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Board of Aldermen 5-21-2020 Page 38

President Wilshire

We'll get used to this. The motion is for final passage of O-29-018, further discussion.

Alderman Clemons

Yes, President Wilshire.

President Wilshire

Alderman Clemons.

Alderman Clemons

So | will not be supporting this. | am disappointed that | can’t do so. But | cannot support something that
potentially could give a $1,000.00 fine to somebody. It is too much. Half of the people in this City are not
for this. | believe that it is going to create and invite chaos to the City. | think we could have done it better.
So disappointingly | am going to vote no.

President Wilshire

Anyone else?

Alderman Tencza

Madam President if | could just speak briefly?

President Wilshire

Alderman Tencza.

Alderman Tencza

So | too, | don’t think this is a question about whether people should wear masks, | think the science is
clear. Everyone should wear a mask when they go out, especially when they are shopping in businesses
and cannot maintain a social distance with other folks. But like Alderman Clemons, you know, | think people
realize this, this is a divisive issue and | think that when | go out and | go out in public | wear a mask and |
see the vast majority of people being responsible in wearing masks. Quite frankly | thought long and hard
about this issue and | watched the Mayor’s Press Conference this week and one of the slides, one of the
statistics that he showed, was the statistic that said, “If 60% of the people wore masks, that were 60%
effective” then we could get a handle on this pandemic.

| think people are doing that on their own. | think businesses are requiring workers and other folks entering
their business to go in and wear masks. So again, | think the penalty could be steep. | think it could be
applied unevenly and unfortunately; | can’t support this either.

President Wilshire

Alderman Lopez.

Alderman Lopez

| think my experience might be different just because | am in a different neighborhood. But | think this
entire pandemic has been characterized by people not listening to public health officials. Whether it was

Board of Aldermen 5-21-2020 Page 39

wash your hands, whether it was voluntary to enact social distancing, we’ve had to put markings on the
floor of every grocery store. We have had to limit the people who were allowed per square footage. We
had to do a whole stay-at-home order. This has not been my experience that people have figured it out and
said, “alright let's do what’s right for everybody else”. | think that the majority of people do, in fact, support
the concept of helping others but given the way virus transmission works and epidemiology works, you
don’t need the entire group to do it, you don’t even need 60% of people in a room to wear masks, you kind
of need 100%, because if that remaining 20% actually has COVID-19 and is asymptomatic then all the
efforts of everybody else is for naught. So while we go through the process of phasing our re-opening,
while our business owners are taking on the financial risk of opening their businesses and investing in new
ways, whether it is umbrellas or buying tables or paying staff on the hope that people will come and
patronize their businesses, | think we owe it to them to make sure their investment is being supported.

We cannot afford to have a second round of outbreak and | don’t think anybody who has lost family or
friends to this, thinks we could have easily avoided the first. VWWhen | go out in public | do not see more and
more people wearing masks, | see people dropping their guard, trying to go back to normal, hoping this all
behind us, even though we know statistically it is not. Even though the increased testing has actually
showed that a lot of less of New Hampshire had COVID-19 than we could have possibly anticipated. That’s
a bad thing, because | think everybody was assuming, “Oh | probably had it back in November or
December and therefore I’m immune”. So when this crisis passes and there’s not enough room in the
hospital for the people who couldn't fight it off, I'll be ok and my loved ones will be ok because l|’ve already
had it. And as was discussed at the public health meeting, not only is not the case in terms of how
individuals that are testing with antibodies are shaping up statistically, but we don’t actually even know if
antibodies do prevent a second infection or a third. We are seeing more and more evidence that this
behaves in a bizarre way where sometimes it looks like it’s gone and it’s not. Sometimes you did beat it off
but you don’t have enough antibodies persisting in your system.

There’s not enough known about how this is cured or how this will be resolved. But we do know how we
can prevent it. And one of the steps that we can do first and foremost in collectively trying to do prevent
this is to listen to public health professionals and prioritize the need that they are communicating to us and
take this seriously. | think as Aldermen we have three choices — the first is we listen to public health officials
and we embrace what they are saying and we act to support what they have asked us to do. Our second is
to ignore them. And our third, | don’t know if this is worse than the last one or not or hope that the rest of
the Board of Aldermen does our job for us so we can walk that political line. | can’t do that. | think this is a
time when we need to signal to the public that we do support public health initiatives and every front line
nurse that has listened to a bus honking or seen somebody flashing a light or holding a sign saying “We
support you”. | think we owe it to them to actually do that. Actually walk the walk and talk the talk.

President Wilshire
OK | have Alderman Schmidt.
Alderman Schmidt

Thank you, Madam President. Everybody is aware of the fact that the Governor is working very hard and
making sure that the re-opening is working well. Everything is being very carefully studied, what can open
when, why it is safer, using science to decide how to get us open again. If we don’t do this right, we are
going to have to go back to quarantine again. If we see the numbers continue to rise, even as they are right
now, if we continue to see them rise, we would just go right back and it’s not going to help us. It’s not going
to help the businesses that are on the edge, it’s not going to help people who need jobs. We really do need
to make people understand that in Nashua we would like you to wear masks. If you can’t wear masks, then
please stay away because you probably could cause more trouble for the entire State. Thank you.

Board of Aldermen 5-21-2020 Page 40

President Wilshire
Alderman Klee.
Alderman Klee

Madam President, both Alderman Lopez and Alderman Schmidt said much of what | wanted to say and the
bottom line is masks is to prevent any spreading. Because you can be so asymptomatic and not even
know whether or not you have it, you could test tomorrow, | mean I’m sorry, you could’ve tested today and
tomorrow you could have contracted it. And unlike what Alderman Tencza has experienced, | have not
experienced the majority of people wearing masks. | am in the grocery store and | actually spoke to
Director Bagley because | had concerns about people going the wrong way in the grocery store and
anyone doing a little bit of a cough. And today | spoke to Mr. Roland about that very thing and was told,
“you’re ok as long as you didn’t have a conversation with them, just passing them is ok”. And I’m not as
anxious as many people. We have so many vulnerable people that want to get out also. They don’t want to
be quarantined; they don’t want to stay at home. But they want to know that when they go into the store
that it’s not just the employees that are wearing the mask but it’s that their fellow shoppers that are wearing
masks and they are protected.

| think we do this for the vulnerable. | don’t think we are hurting anybody’s rights; | don’t believe for one
second that $1,000.00 fine would be implemented because of this. | do think possibly a fine or whatever
because of the disorderly conduct that someone wants to make a stand. Any Legislation can have
unintended consequences. | don’t think that’s going to be the case here. | think that if there are unintended
consequences, | think it will be intended because | think these people will possibly come and try to fight and
try to argue and try to make their point. | think we have to stay strong and we have to fight for those people
who don’t have their voices, those vulnerable people. We need to say to them, “You are Welcome.
Everybody here is Welcome here in Nashua. But we do have laws”. And | appreciate what Attorney Bolton
said about having to wear a hairnet and having to wear gloves and having to put up screens to keep
rodents and insects and so on. There’s just common-sense health laws that we have put into place. | think
that’s basically what | need to say.

President Wilshire
Ok. Alderman O’Brien.
Alderman O’Brien

Thank you, Madam President. Boy this is a tough one for me personally. | was on the Fire Department,
when | first started on the job. They never gave us any gloves. We never had to wear the latex type of
gloves. If somebody was actively bleeding you stuck your hands right in it, it was your job. Then along
came these other things, AIDS, | was around during the Bird Flu. Now | agree with everything as far as the
health reason that they expressed with the COVID-19 and the dangers of it. But the thing is my personal
mantra is to educate not to incarcerate. And | think the objective should have been, | wish we went with the
compromise, should have been, “you should wear a mask”. If you gave a verbal warning to somebody, |
wasn’t looking for the penalty. The objective was here to provide a safe environment to the people. But
now we are back to square one where we have up to a $1,000.00 fine on this. | would much rather stay
with the educational part of it because | agree with everything Alderman Lopez says and what the Board of
Health has and the professionals. | am concerned about personal family members who are on the Fire
Department that are exposed on a daily basis to the potential of this. But the thing is it is education and
again not the incarceration nor the fear of penalty without fear or favor of a fine. And so therefore | am
going to join my colleagues of Alderman Clemons and Alderman Tencza and | am going to join with them
and vote against this. Thank you.

Board of Aldermen 5-21-2020 Page 41

President Wilshire
Alderman Gathright.

Alderman Harriott-Gathright

| just want to share some news, a 7-year-old child that was taken to Mass General and she was infected by
a loved one, a family member that didn’t know they had the disease today in Nashua. So just much prayer
for the mother that’s devastated by all this. And | am still struggling somewhat with the bill. | understand
everyone’s point of view. | really do believe that everyone should wear a mask that’s not at issue with me.
What the issue is, is the money piece. So | am still thinking about it, so | don’t know what my vote is going
to be right now.

President Wilshire
l’ve got Alderman Dowd and then Alderwoman Kelly.
Alderman Dowd

Yes, you know, again | don’t think that anybody is going to be running around fining people $1,000.00 but |
think if we don’t back up the restaurants and the store owners, two things can happen. One — other people
that are going there see no masks, they are not going to go back and it is going to be a financial hardship
on the stores and the restaurants. And you only need one person that’s asymptomatic not wearing a mask
going in a crowded restaurant that could infect 40 or 50 people and bang we’ve got a spark back up. We
don’t know how long we’d have to keep this Ordinance in effect, but right now it is a preventative measure
and it is recommended by the health professionals. And if we don’t back up our Board of Health, my God, |
mean why do we even have them? Let’s show them the support, they’ve been out in the front lines, risking
their lives to the COVID-19 and they deserve our support. If somebody doesn’t want to go downtown
because they don’t want to wear a mask, don’t — don’t go downtown stay at home or go somewhere else. |
think it’s a small measure of safety to protect not only the aged population who are really susceptible to it
and the people with certain conditions, but also children now. You know, children who have been around
the COVID-19 the symptoms set in much later. They could be in a restaurant eating with somebody and all
of a sudden somebody comes in without a mask and they run right by them and you can have a young
child that dies. | think this is a small measure for us, for the safety of everyone in Nashua. So | am going
to support this.

President Wilshire
Thank you, Alderman Dowd. Alderwoman Kelly?

Alderwoman Kelly

Yes, thank you. | just want, | had two clarifications, Attorney Bolton, can you just clarify. It is not written in
this Ordinance that there would be up to a $1,000.00 fine that is just germane to any Ordinance, is that
correct?

Attorney Bolton

Yes, there’s a provision in the Code of Ordinances that says unless another fine is specified, that any
violation can be fined by no more than $1,000.00.

Alderwoman Kelly

So it’s not anymore punitive than other Ordinances on our books?

Board of Aldermen 5-21-2020 Page 42

Attorney Bolton

It’s the exact same as throwing snow into the street.

Alderwoman Kelly

Great, thank you, | appreciate that analogy. The other thing | wanted to just point out is that it also covers
Government Buildings. We've talked a lot about retail and being outside. But it also covers Government
Buildings and | know | have heard from my constituents about opening City Hall. So | would like for us to
reflect on that as well, making sure that all of the people who work for the City is top on my priorities as well

President Wilshire

Ok the Motion before us is for final passage of Ordinance....

Alderman Clemons

Hello? President Wilshire.

President Wilshire

Yes?

Alderman Clemons

May | speak?

President Wilshire

Alderman Clemons. Yes.

Alderman Clemons

Yes, thank you. | just wanted to just follow up briefly on something that was insinuated by previous speaker
is that | make every decision that | make based on what | feel is the best thing to do for this City and for its
residents. And | do not rely on other Aldermen to make that decision for me. | listen to their opinions and |
listen o the discussion at hand and | listen to my constituents, | listen to science, and ultimately make a
decision on things and so | just want everyone to understand that the decision that | am making this
evening is an educated one on my part because to me, it is a shame that we can’t come to a lesser fine, an
agreement on a lesser fine or a lesser penalty as Alderman O’Brien says, “education”. So that’s the reason
why. It’s not that | deny the science or it’s not that | don’t want to back up the Board of Health. It’s not even
that | don’t masks to be worn on City Property. | think if we wanted to create a policy like that that was just
independent of this, | would have no problem with that. So | just want everyone to understand that. So
thank you.

President Wilshire

Ok. Anyone else? Seeing none, the motion is for final passage of Ordinance 20-018. Would the Clerk
please call the roll?

Board of Aldermen 5-21-2020 Page 43

A viva voce roll call was taken which resulted as follows:

Yea: Alderman Klee, Alderwoman Kelly, Alderman Dowd,
Alderman Caron, Alderman Lopez, Alderwoman Lu,
Alderman Jette, Alderman Schmidt, Alderman Harriott-Gathright, 10
Alderman Wilshire

Nay: Alderman O’Brien, Alderman Tencza, Alderman Clemons 3
MOTION CARRIED

O-20-018 is duly adopted

President Wilshire

And that motion carries - Ordinance O-20-018 is duly adopted.

O-20-016
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess

Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman-at-Large Ben Clemons
Alderwoman-at-Large Shoshanna Kelly
Alderman-at-Large David C. Tencza
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman Patricia Klee

RELATIVE TO TEMPORARY 15 MINUTE PARKING

Given its first reading;

MOTION BY ALDERMAN TENCZA TO SUSPEND THE RULES FOR A SECOND READING of O-20-016
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 Harriott-Gathright
Alderman Wilshire 13

Nay: 0
MOTION CARRIED

O-20-016
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess

Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman-at-Large Ben Clemons
Alderwoman-at-Large Shoshanna Kelly
Alderman-at-Large David C. Tencza
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman Patricia Klee

RELATIVE TO TEMPORARY 15 MINUTE PARKING

Given its second reading;

Board of Aldermen 5-21-2020 Page 44

MOTION BY ALDERMAN TENCZA FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF O-20-016 BY ROLL CALL
ON THE QUESTION

The motion is for final passage of Ordinance O-20-016, discussion on that motion?

Alderwoman Kelly

Alderman Wilshire?
President Wilshire

Alderwoman Kelly?

Alderwoman Kelly

Yeah sorry | wasn’t fast enough | was actually going to ask us to take them out of order, but this fine. | just
wanted to chat a little bit about the fact that if we do this one then mine wouldn’t make sense or vice versa.
So Director Cummings, myself and a number of people on the Board have been talking to the business
community about how we can help. | know that Director Cummings put in this 15-minute curbside, | think
that’s great. And then for you know purpose of discussion and what | have been hearing, | put in free
downtown parking for the duration of the time that we have the seats out to really welcome people back
and give that gesture, we want you to come in. So | think we just have to think about them both as we are
discussing them, so | just wanted to make that clear.

President Wilshire
OK, anyone else?
Alderman Clemons
President Wilshire?
President Wilshire
Alderman Clemons.
Alderman Clemons

Thank you. | was very happy to have the conversation with Director Cummings about this proposal, the 15-
minute parking, because | feel that during this, and it’s a shame actually that it couldn’t have come sooner
to be honest. But | am glad that it’s here now because to be honest, the businesses downtown have
complained about seating. And part of it is people who are just going into a restaurant to pick up take out
or maybe they are going to the pharmacy and they are in and out and they get a ticket. So you know, it’s
not really business friendly particularly when there’s 20 open spaces downtown and they just pull in for a
few minutes and hop in and out.

And with the fact that most of the traffic that has been coming downtown has been to pick up take out. So
the parking there isn’t the long-term parking that we normally see in downtown, it is just the quick come and
go. So | was very happy to sponsor this Ordinance, because | think what it does is it takes into account the
things that we have heard from business owners downtown and particularly the stakeholders who are most
effected by this type of business and this type of parking. It strikes a balance with the purpose of charging
for parking. One of the concerns that | have with the other Ordinance is that we could potentially lose a lot
of money by doing that. With this Ordinance, we are already blocking off a lot of parking spaces to

Board of Aldermen 5-21-2020 Page 45

accommodate restaurants so that they have outside seating. So to take the rest of the spaces that are
along the way and make them be take out spots or just the 15 minute spots, | think is a good compromise
measure that also strikes the balance of we don’t want to lose the revenue that we’ve been getting for the
Downtown Improvement Committee and funding a lot of the things that are important to our downtown.

So with all that being said, | was very happy to endorse this Legislation and | think it is a really awesome
piece that came forward from having the type of Community discussions that we have had around this and |
hoe it passes tonight. Thank you.

President Wilshire
Alderman Klee.
Alderman Klee

Thank you, Madam President. And | agree with what Alderman Clemons just stated. | think we are losing
the parking basically on Main Street because we are doing this widening. And | think having this as we saw
earlier in the green areas being the takeout parking and so on, | think it was necessary to put in a 15-
minute parking. | don’t think we should be penalizing someone who is just running in and taking something
out. The key issue also is that plan that we voted on also does not take away any of the handicapped
parking, it still remains and that’s not just limited to 15 minutes, it’s as it always has been. When | look at
the fiscal note of this even though there is a potential of $14,000.00 or $15,000.00 - $57,000.00 lost in
revenue, the next bill has a potential of $100,000.00 to $200,000.00 lost in revenue. | think that you know
this $14,000.00 to $57,000.00 we will be gaining that and what we get for the businesses and so on.

The other one taking it a little bit further for me is just and then the taxpayers are going to have to pick that
bill up and we are not supporting downtown. And there’s | think $758,000.00 that have gone to into the
General Fund. This should not hurt that; the other one could truly have a negative effect on it but | won’t
talk about that. | am very much for this and considering we have already voted for the narrowing; this just
enhances that and helps because many businesses — I’ve been to a lot of those business/economic
meetings. Many of the businesses said that with this pandemic they are really upping their takeout and
they’ve noticed more and more of it. And that was one their concerns, that they were going to lose that
business because people wouldn't have a place to stop.

So when they developed this plan, they very, very carefully made sure that they put in this take out parking
or this 15-minute parking. It also allows for quick deliveries too. So | truly stand by this and | am proud to
be an endorser of it. Thank you.

President Wilshire

Alderman Lopez.

Alderman Lopez

Yeah so first of all | want to, | mean what | don’t want to know is how badly this is going to hurt the parking
study because we are going to have to tackle that eventually. But this is an opportunity again where you
know you have a forced change to pilot out different models of things that may or may not work. | think
based on what the public health department is thinking and medical professionals, this is going to be, the
COVID-19 epidemic is going to impact our life until next winter, which is like the dead season downtown.
And then likely, into the beginning of the spring too, even if we create a vaccine that doesn’t mean it is
distributed. So | think we are doing the right thing be encouraging creative thinking and approaches to
problem solving.

Board of Aldermen 5-21-2020 Page 46

| think it will benefit businesses tremendously, especially in the colder months. You have a larger
population of take out and curbside pickup, because | can’t really see anybody in November trying to sit out
on Main Street, maybe diehards but | think that’s going to impact businesses as well. And while | hope that
at that point something has changed or there’s a new dynamic or we have figured out new protections to
allow for more inside dining and these do exist. | think this is something that we can immediately do that no
only addressed the immediate need for business owners, but it may be something that we can maintain in
the future. We could have multiple types of parking spaces that maybe we color then a certain way in the
future and we leave it for parking. Maybe it’s something that you know businesses can apply for.

So | like seeing changes in response to community needs. | think there may be the likelihood that some
places are going to identify a need for longer term parking, longer than 90 minutes. | am just starting to
hear from restaurants now because they’ve only had people sitting down this past week. But Director
Cummings has been doing a really good job with doing the phone conferences and trying to maintain some
continuity of development between the different stakeholders downtown. And finally | wanted to say that it
is very gracious of the Downtown Improvement Committee to support this because their inclination is,
anybody’s inclination is, | would prefer to have revenue that | can use to support the downtown businesses.
In this case, they are doing something that is counterintuitive from that perspective and they are really
supporting downtown businesses by not collecting revenue. So | think that speaks highly of their attention
to the crisis as it is unfolding and | think this is a very piece of Legislation.

President Wilshire

OK. Anyone else? Alderman Schmidt.

Alderman Schmidt

Thank you, Madam President. This is a perfect accompaniment to the previous bill, narrowing the road but
leaving spaces for the 15-minute pickup and delivery. It’s the perfect accompaniment to it and! am so
grateful that this is brought forward. Thank you.

President Wilshire

Alderman Jette.

Alderman Jette

Yes, again if | could through you ask Attorney Bolton another question. | am keeping him busy tonight,

helping him earn his salary. As | read this Ordinance, | don’t see the part where it says that the 15-minute
parking is free. Is that necessary or did | miss something there?

Attorney Bolton

If you look in the paragraph it says “now therefore be it resolved’ in the third line down about 2/3 of the
way across, the 15-minute parking is free.

Alderman Jette
OK. We are talking about 20-016, correct?

Attorney Bolton

Yes, the first four paragraphs start of “whereas”. The fifth paragraph starts off “now therefore be it
resolved”.

Board of Aldermen 5-21-2020 Page 47

Alderman Jette
Yes?

Attorney Bolton

Are you down three lines from there, about two-thirds of the way across, the 15-minute parking is free.
That’s what my copy says.

Alderman Jette

OK mine doesn’t say that.
President Wilshire

Mine does not say that either.
Attorney Bolton

That’s interesting.

Alderman Klee

We need to amend this one then.
President Wilshire

Are you all set Alderman Jette?
Alderman Jette

Well no because if the idea is to make this free, I’m not against that | just think it should be reflected in the
Ordinance. So which is the official copy? The one that Attorney Bolton has or the one the rest of us have?

Attorney Bolton

| think the easy way around this is just to amend this to add that sentence. | mean you are the ones that
have to enact this and if you’re looking at something different, let’s have you do an amendment if that’s the
wish of the Board.

Alderman Jette

Well it’s my wish to do an amendment. But could you supply the wording?

Attorney Bolton

In the second sentence, following the first sentence in paragraph 5, add a sentence that says, “15-minute
parking is free”.

Alderman Jette

OK and then the next sentence | have is 15-minute parking time limits shall not apply to designated
handicap spaces. Is that still in your copy?