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Organizational Mtg. - 1/5/20 Page 2

President Wilshire called on the City Clerk to distribute the envelopes containing the numbers
for the drawing of the seating in the Aldermanic Chamber.

Seat #1 - Reserved for Vice President Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.

Seat #15 - Reserved for President Lori Wilshire

Seating was drawn in the following manner:
Seat #2 Alderman Klee

Seat # 3 Alderwoman-at-Large Kelly
Seat # 4 Alderman Dowd

Seat #5 Alderman Caron

Seat #6 Alderman-at-Large Ben Clemons
Seat #7 Alderman Lopez

Seat # 8 Alderman-at-Large Tencza
Seat #9 Alderwoman Lu

Seat # 10 Alderman Jette

Seat # 11 Alderman Schmidt

Seat # 12 Alderman-at-Large Laws
Seat # 13 Alderman Cleaver

Seat # 14 Alderman Harriott-Gathright

President Wilshire called for Nominations for three members of the Board of Health for
2020-2021.

ALDERMAN O’BRIEN NOMINATED DR. ANTHONY STORACE, DR. CHARLES T.
CAPPETTA, AND DR. STEPHANIE WOLF-ROSENBLUM AS MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF
HEALTH FOR THE ENSUING TWO YEARS

Hearing no additional nominations, President Wilshire declared the nominations closed.

VOTE ON ELECTION OF DR. ANTHONY STORACE, DR. CHARLES T. CAPPETTA, AND
DR. STEPHANIE WOLF-ROSENBLUM AS MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF HEALTH FOR
THE ENSUING TWO YEARS BY VOICE VOTE

MOTION CARRIED

Organizational Mtg. - 1/5/20 Page 3

President Wilshire declared Dr. Storace, Dr. Cappetta and Dr. Wolf-Rosenblum duly elected as
members of the Board of Health for the ensuing two years.

Oath of Office will be administered by City Clerk Lovering at the Board of Health’s meeting on
January 8, 2020.

President Wilshire presented the Committee Assignments to the members of the Board of
Aldermen.

ALDERMAN DOWD MOVED THAT THE COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS BY THE PRESIDENT
OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN BE ACCEPTED BY VOICE VOTE
MOTION CARRIED

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN

President Wilshire

| am going to make a few remarks and thank you for indulging me here. | would like to thank
everyone here for their interest in their City Government. As much as | appreciate this role and
as grateful as | am for it, the greatest reward | have been given is the opportunity to continue
doing what | love to do and that is serving the people of Nashua.

As we leave here today I’d like to ask each of you to take a moment to think about the
important accolades that the Mayor mentioned that the City has received. We don’t get
recognized for our Triple A Bond Rating or Being the Safest City or Best Place to Raise a
Family by doing nothing. We are recognized due to our talented and hardworking employees,
the administration and the thoughtful policies set by this Board.

| would be remiss if | didn’t mention my late colleague Brian McCarthy; this is my eighth
inauguration but my first one without Brian. He was a friend, a mentor and | know we all
continue to miss him and his vision for the City.

| look forward to continuing to work to make Nashua a more attractive place for businesses,
arts and culture and to make sure that we are spending our money efficiently and effectively.
Congratulations to the Board, to Mayor Donchess and to all elected officials for stepping up to
do the work of the people of Nashua. Thank you all.

ADJOURNMENT

ALDERMAN LOPEZ MOVED FOR ADJOURNMENT OF THE ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING OF THE
BOARD OF ALDERMEN OF JANUARY 5, 2020
MOTION CARRIED

The meeting was declared adjourned by President Wilshire at 1:10 p.m.

Attest: Susan K. Lovering, City Clerk

ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN

JANUARY 5, 2020

Immediately Following
Inauguration Exercises NHS - North Auditorium

1.

2.

10.

11.

12.

13.

CITY CLERK SUSAN LOVERING CALLS ASSEMBLY TO ORDER
PLEDGE TO THE FLAG LED BY CORPORATION COUNSEL STEVEN A. BOLTON
ROLL CALL

CITY CLERK SUSAN K. LOVERING ENTERTAINS NOMINATIONS FOR
PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN FOR 2020/2021

CORPORATION COUNSEL STEVEN A. BOLTON ADMINISTERS THE OATH OF OFFICE
TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN FOR 2020/2021

PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN ENTERTAINS NOMINATIONS
FOR VICE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN FOR 2020/2021

CORPORATION COUNSEL STEVEN A. BOLTON ADMINISTERS THE OATH OF OFFICE
TO THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN FOR 2020/2021

DRAWING OF ALDERMANIC SEATING

PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN CALLS FOR NOMINATIONS FOR THREE
MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF HEALTH

Dr. Anthony Storace, 17 Cameron Drive, Nashua
Dr. Charles T. Cappetta, 129 Farley Road, Hollis
Dr. Stephanie Wolf-Rosenblum, 47 Berkeley Street, Nashua

THE OATH OF OFFICE TO THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF HEALTH FOR 2020/2021 WILL BE
ADMINISTERED AT THE BOARD OF HEALTH MEETING ON JANUARY 8, 2020

COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN

ADJOURNMENT

Nashua — page 5
September 13, 2021

“TEE lel J Seer OLY ele A EEE Nh

Historic District Area boundary shown in dashed line. Two stars show where the individual
properties are that need to be surveyed: 43-41 Bridge Street and the Maine Manufacturing
property. Railroad line is highlighted with yellow. Nearby comparable neighborhoods (not in the
APE) are circled.

A special meeting of the Board of Aldermen was held Thursday, January 2, 2020, at 7:00 p.m. in the
Aldermanic Chamber.

President Lori Wilshire presided; City Clerk Susan K. Lovering recorded.

Prayer was offered by Steven Bolton, City Counsel; Alderman David C. Tencza led in the Pledge to the
Flag.

President Wilshire

Before | ask the Clerk to take the roll, Alderwoman Shoshanna Kelly and Alderman Richard A. Dowd
is participating by telephone and under the terms of the State law that allows them to do that, they
need to explain why they can’t attend, if they can hear us, and who they are with, if anyone.

Alderwoman Kelly stated the reason she could not attend, confirmed that she could hear the proceedings,
and stated who was present with her.

Alderwoman Kelly

| am at out of town, | can hear you and | am not with anybody.
President Wilshire
Thank you Alderwoman Kelly.

Alderman Dowd stated the reason he could not attend, confirmed that he could hear the proceedings, and
stated who was present with him.

Alderman Dowd
Yes | am also out of town and | am by myself and | can hear you fine.

The roll call was taken with 14 members of the Board of Aldermen present: Alderman Lopez arrived after
roll call. Alderwoman Kelly and Alderman Dowd were not in attendance but participated in the meeting via
telecommunication.

Mayor James W. Donchess and Corporation Counsel Steven A. Bolton were also in attendance.
President Wilshire

| just got a text from Alderman Lopez, he is on his way. Before | do Communications, | told the Mayor |
would let him address the Board and then Alderman Clemons may have a motion.

Mayor Donchess

Thank you Madam President. Well, | know | am outnumbered, | see 15 Aldermen, 6 or 7 people from the
Police Department. But! am asking the 20 people that are here, to consider compromising and working
with me on this. Now we had two contracts come before us and | expressed reservations about those
contracts for reasons that | have explained, but | will briefly go into.

We had two contracts before us and we, at the same time, are facing a serious problem with healthcare.
We now project $6 million dollars over two years; that alone is 3% on the tax rate, a 20% increase ina
single line item. This puts serious pressure on the budget. Last year you saw the taxes go up, the rest of
the budget, except for this one line item was up only 1 point and %. This line item pushed the entire budget
up to 3% so it has a serious impact on the budget.

Board of Aldermen 1-02-2020 Page 2

One thing that | am concerned about is building into our budgets increases that at the end of the day we

cannot sustain and will in the end of the day result in reduced services. If we can only increase a budget 2
4, 2 %% in order to keep the tax rate at a level we think is acceptable, but we’ve built budgets that have to
go up 3 or 4% in order to sustain current conditions, we now have an unsustainable budget. It will result in
service reductions because there won’t be enough to pay for the services that are currently being provided.

We have been talking about this increase in healthcare for quite some time. It is not a surprise that Fiscal
21 is going to go up a lot again. Ms. Kleiner and the City’s expert went to the Budget Committee on July
22™ just the 22™ day of the Fiscal Year and projected a major increase for Fiscal 21. So we know we’ve
got a serious problem that is more than one year, two years and it could go beyond that.

In addition to that, you remember in the escrow process, we talked about this again. We put $2 million
dollars of funds in the escrow process into healthcare. Then, when we got the money from the State, we
put another $900,000.00; so the idea that this is going up, shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. In addition to
the non-sustainable budgets, we have raised a couple of other issues. Number one, these two contracts
together definitely create a precedent, and although some people have said, “OH well, it doesn’t matter’, it
does in terms of negotiating other contracts which are in negotiations right now. Plus we have got groups in
City Hall who are seeing what is going on and they are beginning now to petition through grievances for
higher wages and other things are going on.

| guess | am asking, are you sure that we are wrong about all of this? Are you sure that when | say that this
is establishing a precedent that we are going to have to follow with other employee groups, are you sure
that | am wrong? And are you sure you don’t want to take the time to, if you don’t believe me, to talk with
the people who negotiate these contracts and find out? That could occur, discussion regarding
negotiations could occur in a non-public session. And are you sure, one thing | want to add is that as we
look at this budget and the next ones, | think people are going to see that to sustain what we have, we are
going to have tax rates, at least in this coming year and if you do this enough, for a series of years that go
up far more than people are used to.

Some of you have not been in an environment where the tax rate becomes an issue, because | think we
have maintained some degree of stability and we have exercised fiscal discipline to that we haven’t seen
the tax rate become an issue. But if it goes up 4 or 5% a few years in a row, my experience tells me it will
become an issue. So are you so sure we are wrong? | am trying to work with you and | am trying to
compromise with you. You approved two contracts | said we should limit to 2%, OK. | didn’t Veto one of
them, the Officers, we have a great Police Department, | don’t argue with any of their Police activities; they
are doing a fantastic job. | am just thinking about the financial management of the Department and the
City.

Are you so sure that this has to be rushed through now? You sure you don’t want to take the time to at
least hear from the people who do negotiations in Public Works, in the Fire Department, in City Hall, to find
out before you make the decision that | am absolutely wrong? Are you sure that you don’t want to talk to
them? And if you think that | am wrong about the tax rate, are you sure you don’t want to bring in CFO
Griffin, Ms. Kleiner, Dave Fredette and the other people who work on the budget to kind of explain and we
can give you figures, projections as to what you are looking at? Are you so sure you want to decide so
quickly that we are wrong? | am trying to work with you. OK we let the Supervisors go through; but
creating two precedents is worse than one.

| do question the Police Commission here, you know, they are fine citizens and they are trying to do what
they think is best for the Department. But | raised an issue about the extension of an unfunded liability
which is the payouts for sick time; we pay at a certain level but the City fought for 20 years to bring that
expenditure, that unfunded liability, meaning a commitment that has no money behind it, bring that down. It
started around 2001, for 17 years the City fought. So when the bill came before us last year and again
when this Commission agreed to extend, in the first version of this contract, the unfunded liability, almost
doubling the City’s obligation to pay out when people resign or leave for retirement.

Board of Aldermen 1-02-2020 Page 3

The proposal was to give them about 1/3 third of their pay in payout of unused sick time as a maximum;
I’ve raised that for a long time as a problem. So you balked at that, because this came up right in
November or late October, you balked at it. | said, you should, some of you agreed, at least at that
moment, so the contract was not passed, was not rejected but it wasn’t passed. It was sent back to the
Commission. Then they removed most of that, there is still a little bit of an increase which we could get into
that; but they removed most of that. But then increased the wages from a little over 9% to a little over 11%;
| mean is that a reasonable approach? Shouldn't they have at least have come back to me or you and
said, “Well which one, we can do one or the other’. | mean the first contact was clearly better than this one
for the City. So we are now faced with a worse contract because we balked at increasing the City’s
unfunded liability.

So look, | am trying to work with you, | am trying to compromise, |’m trying to be reasonable, | am trying to
tell you what | think is coming. If you don’t believe me, if you just think it is all hogwash, tax rate is not
going up, healthcare is not a problem, this doesn’t create any type of precedent; are you sure you want to
reach that conclusion without hearing the people who are actually involved in these issues? So based on
that | am asking you to work with us, you can still pass it next year. If you listen to people who are
knowledgeable about all this and you think they are all wrong, or if you disagree that, you know, it is
important to give this raise regardless of the consequences, holding this until next year is not the end of the
world. So that’s all | am asking, | know | am outnumbered 20 to 1. Some people said | shouldn’t bother
with any of this, why fight with the Aldermen and the Police Department? Not a bad point. But! am trying
to work with you, | am trying to do best, but overall | am looking out into the future about what might happen
with the taxes and what the City can afford and what is likely, you know, what the voters and people who
pay for all of this are likely to think, reach a reasonable balance between raising taxes and paying people
correctly and delivering services. So that’s my pitch, | did go on longer than | expected, but | am just trying
to consult you as a partner in City Government.

President Wilshire
Thank you Mayor. Alderman Clemons?

MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO AMEND THE AGENDA BY OPENING UP A PUBLIC
COMMENT PERIOD

ON THE QUESTION
President Wilshire

So the motion is to add a 15 minute public comment or typical public comment period. That’s the motion.
Discussion on that motion; to allow a 15 minute comment period?

A viva voce roll call was taken which resulted as follows:
Yea: Ald. O’Brien, Ald. Gidge, Ald. Harriott-Gathright, Ald. Dowd

Ald. Klee, Ald. Laws, Ald. Lopez, Ald. Caron, Ald. Kelly,

Ald. Jette, Ald. Melizzi-Golja, Ald. Tencza, Ald. Schmidt, Ald. Clemons

Ald. Wilshire 15
Nay: 0
PUBLIC COMMENT
President Wilshire

| would welcome the public to give public comment, we have a 15 minute period. Give your name and
address for the record, please?

Board of Aldermen 1-02-2020 Page 4

James Tollner, Nashua Police Commissioner

Jim Tollner,_1Sequoia Circle. I'll just take about two minutes. | would like to start by thanking all of you for
being here tonight to vote on this contract and those of you that are on the phone. This contract consists of
16 FDE’s and it is two fiscal years in arears, having expired in July 2018. The first proposal was vetoed last
year around this time.

| will be brief as the Chief will go over what he has been asked to do and the changes that took place
during these lengthy negotiations, so | will not duplicate his points. | would like to clarify a few comments
that are out there. The Police Commission followed the required process that has been used by the City
Administration in previous Police Department Commissions, so over the last 20 years in negotiating and
communicating these contracts. During this process Corporation Counsel was involved; it was sent to
Finance to cost out, to Finance & Administrative Service processed this information with the Administration.
We have never, never circumvented the process regarding this particular or any other contract during the
numerous discussions and meetings that we have had with staff and the Mayor’s Office over the last 18
months.

| think we all would agree that the rising cost of healthcare has been a constant. It was an issue when |
was an Alderman 14 years ago; it is not going to change. But the one thing | want you to Know is that the
Commissioners are tax payers as well and we share the same concern that the Board of Aldermen does
and the Mayor. It is also our responsibility like each of you around this horseshoe as the Mayor has stated
and | quote, “To protect the citizens of Nashua by being mindful and appreciative of the outstanding service
that all of the Nashua Police Department provides to our great City”.

To be clear, the Commission Chairs and concurs with the Mayor’s comments regarding future budget
concerns, stating such at the Police Commissioner's Meeting on December 16" and again via voicemail on
December 19". | communicated to the Mayor that he had the commitment of the Commissioners and the
PD that we will support his efforts and manage this, finding a balance moving forward. We welcome the
opportunity to participate in future discussions, working in unison with the Mayor's Office, the Board of
Aldermen and the Unions in addressing the challenges that lay ahead. And the new contracts, new
contracts that will come before.

In closing, at the last Board of Aldermen Meeting you voted 15 nothing to approve both of these Police
Contracts. You also voted 15 nothing to approve three bonding projects. Nothing has changed since that
vote regarding either the bonding projects or the Police Contracts. We would respectfully request that you
move forward and reconfirm your vote again, that you vote again supporting these contracts. Thank you
very much.

Michael Carignan, Chief of Police

Good Evening, my name is Michael Carignan, spelled C-A-R-I-G-N-A-N, | am the Chief of the Police for the
Nashua Police Department. First of all I’d like to thank you for coming tonight, | Know it has been a very
busy Holiday Season and this is a special meeting, not on your agendas for normal. | really appreciate you
taking the time to come, to listen and consider the issue.

As most of you know, this is my sixth time in front of you regarding this particular contract. | will be brief. |
believe you all know me and know that | also believe that as issues arise, | try to discuss and reach mutual
acceptable compromises on everything. I’ve explained my rationale and answered every question to the
Budget Review and full Board, receiving unanimous approval at each. Nothing has changed from a week
and a half ago.

| would like to briefly address a couple of points in a Veto message we have all received and was recently
referenced in several media outlets. | will gladly answer any questions you have regarding this contract at
any time tonight.

Board of Aldermen 1-02-2020 Page 5

One issue | would like to address is the point regarding statements made by the Police Department that
they had not been told about the problem of healthcare costs before negotiations are not accurate. These
statements were accurate; the UFPO Contract which is in front of you tonight has been outstanding for over
a year and a half. I’ve been in front of you all five other times. We've been given guidance from the Mayor
and from the Aldermen many times, never once have we discussed the cost of healthcare concerning this
contact with the exception of the last Aldermen Meeting.

Regarding the Supervisor’s Contract which was recently approved; submission to the Board of Aldermen
was 12/19/2019. The contract negotiations were finalized on August 28, 2019, the Union voted to approve
33 to nothing on 9/8/2019. The contact was red-lined, finalized on roughly October 17". It was sent to
CFO Griffin shortly thereafter, we received the costing back from the City on November 12". A week later
representatives from the Mayor’s Office came to the Commissioners Meeting and spoke about the sick
buyout and the preferred raises. Nothing was said at that meeting that night about issues involving
healthcare costs and the impact that this would have on the overall City Budget.

General statements made at State of the City speeches or City Budget speeches that healthcare is an
issue for us moving forward does not really qualify to me as direction on how we negotiate contracts or
what percentages should be. Furthermore, regarding the knowledge of a 19% increase in our healthcare
budget is not really a fair statement due to the way our budget is prepared. The benefits are removed from
the budget calculation of percentage increases, therefore we did not analyze the benefits, pension or FICA,
Medicaid accounts. The budget calculation in the management for health benefits for the Police
Department are not done by the PD Financial Services Division, they are managed by the City.

The second point I’d like to discuss is the point when the Police Commission re-submitted the contract, we
did not simply remove unused sick time buyout provisions as requested. Instead we raised the wage
increase from 9.5 to 11.25% over the four years. I’d like to address this issue by stating that | have been in
front of you five times. When | initially proposed this contract in front of you, | was operating under the
guidance of the Mayor's wishes to stay with under the proposed spending cap. | was able to do that using
creative methods in which | have done for two other contracts which were both approved. The night |
submitted this the first time, there were some issues involving other City Employees that came to fruition as
a result the contract was tabled.

| was asked to reach a compromise; come back, talk to them, reach a compromise, | did that. | came back
with a sick buyout program that was half of what every other member of my Police Department was
receiving. They agreed to do so; they worked with me. | again proposed that to you, it was accepted
through the Budget Review Process. It was stalled again at the Full Aldermen Meeting due to some
concerns and issues that came up that it was not enough; sick buy out programs result in long-term,
unknown costs to the City and are not good. | was told by several Aldermen that they would consider wage
increases much better than they would like to see the sick buy out programs. | was told by the Mayor at a
meeting that he believes we should pay the employees more, not use a sick buyout program.

So | went back to the table and we came back with a compromise and we took the majority of the sick
buyout program away. So the program that every employee in my PD has with the exception of members
of this Union are no longer able to use that. Instead we gave up that program with the exception of
changing just retirement to retirement and resignation after 15 years. This was consistent with other
contracts in the City and it is 5 years more than those contracts; they can resign after 10 years and get their
sick buy out packages. For us itis 15 years and it currently affects one employee.

As a result of being asked to look at increasing the wages as opposed to using a sick buyout program, |
went back to them and we did that. We came back with wage increases which | thought were very
reasonable. We did, in fact, go from 9.5 to 11.25 over the life of the contract. | did that based on what you
asked me to do. That contract we are talking about 1.75% over four years. That’s less than half a per cent
per year, for these people. You asked me to come back with wage increases because they gave up that
very lucrative sick buyout program that had future unknown costs to the City. They did that, they did it
willingly and | came back then with a 1.75 increase over four years; again that’s less than “2%.

Board of Aldermen 1-02-2020 Page 6

| think that is very reasonable, | have tried very hard to work with all of you to value your wishes, and to be
fiscally responsible to the City of Nashua. | very much admire the Mayor, | agree with the programs he puts
forward. | am more than willing to work with him on anything he does. | want to thank you very much for
your time, | appreciate it. Have a great New Year.

COMMUNICATIONS

From: Lori Wilshire, President, Board of Aldermen
Re: Special Board of Aldermen Meeting

There being no objection, President Wilshire accepted the communication, placed it on file.

From: Jim Donchess, Mayor
Re: Veto of R-18-102

There being no objection, President Wilshire accepted the communication, placed it on file.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS — RESOLUTIONS

MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO RECONSIDER R-18-102 AMENDED BY ROLL CALL

ON THE QUESTION

Alderman Jette

Point of order. Could you explain to us what this process, | think | understand it but | just want to make
sure that by moving to reconsider what we are doing is we are dealing with the Mayor’s Veto and if we vote
to reconsider then that would, if that does not pass, then the Mayor’s Veto is sustained. If it does pass,
then we vote again on whether or not to sustain the Mayor’s Veto. Am | correct on that?

President Wilshire

Yes.

Alderman Jette

So again looking for your guidance, is this the time that we discuss whether or not we agree with the Mayor
or not?

President Wilshire

No not until the motion passes to reconsider, because it is not on the table.

Alderman Clemons

Yeah just to make it little bit more clear, the motion to reconsider for all intents and purposes put the
Resolution back on the table and then at that point | intend to make a motion to override the Veto. And |
would think that at that point we would discuss the merits.

Alderman Jette

| see Attorney Bolton shaking his head, could we ask him why he’s shaking his head?