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Board of Aldermen 6-10-2020 Page 10

But the thing that we have to remember is that our members since Day 1 have been on the front lines
dealing with COVID-19. We are going on calls every single day, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week dealing
with this.

Our members are very concerned about bringing this back home to their families. We understand that what
is going in the world right now is not a good time. But we are still fighting that fight. Over the past 10 years,
Local 789 has gotten an increase in pay, 19.5% over ten years. That’s 1.9% that our members have
received over the course of 10 years for pay raises. The last time we have seen a raise of 3% was back in
the 2008. That’s 12 years that we haven’t seen a raise over 2.5%. | believe the time is now that we pass
this, we approve this, we show good faith to the members of this organization that are on the front lines. As
the Chief had talked about a few of the concessions that we had made, the Fire Alarm Overtime is huge.
That’s a huge concession that affected, right now, 12 individuals of this Local. And we understood why
they wanted to do that and we gave up, we conceded on that. | don’t think you understand the importance
of the concessions that we made for the Fire Marshall's Exam.

As the Chief had said, currently right now any member can test for Fire Marshall with one year on the Fire
Department. They might not have the schooling and the education. Our contract right now says that they
have a certain time to get that education. With the new language and the concessions that this Local made,
that is going to benefit the City of Nashua tenfold. As we speak right now, our Fire Marshall Division is
already understaffed; it is understaffed and it is affecting the City of Nashua’s operations because they
need to get plans out. They need to get these out for people to open up businesses.

During this whole COVID-19 Crisis, with the outdoor seating, they had to go to make arrangements for
these restaurants to open their doors and allow people to sit outside and eat. So with the concession that
we made with that alone is going to benefit the City way more than anybody realized, because people are
going to go into that Division and they are going to be ready to go, they are going to come out of the door
running. Also, with the COVID-19 response, when this hit us back in March, Local 789’s Executive Board,
nobody has dealt with anything like this before.

The Governor declared a State of Emergency, we met with Administration, we said what are we going to
do, how are we going to handle this. What a lot of people don’t understand is the Local came up with a
Memorandum of Understanding with the Administration of the Fire Department to allow leniency on our
current contract, because we knew dealing with this crisis that contract language might have to be
changed. And instead of having that conversation every time it came up, we established a Memorandum of
Understanding that stated if there is going to be contract language that we are going to change, just have
conversation with the Local. The Local has worked, | believe, pretty well with the Incident Management
Team that was established by Chief Rhodes to handle the COVID-19 Crisis. They have had to change
contract language; we have allowed that to happen.

Not granted, that’s not a concession for this particular contract, but | bring that up because it reiterates the
seriousness of the situation that we are dealing with right now and how involved our members are. Our
members understood that this is outside of the box for everybody, but we are willing to do what we need to
do to get the job done, which we have always done. I'll end it with the members of Local 789 deserve
these raises. They deserve this contract. Not only because of Safe Stations, not only because of the
COVID Crisis, but because of the calls that they deal with everyday of the year, 365 days a year, 7 days a
week they are dealing with this. We are already short staffed as the Chief had talked about, the new study
that is coming out. That study was done 20 years ago and it called for 2 additional engine companies then.
So if you think about that, the increase in runs over the last 20 years, we are still doing it with six engines
and 3 ladders. Our companies are going out 15, 20 times a day, that’s one company alone, never mind
throughout the City.

| ask you tonight to approve the cost for this collective bargaining agreement. That was negotiated fairly
between the City of Nashua, the Fire Administration and Local 789. Thank you for your time.

Board of Aldermen 6-10-2020 Page 11
Chairman Dowd

Are there any of the Alderman that would have a clarifying question from anyone who has just presented?
Alderman Lopez?

Alderman Lopez

| was just curious; Safe Stations seems to being brought up a lot. Is the contract permitting the Fire
Department to continue doing it for the duration of the contract?

Mr. Davidson

No, there are no provisions whether we or not we do continue or not throughout the length of this contract.
Alderman Lopez, the %2% that we consider the raises for the Safe Stations were for the previous years that
we have done them, for the last 4 years.

Alderman Lopez

Do you have any plans to continue?
Mr. Davidson

| don’t know what the plan is for the City right now.

Alderman Lopez

OK just checking.
Chairman Dowd

Any other questions for any of the speakers from the Aldermen? Seeing and hearing none, | will now open
up testimony in favor of R-20-041. Former Mayor Davidson?

Testimony in Favor

Mr. Davidson_Thank you and | want to thank the Board of Aldermen for allowing us to join this meeting in
this modern fashion. | still think being in the same room and seeing body language is a better way to do
business, but we have to live with the times we are in. The comments that | am going to make may sound
repetitive, repetitive from the last time | talked to you about this contract to some of the comments made by
the Chief and to a degree a few of the comments made by Don. This contract is not excessive. When it
first came out, | was, | don’t want to say chastised, | was given a little “what for’ about the contents of the
contract. And I, from the very beginning, started to explain my view of why this contract was so necessary,
as | still feel strongly that it is necessary.

The contract is getting up to the point of being on par with the responsibilities of the men and women who
protect our City every day through their position as Fire Fighters and Administrative Staff, because they all
play a roll. The contract still is below other Departments mean overall percentage that they’ve been able to
get over the years. But as everybody before me has said, we are not here trying to tear anybody down.
We are here trying to say the Fire Department needs to be brought up, in some fashion, to the real world.
I’d like to put what the Fire Department has gone through for these many years, through an analogy of
siblings growing up. The oldest boy or gal gets the new clothes and the new clothes last awhile and then
they passed down to the next in line. And you say, how can you make analogy like that? Well the Fire
Department over the years, have sort of felt they are in the same position. Other Departments get in and
lobby and get a percentage in their contract that is very, very good. And when the Fire Department’s turn
comes up, Oh we can’t do that, we can’t do that, we don’t have enough.

Board of Aldermen 6-10-2020 Page 12

Now for those of you who have been around awhile like | have, you’d seen it. It is not uncommon for the
Fire Department in the past to be the second level of contract. Now again, this contract isn’t putting it on a
par with anybody, it is just giving them what they should be getting given the responsibilities that they have
everyday for us. There has some discussion about Safe Station. Safe Station came in several years ago
and the whole idea of Safe Station was very noble. As John said, we had a terrible crisis in the City back
then that needed Safe Station type of assistance. There was a segment of our population back then that
were very against this, they didn’t really realize why they were against it, they were against the issue that
this was trying to correct. Nonetheless, the Firemen went out creating uproar, took on the responsibility.
And if you folks could see the list of what they have accomplished over these years in handling the Safe
Station customers, you’d be as impressed as | was.

Now some question about they are going to do going forward. Well we, as a City, haven’t made our mind
up yet.

Chairman Dowd

One minute, Don.

Mr. Davidson _l’m sorry?

Chairman Dowd

One minute.

Mr. Davidson Oh | didn’t know | had time, in that case | probably would have spoken...
Chairman Dowd

Keep going.

Mr. Davidson We don’t know what we are going to do with the City except that the State has come down
and changed the whole process. They have created an agency in the City from 8 to 5 and any Safe Station
type of need is supposed to be handled by that facility. But the question pops up, what happens after 5:00
and until 8:00 in the morning. And what is happening is they are going to the Fire Station. That is going to
be addressed going forward, but the Firemen are still there doing their job and as has been said by others,
not getting paid to do that extra work. How many of us would work over these many years, doing something
extra, without getting any kind of renumeration. I’m sorry | didn’t know | was on a time thing here, but | do
want to close by saying this, this contract is fair. It is helping the Administration going forward. It is not
overkill, it is not excessive. When you are thinking about doing it, think about the needs for the Fire
Department. Why do we need it? Well fires are obvious and you especially want them if it is your house
that is on fire. Think of all the other things the Fire Department does, the members of the Fire Department,
what about the medical calls? Ve have thousands of medical calls every year. We don’t really know about
them as citizens but they happen, somebody has a heart attack, somebody falls downstairs, somebody
gets stuck in an elevator. Now for me, | kind of laugh, | try to push it out the door, how many of you people
want to be stuck in an elevator? Guess who comes and gets you? 99.9% of the time — the Fire
Department. How about people who are elderly and fall out of bed.

Chairman Dowd
OK I’ve got to ask you to wrap up Don if you can.

Mr. Davidson Alright I’m sorry, I’ll take any questions but as | have said before this is a very important
instrument for the men and women of your Fire Department. Thank you.

Board of Aldermen 6-10-2020 Page 13
Alderman O’Brien

Mr. Chairman? May | rise to ask a parliamentary question, please?

Chairman Dowd

Sure.

Alderman O’Brien

You did not mention that there would be a time limit and we do have two testimony in favor and two
testimony in opposition. Would Mr. Davidson where he may have had to cut his point of view short, could
he speak again in the second half of the testimony in question?

Chairman Dowd

Yes.

Alderman O’Brien

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Chairman Dowd

Yeah | did mention at the beginning of the meeting as in all the Public Hearings recently, 5 minutes, we
don’t know how many people are on, how many people want to speak and you should be able to articulate
what you want to say in 5 minutes. But! always give the opportunity to speak again if somebody has a
second thought, particularly if there is somebody that says something in opposition and they want to refute

it. Again, if there is no one else in favor, any testimony in opposition?

Testimony in Opposition- None

Testimony in Favor

Chairman Dowd
Mayor Davidson, do you want to finish your thoughts?

Mr. Davidson Well yes, thank you for the opportunity. | won’t ramble on but | did mention to you my strong
feeling about the need for the contract. And it is tied to the Budget, you folks know that, you’ve got the
Budget coming up so you’ve got to keep that in mind too. We need the contract passed because they
deserve it. But then when it is passed, we need the funds to fund it. And you people have got to deal with
money that you don’t have. | am very aware that the revenues for the City and | am aware from my past
experience, the revenues for the City have been nil for about 3 months, compared to what it normally is.
Your State Revenues have gone through the floor, so when they come time to pass out to the cities and
towns, there is going to be a shortfall. So you guys are really facing a really difficult problem. But we can’t
worry about what is going to happen in the future by handcuffing what is right now. We still need to have
dedicated, professional, and needed men and women in the Fire Department.

So when it comes time for the Budget, you do know we are short with what you have in front of you now.
So when you take and do your considerations of the Budget, | ask formally for a number of what
$500,000.00 which was what was cut from the Budget would do the tax rate today, at today’s dollars. $500
K is $.05 cents per thousand. So when we are considering are the Fire Department worth getting a good
contract for the next four years and you’ve got a money issue you are facing with, please remember $.05
per thousand for the taxpayers. That is all | have and thank you and good luck in your deliberation.

Board of Aldermen 6-10-2020 Page 14

Testimony in Opposition- None

Chairman O’Brien

Before we adjourn, is there anybody from the Board of Aldermen that has a question for Attorney Clarke or
Treasurer Fredette on either one of the items that we just had the Public Hearing on as they will probably
be stepping off of the meeting? Alderman Lopez.

Alderman Lopez

| have a question. Is Chief Rhodes still on?
Chairman Dowd

It looks like he’s still on, there he goes.
Chief Rhodes

Sorry about that.

Alderman Lopez

So | got kind of an ambiguous answer when | was asking about plans for Safe Station, as it was continually
referenced. | know that the Fire Station did a huge roll with accepting people who were walking up and
they were talking about a greater partnership where Harbor Homes, AMR and other partners were also
working — but what are the plans for that moving forward. Because my understanding from some of the
Mayor's previous public comments that that program was being downsized and | know that the Governor
has altered the model.

Chief Rhodes

Well thank you for that question, Alderman. You are correct, things are changing. | think things are
changing as far as Harbor Homes involvement and | think Harbor Homes was the linchpin to the successes
we had. But first and foremost, we all have to understand that we are an emergency services organization.
We are not a social services organization. We have taxpayers who fund us and who expect us and
rightfully so to respond in a timely and efficient manner to their emergency. Many Safe Station clients are
from out of the City of Nashua. One of the things that we made crystal clear form Day 1, was the need to
have Nashua Fire Companies available in 15 minutes or less.

Unfortunately for the City of Nashua, the Governor decided he had a better plan and the Governor never
came to us and asked us about our program and basically said, this is the program. | can tell you with
100% certainty and 8:00 to 5:00 program will not work for Nashua Fire & Rescue. We cannot, excuse me
one minutes, sorry about that. Nashua Fire & Rescue is not in the business of making phone calls to find
an open program and open bed, call 211, that’s not our role. The role your Fire Fighters have played for
the last 4 years was to be caring and compassionate and to welcome everyone into our Fire Stations and
made ano judgement zone. Those were why the Safe Station Program was so very successful. It was the
collaboration of the City of Nashua, the leadership of Mayor Donchess, the leadership of Chief Steve
Galipeau, at the time, the Union Leadership of John McAllister, and his Executive Board. That’s why this
worked.

Unfortunately going forward, all of these things have been taken out of our control. | cannot put any more
burden on our Fire Fighters because, again, they are not clinically trained as social workers. They are not
trained to go through a call and make 4, 5, 6, 7 calls to try to find a spot for someone to land. So the short
answer is, the future of Safe Station is very dim and | think that light is dimming by the day.

Board of Aldermen 6-10-2020 Page 15

And it is not by anything that we can do because that is not something that the City of Nashua should have
to bear the burden because the State of New Hampshire is receiving an incredible amount of money to deal
with this but unfortunately, they never consulted us to see why our model was so successful.

And again, | think you know Alderman Lopez, from your association with Harbor Homes, that is a great
organization that stepped to the forefront, that has been there for us, for the City of Nashua for the past four
years, 24/7 365. And they have not let us down one iota in any of the promises that they made. And our
Fire Fighters have not let us down. But we cannot get into a program where we are going to put a Fire
Company in the City of Nashua because of the activity level that we are already at, we cannot have a Fire
Company out of service for a half hour, 45 minutes to an hour, trying to make phone calls. That’s not the
role of an emergency service organization.

So | hope | gave you the answer you are looking for; a little bit more maybe than you were asking for, but |
think we have to be fully transparent here. | have been, I’ve probably been the biggest champion of the
Nashua Safe Stations for the Fire Department for the last 4 years. And it pains me to tell you this. But
those are the hard, cold facts of this and | just don’t think that this should be put on the backs of our
Nashua Fire Fighters or the taxpayers of the City of Nashua, going forward.

Chairman Dowd

All set, Alderman Lopez?

Alderman Lopez

Actually | would like to respond. So | appreciate the thoroughness of your response because it does put
context to it. This is not the first time I’ve seen the State redirect or rearrange that was working really well
in Nashua, particularly the Safe Station. So your context definitely makes sense. In reference to what
former Mayor Davidson said earlier, you Know, would anybody do this extra work without asking for any
extra pay? Actually | did, because | was managing Maple Street Shelter through the kick-off of the Safe
Station Program and it was basically dumped in my lap. | was asked, you know, are you and your staff
willing to take the overnight overflow people.

So we were working with the after-hours element of it as well. And we were the ones that were calling 211,
we were the ones that were connecting them with recovery sites and created the model on Harbor Homes’
side. So knowing that first-hand and the amount of work that is involved with that, it is not a role | would
imagine for our Fire Fighters to be taking moving forward. So | appreciate you making sure that we didn’t
have that mission and our Fire Fighters weren’t being pushed in a direction where they are not really able
to manage it.

Because what our Fire Fighters do really, really well is fight fires and there’s plenty of that and there is
plenty of concern about it. | mean during this meeting, | must’ve had 12 fireworks go off about 300 feet
away. So | appreciate the efforts that you guys do. | was just wondering about the context of the Safe
Station since it was brought up so many times. So thank you for your answer, | appreciate it.

Chairman Dowd

Thank you, Alderman Lopez. Anyone else that has any questions for Attorney Clarke or Treasurer
Fredette? Seeing and hearing none. Alderman O’Brien would you please give us a motion?

Board of Aldermen 6-10-2020 Page 16

ADJOURNMENT

MOTION BY ALDERMAN O’BRIEN TO ADJOURN, BY ROLL CALL

A viva voce roll call was taken 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 Cleaver,
Alderman Laws, Alderwoman Harriott-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire 15

Nay: 0

MOTION CARRIED

The special meeting was declared adjourned at 8:02 p.m.

Attest: Nicole Reyes, Deputy City Clerk

SPECIAL BOARD OF ALDERMEN

JUNE 10, 2020

7:00 PM Meeting is being conducted remotely in accordance with Governor’s
Emergency Order #12 pursuant to Executive Order 2020-04

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you with connectivity. The public may also view the meeting via Channel! 16.

PRESIDENT LORI WILSHIRE CALLS ASSEMBLY TO ORDER
PRAYER OFFERED BY CITY CLERK SUSAN K. LOVERING
PLEDGE TO THE FLAG LED BY ALDERMAN BRANDON MICHAEL LAWS
ROLL CALL

PUBLIC HEARINGS

R-20-040
AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND CITY TREASURER TO BORROW FROM THE NEW
HAMPSHIRE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES STATE REVOLVING LOAN
FUND AN ADDITIONAL AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED TWO MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND
DOLLARS ($2,500,000) FOR PUMP STATION UPGRADES

Testimony in Favor

Testimony in Opposition

Testimony in Favor

Testimony in Opposition

R-20-041

APPROVING THE COST ITEMS OF A COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE
MAYOR AND THE BOARD OF FIRE COMMISSIONERS OF THE CITY OF NASHUA, NEW
HAMPSHIRE AND LOCAL #789, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCATION OF FIRE FIGHTERS FROM JULY
1, 2019 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2023 AND AUTHORIZING A RELATED TRANSFER AND
SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATION

Testimony in Favor

Testimony in Opposition

Testimony in Favor

Testimony in Opposition

ADJOURNMENT

R-20-040

RESOLUTION

AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND CITY TREASURER TO BORROW FROM THE
NEW HAMPSHIRE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES STATE
REVOLVING LOAN FUND AN ADDITIONAL AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED TWO
MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS ($2,500,000) FOR PUMP
STATION UPGRADES

CITY OF NASHUA

In the Year Two Thousand and Twenty

WHEREAS R-15-150 “Authorizing the Mayor and City Treasurer to borrow an amount
not to exceed Eight Million Five Hundred Thousand Dollars ($8,500,000) through the issuance
of bonds and/or a loan through the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services State

Revolving Loan Fund for pump stations upgrades” was passed by the Board of Aldermen on July
14, 2015; and

WHEREAS the pump station upgrades project has been broken into two phases with
Phase I having an estimated cost of $4,885,000 and currently funded through a loan from the
New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services State Revolving Loan Fund. Additional
funding is needed to complete Phase II of the pump station upgrades, which has an estimated
cost of $6,115,000, requiring the city to borrow an additional amount up to $2,500,000,
increasing the total authorization for the Pump Stations Upgrade Project from $8,500,000 to
$11,000,000.

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Board of Aldermen of the City of
Nashua that the Mayor of the City of Nashua and the City Treasurer of the City of Nashua are
hereby authorized to borrow an additional amount up to Two Million Five Hundred Thousand
Dollars ($2,500,000), which increases the total project amount not to exceed Eleven Million
Dollars ($11,000,000), through the low interest loan program offered through the State of New
Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, identified as the State Revolving Loan Fund.
The proceeds of said loans shall be used to fund the Pump Stations Upgrade Project Phase I and
IL.

Mayor James Donchess is hereby authorized on behalf the City of Nashua to file an
application for a loan to be made in accordance with New Hampshire Code of Administrative
Rules Chapter Env-Wq 500. If such loan is made the City of Nashua agrees to repay the loan as
stipulated in the loan agreement.