Search

Board of Aldermen 4-28-2020 Page 21

But it again is so that the Police Officers aren’t treated unfairly because of the COVID-19 pandemic. So |
would ask that we pass this.

President Wilshire
The motion is for final passage of Resolution 20-032 by roll call. Discussion? Alderwoman Lu?
Alderwoman Lu

Thank you, Madam Chairman. | think we should consider whether, my understanding is that crime was
down in Nashua. | haven't heard that the Police Department is under COVID-19 has affected them. | just
know that vacation time is something that a lot of the public is being required to take right now. | just
question why it is described as being treated unfairly to be asked to just follow the contract as written at a
time when (inaudible) is not over-tasked and at a time when we are looking ahead to later when people get
out of their homes and all of our services will be more heavily tasked at that time. | feel that we should
have a compromise of some type. | don’t know why the Police Department waited until two days before the
deadline to come to us and ask us to vote on this. | think Officer Testaverde said that May 1* is the
deadline. | just think we keep in mind that there will be things that we will need to do to minimize or address
the expenses that we are experiencing, perhaps requiring somebody to take their vacation time is not
unreasonable. Thank you.

Alderman Dowd
Can we have Deputy Chief Testaverde explain the urgency?
Jim Testaverde, Deputy Chief

Thank you very much. To answer some of those questions, first of all wnen the pandemic hit, everyone in
the City as you very well know, kind of went into high gear and as the Mayor stated before, this is still a 7
day a week process. For that reason, one of the very last, maybe number 97 on our list of things to do was
to go through the contract to see what items might be affected by the pandemic. After about a month or so,
| was approached by some of the Union Members to just say, basically the way they framed it was, “we
understand that you guys have a lot going on, we are sorry to bring this up, but there are several people
that are going to lose the days. Do you want us to just start taking them’? And | sat down with the Chief
and said, “No we don’t want you to start taking them”. We have been affected by the COVID-19. If you
give me a moment | can go into my desktop and try to pull it up but | am estimated, at one time we had as
many as 7 officers on quarantine. Right now we only have 2. But those keep shifting like the rest of the
country, into different pockets.

In addition to that, we always need a minimum amount of officers on the street so to ask officers to start
taking time off. Officers right now are allowed to take time off; they are taking it a day here or a day there.
But we don’t want 58 people to all of a sudden try to take block week vacations just to ... | know that there’s
nowhere for them to go but | don’t want them to just sit at home and just for the sake of burning the time.
When, hopefully soon, we get out of this pandemic and to address your concern Alderwoman, we have also
in the contract all 58 people can’t take time off at the same time. It is limited to any four per shift and there
will never be a time when | would turn to anyone here and say, "Unfortunately we have half of the officers
on the street right now because they are all off on vacation,” we just wouldn’t allow that to happen. | didn’t
use the term “unfair”, or if | did, | apologize. This is just something | don’t want to punish them for lack of a
better term for doing exactly what | expect them to do during a time of crisis and that’s coming into work
every day and doing their job. If that answered the question.

Alderman Clemons

Thank you. | just wanted to say that | am going to absolutely be supporting this 100%. People have had,
myself included, have had their vacations ruined by what has been going on. And in some cases, we’ve

If after termination for the failure of Independent Contractor to adhere to any of the terms
and conditions of the contract or for failure to satisfactorily, in the sole opinion of the City
of Nashua, to complete or make sufficient progress on the work in a timely and professional
manner, it is determined that Independent Contractor had not so failed, the termination
shall be deemed to have been a termination at will. In that event, the City of Nashua shall,
if necessary, make an adjustment in the compensation paid to Independent Contractor such
that Independent Contractor receives total compensation in the same amount as it would
have received in the event of a termination-at-will.

C. General Provisions for Termination. Upon termination of the contract, the City of
Nashua may take over the work and prosecute it to completion by agreement with another
party or otherwise. In the event Independent Contractor shall cease conducting business,
the City of Nashua shall have the right to solicit applications for employment from any
employee of the Independent Contractor assigned to the performance of the contract.
Neither party shall be considered in default of the performance of its obligations hereunder
to the extent that performance of such obligations is prevented or delayed by any cause,
existing or future, which is beyond the reasonable control of such party. Delays arising
from the actions or inactions of one or more of Independent Contractor's principals,
officers, employees, agents, subcontractors, consultants, vendors, or suppliers are
expressly recognized to be within Independent Contractor's control.

Dispute Resolution. The parties shall attempt to resolve any dispute related to this contract
as follows. Either party shall provide to the other party, in writing and with full
documentation to verify and substantiate its decision, its stated position concerning the
dispute. No dispute shall be considered submitted and no dispute shall be valid under this
provision unless and until the submitting party has delivered the written statement of its
position and full documentation to the other party. The parties shall then attempt to resolve
the dispute through good faith efforts and negotiation between the City of Nashua
Representative and an Independent Contractor Representative. At all times, Independent
Contractor shall carry on the work under this contract and maintain and complete work in
accordance with the requirements of the contract or determination or direction of the City
of Nashua. If the parties are unable to resolve their dispute as described above within 30
days, if requested in writing by either the City of Nashua or the Independent Contractor
within 14 days after the 30 days described above, the parties shall attempt to resolve the
dispute by entering into structured non-binding negotiations with the assistance of a
mediator on a without prejudice basis. The mediator shall be appointed by agreement of
the parties, which agreement shall not be unreasonably withheld. If the parties cannot agree
to a mediator within 30 days or the dispute cannot be settled within a period of thirty (30)
days with the mediator, the parties’ reserve the nght to pursue any available legal and/or
equitable remedies for any breaches of this contract except as that right may be limited by
the terms of this contract.

No Damages for Delay. Apart from a written extension of time, no payment,
compensation, or adjustment of any kind shall be made to Independent Contractor for
damages because of hindrances or delays in the progress of the work from any cause, and
Independent Contractor agrees to accept in full satisfaction of such hindrances and delays
any extension of time that the City of Nashua may provide.

GC 50f9

Board of Aldermen 4-28-2020 Page 22

gotten our money back, some people have gotten credits, some people are out the entire expense,
whatever they put forward. You know a lot of these officers have young children and things like that and
you know it is just not fair to somebody to have this happen and then say to them, “Well sorry but we are
not going to give your granted time off and it is what it is’ especially when there’s nowhere to go even if
they wanted to. | mean it’s not like you can go to the beach or you can go to Florida. Everything is closed.

So to me this is one of those, we live in an exceptional time and what | mean by that is we are making
exceptions to rules that are steadfast in every single industry across the spectrum. So the City has to do
that as well. If that means that we have to allow for the Police Department employees to have extra time to
be able to take their vacation without losing it, | don’t see that as an issue. And | would even go so far as to
say that if this continues and we are in mid-June or whenever with the stay-at-home orders, that it probably
would make sense for this to even come back to us and | would certainly support it. You know depending
on the situation and whether or not people had enough time just based on the number of employees to
actually take their vacation. So | am in full support of this and | hope that my colleagues will understand
that again, we are in exceptional times and we need to do exceptional things and this is one of them.

Alderman Lopez

| can’t agree with the statement that because crime is low the Police are under less pressure. The Police
are on the front lines and they are out working everyday with people having no idea what their health
conditions are or what their risk factors are going to be. And | think members of the Board who may not be
working directly with the public need to be really conscious of what that feels like because Police Officers
are choosing to go and serve the community knowing that they could contract COVID-19 from a person
who might be disorderly or from some parents who won't vacate a playground something that they handle
in a very discreet, casual and respectful manner, but they can bring home to their family and their loved
ones, a serious illness. | think that puts a huge amount of pressure on our Police Officers and | think we
need to recognize that.

| also think that using vacation time as vacation time and not as a cost reduction mechanism is important.
We need to leave that ability to them because not to put too much a point on it but | will remind the Board
that before we had a Global Pandemic we were struggling with First Responder Suicide and | do not think
that situation is getting better with unbelievable circumstances at play here where the Police are being
asked to enforce historic measures that not everybody agrees with. We need our First Responders. That
includes Police, to be able to help our community when it needs help the most and | don’t think we need to
be distracting them by quibbling over details like this. | think their request is entirely reasonable.

Alderman Klee

Thank you, Madam President. | want to echo Alderman Lopez’s words. First Responders are out there just
doing their normal job but as well as being there under these stressful circumstances. They are the First
Responders they are right online. | know recently we had an incident here in Ward 3 where | won’t go into
the details of it but someone was found no longer living. They are always one of the first ones right there,
no matter what. | know suicides are on the rise and of course they are there for those. Just because crime
isn’t up doesn’t mean we shouldn't be doing this. So | do echo the last two speakers, thank you.

Alderwoman Lu

Thank you, Madam Chairman, | don’t mean this as a cost cutting measure. | know that it is a very, very
important job. | see it though as nobody else gets to decide that they are going to hold off their vacation
until this is all over and | you know, | just think that there is some benefit to compromising, because we are
going to need a lot of staff when this is done. Thank you.

Board of Aldermen 4-28-2020 Page 23

President Wilshire

Any further discussion for final passage. | just wanted to weigh in on this. | too believe like Alderman
Clemons and Alderman Lopez and Alderman Klee that these are First Responders, these are people we
need right now. More than ever we need our First Responders out there. We can’t be out there; we need
to count on them to be there for us. And | appreciate everything they do and to delay one to five days for
58 people is not more than we can afford to it but it is something we can do. Anyway | get a little
passionate about it but | think we are asking a lot of our Police Department, our Fire Department, all of our
First Responders and | think this is very minor in the scheme of things and | believe we should pass this
this evening, so thank you. Anyone else? Would the Clerk please call the roll?

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,
Alderman Jette, Alderman Schmidt, Alderman Laws,
Alderman Skip Cleaver, Alderman Harriot-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire 14

Nay: Alderwoman Lu 1
MOTION CARRIED
Resolution R-20-032 declared duly adopted.

R-20-033
Endorser: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
Alderman Skip Cleaver
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO EXECUTE A CONFIRMATORY DEED TO PENNICHUCK WATER
WORKS
Given its first reading; assigned to the COMMITTEE ON INFRASTRUCTURE and PLANNING BOARD by
President Wilshire

R-20-034
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman Skip Cleaver
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
APPROVING THE COST ITEMS OF SIDEBAR AGREEMENTS BETWEEN THE NASHUA BOARD
OF POLICE COMMISSIONERS AND THE FIVE NASHUA POLICE DEPARTMENT UNIONS
REGARDING A POLICE DEPARTMENT RECRUITING INCENTIVE
Given its first reading; assigned to the BUDGET REVIEW COMMITTEE by President Wilshire

NEW BUSINESS — ORDINANCES - None

PERIOD FOR GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT - None

Board of Aldermen 4-28-2020 Page 24
REMARKS BY THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN
Alderman Dowd

Yes, | want to thank everybody for helping on that sidebar with agreement between Unions and their Labor
Boards are extremely hard usually to get past. In this case, both members who signed it were in full
agreement with it, as was | as the liaison for the Board of Aldermen to the Police Commission. The Police
Commission signed off on it. So | am very happy that we passed that and | want to thank Deputy Chief
Testaverde for being here this evening and providing his input.

This other sidebar that will be addressed by the Budget Committee, it is nothing that has to be imminently
done, it has to do with recruiting and has a really minor financial impact. But we will be addressing that in
Budget.

Alderman Jette

Yes, | want to acknowledge this past weekend, a group from the Gate City Striders, which is the running
club in Nashua showed up in Ward 5, Main Dunstable Road and Ridge Road and obeying social
distancing, they gathered, | don’t know how many bags of trash along the roadway. They filled up a flatbed
trailer with it and | want to thank them for doing that. | also want to acknowledge that the Nashua Rotary
Club, this coming Saturday, a group maintaining social distancing, a group of members of the Rotary Club
are going to clean up the Rotary Common which is the park on Main Street near Salmon Brook, where
Salmon Brook crosses Main Street. So my hat is off to both of those groups. Thank you.

Alderman Lopez

Yeah, | just wanted to thank everybody who donated to the Involved Impacts Fund Raiser to purchase N95
masks to donate to First Responders. | really wanted to thank all of the performers and musicians and
entertainers that donated their time throughout April to do the on-line thing because | think people have
been really struggling with the social distancing, people have been feeling very isolated. Their routine is
really abruptly terminated where they may be used to seeing their favorite musicians or you know being
able to go out on a Saturday night and this kind of gave them something to work with, some familiar faces.
So | wanted to thank all of them for contributing their time. | wanted to thank the Mayor for guest starring in
our final event as well.

On amore somber note, | wanted to express my condolences to the family and friends of Bill Nelson. |
know Paul Shea and Julia Shea are feeling his loss deeply. My thoughts are with you.

Alderwoman Kelly

Thank you, Madam President. | just wanted to thank everyone for their support of the Coronavirus Aid Fund
and getting that together. | know that will be critical for non-profits and small business owners in Nashua as
we try to get some aid to them as they are struggling through this as well. And | wanted to, | feel like a
broken record, but every time we get together, | just want to say thank you to our Front-Line Workers;
everybody at City Hall that’s keeping things going. There’s so much work that’s going into it and people are
working overtime on all fronts. So | really appreciate that; we have a great group of non-profits here in
Nashua. | am personally connected and know what is going on with the United Way and the Soup Kitchen
but | know there are a lot of other organizations that are stepping up during this time. So thank you for that
and together we will get through it.

Alderman Klee
Thank you, Madam President. | just want to say a couple things. | feel much like Alderwoman Kelly is that

we sound like a broken record saying “thank you” but! don’t think we can say thank you enough. And it
truly is heartfelt and | do believe everybody understands it and it is from the person that is cleaning the

Board of Aldermen 4-28-2020 Page 25

buildings to our grocery store workers, to our front liners, to our health care facilities and so on. | also
wanted to add that | had a conversation with Director Bagley last night and one of the things in our
conversation that came up was she asked me if | had Netflix. And | said, “Yes | do” and she said, “There’s
a great series called Coronavirus, it’s 30 minutes”. They are going to be doing a few of them; | watched the
first episode which is the only one available and it was phenomenal. It explained Coronavirus, how there’s
just not the three of SARS and MERS and the one we are living through now. It explains that there are 7 of
them and it starts very small, it explains exactly what a virus is. And | actually took away, as scary as all of
this is, it took away some of the fear of understanding that we are really on the right track. It’s called
“Coronavirus something’ | forget what the last word is. But anybody who has Netflix, if you search for
Coronavirus | think it will be very, very helpful. And | want to say that we really are all in this together,
there’s no one person that would not be willing to reach out and help. | know from this Board; | see it
constantly so | want to say thank you to all of you too. Thank you.

Alderman Dowd

Yeah, | just want to follow up on one thing from the Police Commissioner’s meeting yesterday and Deputy
Chief Testaverde can back this up that the Police Department in Nashua just went under a new
accreditation for law enforcement agencies. | hope | have that right for the acronym, but they got almost, if
not a perfect score, almost a perfect score. And the people that did the inspections were so impressed by
the Nashua Police Department and their process and procedures that they took some of those back to
incorporate into inspections of other Departments. So the Department got a Certificate of Appreciation for
a job well done and | think that goes a long way to showing exactly how great a Police Department we have
here in the City of Nashua. So my thanks to the Chief and his deputies and all of the officers of the Nashua
Police Department.

Alderwoman Lu

Thank you, Madam Chairman. | just wanted to comment that it is a little bit disappointing to me that many of
my colleagues have made it clear that staffing is off limits and | just have a feeling that we have an
opportunity to share ideas and feelings with regards to the financial situation that we will possibly be in. Not
to share ideas out, these things is just disappointing to me. Rather than have a full discussion about it just
to, | would rather go into future decision-making process with the benefit of the Board’s input as well as
some time to reflect it and discuss it with people in my Ward. And | know one of our residents has asked
for discussion among us about how this situation is currently affecting revenues and expenses and | don’t
see that discussion among us at these meetings and | too think it is disappointing. I’m sure there are a lot
of people that watch, that would like to know what we are thinking about, how we can address the
shortages that the States have been predicting we will have.

| hope that we can be more open minded and talk among ourselves about these ideas, rather than shut
down, come to these meetings with our minds set already. Thank you.

Alderman Lopez

Madam President, (inaudible) personal privilege can | just state that | don’t appreciate having my intentions
visited by other Aldermen. | don’t consider staffing to be off limits and | didn’t make up my mind before this

at all. It falls short of our decorum, making observations about what other Aldermen’s intentions might be.

Alderman Klee

| agree.

Alderman Cleaver

Yes, | would like to take this opportunity to commend and thank the Mayor for an outstanding job and the
entire administration for an outstanding job under very, very, very difficult circumstances. They can be very

Board of Aldermen 4-28-2020 Page 26

proud of our City’s Leadership and what we have been able to accomplish despite all the hurdles and
difficulties. So thank you Mr. Mayor.

President Wilshire
| agree Alderman Cleaver, thank you for that.
Alderman O’Brien

Thank you, Madam President. | happen to notice today on Facebook one of my former organizations being
on the Fire Department, Nashua Fire Fighter’s Local 789 has hit is 76" year of being in existence. | wish |
knew of it last year to wish them a Happy 75", but we will do it on the 76". One of our very important first
responders that have stepped to the plate in many different ways such as the Police and Public Health and
our nurses and our doctors from our two wonderful hospitals. | know Local 789 has done a lot for the
community, whether it be at Christmas Time, passing out Christmas baskets to the needy to even their
program of helping the NDA and also working to supply coats for some disadvantaged children through the
School System. So | hope they continue with their great community work; granted, at times, between the
City and the Union may get sometimes adversarial, but we still like them and appreciate the work that they
do. The Fire Fighters are saving lives and thank you for the indulgence to allow them to be recognized,
thank you.

Alderman Clemons

Thank you, first | just want to address some things that were said in regard to discussing the finances of the
City. For any Alderman who wants to discuss the finances of the City, | would recommend that they come
to the Budget Review Committee Meetings because that’s where we are discussing next year’s budget.
That is the appropriate place to ask questions and do the due diligence when it comes to deciding how we
are going to move forward next year in a cohesive manner.

In addition to that, it is incumbent upon each one of us as an Alderman to do our own work and to make
sure that we ourselves understand what is going on in the City. It is not up to other Aldermen to inform us
of different things. That has been something that my mentor Brian McCarthy instilled in me. Because he
told me, you know, if you have a question ask it. If you need to know something, go to somebody and ask
it. The questions are not going to be answered by not asking the questions. So | would just like to state
that because | think that some have the expectation that we are going to get an answer for everything and
the thing is is that unless you ask the question you won’t get the answer.

And then lastly, | just want to reiterate and | said this at the last meeting, we need to make sure that we are
listening to our local leaders here. Governor Sununu, Mayor Donchess and not necessarily what is coming
out of Washington, D.C. Our local leaders have done a superb job in handling the COVID-19 Crisis,
particularly here in Nashua. Mayor Donchess and his team have done outstanding work and as a result of
that, | think Nashua has come out for the better because of it. So | want to just thank him and the
Administration here. | want to thank Governor Sununu for his leadership. | also want to thank all of our
First Responders who are out there every day doing a tough job that they signed up to do but | don’t think
ever might have crossed their mind that they would be dealing with the types of situations that we are in
right now. So thank you, all of you and have a good evening.

President Wilshire
Thank you, Alderman Clemons.
Alderman Schmidt

Thank you. | just wanted to say that although | didn’t have a lot of time with Alderman McCarthy as my
mentor, he did say exactly as Alderman Clemons just said. He taught us how to do our research, to find the

Board of Aldermen 4-28-2020 Page 27

data for ourselves, to actually come to these meetings with information and it really does make things work
better. And we work well together that way. Pardon me | think | screwed up my camera. The other thing |
wanted to tell you was that today, April 28"", is Worker’s Memorial Day. Last year in New Hampshire six
workers died at the job and today is the day to remember the fallen to honor their work and to honor their
lives. Thank you very much.

President Wilshire

Alderwoman Lu, did you want to speak again? No? Ok. Have | missed anyone?

Committee announcements:

Alderman Dowd

Tomorrow evening at 7:00 we have a WebEx Meeting on Budget and we will be discussing the Police
Department's Budget. So | am sure we will see Deputy Chief Testaverde and Chief Carignan tomorrow
night.

President Wilshire

Tomorrow night. Anyone else, Committee Announcements? Seeing none, Alderman O’Brien.

ADJOURNMENT

MOTION BY ALDERMAN O’BRIEN THAT THE APRIL 28, 2020, MEETING OF THE BOARD OF
ALDERMEN BE ADJOURNED BY ROLL CALL

A viva voce roll call was taken to adjourn the Board of Aldermen meeting 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 Laws,

Alderman Skip Cleaver, Alderman Harriot-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire 15
Nay: 0
MOTION CARRIED

The meeting was declared adjourned at 9:10 p.m.

Attest: Susan K. Lovering, City Clerk

Enriching Our Communities by Connecting
Local Employers and Individuals with Opportunities to Succeed

To the Human Affairs Committee and Office of Urban Programs for the City of Nashua,

On behalf of Opportunity Networks, | would like to extend our sincere thanks for all the hard work you are
doing to support local nonprofits during these very uncertain times. We are writing today in support of R-

20-029; CARES Act/Amend FY2020 Action Plan with the hopes of its passage.

This legislation recognizes the vital role that nonprofits and small businesses play in the Nashua
community by assisting their ability to remain open, retain employees, and/or provide critical services

during this public health crisis.

Regards,

Stephanie Ouellette
Community Development Specialist
Opportunity Networks

116 Perimeter Rd Nashua NH

603-459-8138

THE CITY OF NASHUA “The Gate City’

Division of Public Health and Community Services

Community Services Department

April 28, 2020

To: John Griffin, CFO; Daniel Kooken, Purchasing Manager
From: Bobbie D. Bagley, Director, DPHCS

Subject: CDC Foundation

The Division of Public Health and Community Services has been awarded
an opportunity to have staffing support of additional frontline public
health workers to assist in the response to COVID-19. The CDC
Foundation received a $15 million dollar contribution from TikToc (the
short-from mobile video platform) to hire hundreds of staff who can
work with state and local governments during this pandemic outbreak.
The DPHCS participated in the Emerging Leaders of Public Health last
year and through these connections were offered this generous support
to expedite hiring surge staff needed to meet the needs identified to
increase contact investigations, contract tracing and mobile clinic
testing in Nashua and the Greater Nashua Region.

https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/our-commitment-to-covid-19-relief-eff…

https://www.cdcfoundation.org/blog/public-health-week-tiktok-donates-15…-
public-health-workers-coronavirus

The DPHCS has requested four positions be funded through this
initiative: two public health nurses, one communications specialist
and one emergency management coordinator to work with the office of
emergency management. The CDC Foundation will provide compensation and
benefits for these temporary employees that will work with the DPHCS
and the OFM without any additional cost to the City of Nashua, except
to provide safe and secure workspace and resources needed to complete
the work assigned by the City Division Directors and staff. The CDC
Foundation will also supply the CDC Foundation employees with a
laptop, software and phones required by these positions. The CDC
Foundation employees will be working in Nashua for 12 months. These
employees will only be working on COVID-19 activities.

There is no additional cost to the city for the contracted consulting
services.

229 Main Street * Nashua, New Hampshire 03060 « Phone (603) 589-3307 * Fax (603)
594-3434