes 12/16/2020
Committee on Infrastructure.....00. ccc ec ee cee cnet cee te ent e ener ene 12/17/2020

11. CONFIRMATION OF MAYOR'S APPOINTMENTS
Conservation Commission

Joel Ackerman (reappointment) Term to Expire: December 31, 2023
13 Woodcrest Drive
Nashua, NH 03062

Joshua Hauser (reappointment) Term to Expire: December 31, 2023
9 Cobble Hill Road
Nashua, NH 03062

Master Plan Committee

Bob James (new appointment)
20 Trafalgar Square, Suite 101
Nashua, NH 03063

Heidi L. MacDonald (new appointment)
42A Chestnut Street
Nashua, NH 03060

UNFINISHED BUSINESS —- RESOLUTIONS

R-20-089
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman Jan Schmidt
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman June M. Caron
Alderman Thomas Lopez
Alderman-at-Large Brandon Michael Laws
Alderman Skip Cleaver
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
RELATIVE TO THE ACCEPTANCE AND APPROPRIATION OF $30,345 FROM THE UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE INTO POLICE GRANT ACTIVITY “2020 JUSTICE ASSISTANCE GRANT
(MULTI-JURISDICTIONAL)”
e Human Affairs Committee Recommends: Final Passage