Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 11/20/2017 - P12
Senator Lasky
Well, partly, we’re going to retain them by giving them a living wage, which we don’t do that very well.
Representative Mangipudi
In continuing with the licensing, | just wanted to ask if the clarification in terms of is the state still underserved,
because especially in mental health and the healthcare fields, the doctors and mental health workers and
psychiatric stuff, because there’s an acute shortage of psychiatric in the state in general, and particularly the
Nashua area. And if QA’s like Harbor Homes and stuff had a special way of getting people from outside, not
necessarily outside the country but outside the state, because there was no federal reciprocity. That was one of
the things that Southern New Hampshire Medical Center was looking at, to see if we can have legislation to
strengthen, that the federal reciprocity for doctors and mental health workers. | have to look at that bill that
passed with the reciprocity for nurses and stuff and see if that holds good for doctors, too, because the licensing
for doctors is a very elaborate process, and if other states are doing it as a federal registry, federal licensing, and
that goes across.
Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja
| would just like to follow-up on Senator Lasky’s comment. So the reciprocity you were talking about was across
medical licensing? Nurses?
Senator Lasky
It was psychologists and sociology. It wasn’t M.D.’s.
Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja
And not Allied Health professionals?
Senator Lasky
Because | believe there already is reciprocity with that, and that would be up to the Board of Medicine.
Alderman O’Brien
If | may change gears, bring up another different subject matter, currently and to let you know, there is a
bicentennial committee that’s meeting with the pension system right now that’s occurring up there at the State
House. Why is that important? Let’s look at what happened in the municipal budget this year. They wanted to
make well the fast track, or whatever you want to call it, in the pension system, to the tune to the City of Nashua
of $2 million. If the budget was going up, let’s say, $3 million but we had to take $2 million to pay to State to
cover the costs for our obligations with the pension system, and the State has to get their money from the City,
that would have brought us into a problem. We have a pending court case we’re waiting to hear on and a way
that we tried to tried to solve it here in the city, but the problem is the $2 million obligation still hasn’t gone away,
and it’s going to be there next year and the next couple of years. And the problem with that is whose fault is it?
Well, we fought two wars, and anybody that has a 401k or anything and looking at their own personal
involvement in the stock market can see now the thing seems to be doing well. But you can see what happened
we went through a period of time. And the pension system which relies very heavily on the stock market, just as
much as your 401k does. So it is a mirror and does reflect on everything else that occurs with it.
So other changes have been made in positive, but | would like to bring that up, as we’re going to see what’s
going to come out of this committee. What is it going to bring back to us in the city, from our delegation and
everything, and to our obligations to further into the pension system? | kind of understand we’re somewhere
around the 67%, it’s in the 60’s. | also sit on the pension board for the DPW and we're at 83%. We seem to be
running that in our city pension system, the DPW, very well. | don’t Know what’s happening with the 400 people
up at the State. We’re going to have to watch this particular commission, see what it comes down to. And I’d like
to remind the delegation: 35 percent of the economic economy that goes to the state of New Hampshire comes
