> WHAT CAN EMPLOYERS DO: Waypoint
recovery
friendly
> NH Resources
nhrecoveryhub.org
Get Connected. Get Help.” ree V1Vve
#* COMMUNITY
An Initiative of Granite United Way © ORGANIZATION
recoveryfriendlyworkplace.com
Copyright© 2019 by the State of New ti#ampshire
> National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
¢ For free and confidential support for people in distress,
| ENATIONAL |
prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones, I
and best practices for professionals: ,
° oe National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273- p R F V F N T | 0 N
¢ Can also text HOME to 741741 for free, 24/7 crisis L | F E L ! [rel E
™
1-800-273-TALK (8255
suicidepreventionlifeline.org
counseling
° Peer Support Agencies: No-cost, peer-based support for those
with mental illness
recoveryfriendlyworkplace.com
Copyright© 2019 by the State of New Hampshire
> Contact
Shannon Bresaw, MSW
Program Director
Shannon@recoveryfriendlyworkplace.com
Samantha Lewandowski, MS
Assistant Program Director
Sam@recoveryfriendlyworkplace.com
Karen Morton-Clark, CRSW
Recovery Advisor
Karen@recoveryfriendlyworkplace.com
Connect With Us on Social!
© @Recovery_NH
} @RecoveryFriendlyWorkplace
fi @RecoveryFriendlyWorkplace
SS @RecoveryFriendlyWorkplace
To become a Recovery Friendly Workplace or learn more:
recoveryfriendlyworkplace.com
recoveryfriendlyworkplace.com
Copyright© 2019 by the State of New t.ampshire
City of Nashua Declaration
Nashua is a welcoming city where the contributions of all are valued and celebrated. A
strong dedication to serving the community, teamwork, integrity and respect are the
foundations of its city government. The City of Nashua is committed to a healthy, safe and
stigma-free work environment. With our enrollment in the state’s Recovery Friendly
Workplace initiative, we now have greater resources to improve upon this commitment.
This initiative encourages an environment in which employers, employees and community
members can collaborate to create positive change and eliminate barriers for those
impacted by substance use disorder and mental health issues. In order to achieve a high
level of employee health, safety and productivity, we continue to encourage all employees
to reach out for help and support for themselves or a loved one.
Nashua is connected withThe Doorway of Greater Nashua, Greater Nashua Mental
Health, Revive Recovery and many other local organizations offering peer-based support
to people affected by or afflicted with substance use disorder and those suffering from
mental health issues. Nashua is a caring community with a city government that strives
every day to help all in its embrace live their best lives and achieve success
recoveryfriendlyworkplace.com
Copyright© 2019 by the State of New Hampshire
> CITY OF NASHUA
RECOVERY FRIENDLY
WORKPLACE DESIGNATION!
Board of Aldermen 08-10-2021 Page 22
So | do believe that by improperly counseling us at that time this got rushed through when a more accurate answer would
have allowed us to fully talk about it among ourselves and before we had claimed it was necessary and before we had
asked the public to come with the information that they then had and state their perspective. | think it was wrong to do it.
| feel that that rushed the process. Thank you.
Alderman Clemons
Thank you Madam President. | think back in Nashua’s history in the last 30 years of the referendums that we’ve had on
the ballot for various things whether it be to change the Charter or ask the public opinion. The most infamous of them all
was probably the spending cap. It had the largest ramifications but even that issue wasn’t rushed. That was issue was
discussed, it was vetted, and it was voted on by the people of Nashua. Think about the Broad Street Parkway. That
issue was discussed well. There was plenty of community meetings. Mayor Davidson at the time put that through with
the Board of Aldermen and that was a referendum that passed. Things changed. | was elected on the Board. | tried to
get another referendum on that but, again, it was a topic that had been discussed for years, and years, and years, and
years.
Moving forward, we had another Charter change to the spending cap. That was a citizen petition. That one was vetted
and discussed in the community as well. That went forward and actually | believe the Presidential ballot and that passed.
You know then more recently the performing arts center we put on the ballot. While that was a last minute decision to put
that on the ballot, the issue itself had been discussed in the community for almost a year or longer. Whenever we go to
put something on the ballot, it should be something that we’ve had a lot of communication on. That there’s been a lot of
discussion in the community. That there’s been ideas thrown out there for a different ways forward that are the best ways
forward. When you think about the performing arts center, we had studied that for | think over a year maybe two years
looking at different venues and things like that. Finally, the Board of Aldermen came to let’s do the Alec’s Shoe building
and finally that was put forward to the citizens to say is this something you want to do.
You know really this proposal here hasn't had the same kind of vetting. You don’t have the participation of the
community. You certainly didn’t have the aldermen being able to come up and listen to their constituents and propose
different amendments to maybe address some of the concerns that are coming forward. | wanted to get on the record
that | completely support your commission President Wilshire. | think it’s a great idea. | think it’s going to promote
transparency. | think it’s going to bring the parties together. | think it’s going to bring the police, it’s going to bring the
Aldermen, the concerns citizens, business owners to the table to discuss what the issues are and where we need to go
with this. So you know | won't be supporting moving this forward for those reasons because | think there’s more
community dialog to be had on this. | hope that the folks in the community will want to vet and get a better proposal. I’m
not saying that we’re not going to propose the change from having the Governor’s Council appoint this to some sort of
local control but what it is saying is we need to discuss what the best option is. In my view, we’re not putting forward the
best option to the community here because we haven’t engaged them to discuss that. For those reasons, | won't be
supporting this this evening. Thank you.
Alderman Tencza
Thank you Madam President. I’m sympathetic to the arguments on both sides of this issue. | come down very similarly to
Alderman Clemons in particular with current legislation as it’s written. | think there are changes and improvements to be
made to the Police Commission and | think it’s the intent of this legislation to include more diversity both in gender and in
race is | think a goal a lot of probably share on this Board. The language that’s included in this that says that the Police
Commission shall reflect the citizenship of the city could mean very different thing to very different people. Again, that
leaves it up to the Board President and the current Mayor whoever the Mayor is making those appointments to define
what that means. | think we could have a much broader community discussion about how we would like to see or what
types of people we would like to see on the Police Commission because the Police Commission does serve a very, very
important role in the direction of our Police Department. It would be great | think if there were more women on the Police
Commission there may be more officers. There may be more female officers who are in leadership positions at the
Nashua Police Department which would be fantastic for a city. Similarly, more people of color who are part of the
leadership team at the Nashua Police Department. That’s not saying anything about the current or previous
Commissioners but | think that’s just a reality. I’m hoping that this committee can strengthen and improve the proposal.
The other thing | worry about is that | do think this has started a conversation and we have a chance to make some
positive changes. However if this goes on the ballot, | do not believe that there is broad community support for this as it’s
written right now. I’d be concerned that if this proposal goes on the ballot and fails and that kind of kills momentum that
we've started here. | would thank Alderman Caron for her stewardship of this because | believe she did try to work and
work within the timelines because we know this is something that has probably be approved tonight in order to try to get
on the ballot. | believe that she did the best that she could. Our procedural vote to vote that it was necessary from the
Board of Aldermen 08-10-2021 Page 23
beginning | think was a reflection of that understanding of the tight timeline if this was going to be a viable proposal. I’m
hoping we as a community can continue to talk about this and come up with something that’s even stronger and get it on
the ballot in two years. Thank you.
Alderman Klee
Thank you Madam President. I'd like to first clear up something a comment that was made. Nobody was named but
when there was a comment made about an alderwoman had admitted to a hand in crafting the citizen’s petition. | guess
in some respects that kind of true but really only half of the story. I’m assuming that it was me as | helped work with the
original that is before us now which is what the citizens are using. | have had no crafting in the citizen’s petition per say
and the person who spoke has not had a conversation with me. I’m not quite sure. | know that! did not say that to him so
it could not have been misinterpreted.
The other comment about our CALEA accreditation. | think it’s wonderful that we have it. We are one of 13 with CALEA
accreditation throughout our State. If I’ve read the CALEA website right, we have Claremont, Dover, Durham, Goffstown,
Hollis, Hudson, Keene, Laconia, Manchester — much larger than Nashua, Pelham, Portsmouth, Strafford County Sheriff's
Department, and the UNH PD. There are six that are self-assessed: Bedford, Hanover, Londonderry, Newington, Salem,
and Stratham. Again most of those are much smaller than Nashua but Salem is quite up there as is Londonderry but they
are self-assessed.
The reason why | really felt that this was important and to the comments that were made about whether or not there was a
real need, an emergency, and so on, I’m not so sure that there’s an emergency with our current Commission or anything
of that nature but there is an emergency throughout this State. I’ve repeated that | sit on the Municipal and County
Government. We've had a lot of bills that have come through that are trying to take away more and more power from the
municipalities. One of them was defeated and that was what they called a “CACR”. That is basically a change to our
State Constitution and that would have changed drastically what Nashua would have the right to do. | don’t have it in front
of me, and I've tried looking and thought | had printed out, and | don’t have it with me. Basically what it said was that it
would strip the city or municipalities right to make any kind of changes for the well-being and health of its citizens. That
little provision that put in there — | know why they want to strip it out, it was because Nashua put in a mask mandate.
That’s one of the main reasons and that was talked about over, and over, and over again in the committee. That is just
one of many, many bills that are coming through.
So while | don’t see any structural maleficent of any kind of issue within our current Police Department or our current
Commission, | see horrible things coming down the road from Concord. That’s not a political statement. That’s just the
way that things run in the State of New Hampshire. When one group wants to make one change, then out comes another
group to make a change and we go back and forth and | call it the “ultimate tennis match with the citizens of New
Hampshire”. | don’t agree with it but it’s a way that it happens. When | saw that happen and being on the committee that
I’m on up in Concord, | really got nervous. | really got anxious. This was not the first time that | had brought up the
possibility of making this change. As | stated before when | became a freshman alderman, | brought it up. The word “no”
came out very quickly and being a freshman | was not going to basically buck the system sort to speak. | did not have
enough knowledge and I’m smart enough to know sit back, listen, and then ask a lot of questions. Well I’m in almost my
fourth year of being an alderman and my 5" year of being a State Rep. I’ve sat back. I’ve asked questions. While | have
apologized to the Chief for not having gone to him and spoken to him about this ahead of time, he is absolutely right. | did
not do that but | did mention it to the Board President as it was happening and not prior to it happening but as it was
happening this time around.
So for those that feel that | did not go and talk to them, | will publicly be on the record to apologize but | will not apologize
for putting this forward. | think it’s good. | think it’s important and | think based on what’s happening in Concord it is time.
It is scary times and | don't want to lose any more control. | want to get whatever control we can get. Someone said to
me, “Well why don't we get control of the school district, that’s run by Concord”. That’s run by Concord for the entire State
and not just Nashua. This one is just Nashua. While | cannot disagree with many of my colleagues on the other side, | do
think it’s time. I’m sorry that they felt like they didn’t have a voice on it.
| do want to make one comment also about the concerns of that committee. | love the group that’s on there. | think that
they’re all very wise, reasonable people but | was concerned Madam President with your comment about the other side. |
know you didn’t mean that. | think you just meant that you wanted each of the wards to hear both sides of the story. | just
want to make sure that that was clarified because | know you would not say the other side meaning that you were just
going to be talking about one side. | know you would be talking about both sides. | just want the public to understand
that.
Board of Aldermen 08-10-2021 Page 24
President Wilshire
You're talking about sides of the issue and not...
Alderman Klee
Right both sides of the issue. So yes | appreciate that. | think that I’ve had more than enough time to speak and thank
you so much.
Alderman O’Brien
Thank you Madam President. | just want to basically say that I’m very proud to be a member of this Board of Aldermen.
I’ve heard many complex issues that were basically discussed over the years and | think yes several different things did
go before the voters on referendum. One of the bills | just recently wrote too was to have the public take a look again at
the gambling issue that’s coming up on the referendum. Why did | do that is because sometimes even the voters get
confused. We've kind of felt | think collectively because it passed unanimously to put it back onto the ballot. So to say
who is really the smarter or anything, nobody really is. We really all, including the public or us on the Board of Aldermen,
try to do our best. In Nashua, our governing body is one that we vet the issues. Completely — pro and con and put it right
on the table. We’re not like another smaller town where we’ve got to have warrant articles or anything else like that. |
don’t know what it’s called and SB2 town or something like that but to come out. We're capable and we're duly authorized
to have those discussions. | think we could have had this discussion.
My main complaint with this why I’m not going to support it. It’s not that I’m against the idea 100 percent. | have my own
ideas but the problem | have | have not avenue to bring my ideas forward. Not to have a discussion and | personally do
feel a little bit slighted and as and alderman-at-large, | kind of think it’s kind of taken away a little bit of my authority or my
capabilities of being on the Board. Madam President | would like to thank you. | think you did well to come up in the bi-
partisan or in trying to olive branch between the different fractions that do exist on this particular matter to bring up a
commission because we have heard from the Police Chief and he says all he wants is the same thing that | want — an
opportunity to come and that we completely vet the issue. It’s not going to happen it seems and I’m not counting the
noses but it seems like it’s going to go right to the ballot. Fine. I’m sure the people can make a decision but | feel slighted
that | was elected to make the hard decisions and I’m not willing to pass that along. I'll stand here in the trenches and
have those debates and make the tough decisions what | feel is best for the citizens of Nashua. Therefore | am not going
to support this. Thank you Madam President.
President Wilshire
Thank you. Anyone else?
Alderman Jette
Thank you Madam President. This has been a difficult issue. When | first heard about it, | thought it sounded like a good
idea. | know | was liaison to the Police Commission not the past two years but the two years before that. | attended all of
their meetings. | can’t say that I’ve found fault in anything the Commission was doing. | thought the Police Department
was well run and | couldn't find any great fault. | did think that this is true of all of many of commissions the people who
end up serving whether it’s the Commissioners, or the liaisons, we get to know the Police Department, the police officers.
They earn our respect and we appreciate them. It’s easy for us to become not so much overseers of the — in this case the
Police Department. The same could be said about the Fire Department. We tend to become less overseers and more
cheerleaders or advocates for them because we get to know them, and we respect them, and we end up advocating for
them.
| think the Police Commissioners from my observation it could have been more — held a tighter rein over them financially
but they say that they did. There’s a lot that goes on that’s not seen. We aldermen have the ultimate control over the
finances. We voted to give the police a couple of different unions increases in pay and then this past budget thing when
the Mayor vetoed the budget and we overrode his veto and supported the Police Department and the Fire Department.
So we Aldermen you have that final say, that final control and we can’t blame it on them if we think they’re spending too
much money. It’s up to us to say put a limit on it and the majority of us didn’t.
The other thing is the Fire Commission is elected by the people. That is the ultimate local control. They, too, | think
become more advocates for the Fire Department and provide less oversight. When | think of the Fire Commissioners |
don’t know about you but | don’t know how many times we voted for the Fire Commission without really having a very
good knowledge of who they are, who the people who are running. So I’m not sure that electing the Commissioners is
City of Nashua
Purchasing Department
Administrative Services Division
{OU} JOSS 20U
Fax (603) 594-3233
229 Main Street - Nashua, NH 03060
Addendum 1
RFP 1050-022522
Audio Visual Equipment
February 22, 2022
Information included in this decun
IRPOTMAUON inciucedc if thls GocumMe!
If you are submitting a paper bid, please sign below to indicate receipt of this additional information and
include this page with your bid submittal. If you are submitting a proposal via Bid Express please be sure
to acknowledge the addendum on the wehsite before submitting your pranasal.
Addendum 1 is being issued to modify the bidding documents to include questions and answers received
from potential bidders with the initial RFP.
All other aspects of the original document remain the same.
Please sign and return this page with your submitted proposal. Failure to acknowledge the addendum
will result in the bid submittal being disqualified.
| acknowledge that Addendum 1 has been received and incorporated into bid submittal for RFP
1050-022522.
2 tude
Date
Mhansed reed ih x 4S wIya
RE MLS lhe Sent tL) an. sabe Ss
