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O-20-017

ORDINANCE

AUTHORIZING FREE PARKING AT METERS AND PAY STATION SPACES
THROUGH NOVEMBER 15, 2020

CITY OF NASHUA

In the Year Two Thousand and Twenty

WHEREAS, Governor Sununu’s Executive Order 2020-04 as extended by Executive
Orders 2020-05, 2020-08, and 2020-09 declared a state of emergency due to the Novel
Coronavirus (COVID-19),;

WHEREAS, Governor Sununu’s Emergency Order #40 extended and modified
Emergency Order #17 (Closure of non-essential business and requiring Granite Staters to stay at
home), which discusses a gradual re-opening of the State in a safe manner; and

WHEREAS, the City is seeking to assist that gradual, safe re-opening by providing free
parking in certain locations.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Board of Aldermen of the City of
Nashua that the parking fees for all public metered parking lots, garages and metered on-street
parking in Zones I, II, and II, which are normally established by NRO Section 320-47, A, shall
not be enforced through November 15, 2020. Monthly parking passes are not affected. Time
limits as well as other parking violations will continue to be enforced during this period.

This legislation shall take effect immediately upon its passage and shall remain in effect until
midnight November 15, 2020. All ordinances or parts of ordinances inconsistent herewith are
hereby suspended while this ordinance is in effect.

The City Clerk is directed not to codify this ordinance in the Nashua Revised Ordinances but to
designate it as Covid-19 Emergency Measure No. (City Clerk to assign appropriate
number upon passage) and publish it and any subsequent emergency measures on the city
website.

LEGISLATIVE YEAR 2020

ORDINANCE: O-20-017

PURPOSE: Authorizing free parking at meters and pay station spaces
through November 15, 2020

ENDORSERS: Alderwoman-at-Large Shoshanna Kelly

COMMITTEE

ASSIGNMENT:

FISCAL NOTE: Lost parking revenue during this period is estimated to be

between $108,000 (low end based on March/April trend) and
$204,000 (high end Pre COVID-19). In addition, the reduction
in parking enforcement revenue is estimated to be
approximately $32,000.

ANALYSIS

This legislation authorizes free parking at all metered and pay station parking spaces from date
of passage through November 15, 2020. Monthly passes are not affected. Time limits as well as
other parking violations will continue to be enforced during the free fee period.

Approved as to form: Office of Corporation Counsel

By: /s/ Dorothy Clarke

Date: May 20, 2020

PUBLIC HEARING
MAY 20, 2020

A Public Hearing was conducted by the Board of Aldermen on Wednesday, May 20, 2020, at 7:00 p.m. via
teleconference

President Lori Wilshire presided; City Clerk Susan Lovering recorded.
Prayer was offered by City Clerk Susan Lovering; Alderman Thomas Lopez led in the Pledge to the Flag.
President Wilshire

As President of the Board of Aldermen, | find that due to the State of Emergency declared by the
Governor as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and in accordance with the Governors Emergency Order
#12 pursuant to Executive Order 2020-04, this public body is authorized to meet electronically.

Please note that there is no physical location to observe and listen contemporaneously to this meeting,
which was authorized pursuant to the Governors Emergency Order. However, in accordance with the
Emergency Order, | am confirming that we are:

a) Providing public access to the meeting by Webex and telephone, with additional access
possibilities by video or other electronic means:

To access Webex:
https://nashuanh.webex.com/nashuanh/j.php?MTID=m239af1f13c596d20d21a4bb…
Meeting number/access code: 714 331 218 — Password: fHZfWwzkK362

To join by phone: 1-(408)-418-9388 - Meeting number/access code: 714 331 218

If for some reason you cannot connect to Webex, please contact us at (603) 821-2049 and they will
help you with connectivity. The public may also view the meeting via Channel 16.

b) Providing public notice of the necessary information for accessing the meeting:

We previously gave notice to the public of the necessary information for accessing the meeting,
through public postings. Instructions have also been provided on the City of Nashua’s website at
www.nashuanh.gov and publicly noticed at City Hall, Public Health Department, and the Nashua
Telegraph.

c) Providing a mechanism for the public to alert the public body during the meeting if there are
problems with access:

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

d) Adjourning the meeting if the public is unable to access the meeting:
In the event the public is unable to access the meeting via the methods mentioned above, the

meeting will be adjourned and rescheduled. Please note that all votes that are taken during this
meeting shall be done by roll call vote.

Special Board of Aldermen Public Hearing — May 20, 2020 Page 2

Let’s start the meeting by taking a roll call attendance. When each member states their presence, please
also state whether there is anyone in the room with you during this meeting, which is required under
the Right-To-Know Law.

Alderman O’Brien
Alderman O’Brien is present, | can hear the proceedings and | am alone.
Alderman Klee

Yes am here, | can hear the meeting. | am currently alone but as | always say my husband and my 2
greyhounds are in the house with me and could make an appearance at any time.

Alderman Dowd

Yes, | can hear everyone, | am here alone, following the Governor’s Orders for distancing and good to go.
Alderman Lopez

Yes, | am here, | am social distancing so | don’t get all of you sick, | can hear you all and | am alone.
Alderman Tencza

| am present, | am alone and | can hear everybody.

Alderwoman Lu

Present and | am alone.

Alderman Jette

| am here, | am alone and | can hear you.

Alderman Schmidt

| am here (inaudible) and the only one here with me is my parrot.

Alderman Cleaver

| am here, social distancing and | can hear everybody.

Alderman Harriott-Gathright

| am here, | am in a room alone and practicing social distancing.
President Wilshire
| am here, | am alone and | am practicing social distancing.

Susan Lovering, City Clerk

You have 11 in attendance.

Special Board of Aldermen Public Hearing — May 20, 2020 Page 3
President Wilshire
| would like to ask Bruce or whoever is monitoring this meeting, if the call-ins, like | have Clemons and Caron

that typically call in and | haven’t heard that they wouldn’t be here this evening, so is there a way to check on
that?

Unidentified Speaker

I'll unmute all the call-ins so they can talk.

Alderman Caron

Hello? Can you hear me now?

President Wilshire

| can hear you now Alderman Caron.

Alderman Caron

OK, alright, | am here and | am alone and | can hear you.
President Wilshire

Thank you, Alderman Caron. Alderman Clemons? Ok so | am going to assume that he’s not on. Do we have
the Mayor present as well?

Alderman Dowd

Yes.

Mayor Donchess

Yes, Madam President.
President Wilshire

Thank you, Mayor. As customary | am going to turn the public hearing on the 2021 Budget over to the
Chairman of the Budget Committee, Alderman Rick Dowd.

The roll call was taken with 12 members of the Board of Aldermen present: Alderman Michael B. O’Brien,
Sr., Alderman Patricia Klee, Alderman Richard A. Dowd, Alderman June M. Caron, Alderman Lopez,
Alderman David C. Tencza, Alderwoman Elizabeth Lu, Alderman Ernest Jette, Alderman Jan Schmidt,
Alderman Skip Cleaver, Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire.

Alderwoman Shoshanna Kelly, Alderman Ben Clemons and Alderman Brandon Michael Laws were recorded
absent.

His Honor Mayor James W. Donchess was also in attendance.

President Wilshire turned the public hearing over the Alderman Richard A. Dowd, Chairman of the Budget
Review Committee.

Special Board of Aldermen Public Hearing — May 20, 2020 Page 4
PUBLIC HEARING
R-20-023

RELATIVE TO THE ADOPTION OF THE FISCAL YEAR 2021 PROPOSED BUDGET FOR
THE CITY OF NASHUA GENERAL, ENTERPRISE, AND SPECIAL REVENUE FUNDS

Chairman Dowd

OK everyone should be on mute and | am going to read the procedure that we will be following this evening.
So first of all, good evening. This is the first on-line Public Hearing of the Nashua City Budget and we hope it
runs very smoothly but it may have minor problems as we try to get through it together. | am going to outline
the process and procedures we are going to follow and we need to keep as close to these as possible to be
successful. | would like to just take a minute to explain how the Public Hearing will be conducted. | will be
opening the Public Hearing on the Budget by recognizing Mayor Jim Donchess and Chief Financial Officer for
the City, John Griffin, who will be proving a short PowerPoint discussion on Nashua’s FY2021 Budget.

When they are through, | will then be going through each Budget Division by Department. When a member
of the public speaks, they must first state their name and address clearly for the record. If | see that a
member of the public has a question or a comment, | will allow them to ask one question or give one
comment for a period of five minutes for that question or comment. | will notify you when you have one-
minute left and then when five minutes has expired. Please do not speak until you are recognized by me for
your turn and finish up by mentioning that the five minutes has expired.

| will direct your questions to the responsible Division Director and they may defer it to one of their staff. Time
limits are imposed because we have no idea how many people might log on to the meeting and we may have
30 to 50 City Employees on the line so bandwidth may become an issue. | am going to ask everyone to turn
off their video unless they can a question and want to speak, then turn on your video so | can recognize you.
This will help the bandwidth issue some may have. If you have called in, please say your name once so | can
recognize you. Again when | recognize you, please state your name and address for the record.

When your five minutes has expired, | will move on to other members of the public who have questions on
that Department and so on until | see no more questions are to be asked on a Department. | will then ask if
anyone has additional questions for that Department and, if so, they may have an additional five minutes. If |
see no one with a question, | will immediately go to the next Department and follow that procedure until that
Division is complete. | will only accept questions on the Department being discussed and no others. At the
end of all Divisions and Departments being covered, | will ask if there are any additional questions on the
Budget and will recognize any person that has additional questions.

The procedures for asking questions is very simple. Each member of the public has five minutes per
question or comment including any statement that is made. Also, no signs will be allowed to be displayed
and if they are, the City IT Department will block their access to this meeting. If you run over the time limit, |
will remind you to wrap up your question and if you continue to speak, you will be reminded one more time
and if you don’t follow procedures you will be muted by IT. We want everyone to be heard on the Budget and
we have to allow all members of the public to be able to participate and we cannot let any one individual go
outside our normal procedures.

If you have general budget questions, you may ask those when the Mayor’s Office is up for discussion so that
they may be answered by the Mayor or Mr. Griffin. When we have concluded the review of all sections on
the Budget Book, | will ask for a Motion from Alderman O’Brien to adjourn the Public Hearing.

Special Board of Aldermen Public Hearing — May 20, 2020 Page 5

At this time, | am going to turn the meeting over to Mayor Donchess and John Griffin and ask that everyone
else please turn off your video and everyone is mute except the Mayor and John Griffin so they can do their
presentation. Thank you.

President Wilshire

Mr. Chairman, | didn’t hear Alderwoman Kelly on roll call be she is on the meeting, she was on the meeting, |
don’t know why we didn’t hear her. | just wanted to note that for the record. Thank you. Alderman Lu,
unless you have a procedural question the Aldermen are here just to listen this evening.

Alderwoman Lu
| do, would it be a good idea to inform the public how they can indicate how they have a question?
Chairman Dowd

| covered that. They either have to wave their hand, turn their video on so! can see them. If they don’t do
that, | can’t see them. And if they are on a phone, they need to say their name, there may be several people
saying their name, whoever | can hear | will call and we will go through until no one else has a question.

Alderwoman Lu
Thank you, I’m sorry | may not have been here when you said that. That’s all.
Chairman Dowd

Alderman Kelly did you have something? No? Alright. | sill see people on video outside of the Mayor and Mr.
Griffin, please turn off your videos until you are called upon and that includes members of the City Staff;
unless we are asking for you to answer a question, please keep your video off. The bandwidth will be terrible
if we don’t do that. Mayor?

101 MAYOR'S OFFICE

Mayor Donchess

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Good Evening everyone. Of course we are following a very unusual procedure
tonight for a Public Hearing we hold every year. Every year we hold a Public Hearing on the Budget and take
public input. Normally we are at Nashua South and this is all done live but because of the COVID-19 Crisis
and all that we have experienced together over the last two months, we are doing this remotely. | want to
thank the City IT Department and everybody else who has been involved in making this possible.

Now what | have here is a set of slides that we are going to go through that gives you an overview of the
Budget. Then, as the Chairman mentioned, at the end or when it is appropriate during the Public Hearing, of
course we can answer general questions about the Budget. Or if you have specific questions about any
Department, when that Department comes up, please ask your question then and one of the leaders of the
Department will respond to your question or your comment.

So the cover, of course, just tells you that we are proposing the FY21, we are discussing the FY21, that’s
Fiscal year ’21. We are on a fiscal year which means we run from July 1 to June 30 so the current fiscal
year, which is Fiscal Year ’20 ends on June 30, coming up next month. Why don’t we go to the next slide?
Now one thing | wanted to make clear before we get into the details is that the Budget that we are discussing
was proposed before we were hit with the COVID-19 Crisis.

Special Board of Aldermen Public Hearing — May 20, 2020 Page 6

This was proposed back in early February in order to give the Board of Aldermen time to consider the many
aspects of it, in a way that they can deliberate about it with enough time to be able to discuss and understand
everything.

The fact that we are now in COVID-19 may, and | am saying “should” affect the way, change the way that we
consider the Budget that we need to enact for the next Fiscal Year. But to reiterate, the Budget was
proposed before COVID-19. Why don’t we go to the next slide? COVID-19 has changed the City and it has
changed the way we are operating now and we will operate City Government in the future. The non-essential
employees are now working remotely but we are designing changes for City Hall that will enable people to
work remotely, some people, a longer term and will rebuild some of the internal rooms and departments of
City Hall where there | a lot of public contact. All this will be done in a way that protects members of the
public and protects employees.

So we know that life, not only City Government, but life will be different for some time. Of course it is difficult
for all of us; I’ve had trouble adjusting to some of these changes like these remote meetings. But we are
getting through this together and life will be changed including the way City Government performs its
responsibilities in some ways that are probably going to be permanent. But as we look to this coming Fiscal
Year and the Fiscal Years beyond, we must work smart, we must be disciplined and we must be unified. So
far, the community has done very, very well with that. If we do those things, we will come out of this on the
other side stronger than we were before. Why don’t we go to the next slide?

Looking at this Budget with COVID-19 in mind and with the circumstances that we are faced with in mind,
here are some of the main objectives. We want to continue to maintain quality services. You know what
those are; Police, Fire, Schools, where we educate over 11,000 children; our Public Works, picking up the
garbage, plowing the streets and all of the other services that we offer. We want to do those in a safe way
that protects, again, members of the public and the employees that work for the City to contain and prevent
the spread of the COVID-19 Virus.

Certainly, a major objective now, it always was an objective but now let’s underline this, we need to keep the
tax rate increase as low as we possibly can. Some of the economic circumstances we are facing, | will
discuss those as we get into the slides. But we really need to keep our eye on the tax rate more than ever
this year. The next bullet suggests that one of our strategies is the strategic use of one-time State Aid. So
there is State Aid that we are getting that is only going to last for this one year. We will get into some of
those details as we see further slides, but we want to make sure that we are smart in the way we use this
one-time money.

And finally, we want to have an effective COVID-19 Cost Strategy to maximize the use of Federal Funds.
What we mean there is we are using now City money, which is being used to clean buildings, extra overtime,
extra IT, Software that’s Information Technology. The Board of Aldermen has already appropriated
$200,000.00 for those purposes. Also there will be other expenses definitely incurred, rebuilding parts of City
Hall, as | mentioned to change the flow of traffic. Also, overtime in various Departments and working with
Justin Kates, the Emergency Management Director and all of our visions, we want to make sure that we
recover as much of these additional costs as we possibly can. We have received assurances about this from
the Governor, from FEMA that’s the Federal Emergency Agency. But we want to keep that always in mind so
that we recover as many local tax dollars as we possibly can. Let’s go to the next slide.

Now the Budget, as proposed, includes an increase in health care costs of $3 million dollars or 8.6%. This is
a major, major increase in a large line item. A $3 million dollar increase in one line item is a difficult financial
challenge to handle. But this is something we have to do because we have the legal obligation, of course, to
provide healthcare to our employees as our 17 Union Contracts require.

CHANGE ORDER

No.1

PROJECT: RFP0953-041321 — Landfill Water Quality Testing

EXECUTED CONTRACT DATE: May 27, 2021

DATE OF ISSUANCE: January 20, 2022 | EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon City Approval

OWNER: City of Nashua, NH
OWNER’ s Purchase Order NO.: 165137
VENDOR: Melport Enterprises, LLC dba Chemserve

The Contract is modified as follows upon execution of this Change Order:

Description:

The Change Order includes sampling at three (3) additional monitoring wells and analysis for Per- and
Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS).

Justification:

In September of 2021, New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) requested

expanded groundwater sampling and the initiation of soil and sediment sampling at the Four Hills
Landfill. NHDES has also required monthly testing until further notice.

Attachments:

>» Change Order #1 Cost Breakdown

Change Order #1 1 of 2
RFP0953-041321
Landfill Water Quality Testing

Special Board of Aldermen Public Hearing — May 20, 2020 Page 7

Now the Budget expenses for Health Care include what you see on the screen, not only medical but dental,
administrative fees, there’s something called Stop Loss Insurance, Wellness Activities. The total
expenditures that we project for Fiscal ’21 are around $51 million dollars. Now much of that is paid by the
employees but the City’s share of the healthcare cost is going up as we mentioned $3 million dollars or 8.6%.

One problem or challenge that we have, of course, is that last year, healthcare also went up by a very
significant amount. When | say “last year’ | mean the Budget we passed a year ago for the current Fiscal
year right now. Fiscal Year ’20, that’s the current Budget that we are operating with today, increased
healthcare costs by 11%. That was $3.3 million. So if you add last years increase when | say the increase
for Fiscal ’20 with the increase for Fiscal ’21, we are dealing with more than a $6 million dollar increase in a
single line item. Just so you get a perspective on the impact this is having on us, the City, the taxpayers, the
community, $6 million dollars on one line item translates alone to a 3% tax increase. Now the taxes went up
2.6% last year, the vast majority of that was caused by the $3 million dollar increase in healthcare costs and
taxes will go up again, this year we project, we want to limit that as much as we possibly can. Again, most of
that will be driven by the increase in healthcare costs.

Still on the subject of healthcare, this just shows you the escalating cost for healthcare between Fiscal 14
and Fiscal ’21, this is in a graph form of course. But you can see healthcare costs going up very steadily and
significantly every year. Let’s go to the next slide. Now | want you to know that we are working hard to use
the term using around COVID-19, bend the curve on these rising healthcare costs. We have taken
aggressive actions to limit future increases. The most significant change is we have come up with a new plan
design, meaning a change in the deductibles and the co-pays paid by City Employees. If applied to all
employee groups in the City, will have a very significant effect in holding healthcare costs down. So far, we
have asked one group of employees, the so-called unaffiliated or non-union employees to accept this. The
Board of Aldermen passed it for that group of employees. There are certain reasons why it is actually better
for employees and the City. We can get into the details of that, but tonight let’s just touch on the healthcare.
We need to make sure that this new plan design is incorporated in all Collective Bargaining Agreements as
they come to the Board of Aldermen for consideration so that over a period of several years, we can greatly
reduce increases in healthcare costs.

Now let’s look to the second budget, the reason that the new plan design, even though it includes higher
deductibles for hospital stays and higher co-pays may help employees, is that it also reduces the amount
they pay on a weekly basis. But another alternative we are offering is we are encouraging enrollment in a
high deductible plan which enables an employee to save money towards future years. We can discuss the
details and we have discussed them with the Board of Aldermen, but tonight we are focused on the Budget
and we want your comments. But the high deductible plan is something we are encouraging and many
employees are moving to that.

We have the use of Smart Shopper, which is a way that employees can shop for routine medical procedures
such as testing and things like that. If they use the same quality but a less expensive provider, they get a
bonus and they share in the savings that the City realized. We have a healthcare consultant which is
referred to here as WBS; they are educating all employees, they are reaching out to Divisions and
Employees across the City to educate them regarding healthcare cost, regarding the higher deductible plan
and regarding and a lot of other information that they can use in terms of managing their own healthcare.
We are offering now Wellness Alternatives, TeleHealth and Sydney which is an App. It enables you to shop
for healthcare. We are also going to undertake and audit to confirm that all dependents of employees who
are being carried by the City on the City’s healthcare. We are doing this audit to confirm that all dependents
are actually eligible. There could be a divorce or something like that, someone might still be on the plan who
shouldn’t be so we are going to make sure that all people whose healthcare we are providing are actually
eligible for City Insurance.