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Board of Aldermen — 9/12/17 Page 29
Alderman O’Brien

Number one, | would like to thank Paul Shea. | know you did a lot of work with the petitions. | would like to
thank everybody who signed it. | would like to thank everybody that is here. This is way America works.
You’ve done a good job. | have listened to you. | am going to vote for this project. | feel very comfortable
voting for it, and I’ll tell you why. This is not something new that we’re doing. The Nashua Airport is municipal
property. We run that fine. | seem to remember putting some funding to do some pavings on the taxiway.
Also, isn’t the Nashua Senior Center somewhat run, and is there not both entities where we model the arts
center and structure in running it pretty similar to the structures of those entities? The other thing | would like
to say is this is the perfect storm. | don’t know when this opportunity is going to come around again. Court
Street, we have to make a decision on that. We will make a decision on that. But when it comes down to the
new building, this is going to be something. If that Alec Shoe Store was available when we purchased Court
Street, we probably wouldn't be into this type of situation. This is the perfect place.

Being a former firefighter, regarding that was brought up by one of that people that spoke, | don’t think the city
is going to build something that is not going to meet the fire codes. I’m sure everything will be taken into
account there. The other thing is | heard a lot of numbers, but don’t we pay CFO Griffin and Dave Fredette to
run the numbers for us? If they come in and in good faith tell us what the numbers are, those are the numbers
we should believe. If they make a mistake, maybe we should deal with that, but basically | support the people
who work for the City of Nashua who run the numbers for us. If they are telling us this is it, | believe them.

Finally, Jessica said: culture, vibrancy and life. And that’s just by itself enough to vote for it. That's a better
saying than the three Wiseman, Moe, Larry and Curly, for duty and humanity. Culture, vibrancy and life are
key. That’s what | signed on to be an alderman, not to watch this city get stagnant and die and weather on the
barn. To be a place where people want a desire to move to and go forward. You’ve got my vote. | am voting
for the arts center.

Alderman Caron

This has been a very difficult decision for me because | have looked at this over and over again. | talked to
people for this project and against this project. My concern is as Alderman Schoneman said, the $4 million,
how fast will we get it? Listening to the people who have spoken and a lot of them are longtime residents of
this city, business owners, | think they will move forward and get that going. As | said in committee, the City of
Nashua lost several times to be number one in having something in their town because we would not step up
to the plate. People in this circle would not step up to the plate to put that little bit of money in, and we lost out.
At this point in time, if we don’t do it now we will never do it. My vote will be a yes this time.

Alderman Dowd

| have always been a supporter of the arts. I’ve lived in the City of Nashua my entire life, which is quite a few
years. I’ve been involved with things at Court Street and Elm Street. This is not either one of those. This is an
arts center where we can have multiple types of different events on a continuing basis. It will bring people
downtown. It will allow our youth and our people in Nashua to enjoy the arts. The gesture that Manchester is
coming down to put artifacts in there will be just another thing to enjoy, which we won't get if we don’t take
action. I’ve been involved in hundreds of different things over the years serving on different boards: the board
of education, the board of aldermen. | have never had this much public input as | have had on this particular
project. It was all in favor. Even the people who had minor concerns were still in favor of it and are still in favor
of it downtown. We heard from all of our businesses in the downtown. They want this project. Quite frankly, |
think we would be turning our back on all the businesses if we don’t’ support this. | for one, would not go on
the record as being against them. | support as many of the businesses downtown as | can. The big box stores
close at ten o’clock. People look for some place to go and enjoy themselves. They want to go downtown. If
they go downtown to the arts center, they are going to go to the stores, they are going to go to the restaurants.
That economic money will come back to this city. |, for one, really don’t care whether the arts center makes a
profit. It’s an opportunity to attract people to the downtown. | think we would be very remiss if we don’t support
this. | am fully behind supporting this resolution.

Board of Aldermen — 9/12/17 Page 30
Alderman LeBrun

| will not be supporting this resolution. While | believe this to be a viable effort, in the future, not now, not this
location. Not this process as it has been presented to us. There are other alternatives we have not even
considered such as Daniel Webster College. Overwhelming support has been mentioned this evening. There
are about 87,000 people living in Nashua. We heard from maybe 30 or 40 here in this Chamber. Each of us
have been contacted by maybe 25 people each in our areas. This is not overwhelming by any means. In fact,
not all were in support. Additionally, approximately 300 petitions have been submitted, certainly not
overwhelming. Mr. Mayor, when we had a presentation on the Burke Street property upstairs when you were
presented with a question on financing, your response, and | quote was: “Ve will have to see what the
taxpayers can stand.” Mr. Mayor, the taxpayers are maxed out. They cannot stand anymore.

Mayor Donchess

That is totally false, Mr. LeBrun.
Alderman LeBrun

You will have to check the transcript, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Donchess

So will you.
Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja

| would like to thank everyone who came here this evening and for those who signed the petitions that were
presented to us and also those who contacted me via email. Some were in favor and some were opposed.
The contacts | had were primarily in support of this. Last week | had the opportunity talk with Taylor Caswell.
He was recently appointed by Governor Sununu as the Commissioner of Business and Economic
Development for the State. Prior to that he was Director of Community Development and Finance Authority.
We were talking about what was happening in Nashua. He was very excited about what he heard was
happening here. He mentioned the impact other downtown theatre projects had had, many of the ones
mentioned by the Mayor. He made a comment that | think all of us need to think about. We all talk about
revitalization of downtowns. | think all of us think about the downtown we grew up. Mine had a Five & Dime, a
grocery store, an A&P, a butcher shop, a soda shop, two cafes, two florists, and a couple of dress shops and a
menswear store and a very small department store and a couple of jewelers. His comment was today’s
downtown is different. Today’s downtown is to use his term “the community living room.” It’s where we come
together.

Several people this evening mentioned coming together and growing community in our downtown. We’re
looking at downtowns that have galleries, specialty shops, specialty businesses, cafes, restaurants. We're
looking at a place where the many, many people who are coming into our community who are knew and don’t
have family to go visit come downtown to form connections because their family is living like where my
husband’s, halfway around the world; like other people’s maybe in Europe or Asia or Africa; or, maybe they are
living in Boston but they don’t’ want to fight the traffic. So, they go downtown to meet people and form
connections. | think we need to think about the picture we havfe for the future of Nashua and part of what we
want is for people to form connections and become part of our community . | think many of us feel that we
want those people to live here, work here, play here and maybe eventually run for office and become involved
as volunteers in our community.

If you look at the study, initially Alec wasn’t mentioned and Alec kind of popped into the picture at what | think
is very critical moment. | don’t feel we were steered there because | feel this consulting group would have said
no because they said no to Spring Street and to those plans, that they were too big. | really think we need to
think long and hard about this decision. | believe the impact of this decision will impact the city long after we’re

Board of Aldermen — 9/12/17 Page 31

gone from the city and will really make a defining moment on what our downtown looks like. I’m going to be
voting in favor of this.

Alderman Siegel

This is really a very difficult decision for me. | agonized it over a long period of time. | would like to thank all
the people who reached out to me. The bottom line is there’s two big forces here. We have this building that
we can build and it is a business. What is that business going to generate? If | look at the numbers right now,
I'll tell you right now the numbers don’t work. The numbers, themselves, as | look at this on the pro forma, they
make a lot of assumptions. They don’t seem to work. On the other hand, what also doesn’t work is a dying
downtown. That’s a problem. What’s the cost of a dying downtown versus the cost of what we are proposing
to build. | really am very, very concerned about the heart of Nashua disappearing. | think given the risk factor
is we buy a building and hopefully it has some value, that’s a consideration. On the other hand, | don’t know if
| want to own that building and over what timeframe? One of the problems | have is there’s no timeframe for
this $4 million. We're going to raise it over what period of time? That’s not specified in here. | would like to
propose an amendment which would be to perhaps set a timeframe for that $4 million to be raised, to make it
more concrete shall we say, and that can’t take longer than | would say 1 % year to two years, or actually one
year.

Alderman Deane
Did you make a motion?

Alderman Siegel

Yes, | would make a motion that we have a timeframe on this.

President McCarthy

| think we want to figure out exactly what the wording is.

Alderman Siegel

| would like to make a motion that the money has to be raised within a certain period of time, and that
timeframe cannot exceed two years.

President McCarthy
We'll start discussion while the city attorney looks at wording.

MOTION BY ALDERMAN SIEGEL TO AMEND THAT THE TIMEFRAME TO RAISE $4,000,000 CANNOT
EXCEED TWO YEARS

ON THE QUESTION
Alderman Deane
There was some money that was slid out of contingency to pay, | would imagine, rent on the building that is

sitting unoccupied. How long is that money going to last? What's the monthly rent or yearly rent on the
building that the city is being asked to pay by the owner?

Board of Aldermen — 9/12/17 Page 32

President McCarthy

If | understood the intent of Alderman Siegel’s motion, we are allowed to buy the building under the terms of
the resolution. We would hold it for two years and then decide what to do with it instead if the $4 million was
not forthcoming in that timeframe. Is that what you had in mind, Alderman Siegel?

Alderman Siegel

That would be correct.
Alderman Deane

The other question | had was to our Mayor. We are currently being sued by an alderman and a resident
pertaining to the supposedly Spending Cap violation. Has that had any net effect on our bond rating or
perhaps could it have a net effect on our bond rating? Is bond counsel looking at that as pending litigation?

Attorney Bolton

That’s not the kind of thing bond counsel opines on. Bond counsel is retained by us to give opinions as to the
binding effect that the bond commits the city to and to opine that all the procedures necessary to bind the city
were properly followed. It may be that there are other consultants who could opine to us whether the existence
of that suit, or the two consolidated suits, would have an effect. But as far as | know, and | believe | am clear
on this, we have not been downgraded. My personal opinion is it is very likely that we will not be downgraded
just because of the pendency of the suits. The only way that we would be downgraded is if the result of the
suit causes the city to take some action that negatively affects the future prospects of the city paying its debt. |
think that is unlikely to happen.

Mayor Donchess

| reiterate what Attorney Bolton said. There is a hearing scheduled on October 23. Following that there will be
a decision one way or the other. | believe that we are going to be successful. If we are not, we will deal with it.
| think the end result will not affect the bond rating. We have definitely not been downgraded now. There’s no
way the suit has caused the city to lose anything on the bond rating to date, and | don’t think it will in the future.

Alderman Dowd

It has always been predicated that they will raise that money so | have not problem with the amendment.

There are a lot of checks and balances that we have in this whole process. We will have to negotiate the cost
of the building. It could go up or down. No expense can be made, none, without going through the Finance
Committee and having a hearing. If it is over a certain amount of money it is going to have to go back to the
full Board for the final expenditure. Then you’ve got the raising of the endowment to cover the cost, which by
the way we can keep evaluating in talking with our consultants and everybody to make sure that that
endowment is the right amount of money. Construction wouldn't start until all those steps, so we wouldn't be
spending the bond money, and only half of it over one year and half over another year. This is a project that
has a thousand steps. If we don’t start with the first step, we are never going to get there. It is time to take that
step.

President McCarthy

What the city attorney suggests is at the end of the next to the last paragraph, the one that begins with “No
borrowing for the renovation or construction...” we add a sentence that says: “This resolution shall expire two
years from its effective date in the event that the $4 million in private funds have not been raised prior to that
date.”

Board of Aldermen — 9/12/17 Page 33

MOTION BY ALDERMAN SIEGEL TO FURTHER AMEND BY SENTENCE TO THE END OF THE NEXT TO
THE LAST PARAGRAPH WHICH STATES: THIS RESOLUTION SHALL EXPIRE TWO YEARS FROM ITS
EFFECTIVE DATE IN THE EVENT THAT THE $4 MILLION IN PRIVATE FUNDS HAVE NOT BEEN RAISED
PRIOR TO THAT DATE.

ON THE QUESTION

Alderman Siegel

I’m just thinking about the two years. That seems like an awfully long period of time, but I'll leave it as is.
Alderman Clemons

I’m going to support the amendment. | think it is reasonable to put in a timeframe, an expectation. It also sets
a goal which | think is a good thing. One of the pieces of legislation later tonight is establishing a performing
arts center steering committee. That committee will be appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the Board of
Aldermen to oversee the strategic plan, overseeing the construction, but obviously before that, coming up with
a strategic plan on how to run it and also fundraising. The mechanism for how the fundraising will take place is
there. It’s going to be through this steering committee. | support this amendment. | think it is a good
amendment.

Alderman Schoneman

| think generally speaking fundraisers are professionals. When | had those conversations with the theatres,
they had professionals on staff that raised funds. That’s their job. | think if we’re going to be raising the
money, it should be professional theatre people, professional business people who know about the theatre
business, who can hire if they need to. We will also have to think about where the money is going to sit. Are
we just collecting pledges or are we collecting funds? Then what happens if it’s not $4 million? Do we give it
back? What do we do?

Alderman Clemons

| think the city, through the steering committee or one of us as an alderman, can set up a trust account so we
can account for that type of money. As far as the makeup of the committee, we’re going to have a lot of
different professionals on there from various walks of life that have a particular interest in downtown and will
have a particular interest in making sure that this is successful. | think those are types of things that will come
to fruition and will happen just as a mechanism of the fact that they have to. As far as it being real dollars, |
would imagine it would be real dollars and not pledges.

MOTION CARRIED TO FURTHER AMEND

President McCarthy

We're back to the motion for final passage as amended. Is there further discussion?
Alderman Deane

Alderman Clemons had some good points. On an expendable trust, we just did some significant roadwork up
on Amherst Street and we got money from businesses up there. Since the utilities had some issues, we had to
pay those people interest on their money. We bonded a good portion of that project and then had to pay them
interest because of the utilities issues. There’s a little more to it, but my main question is: The authority of this
building falls under whom, if purchased?

Board of Aldermen — 9/12/17 Page 34

President McCarthy

If it is purchased, it falls under the authority of this Board. | would assume at some point we will generate a
lease with whoever the group is we decide to have manage it or occupy it or whatever, that’s some of the work
we have left to do, but it is this Board that has to approve that.

Alderman Deane

| wanted to go back to the original resolution that we had when we had Burke Street. We spent $4.5 million on
that building, and there it sits. This board has to make a decision what they are going to do with it. It’s to the
point now where it’s probably better off to just tear it down. That’s my opinion. We have significant
investments that haven’t been made in our other public works structures: the street department. These are
things that are coming down the pike. The administration building that we purchased that was mentioned by a
resident earlier. | supported that purchase. The only reason why | supported it was because of the proximity
to the police department, that piece of property. It abuts the police department. We've got the parks and
recreation department. We've got blue tarps up top on the storage buildings. There’s other things.

Our school district doesn’t have deferred maintenance. We bond everything we do in the school district. We
bond fire trucks. When people look at our Spending Cap, there’s a lot of things that were worked around on
the Cap. Bonding has been part of it. I’ve been on this Board for a number of years, and we never bonded fire
trucks. We never bonded any of that stuff. We just paid cash for it.

In some of my readings, the demands by some of the citizens that sent emails for it about bond schedules,
spending schedules and things of that nature, | think a lot of that really has to be looked at whether that is
going to be done by the strategic planning committee or not is one thing. But, | see a lot of priorities in this
community that need to be met. | got a real hard time about supporting and for us proposing the bond for the
street paving. | had people come up to me and tell me they have driven on flatter roads in Vietnam. That’s
pretty telling, and that was back in the seventies. So, we'll see where the chips fall with this. | still struggle
with a lot of what this city has to pay for. The pending litigation we are dealing with, how we deal with that after
the fact. The departments that have people. We have a lot of contracts that are due up now across the city.
You read about the teachers and the Board of Ed now. We have a lot to think about. Thank you, Mr.
President.

Alderman Cookson

First, let me thank the audience for coming here this evening and sitting patiently as we go through this
process. | want to especially thank Sy, Rich and Marylou. | appreciate the invitation to join you last
Wednesday at 7:30 in the morning to discuss this. We had a very good conversation. Thank you. Marylou, if
you are still here, I’d like to thank you for continuing to send us correspondence and articles to read that you
provided to each one of the members of the Board of Aldermen. |’m not sure if Director Cummings is still here;
I’m sure he is. | had asked Director Cummings for some additional information with regard to the arts, and he
was able to provide me with some literature as well. So, I’ve been attempting to do my due diligence on this.

There may be few aldermen that have more of a passion for the arts than! do. As | was sharing with Sy and
Marylou and Rich, I’ve played the trumpet for the last 40 years. | love the trumpet. | love symphonic bands. |
love symphonic orchestras. Liz Racioppi stood up and mentioned that she was on the Arts Commission. | was
the alderman who sponsored that legislation to create the arts commission for the City of Nashua. | had the
pleasure of being the aldermanic liaison to that committee and working with Liz and several very, very talented
people along the way. | thought we made great strides making sure that the steering committee, the Nashua
Arts Commission, was the face of the arts community. Not just the community, but the assets as well, to
facilitate, to advocate, to coordinate and to educate. The face of the cultural assets and community.

Many of you know | have a daughter. She is very, very excited about going into Boston to see Phantom of the
Opera, one of her favorite musicals. |’ve seen it several times. Wang Center. I’ve seen it down in Florida a
couple of times. | love the arts; | love the performing arts.

Board of Aldermen — 9/12/17 Page 35

One of the things that I’m not excited about, and this is just me, is it is unfortunate from an economic
standpoint that our symphony, New Hampshire Symphony, can’t take their full orchestra into this proposed
venue. It’s not large enough. They said they would bring their strings in or they might bring a brass or
whatever. There are other things that they could do there, but they wouldn’t be able to send their full band
there. | say economics because they need the number of seats that are available in the Elm Street Theatre in
order to pay for their instrumentalists. | will never see if this becomes fruition, or if this becomes a reality, | will
never get to see Gustav Holst, the Planets, performed in this theatre. | will never see Mussorgsky’s Pictures of
an Exhibition. | don’t get to see Dvorak’s New World Symphony. It’s not going to happen there. But that’s
something that | won’t be able to participate in, but there are other things that it could continue to do and
provide for the arts community.

| had one interesting email, and I’m sure several of the aldermen received it as well. That was from an artist in
the Nashua area that said, I’m not interested in the Currier presenting or having art coming from the Currier
come down here. We've got plenty of artists in Nashua. | thought it was an interesting data point, saying that
we have artists here that would probably be willing to move forward with exhibitions and something to present
at this facility, again, if it comes to be.

One of the things that we are not often afforded is the luxury of having to consider things in a vacuum. This
evening, we have a resolution before us asking for a $15.5 million bond. I’ve introduced a resolution as well
that’s considering a feasibility study for Daniel Webster College. It's not meant to be a competing resolution,
but unfortunately with the timeframe if this Board wants to consider the Daniel Webster campus for anything,
not performing arts, anything, school admin, the Brentwood School program for Nashua that is housed in
Merrimack, if we needed to do something with the records that are stored at Court Street or in this building,
whatever it is, there is a resolution that has to be considered within the next 30 days. It will go through a public
hearing. That resolution is for not-to-exceed $23.5 million. These are the other things, and Alderman Deane
mentioned several as well. These are the other things that we have to consider.

At last night’s Board of Education meeting, if any of you were able to watch it or listen to it, came up the fact
that Elm Street at some point in the near future will have to present a $48 million bond for that school to rehab
it. If they were to demo it and build from the ground up again, $42 million. This is as provided last night at the
Board of Education meeting. At the May 25" Joint Special meeting, Elizabeth Van Twuyver brought up the
same thing. What’s going on with the cost of Elm Street and Mount Pleasant? These will be competing
resolutions for money for the city. It’s unfortunate. | wish that the performing arts center was a standalone,
and we didn’t have to worry about other aspects of the city.

| want to vote for this. Honestly. | think there is real opportunity downtown. | would like to make a motion, but
| know that | can’t make a motion after holding the floor for this long. So, it is my intention to make a motion to

consider definitely postponing this until after the auction has been completed with Daniel Webster College. It’s
a month. October 23" is the auction date. We have a meeting on the evening of the 24" of October.

President McCarthy

| will allow you to make that motion. What is considered bad forum is making a motion to limit debate after
speaking.

MOTION BY ALDERMAN COOKSON FOR DEFINITE POSTPONEMENT UNTIL THE EVENING OF
OCTOBER 24, 2017

ON THE QUESTION
Alderman Dowd

Roll call.

Board of Aldermen — 9/12/17 Page 36
A viva voce roll call was taken on the motion for definite postponement which resulted as follows:
Yea: Ald. Cookson, Ald. McGuinness, Ald. LeBrun 3
Nay: Ald. Wilshire, Ald. Clemons, Ald. Deane,
Ald. Dowd, Ald. Caron, Ald. Siegel,
Ald. Schoneman, Ald. Melizzi-Golja,
Ald. O’Brien, Ald. Lopez, Ald. McCarthy 11
MOTION FAILED
President McCarthy
We are back to the motion for final passage as amended. Any further discussion?
Alderman Clemons
| wanted to just say that | really respect my colleague, Alderman Deane’s, concerns for the other things that
Nashua has to consider. The only thing that | will say to that is being an alderman is not an easy thing, and
you've done it a lot longer than | have. It’s nights like tonight when you see a room full of people, you get a

petition of 500 people asking you to do something, and you have different amendments come up and us
working togheter to try to come up with a solution that really speaks to this community.

Alderman Siegel

| think Alderman Deane brought up a very valid point, and | am very concerned. I’ve been back and forth on
this and that’s one of the other considerations. | don’t know how we are going to pay for the other stuff.
Frankly, | would like to spend the money on an administration building that we were supposed to have, and |
don’t have an answer for that right now. It’s very troubling.
A viva voce roll call was taken on the motion for final passage as amended, which resulted as follows:
Yea: = Ald. Wilshire, Ald. Clemons, Ald. Dowd
Ald. Caron, Ald. Melizzi-Golja, Ald. O’Brien
Ald. Lopez, Ald. McCarthy 8
Nay: Ald. Deane, Ald. Cookson, Ald. Siegel,
Ald. Schoneman, Ald. McGuinness,
Ald. LeBrun 6
MOTION FAILED
Alderman Clemons
Was that the motion to amend?
President McCarthy
No, that was the motion for final passage.

Alderman Clemons

| would like to propose an amendment. My amendment would be to put R-17-116 on the ballot to allow for the
citizens of Nashua to vote on it at the next municipal election coming up in November, by adding the word

Board of Aldermen — 9/12/17 Page 37

“Shall the Board of Aldermen pass the following resolution” and then putting the resolution text into the ballot
and having folks vote yes or no.

MOTION BY CLEMONS TO ADD THE WORDS “SHALL THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN PASS THE
FOLLOWING RESOLUTION” BEFORE THE TEXT OF RESOLUTION R-17-116 AND TO PLACE IT
ON THE BALLOT AT THE NOVEMBER MUNICIPAL ELECTION

ON THE QUESTION

President McCarthy

Before | repeat the motion, I'll ask the city clerk to comment on whether we can get it on the ballot in the time
that we have left.

City Clerk Piecuch

| would have to look at the timeframe. We are drawing the names of the candidates tomorrow and | was
sending the ballot prep out to the printer on Thursday. Without having a schedule and time line in front of me, |
really can’t give that information out right now.

Alderman Clemons

Assuming it passed tonight.

City Clerk Piecuch
Will it require a public hearing?
Alderman Cookson

Just like we did on the Keno.

Attorney Bolton

It certainly doesn’t require a public hearing before you can pass it tonight. We're talking about a non-binding
referendum basically to advise the Board of the voters’ preference. There may or may not be a requirement for
a public hearing prior to the election. If there is, we can let you know that tomorrow and perhaps it can get
scheduled on the same night as another public hearing that is already contemplated.

President McCarthy

The motion is to add the words “Shall the Board of Aldermen Pass the Following Resolution and to place it on
the ballot at the November Municipal Election”

Alderman Clemons

| understand the hesitation of some of my colleagues here this evening. We want to make sure that the 500
signatures that we received tonight, the 200 notarized signatures that we received tonight, the hundreds of
people who are here, the calls are real. So let’s do it. Let’s put it on the ballot and if the people vote yes that
they want this, as we have amended it, with all the different amendments in there, and if they vote yes, all of
you who voted no, can turn around at the end of November and say this is what the constituents wanted and
you can vote with a clear conscience and you don’t have to worry about it. You can sleep at night because the
citizens will know that there’s all these other concerns that the city has and they will be able to say yes, | want
this, or no, | don’t. Nothing more democratic than that so that’s what | propose. Let’s put this theatre on the
ballot and have the people decide.

Board of Aldermen — 9/12/17 Page 38
Alderman Deane

| was under the impression that we were elected to make these decisions. That’s fine and well and you can
make all the remarks you want from the gallery but you vote people out of office, that’s what you do. You don’t
have to include me in that package, but that’s normally when you don’t agree with decisions and the votes that
people make then you vote against them. That’s the authority that you have as a citizen, and | respect that.

Alderman Clemons

True, and | would agree with Alderman Deane that obviously this is going to be a big election issue. The
people who voted tonight, as well as the people who voted yes, will have to face the citizens. But | think since
the majority of the Board of Aldermen, who is elected, voted for this tonight, it did get a 8-6 vote, the majority of
us said yes, we should put it on the ballot and let people speak. If you decide afterwards that you are still not
going to follow what the citizens say because | think it’s going to win, but if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. If you decide
you're still going to vote the way you are going to vote afterwards, it is a non-binding resolution. At least you
will know where the citizens stand.

Alderman Lopez

Alderman Deane made a reasonable point. We are elected to make decisions. But | think we are also trusted
to make those decisions based on the information in front of us and the evidence at hand. We did go through
this whole performing arts feasibility study which specifically identified what would work and where it would
work. | heard some speculation as to whether that process was steered without any real evidence saying that
it was. I’ve heard people say that they would prefer a venue or a performance that is larger than what is being
recommended by the feasibility study we just went through. So, personally, | am listening to my constituents
and | am using my own judgment. | asked as many questions as | could identify in order to troubleshoot the
decision-making and say, am | doing right by the people at home who aren't aware. | also listened to people
who show up. This is a public meeting, and it is a very engaging public meeting. There is a huge public
turnout. | think it would be a little bit silly for us to ignore the other side of our responsibility which is to listen to
what people are asking us to do.

Alderman O’Brien

During the deliberations | did hear there were some questions, and some people did question on the petitions,
and | talked to many more people. | agree with you. Put this on the ballot and let’s exactly know what the
people say. | think it’s a continuation of due process. To Alderman Deane, | most certainly agree with you 100
percent, but the horse has already left the barn. We have a sitting alderman and a former alderman suing the
city when we duly voted on something already. | wish people would listen. We do have the right to govern, but
unfortunately it seems like they have the right to challenge as well.

A viva voce roll call was taken which resulted as follows:
Yea: Ald. Wilshire, Ald. Clemons, Ald. Dowd,
Ald. Caron, Ald. Siegel, Ald. Melizzi-Golja
Ald. McGuinness, Ald. O’Brien, Ald. Lopez,
Ald. McCarthy 10

Nay: Ald. Deane, Ald. Cookson, Ald. Schoneman
Ald. LeBrun 4

MOTION CARRIED