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Opening Celebration - May 7“
Closing - May 30th
A regular meeting of the Board of Aldermen was held Tuesday, October 22, 2019, at 7:30 p.m. in the
Aldermanic Chamber.
President Lori Wilshire presided; City Clerk Susan K. Lovering recorded.
Prayer was offered by City Clerk Susan K. Lovering; Alderwoman-at-Large Shoshanna Kelly led in the
Pledge to the Flag.
President Wilshire
Before we start, | am going to ask Alderman Dowd under State Law that you give us the reason that you
can’t be here and if you are alone, and if you can hear us.
Alderman Dowd
I’m having an issue with my legs that is causing me to have difficulty to walk, so hopefully that’s getting
better. | can hear you and | am all alone.
President Wilshire
Thank you Alderman Dowd. Can you hear us?
Alderman Dowd
| can hear you, yes.
The roll call was taken with 13 members of the Board of Aldermen present; Alderman Gidge was
recorded absent. Alderman Tencza arrived at 7:32 PM after roll call.
Mayor James W. Donchess and Corporation Counsel Steven A. Bolton were also in attendance.
REMARKS BY THE MAYOR
Mayor Donchess
The main item | wanted to discuss with you is R-19-184 an item that is on for a first reading; but an item
which is of some urgency and which needs to be acted on tonight for reasons that | will explain. As you
recall, the Legislature in the last session increased both municipal and school aid that would go to cities
and towns across New Hampshire. But after the budget passed, that budget was vetoed. There was
not a resolution of the budget until September. Then it was worked out at that point that there would be
additional aid, | think in a reduced amount, but additional aid both to municipal aid and school aid. But
immediately after the budget passed, because the formulas and the like are fairly complicated, it was
unclear as to exactly how much money Nashua would get. We only learned, really last week, what the
specific numbers would be. What the numbers are, are about $1.8 million in additional municipal aid
and about $2.7 million dollars of school aid.
Learning that late last week put us right up against the setting of the tax rate, the tax rate is set by the
DRA, The Department of Revenue Administration. The City does not set its own tax rate although we
can usually, accurately predict what it is going to be. The tax rate is not set by the City but instead the
State DRA and they set the tax rate later this week. All they do is apply the numbers. The Legislature in
increasing aid in these categories that I’ve mentioned, either didn’t take into account at the time or
wasn’t aware of the delay that would result, which would mean that the City would have very little time to
evaluate what to do with respect to this additional aid and with respect to the setting of the tax rate.
Board of Aldermen 10-22-2019 Page 2
The bottom line is that unless R-19-184 is enacted tonight, there will be no City aid, no City aid will be
freed up and no school aid will be freed up either and none of the money could be used for those
purposes.
So what R-19-184 proposes, is that we increase the amount of surplus that gets applied to the tax rate
from $4.5 million to $6.2 million. This will have the effect of reducing the projected tax rate from around
the 3% we are talking about to more like 2.6% so we will have a lower tax rate than we had expected. It
will enable us to apply $2.9 million dollars of money to various needs, city and school. R-19-184 needs
to be enacted tonight because the tax rate is going to be set in a few days or in a couple of days. There
is no necessity to act on R-19-185 which proposes an allocation of the money; it is just one of many
ways that it could be allocated. Once the money is freed up, there is no necessity to immediately decide
exactly how to allocate it. In fact, based upon | believe the opinion of Attorney Bolton, because R-19-
185 would involve a supplemental appropriation, we actually need to hold a Public Hearing with respect
to this item. So acting on it now would really not be the legal way to proceed.
So what | am suggesting is we really need to act on R-19-184 tonight; 185 will go to the Budget
Committee and they will deliberate, Public Hearing and it will come back to the Board. Now | met with
the Budget Committee last night on both of these items in anticipation that we would have this issue
before us tonight. As | am sure Chairman Dowd will confirm, the Budget Committee recommended R-
19-184 unanimously for passage tonight. With respect to 185 simply said that their intention would be to
be to accept the referral and hold discussions and hearings and the Public Hearing regarding that when
the time comes. So again, R-19-184 will increase the amount of surplus applied to the tax rate, it will
help us reduce the projected tax rate to 2.6% increase and will free up $2.9 million dollars of the aid that
we are receiving from the State so that we can use it for the purposes for which the Legislature intended
it.
Now of course, | am available for any questions on any of this. But | think | have summarized it, we
discussed things in a little more detail last night and | am sure we will discuss these issues with the
Budget Committee again when the referral is made.
Also, Madam Chair, on a less detailed note, we have Friday night, the opening of the basketball court
behind the Community Center on Arlington Street. We have been very generously donated this court or
the funds for this court, you’ve accepted those funds by Dick Anagnost, the developer of the Marshall
Street Housing at the corner of Marshall and East Hollis Street. Many of the kids that have moved into
that project are, and that’s workforce housing; affordable housing, 150 some units. Many of the kids
who have moved into those apartments have begun to attend Dr. Crisp School and, of course, the
Community Center is right there. They have been attending and working very closely, the families and
the kids, with Megan Caron and the other people at the Community Center. The owner of the
apartments that is Dick Anagnost felt that he should make a contribution to the Community Center and
in talking with Megan the thing that they thought would be most useful would be to convert this asphalt
area in back of the Community Center to the basketball court. So Friday we are going to open the court,
and we are going to have a shooting contest, | have agreed to be outshot by some of the kids in the
neighborhood which | am sure will happen in free throws. | know possibly Alderman O’Brien is going to
be there.
Alderman O’Brien
I’ve been practicing.
Mayor Donchess
We will see who prevails there, Alderwoman Wilshire is going to be there, | think Alderman Clemons,
Alderwoman Caron, Matt Plante who is the Police Commissioner, he said he’d come as well and try to
shoot some baskets, free throws. We will see if any of us can beat the kids in the neighborhood. There
will be some prizes awarded, so we expect to have a good time.
Board of Aldermen 10-22-2019 Page 3
So | hope that any of you who are available can make it. You are free to join the free throw shooting
contest as well if you feel like you can beat Alderman O’Brien, that will be a tough thing. We look
forward to that event, to having the basketball court, thank you to Mr. Anagnost for donating the money
for this very useful project. Hopefully we will see a successful event on Friday night. That’s all | have
Madam President.
President Wilshire
Mr. Mayor my granddaughter was the regional New England Free Throw Champion for the Elks. | might
invite her to come by.
RESPONSE TO REMARKS OF THE MAYOR
Alderman Dowd
Yes | just want to confirm the Mayor’s analysis of the Budget Meeting last night and | think any time we
can lower the tax rate for the citizens of Nashua it is a good thing.
President Wilshire
Thank you. For the record, Alderman Tencza joined us at 7:32 PM.
RECOGNITION PERIOD - None
READING MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS
There being no objection, President Wilshire declared the minutes of the Board of Aldermen
meetings of October 8, 2019, accepted, placed on file, and the reading suspended.
COMMUNICATIONS REQUIRING ONLY PROCEDURAL ACTIONS AND WRITTEN REPORTS
FROM LIAISONS
From: Tim Cummings, Director of Economic Development
Re: Downtown Riverfront TIF Update
There being no objection, President Wilshire accepted the communication, placed it on file.
From: Douglas A. Barry, CAE, Humane Society for Greater Nashua
Re: Appointment of Becky Longval to the Animal and Dog Park Advisory Committee
There being no objection, President Wilshire accepted the communication, placed it on file, and
referred it to the PERSONNEL/ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE.
From: Tim Cummings, Director of Economic Development
Re: Communication regarding O-19-057 with Downtown Improvement Committee’s
Comments
There being no objection, President Wilshire accepted the communication, placed it on file.
PERIOD FOR PUBLIC COMMENT RELATIVE TO ITEMS EXPECTED TO BE ACTED UPON THIS
EVENING - None
COMMUNICATIONS REQUIRING FINAL APPROVAL - None
Board of Aldermen 10-22-2019 Page 4
PETITIONS - None
NOMINATIONS, APPOINTMENTS AND ELECTIONS - None
REPORTS OF COMMITTEE
Special Finance Committee... 00... cece cee ee eette eee ee tet tteettttetssteeesseeeees 10/08/2019
There being no objection, President Wilshire declared the report of the October 8, 2019, Special Finance
Committee accepted and placed on file.
Planning and Economic Development Committee... ............ 00. .cc cee cee eee ce eee eee eee eeeee eee 10/15/2019
There being no objection, President Wilshire declared the report of the October 15, 2019, Planning and
Economic Development Committee accepted and placed on file.
Finance Committee. ..... 20... cec cece ccc cce cee cee cee ceeeeee tee ueeceuen tee eeraeneueaeneuenerantnetes 10/16/2019
There being no objection, President Wilshire declared the report of the October 16, 2019, Finance
Committee accepted and placed on file.
Special Budget Review Commiittee............ 0.0 cece tee ttt tttttttteteeeeeee — 10/17/2019
There being no objection, President Wilshire declared the report of the October 17, 2019, Special
Budget Review Committee accepted and placed on file.
There being no objection, President Wilshire suspended the rules to allow for the oral report of
the Special Budget Review Committee meeting held last night regarding proposed Resolutions
R-19-184 and R-19-185
Alderman-at-Large Wilshire gave an oral report of the Special Budget Review Committee meeting of
October 21, 2019 with respect to Resolutions R-19-184 and R-19-185.
President Wilshire
The Budget Committee did meet last night and recommended for final approval R-19-184. The
Resolution that the Mayor just spoke about, the money that is coming down for the State and as the
Mayor indicated, we have to take action tonight otherwise we can’t control where that money goes. We
would like to have more control over that. The Budget Review Committee did recommend final passage
on that.
CONFIRMATION OF MAYOR'S APPOINTMENTS — None
