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Board of Aldermen 02-22-2022 Page 30

In the minutes from the only Infrastructure Committee meeting since that December meeting, Alderman Comeau stated that
he received constituents’ communications asking how they submit their comments. I'll read an excerpt from Chairman
O'Brien's immediate response to Alderman Comeau. It was, and | quote, “I can answer that. There is an organization that
has been around probably since the inception of Main Street and we're relying on them for citizen input. That way we can
have stakeholders of Main Street.” Citizens who are more expert on the inner workings of city government than | advised me
that that organization who which Chairman O'Brien refers is the Downtown Improvement Committee. As can be seen on the
city's agenda center, that committee has no announced meetings since last April. Other sources have suggested there
actually has been at least one unannounced meeting, a recent meeting of the committee in which the barrier proposal may
have been discussed. If true, maybe this unannounced meeting was the only time for citizen input. I've requested of Mr.
Cummings, both in e-mail and my voicemail, for minutes of any meeting since that last one recorded on the agenda center.
However, he has not responded. Mr. Cummings states in his letter to you Chairman O'Brien that his proposal represents the
consensus of the administration. No doubt. To date, what other input has been recognized.

Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager

30 seconds

Michael O’Connor

He may believe that he has the best consensus proposal, but it is only the consensus of input available to him. Surely the
public comments attached to tonight's agenda should convince you the board that there are responsible stakeholders and
citizens have alternative input that should be considered.

In closing, Board of Aldermen | asked you is there a working group? If so, will its meetings be announced on the agenda
center and open to the public? Thank you.

Mike Ortolano

Hi. Mike Ortolano, 41 Berkeley Street. | appreciate a lot of the commentary that | heard. Kind of sounds a little bit like, you
know, righteous indignation that the chamber has when, you know, students and others are being demeaned. | think that
that's a good thing. The only thing that | would like to ask the chamber is that, you know, at the last meeting | observed a
communication that | think fell into the category of either knowingly or unknowingly hitting hard at a community member,
which amazingly enough happened to be my wife. But you know, it kind of opened up by suspending of the rules and of
course, you hear a lot of that. You guys suspend the rules a lot. This whole discussion, you know, over the six days of this
masked mandate which is kind of the grand scheme of things kind of nothing. | get it. It's nice to show good faith. You said
he dropped the thing if the numbers look good but in reality wnen you suspend the rules and then you allow an employee of
the city to, you Know, to basically state that a member of community has been reported to the Police Department and there's
an ongoing investigation from Corporate Counsel advising that you can no longer talk about it. It really reeks of an
opportunity missed for, you know, for somebody on the Board to call point of order, to shut down discussion when it's
inappropriate. Some of this stuff of righteous indignation really should cut both ways both to the people that you like and
other people that maybe you don't like that much, whatever the case. So | think the suspending of the rules, | mean it really
is something that has its place but | think it's very casually used by this Board.

The other thing is | wanted to communicate that | do not agree with maintaining barriers on Main Street. | feel that the
process being used there is very similar to the process that was used to try to change the structure of the Police
Commission. It was very closed. It wasn't open. It wasn't a process that allowed...

Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager

30 seconds
Mike Ortolano

...interaction with the community. It's being driven by Mayor, and a team of people, and it needs to be open if there's going
to be any consensus. Thanks,

Paula Johnson
Good evening again. Paula Johnson, 15 Westborn Drive. Member of the Board of Education, but I'm speaking on behalf of

myself. I'd like to thank the members of the Board for rescinding this mask because | made a comment last night, | guess,
but | guess it happen what | said last night happened tonight. Thank you very much. Because the people like me who have

Board of Aldermen 02-22-2022 Page 31

a disability don't have to walk around and show our letter anymore to say I've got a disability and | can't wear a mask under
number six of the ordinance and a mandate is not law. If you would like me to read it, | just looked it up in my phone.
Mandates are not laws. So I'd like to say thank you.

The other thing I'd like to say is that for $5 million, you don't debate anything like this. You just spend $5 million like that but
on amask we debate. You were killing the horse. You're beating the horse to death basically but that's not what | want to
talk about here right now.

Back in March - excuse me, December 17, 2021 and December 28, 2021, Alderman Wilshire you got a letter from Sue
Lovering, City Clerk, talking about three aldermen, and | know one of them was sick, missed three regular meetings. They
have to pay back their stipend. And what happened was on Alderman Kelly, there was a motion to table. Now if you
remember Alderman Wilshire when we were on the Board together, we had an Alderman that didn't show up most of the
time and we wrote that. | wrote that ordinance and its NRO 5-6. It basically says if in any quarter, and then it got amended
later on, if in any quarter any member of the Board of Aldermen is recorded absent at three or more regular meetings of the
Board, the City Clerk shall transmit a communication stating to the fact that the Board of Aldermen and the stipend for that
quarter shall be withheld. That did not happen. So | don't care. They don’t have to repay back the money. | mean other
than former Alderman Laws was out May 12, May 26, and June 3. | understand former Alderman Skip Cleaver was ill.
That was accepted and then Alderman Kelly was out three times. This basically states that you can't be out in a quarter.
Good cause shall include - because | wrote this with...

Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager

30 seconds

Paula Johnson

...Attorney Clarke on this whole thing and | think Ms. Graham you were up in the office at that time that for maternity, health,
and other things adoption. So | am as a public citizen, and also elected, and if | was out, | would have to give back my
money. Whatever the stipend was for that time period, we need to get it back or Alderman Kelly doesn't get her stipend
check. Enough, is enough, is enough here.

Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager

Time.
Paula Johnson
| mean and it shouldn't be. It should not be like this ever.

President Wilshire

Your time is up Mrs. Johnson.
Paula Johnson
Excuse me? A freudian slip there.

President Wilshire

Yeah.
Paula Johnson

| still retain the title if | want to and “honorable” | guess and “Representative” because | went up the scale like that. Some
people might not like it, but it is what it is.

President Wilshire

Okay. We need to get on to the next.

Board of Aldermen 02-22-2022 Page 32
Paula Johnson
Oh, there was just one of the thing | had to say. Just give me this one second.

President Wilshire

| have other people waiting to speak. Your time is up.

Paula Johnson

Okay. Alderman Klee - $250 more for the veteran’s tax that was voted on.
Karen Bill

Karen Bill, 95 Parnell Place, Nashua. Alderman Sullivan thank you for objecting to accepting whatever the committee
minutes were earlier. I'm speaking against the continuation of the downtown barrier project. The citizens of Nashua have
been voicing their concerns about this for months. Perhaps today is the day that you actually hear us. It's not only about the
businesses downtown. Residents have the right to walk on the sidewalk and have enough room between outside dining
tables and the street. Last week | sent an email to Tim Cummings asking for meeting notes of the Downtown Improvement
Committee. The first three e-mails were ignored. In e-mail number four, | stated my request in a Right to Know law.
Imagine having to do this in this city to a city official to get an answer to an e-mail — a Right to Know law. His five word reply
to me asking about information about the minutes, who was on the committee, the meetings. “I have no such record.” Are
you kidding me? Such disregard, such disrespect. Do you think if President Wilshire had asked this, she would have
received the same curt, dismissive message? Is there not a code of conduct that states that you must reply to a resident
within a certain amount of time in a professional and polite manner? If not, obviously there should be.

Having run a nonprofit in this city myself, many organizations have that as part of their operating procedures. Maybe it's time
for the city to follow suit. Mr. Cummings has a dismissive tone. These e-mails were not responded to. It's unfathomable to
think that you could just be dismissed without saying “Right to Know”. Not even Dear Miss Bill, nothing.

Discussions about the barriers on Main Street have resulted in the Nashua Fire Rescue voicing concerns about response
times. Nashua Police unable to pull people over on Main Street due to lack of room to do so. They have to wait until the car
pulls on to a side street or travels further up Main Street.

Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager

30 seconds.

Karen Bill

This is directly from a Police Commission meeting. Imagine the heightened anxiety on both parties. The cost - so what are
we supposed to do, right? | think it's time these barriers go. The cost to install and remove are somewhere around $60,000
per year. Lost revenue parking about as much. So what do we do with the barriers since we're not going to use them all?
Sell them? We bought them. We don't need them anymore. Let's make some money back. Let's sell them.

Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager

Time is up.
Karen Bill
Why not everything else is going up.

President Wilshire
Your time is up Ms. Bill.

Karen Bill

So | ask when do | get the information.

Board of Aldermen 02-22-2022 Page 33

Beth Scaer

Beth Scaer, 111 East Hobart Street. Thank you to the Alderman who voted to remove the mask to rescind the mask
ordinance and | want to especially thank Alderman Moran for bringing up the mental health issues. You know, | think we'll
find out how serious how many people are severely affected by mental health problems and how many people we have and
will lose to suicide because of all the restrictions, and shut downs, and the fear (inaudible).

Also, I'm just very concerned that Alderman O'Brien brought up the case of Typhoid Mary who was imprisoned for 20 years
because she would have Typhoid because she was ill. | don't think that's the kind of example of public policy that people
want to be, you know, held up as a good example.

I'm very concerned that Alderman Timmons said that her opinion is more important than ours. She was elected to represent
us not to lord her opinion over us, so | really hope she rethinks that belief. Thank you.

Sonia Prince

Hi. Sonia Prince, 29 Tufts Drive. I'm a little disappointed about the mask order but | thought you guys were gonna pass it
anyway but especially after the Board of Health specifically said they were worried about a spike after the Super Bowl and
the word about spikes after vacation. That was a little bit surprising. But, oh well. | do wish that you would listen to the Board
of Health. They are the medical professionals and the epidemiologist not us.

As for the complaint about the contractor last meeting, I'm very happy about the transparency. I'd rather know and not know.
So if there is a problem and a contractor is suspicious of somebody calling in, best to get that investigated and get it out of
the way. It looks like it was investigated so I'm glad that you're more transparent, unlike the Board of Education last night
who apparently voted on a Superintendent. When the meeting was like two to three hours long, they went into non-public so
everybody left after the second public the comment and then they came back out and voted because they were too afraid to
do it in front of the public. So that was pretty embarrassing | thought. So thank you for being more transparent that they are.

As for the masks, well this summer, | went to a Board of Aldermen meeting and there was a former police officer and a
former firefighter who weren't obeying the rules with the mask. So it was uncomfortable. I'm immunocompromised so there
is no option for me to go back there. So at least you have Zoom. Unlike the Board of Ed., | have zero voice there because |
can't go to the meetings because they don't enforce the masks there. Last night, there were people not wearing masks and
the Chair said, “Oh could you just like move away from the people with masks?” So what's the point of having a mask order
if you're not going to enforce it in that room? So people don't have a voice at the Board of Ed. meeting, which is
disappointing and kind of offensive. It should be like that. They should have an option to call in. Three of the board
members had to call in so why can't the people call in. | think that was unfair.

As for outdoor dining, | loved the outdoor dining. Last summer and the summer before, the downtown was vibrant. | spoke
to a few business owners who own restaurants done and that | know and they loved the extra seating. They said it saved
them because times were hard and having more seating outside - and people like to be...

Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager

30 seconds
Sonia Prince

So that's all | have. Thank you very much and, again, I'm disappointed but it is what it is and | hope that there's no spikes
coming up because then you'll have to put it back and that will make it look kind of silly. So | hope things go well as expected
and | hope the positivity rate Keeps going down. Thank you.

Brady Owens

Brady Owens, 16 Danbury Road, Nashua, New Hampshire. Speaking on regarding the downtown barriers. I'm definitely not
for the barriers. | know at least two businesses in downtown pretty very well. One’s a restaurant and one’s not. The one
that is not a restaurant definitely does not like the barriers because it just blocks his way. Traffic was very horrible with all the
barriers as many people have already talked about. And | just did just now a quick scan through the agenda for this meeting,
which oddly never comes up in the Board of Aldermen meeting. There's a lot of data on the agenda and there's a lot of
people contacting the city about the agenda. There are many business owners that have voiced their opinion against the
barriers. There were a few restaurants that it really helped and it served a purpose for the time. But as we saw this past year
once indoor dining returned and everything, the amount of usage of those outdoor seating, there were one or two restaurants

Board of Aldermen 02-22-2022 Page 34

that really used it a lot. But even some of the other restaurants such as Martha's, which always had a lot outdoor dining, you
know, their current outdoor dining they have is typically more than adequate. We're the kind of people that go out and like to
eat outdoors. We often noticed, you know, even before the barriers were put up and COVID started, there was always
plenty of outdoor dining for the people that wanted to sit outside, not everybody wants to sit outside, you know, they believe
it's hot. | was born raised in the south to me it never gets really hot up here. So we always sat outside and there's never
been a lack of seating outside at normal times. So I'm definitely not for keeping the barriers up. That's concludes my
statement. So thank you for tonight.

President Wilshire

Thank you. Just so you know, there's a sign-up sheet next time if you come that you have to sign up for public comment
period. It's usually on the back table. Okay. We'll allow it this time. Thank you.

Alicen Hogan

No worries. | thank you very much. | would like to thank the Honorable Tom Lopez for his response reference the
miscommunication and | look forward to having a discussion with you further. I'd like to thank the Honorable Moran for the
points that you brought up in regards to mental health.

| would like to clarify with the two other members that took exception to the sound that | made when Sage was speaking.
Grief is expressed in a couple of different ways. What you heard was a bark of extreme frustration because | have had a 12
year old family friend shoot himself and kill himself because of the fear of going back to school with COVID going on. Okay.
That is the mental health value that's going on right now. So to hear that level of fear in the voice of Sage and other students
that are currently in our schools, they need guidance. They need help in understanding the statistics that they are reading.
The statistics that she was commenting on were absolutely true for the first variant of COVID when it first hit. But this virus
has evolved as viruses do and we have gone through Delta, and we have gone through Omicron - two phases of Omicron.
And at present, those symptoms are stuffy nose, fever, sore throat, cough, and what not but not the level that she thinks they
still are at. And that's serious. That's having a negative effect on not just our children but other people and that's why we
need to have open conversations that discuss the most relevant information and where we are at right now. Because it
matters. Open dialogue matters. Facts do change, signs do change. We all were trying to do the best we possibly could
when this thing hit because we didn't know. No one knew. It could have been the zombie apocalypse and you guys did the
best you could. But we owe it to ourselves and we owe it to our children to not let them continue to spiral downward in an
echo chamber of fear that is fed through algorithms where they are locked in their tick tock, and their Facebook, and they
aren't having conversations...

Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager

30 in seconds

Alicen Hogan

...with people who have lived a little bit longer, who have seen a little bit more. | tell you as a veteran, holy smokes, the risk |
had to take to convince my young airman to go into an air traffic control tower in the middle of a war zone because it was a
target where they were going to get more than shot at, that's risk. That's real risk. That's more than .0099 bla, bla, bla, but
they did it.

Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager

Times up.
Alicen Hogan
Thank you.

Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager

Excuse me, Ma'am. Can you give your name and address please?

Alicen Hogan

I'm sorry. Alicen Hogan, 7 Hardy Street in Nashua, New Hampshire.

Board of Aldermen 02-22-2022 Page 35

Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager

Thank you.

Alicen Hogan

Thank you.

REMARKS BY THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN

Alderwoman Timmons

Thank you President Wilshire. The last speaker spoke about the heckling. | didn't Know who did it because | wasn't
looking over there. That's number one. So | just know that they were being heckled. | don't look over there. | don't care
who have over there.

Secondly, | like to clarify something. When | say my opinion, it wasn't - and I think the person heard it wrong. | didn't say
my opinion was more better than her opinion is that my opinion count. And so to the masses that do not come to the
Board. Their opinions count as well. | get a lot of e-mails from people that refuse to come to the Board meetings because
of certain people that's here at the Board meeting also that will not wear a mask. So that's what | get from the majority of
the people that write me and that's all | have to say.

Alderman Thibeault

Yeah | got a few things to say as always. So | just, you know, as far as Miss Sage goes when she spoke, | hope she's still
on and | hope she heard that because obviously if you can hear the laughing on the phone you don't have the background
any more than we do. So hopefully she heard that. Obviously, you know, I'm sorry for that loss. It's awful. | (inaudible)
with Alderman Moran too. | Know mental health has been a serious problem. It was a serious problem before and it's
even probably more so now. So | get that.

To Miss Johnson, | guess we got a little thing going back two nights in a row here. But last night she said we were
definitely rescinding the order tonight. When a high school student corrected her just to say it wasn't definite. She said
get your facts straight. So when | spoke, | said you know, you don't have a crystal ball but | guess | was wrong. She does
have a crystal ball. We did rescind it. She's got one on me so there you go.

I’m glad masks are gone honestly. Like | said, | was still gonna vote my principle and I'm still gonna vote the way that | felt
for the children of the schools, and my constituents in Ward 8, and with the Board of Health. But at the end of the day, I'm
hoping that the masks going way, obviously it doesn't sound like it with whole barrier issue, but I'm hoping with the mask
issue that we do get some of the nastiness in general on both sides of the coin to go away because it's just, you know, it's
not pleasant for anybody. It's not so much me. | don't care what people say about me or to me, it's more about people
who can't defend themselves. My vote is never going to be or should never be to try to do a good faith effort. It's going to
be what | think is right for my constituents or what | hear. If | don't agree with Alderman Cathey or | don't agree with
Alderman Moran or Alderman Klee, that's okay. It doesn't make me stop getting along with all three of them at the end of
the day. I'm gonna go with what I think is right for my constituents based on the information | have.

And one last thing, | just want to end on a good note. Nashua High School student Anthony Fernandez won the wrestling
title within the last couple of weeks, | think. He was mentioned at the Board of Education last night. | met his father at the
Great Gobbler during Thanksgiving Day and a lot of good ideas about schools. | just want to congratulate Anthony for a
great job. | know he's going on to school to wrestle in college, so congratulations to Anthony.

Alderman Cathey

I'd first like to congratulate Chief Rhodes on his retirement and thank him for his many years of service to the city. | didn't
get to Know them very well but | did meet him before | became an Alderman. According to his service record, he
obviously served the city very well and sacrificed for the city and we appreciate what he's done. Congratulations to, |
guess, Chief Buxton, who will be sworn in in the coming weeks.

I'd also like to thank the Nashua Police Department. | did a ride along | believe it was last week and that was awesome.
I'd like to thank Chief Rourke, Captain Faye, Captain Bolton, and then Sergeants Goodridge and Jones who | got to ride
with. Very happy with the job that they do. They are really professional, really, really good at what they do and I'm happy

CONTRACT FOR PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

TITLE

A CONTRACT BETWEEN

THE CITY OF NASHUA, 229 MAIN STREET, CITY HALL, NASHUA, NH 03060
AND

designLAB architects

35 Channel Center St. , Suite 103 Boston, MA 02210

WHEREAS, the City of Nashua, a political subdivision of the State of New Hampshire,
from time to time requires the services of an architect ; and

WHEREAS, it is deemed that the services of an architect herein specified are both
necessary and desirable and in the best interests of the City of Nashua; and

WHEREAS, designLAB represents they are duly qualified, equipped, staffed, ready,
willing and able to perform and render the services hereinafter described;

Now, THEREFORE, in consideration of the agreements herein made, the parties mutually
agree as follows:

1. DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED. The following exhibits are by this reference incorporated
herein and are made part of this contract:

Exhibit A--General Conditions for Contracts
Exhibit B--Scope of Services, Contract Time, Fee Schedule

The Contract represents the entire and integrated agreement between the parties and supersedes
prior negotiations, proposals, representations or agreements, either written or oral. Any other
documents which are not listed in this Article are not part of the Contract.

in the event of a conflict between the terms of the Proposal and the terms of this Agreement, a
written change order and/or fully executed City of Nashua Purchase Order, the terms of this
Agreement, the written change order or the fully executed City of Nashua Purchase Order shall
control over the terms of the Proposal.

AG1of4

Board of Aldermen 02-22-2022 Page 36

to have them on the streets. | really appreciate them inviting me into the station, giving me a tour, and answering a
myriad of questions because | tend to be quite inquisitive.

| think the BOE runs the meeting pretty well. | Know Alderman Thibeault was there last night and people were asked to
put their masks back on. Obviously, it's hard to control a meeting with like 50 people in the audience. It's difficult. We
have a meeting around the meeting was already running along at that point. So you know, we take what we can and we
do our best. So | wouldn't harp on the Board too much about that. They're trying to do the best they can through a
tumultuous season.

| learned this past week about the downtown Infrastructure Committee apparently having meetings in January and in
February without that information being on the city website. Apparently, information was posted on the bulletin boards
and City Hall. That information to my knowledge, and that can be corrected, and that's fine can't be confirmed.
Regardless of it could, the city is now in a pattern or behavior where the citizens look to the website to look up the
agendas, to look at what's going on with the city. I'd be hard pressed to find a lot of people who drive down to City Hall to
look at a bulletin board to see when there's a meeting. | would doubt that anyone does that. | believe that it would be
disingenuous to say, oh we posted on the bulletin board. That's not fair especially considering that they are dealing with
an issue that, let's say at the very least is 50/50. It's controversial to say the least. There's a lot of public input and so |
believe we need to go above and beyond to bring this matter to the public, especially if we're going to be voting on it for
three years. It's a big deal whether you agree or disagree. This is sort of like a relationship that we have to have with the
city because there are going to be some winners and there's gonna be some losers, depending on what side you're on
how you feel about it. And so it would behoove us to do everything we can to make sure as much of the public has an
opportunity to speak at Downtown Improvement Committee meetings, or other committee meetings, or even here at the
Board, which obviously they get a chance to do that. But prior input before it gets to us | believe paramount.

| think moving forward, no | don't know what happened. | can't, you know, | can't ascribe intent to that would be unfair.
That would be wrong but moving forward, we have to do a better job of figuring out when these meetings are, making sure
they're posted, and making sure the public knows. | have constituents call. They ask me when the meetings are and |
need to be able to tell them. If | say look on the website and it’s not there, that's a problem. That's not fair to them. So
moving forward, | think we need to do a better job of informing the public about this barrier issue and making sure that
they have all the input that they can get regarding that issue.

And then finally the last meeting we had regarding the situation with Ms. Ortolano in my mind is unacceptable. There's no
need. Having that communication in the meeting was unnecessary, in my opinion. Also, it could have said “a citizen”. It
didn't have to say anyone's name. It could have just been brought to our attention. It wasn't something we were dealing
with. It wasn't an ordinance. It wasn'ta resolution. It was just information and not information we needed to know that
night, number one.

Number two - to openly accused a citizen, that could be my mother, if you decided to visit from New Jersey, a sister, my
neighbor up there, and | hope that this Board would want to be like alright let's discuss this into nonpublic because this is
not appropriate for public conversation. That at least that's my hope and to accuse a citizen of a crime of which there was
no proof, and that was verified later with the police report which is in the packet from a city employee, how can we have a
good relationship with the citizens? How can we say we have their best interests at heart? How can we say that we
represent them when we have members who work here accusing them of a crime without proof? It's just unacceptable
and | hope in the future the Board would act differently in those situations, or | don't know all the procedural things yet. |
still learning and so maybe that'll come with time but in the future, it's got to go down differently and | believe, in my
opinion, that the city owes Miss Ortolano an apology for that act because it wasn't right. Thank you.

m

Alderman Gouveia

Thank you, Madam President. I'd like to echo what Alderman Cathey said about the situation with Mrs. Ortolano. | feel it
should have been done on a non-public session and I'll leave that at that.

On a lighter note, | wish everybody a happy Tuesday 2-22-22. Saw the very festive door by the HR Department on my
walk up here this evening. | wanted to thank everybody also for speaking tonight either for or against any of the - well
mostly for the mask mandate. It's a very divisive topic. It's one both sides are very passionate about and | think it just
goes to show and | think our Board here has done great with good civil discourse which has been a real positive thing for
the City of Nashua. Thank you.

Alderman Dowd

A couple things related to Zoom. We passed tonight that you can’t Chair a meeting through Zoom. We rescinded the

Board of Aldermen 02-22-2022 Page 37

mask ordinance and hopefully at some point in the not too distant future, you won't have to wear a mask at City Hall. At
that point, | think the Board needs to consider us eliminating Zoom entirely unless an Alderman is ill or something and
can't attend. But as far as anybody else, they should be here in person.

The other thing is the there was questions about Zoom for the Board of Education. There is no capability at Nashua High
North for Zoom and it's about 30 plus $30,000 to put it in. | can tell you the Board of Ed. is not going to spend valuable
money out of their education budget to put that in. Especially where it's probably going to be going away soon. So it's not
because they're trying to avoid public input, it's because they don't have the capability and it's very costly.

Also last night, the television broadcast of the Board of Ed meeting was horrible. It got so bad | just recorded most of it
because every five seconds | was cutting out. That is not good. | don't Know what they need to fix it but somebody needs
to look into that and quickly probably. That’s all.

Alderman Comeau

Thank you, Madam President. | had a couple items but they’re real quick. | just wanted to give Alderman Thibeault some
more details. Anthony Fernandez did just finished first on Saturday in the district. He was one of six students from
Nashua South that placed. There was a first, a second, two thirds, and three fourths, including my son, and helped
Nashua South finish third in the entire tournament. So those six wrestlers are all moving on to meet champions this
coming Saturday. So congratulations, all them.

The two things I'd like to discuss - most of this has already been touched upon so I'll try not to repeat too much. The first
thing is the situation that happened two weeks ago with Ms. Ortolano. | agree that | don't think that that was the
appropriate way to handle that. RSA 91-A allows us to go into non- public for a number of reasons and one of them is
specifically, you know, matters that would adversely affect the reputation of a member of the public. So that's a situation
where | would hope in the future where we go into a non-public session.

Additionally, | think that the whole thing was premature. Somebody else mentioned that that wasn't information we
needed that night. That could have gone through the normal process without the suspension of rules to add it
immediately to the packet. It seems after the fact that it's pretty certain that somebody jumped the gun when you have the
Nashua Police basically saying that the things that were alleged by Direct Kleiner didn't actually happen and that the
gentleman from the company in question did say that Ms. Ortolano never identified yourself as a city employee. So it
seems like that was just one big misunderstanding that the entire thing could have been avoided and her reputation
probably could have been preserved a little bit. So | do agree that she's owed an apology not just from the Board but also
from Director Kleiner.

The second thing I'd like to discuss, which has also been mentioned, is the situation with the barriers and the Downtown
Improvement Committee. | have a number of constituents who have been in contact with me for the last several months
expressing their desire to be involved in the discussion in any committee that's been formed. We did talk in January after
the Committee of Infrastructure about forming a committee and we were told that a committee would be formed and we
would find out later the details about that. Since then, I've had people e-mailing me nonstop asking me when it's going to
be on an agenda, when will we be able to talk about it, and I've been telling them there's nothing coming up. There's
nothing on any agenda. Trust me I'm on the Infrastructure Committee. If we were talking about it, I'd know and now come
to find out that we've been talking about it all along. There was a Downtown Improvement Committee meeting in January.
There was a Downtown Improvement Committee meeting in February. There's no minutes available online. There was
no public notice that these meetings were taking place. We know as a body that there is an opposition voice. How loud
that voice is subject to debate. That could be 50%. It could be 10%. It could be 90% but we do know that there's not
100% support for the barriers.

So | really strongly feel that the process that was used was deceptive. It was used to keep people out of the meetings
that were going to be loud, dissension voices. People were intentionally not told when these meetings were going to take
place because their participation was not welcome. And then for Director Cummings to say that they waited for alternative
solutions and none were presented was not surprised that no one presented because no one was given an opportunity to
present anything. So | would hope going forward that we have a lot more transparency around an issue that is specifically
so divisive. We know there is opposition. We owe it to the public to hear all of their voices and give them the compromise
that was promised in December and that was promised again in January. There is no compromise if we only allow one
side to attend the meeting and we don't allow the other side to give their opinions. Thank you.

Alderman Clemons

Thank you, Madam President. So just to address the issue with that's been brought up about the Downtown

Board of Aldermen 02-22-2022 Page 38

Improvement Committee. I'm the liaison to that committee and the meeting in January | did not attend probably because it
wasn't on the calendar online like everybody else. | actually and for some reason my e-mail was off the distribution list for
the committee members even though I'm the liaison. So there is a huge mix up there to begin with. | think it might have
had something to do with the term changeover from the last Board to the new Board. | don't disagree that, you know, that
a mistake was made where it should have been put on the calendar. | agree with that.

I've been assured and reassured that all committee meetings and everything will be on that calendar moving forward,
people are going to check, double check that type of thing. | don't think that anything was done intentionally because |
know the people involved in this, at least on the committee. They’re volunteers. They're hardworking volunteers. They're
not out to hide anything from people. They're just there to do their job. They look at things that come before them. They
give their opinion on what comes before them and sometimes they advise the Board of Aldermen on different things
depending on what it is that comes before downtown.

In addition to that, they recommend different projects and things that have to do with the downtown. And of course,
everything that they maybe say yes, you know, we would want to do that, or no, or whatever, anything that's going to
come forward has to be approved by this body anyway. They have no real authority as to approving a plan, or not
approving a plan, or anything of that nature. So the real decision for anything like that is made here. That's not to
discount, however, the fact that public participation is important and | always encourage public participation and I'm
disappointed that that happened. That some people feel that they weren't able to go because it wasn't posted on the city
calendar. So | have been reassured that that will not happen in the future and | think that moving forward, | think for all
committees, | think we should have a much more transparency | think and | think we'll do that. | think that's going to
happen because the people demand it when the people want it and it's the right thing to do. Not only that, but it's also the
law. So but I, again, | don't think anything was intentional and | firmly believe that.

Alderman Jette

Thank you, Madam President. So we've rescinded the ordinance requiring wearing of masks. | just want to acknowledge
all of the e-mails that | got on this tissue. | Know that there are people that are very passionate about the number one that
they shouldn't be told that they have to wear a mask. It's a violation of their personal freedom. | understand that they
think that.

Secondly, a lot of people feel that the Coronavirus certainly was never a threat and is certainly not a threat now. | know
there are people who believe that and also that there are people that don't believe the masks work. In fact, not only do
they not work, they think that they're detrimental to their health. | understand that those people believe that and | respect
their belief. Alright, don't believe. | believe that masks are a useful tool along with the other things that have been
recommended. So even though we've eliminated the mask mandate - the ordinance requiring masks - the
recommendation - and | know there are people out there who believe as | do that the Coronavirus is a serious threat and
continues to be such. Even though our numbers have gone down, they are still according to the State table, we're still in
a substantial risk of community transmission. According to the CDC table, we’re in a high level. The State level of
substantial. There is no higher level. That's the top. If it's above 10%, you're in that substantial level as far as the State
is concerned and we're at almost 15% the doctor said.

The CDC has if it’s above 10%, that's the highest level. If it's above 8%, it's substantial. So they say that if it's above 8%,
it's not safe to be in indoor spaces with people that are not part of your family group and that you should wear a mask. So
we've done away with the ordinance so people are free to choose but | hope that most of us will choose to number one
get vaccinated and we've learned that vaccination does not it provides increased protection, but it's not absolute
protection. You continue to watch your distance with people that you're not familiar with. That you stay away from them.
That you wash your hands and that you wear a mask in indoor public spaces until the numbers continue to go down until
they reach a safe level. So | know a lot of people disagree with me on that and | respect their opinion. | hope that you will
respect mine and acknowledge, or | hope you understand that, you know, my vote tonight was | was doing what | thought
was the best for the interest of the public at large based upon | think what is acknowledged to be the consensus of the
medical experts out there.

On the barriers, I've also received a lot of e-mails about that. I'm on the Infrastructure Committee. The Infrastructure
Committee in December what was said before is accurate. There was a meeting - our meeting in December. There was
a group of downtown business owners, professionals, retail people and restaurants and the message they gave us was,
they want to come up with a compromise plan that is agreeable to everyone that doesn't hurt one business and doesn't
favor one type of business over another. We acknowledge that and we said that we were going to allow input, seek public
input, and come up with a plan that hopefully people will agree upon. I'm hoping that that the downtown businesses that
we give them a place to meet, that they can give us some input, and that they can come up with a plan that they all agree
upon. | mean what we're doing is we're trying to help downtown businesses. That's the reason that we came up with this