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Board of Aldermen — 4/11/17 Page 15

field. Southwood Drive is totally gone. | don’t? know when we will get to those in this project, but the main
roads, Amherst Street and Hollis Street, are in really bad shape. | am definitely going to support this. If we
don’t do it now, it’s going to be far more expensive. It’s time to grab the bull by the horn and get this done.

Alderman Schoneman

| share Alderman Dowd’s sense that we didn’t do it right all along and that’s how we got into this jam. | think
we are in this jam because we didn’t do it right over the years. That’s my biggest frustration. We
misprioritized. While we’re not kicking one can down the road, perhaps we're kicking another one down the
road. The previous mistakes that we can’t totally fix and we have to rely on a future board, future mayor, future
administration to do something. | hope that they do because we’re in a deep jam because we didn’t do it right
before. It’s going require that we maintain the roads that we build, that we find the money. There’s going to
have to be some kind of operating money somewhere that we’ve been reluctant to allocate because we have
preferences or priorities, special interests perhaps, that we like better. As a result we’ve wound up in a jam.
It’s bad. | hate spending the money. | think we have to do it, and it does rely on folks in the future. | hope they
can do a better job than perhaps some of the boards did in the past. Thank you.

Alderman Siegel

We do have a certain amount of bonded debt right now but that does retire every year. It isn’t strictly additive.
Yes, we clearly have to be very careful. I’m not thrilled to have to dig ourselves out of a hole created by
previous mismanagement but nonetheless here we are.

Alderman Schoneman

| agree with we have to extremely careful. My point is we have not been perhaps as careful as we should have
been. | hope we can be more careful in the future. More careful, not just as careful; more careful. Thank you.

Alderman Lopez

| think we’re recognizing that we have this responsibility and that we have to repair these roads. | think they
are a critical component of our city. To a point made earlier, | don’t want to see emergency vehicles losing
their axle into a pothole trying to respond to an emergency. | understand what Alderman Moriarty was trying to
advocate for, and | think it is an important perspective, but | also think that the arguments made by Alderman
Siegel and Alderman Deane are equally important.

Alderman Cookson

This is a very, very difficult decision for the board and future boards to saving the infrastructure of the city. One
of the things that | would be most concerned about as we move forward, and | understand our process only
involves approving the bond amount of $37.5 million, but | would really be interested in knowing what the plan
is. Alderman Dowd’s comments with regard to Tinker Road ring loudly in that again Tinker Road received a
skim coat last year and one year later or one winter later, we’re dealing with a road that’s dug up. How do we
prevent that from happening again with the roads that we are going to move forward with if this is ultimately
approved? How do we ensure that we don’t run into that same problem again as we re-evaluate the roads with
the PCI on an annual basis? I’m assuming Tinker Road is going to become another highly important road
based on these PCI index even though it was only paved last year.

Alderman Siegel

Again, one of the things that was very important was to have the database populated. That just recently
happened. The Tinker Road repair was done in an environment in which it was not entirely clear that the CPI
was properly calculated for that road or looked at for what the correct means by which that road should have
been treated or repaired. That’s exactly what we are trying to avoid. | appreciate my colleagues concern
because that is a very, very valid concern. That is what motivated a rejection, at least on my part, of the

Board of Aldermen — 4/11/17 Page 16

previous administration’s plan because we didn’t have that information. Thank you, Alderman Cookson for
bringing that point up. | think that’s very important.

Alderman Dowd

There was another part of Tinker Road that failed and they had to dig it up and pave it right, not just skim coat
it. It’s last just fine. When they skim coat, it is very narrow; just covering up potholes and dents. The plows
dig it up. If you do it correctly, it will last.

Alderman Lopez

| just want to suggest to the Mayor that this is a large project, and all of the city is probably concerned about
when is my road getting paved, what is the reasoning behind how this done. If we have a new public relations
person at the department of public works, | think this is an ideal role for them. | personally was in favor when |
heard about it because | think the public could use a lot more support in learning how to deal with snow
emergencies or when roads are being plowed. | think this is in the same vein. It is important for the public to
know how the roads are being prioritized and when they can expect them to be fixed.

Alderman Cookson

Going back to some of Alderman Siegel’s and Alderman Dowd’s comments, | just wanted to raise the question
of who actually signs off on the roads with regards to the quality or the quality of the material that is used. For
example if we do use a skim coat, what quality assurance do we go through to confirm that material is of high
quality and it will last?

Alderman Deane

The area that | think Alderman Dowd was referred to that failed was mill and fill. They come and take a
machine that is carved by teeth and they come down and grind those edges and then they fill it with asphalt
afterwards. We have specifications through engineering. Those specs are given to whoever we buy our
asphalt from. That’s the way the asphalt is mixed.

The other thing about the program is it’s going to be a massive program. You have utilities in the street. We
have to get everybody on board so when we go in and put a plan in place, we’ve got to make sure that
Pennichuck and the gas company and everybody else in the roadway is well aware of our intentions. When
we go out and start paving, any new services or water lines, those things, will be taken care of. The sewer
lines will be cameraed, the drain lines will be cameraed to make sure there is no failure in place before we
pave. There’s a plan in place on how they would move forward and in with what areas of town they would start
with. | know the plan doesn’t include going in to the east side of town and totally taking over and paving every
road down there. That’s not going to happen because it wouldn’t be conducive to quality of life. People
wouldn’t be able to deal with that. There is a plan in place. | would assume and | would imagine the mayor is
going to have plenty of public input sessions, public knowledge sessions where he will host what is going to
happen, what has happened in the past when we go into neighborhoods to do work. All the CSO work we’ve
done, they’ve had neighborhood meetings so everybody knew what was going on and what to expect, how
long the project was going to last and things of that nature. All of that is in the pipeline and it’s just ready to be
funded.

Alderman Lopez

| didn’t mean any over simplification of the process involved. There’s a lot of knowledge and experience on
this Board. Most of the aldermen here really know what they are talking about because they have been doing
this for years. Even in public comment, there’s a lot of knowledge being delivered. A lot of Nashuans don’t
necessarily sit down and read that or have that. They may think there is a road guy just driving around fixing
roads. They may not know that all that elaborate work has to go into it. There’s a lot of expertise going into
this.

Board of Aldermen — 4/11/17 Page 17
Alderman Cookson

| just wanted to confirm what | heard from Alderman Deane and that was the asphalt specs are determined by
our Department of Public Works and those are conveyed to the company that is ultimately going to be doing
the paving.

President McCarthy

Yes.
Alderman Cookson

That would be a question either to you or through you to Alderman Deane.

President McCarthy

Yes, that is what you heard from Alderman Deane.
Alderman Cookson

Thank you, Alderman McCarthy.

A viva voce roll call was taken which resulted as follows:

Yea: Alderman Wilshire, Alderman Clemons, Alderman Deane
Alderman Cookson, Alderman Dowd, Alderman Caron
Alderman Siegel, Alderman Schoneman, Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja
Alderman McGuinness, Alderman O’Brien, Alderman Lopez,
Alderman McCarthy 13

Nay: Alderman LeBrun, Alderman Moriarty 2
MOTION CARRIED
Resolution R-17-092 declared duly adopted as amended.

R-17-093
Endorsers: Alderman-at-Large Brian S. McCarthy
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderwoman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja
AMENDING THE PURPOSE OF THE EXPENDABLE TRUST FUND FOR FUNDING THE JULIA T.
WARD PRIZE TO A MEMORIAL MURAL PROJECT AT THE AMHERST STREET ELEMENTARY
SCHOOL
Given its second reading;

There being no objection, President McCarthy re-referred R-17-093 to the Budget Review Committee
pending the public hearing scheduled for April 24, 2017, at 7:00 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber

Board of Aldermen — 4/11/17 Page 18

UNFINISHED BUSINESS - ORDINANCES

O-17-031
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman Ben Clemons
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
Alderman June M. Caron
Alderwoman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
RELATIVE TO THE WASTEWATER SYSTEM FUND AS A SEWER FUND
Given its third reading;

MOTION BY ALDERMAN DOWD FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF O-17-031
ON THE QUESTION
Alderman Deane

| have a question for our attorney. Attorney Bolton, | served on the Board of Public Works for four years, and
from 2002 to today I’ve been an alderman. I’ve seen many operating budgets, and I’ve seen the positions that
had percentages that were part of or service thereof be it solid waste or wastewater, which are both enterprise
funds. Tonight | hear there’s a state law that does not allow that to take place. Could you let me know what
that state law number is so | can look at it or can you comment on the state law that’s been mentioned?

Attorney Bolton

| wish someone would let me know what that number is because | do not read the laws that reference sewer
fund or as we call it wastewater fund to provide for that at all. When you allocate time that is spent by one city
employee, if they are working on something related to the wastewater system, it is proper to allocate if you
allocate correctly. If they are spending half their time, you allocate half their time. If they are spending ten
percent of their time, you allocate ten percent. The fact is that’s not only allowable, that’s required because
you are not allowed to fund your wastewater system through general tax revenue. You must fund it through
your sewer fees, which we sometimes call wastewater fees. That’s what the law requires, that’s what we are
doing.

It is not a lot different than the positions that spend some of their time on various federal grants or other grants.
They all have a budget. It’s all how much time is spent by a given position working on, for example, the bus
system. Again, we have to account for the federal government for all the time spent by the employees,
allocate their salary appropriately to expenses related to the bus system as opposed to expenses of that
position to fulfill other tasks. All of that is proper. All of that is not comingling.

There is a prohibition against comingling, if that’s what people are referring to. But that does not prevent the
proper allocation of time when people spend some of their time doing work on wastewater system and part of
their time doing work on other things.

Alderman Deane

So there’s nothing illegal or underhanded or anything of that nature that’s been going on?

Attorney Bolton

Not as far as this allocation of a position.

Board of Aldermen — 4/11/17 Page 19
Alderman Deane

The way the position has been allocated through wastewater and solid waste as enterprise funds is above
board and completely legal.

Attorney Bolton

Yes.

Alderman Deane

The public should know that. People get up and imply things that aren’t correct. Thank you.
Alderman Schoneman

| had a question on the same topic for Attorney Bolton or for anyone who can answer the question. How do we
account for that time? Is it punch card or just a note in the book? How do we account for an accurate time?
Just again, for public knowledge and for mine?

Attorney Bolton

I’m not an expert about how it is done for every position. | think in engineering it’s done by keeping track of
hours work. Whether they do that through the Kronos automated computerization system or whether they do
that by means of handwritten time records, | am not qualified to answer that. But | believe it is done on an
hour-by-hour basis.

Alderman Siegel

The split positions are approved in the budget. Nobody is punching a clock. When we get the budget book,
hopefully everybody recognizes when they read the budget, there is an entire set of pages on split positions
which happen across multiple departments. The street department has that, of course, in addition to
wastewater. It’s allocated based on historical data of how employees have typically allocated their times. That
happens upfront.

| also want to point out that the first step in that process is the Board of Public Works. Should the Board of
Public Works choose to do something different with their split positions, they control those personnel. Before it
even gets here, that decision is up to the Board of Public Works. So to have a Board of Public Works
commissioner come in here and say there’s an issue, well there’s a venue for that and that’s the venue that
that elected official is part of. There’s nothing going on that’s weird. It’s very, very common. In most
companies, it is a requirement because you want to properly allocate for resources. So let’s set that aside
because that’s a non-issue.

Getting to the specifics of the legislation, I’m going to simplify this as simple as it can be. There’s Column A
and there’s Column b. Column A, everything gets put under the Cap. We have to find $9 million to fund that
above all our other obligations. Column B, is okay, some people are nto happy because it potentially, not
actually, potentially leaves some space for spending that they otherwise may not want to do. But that’s of
course why we have budgeting processes. We can approve or disapprove anything we want. Column A is a
nuclear option which basically will very much harm the city in my opinion. | don’t believe that there are many
options for us to deal with Column A. Column B is a perception issue which some people may or may not like
and that is their prerogative. We all vote for different reasons, and we all have different perspectives. My
colleague, Alderman Schoneman, said that we shouldn’t necessarily accept this the way it is, and | understand
he said there is a process in place, which is an override process, to deal with these situations. | would suggest
to you that that is not a process. That is a consequence. A process is what you look at to get yourself out of a
situation before you pull the rip cord and have the consequence happen.

Board of Aldermen — 4/11/17 Page 20

A budget override is a consequence, not a process. | would urge any of my colleagues that wish to put $9
million in additional money we have to find under the Cap, that’s fine; the process is to tell us all how that
happens materially because there’s a lot of very, very talented people on this board and in various
departments that have gone through it meticulously. And, by the way, | credit the Mayor with asking his
department heads to approach the budget well in advance with the idea that they are flat lining. That’s just flat
lining and to see what’s happens. Now we’re not flat lining. We're flat lining minus nine.

If my colleagues can find out how to deal with that, that’s great because that’s a process. Overriding the Cap
is a consequence. | don’t think we need to get to the consequence. We can select Option B and then deal
with how we manage our spending appropriately like we always do, like if we had a budget where we had an
inflation rate of 12 percent and all of a sudden we had a tremendous amount of space in the Cap. That doesn’t
mean we Say, oh great! We have 12 percent additional space in the Cap; let’s go spend away. And there are
years where, in fact, inflation was quite high. We are now in an extended very, very low inflationary period. So
we have issues to deal with that, but we also have expenses that we are not responsible for.

We have the pension obligation we did not create. We have special education funding we did not create. We
have raises and rates we did not create. It isn’t like we have been irresponsible. | understand we are going to
make tough choices, but guess what? We get to make those tough choices. That’s what budget season is
about. And that’s where the process really happens in budget season. Please, God, let’s go with Column B.
Thank you.

Alderman Schoneman

The Charter, | think, lays out the process. That’s where it is at. It’s not just a consequence. | think we’re in a
consequence because of a desire to continue to spend money that is going to exceed the Cap. | fully
understand there are some things we are going to have to do. | think | heard from my colleague, Alderman
Siegel, say that there are some things that, of course, some of us may not want to include. By the way, | read
in the paper that as far as the school budget goes, which is the largest department in this city, that the
superintendent was putting together a budget that was 1.3 percent over the previous year. Then the
superintendent found out that it was going to be 1.4, so she put together a budget for 1.4. | understand Mayor
Donchess went to the Board of Education and said, I'll get you 1.9. Now is that the kinds of controls over
spending that we’re going to have with that gap in there?

| understand the Mayor has priorities and desires to accomplish certain things. | don’t find fault in that. The
one thing | don’t like is | think we’re doing damage to the city by going around this process. That! think is
nuclear too. If there’s a nuclear option here, | think that seems to be the one that my opponents are proposing.
Thank you.

Alderman Lopez

With regards to education spending, | recall that we did voluntarily cut money from the education budget last
year and that education is directly linked to property tax values, the success of a city, all the economic
development issues that we have had. | know in my ward, particularly, we have a strong need for an effective
education program. Schools that are funded appropriately, schools that are supplied adequately. | don’t really
see that as discretionary, willful spending. | think that is our priority for us as acity. We need to make sure
that our education system is solid.

| think that is just forward thinking and responsible management the same way having a paving program that
we plan out instead of choosing other priorities regularly is forward thinking and responsible. | think we need to
be careful not to just prioritize using a formula to make decisions for us out of convenience when the truth is
we're stacking that formula right now if we decided to just pump $9 million more into the deficit. We've had
opportunities over the past year to take different strategies that would have avoided issues with the spending
cap. We didn’t take those. We waited until now. This option is on the table and unfortunately it also includes
even more of a deficit.

Board of Aldermen — 4/11/17 Page 21

| think there’s a point where we are inflicting self-harm on ourselves. It is a difficult decision to make but we
didn’t take the steps when we could have prevented it earlier. If we don’t take the steps to prevent it now,
we’re going to have a serious problem with our budget. Mayor Donchess did have the department do
simulations, and some of those scenarios were pretty dire. | think our city is struggling in a lot of areas, and
this isn’t the time to cut corners and start taking shortcuts.

Alderman Wilshire

| think the damage to the city is going to happen if you vote with Column A. The problem is when the Mayor
asked the departments to come in at a 1.4 and he saw what those cuts were going to be, I’m sure they weren't
cuts that most of our constituents could live with. I’m not going to ask my constituents to live with cuts to the
education system, to police and fire, when they are already bare bone budgets to begin with. | am definitely
going to support Column B, and thank you, Alderman Siegel, for that scenario.

Alderman Clemons

| find it interesting my perspective in comparison to my colleague, Alderman Schoneman. He mentioned the
school budget going up. | think actually the final number was 2.03 percent of an increase. I’ve said in that
respect I’m not going to support that budget. I’m not going to support the Mayor’s budget when it comes in if it
includes the layoffs that are in there that are proposed in that school budget now and a few other things.

That’s because | believe that we, as a city, can do better. The economy has never been better in Nashua. It
really hasn’t. The unemployment rate is 2.7 percent. The stock market has never been better, yet here we are
with that economy and we're talking about how could we possibly fund our schools. How could we possibly
keep all of the current fire stations open. How could we possibly keep the number of police that are out on the
street at their current level. Yet, in the private sector we’re prospering.

There’s a fundamental disconnect. Former Alderman Teeboom put the nail on the head. We have a spending
cap. We can raise taxes as much as we want on people. And we do. We over tax people. How many
millions of dollars do we put back towards next year’s taxes so it defers the amount of money that that year’s
taxes go up?

| had a public conversation with the Board of Education president. He explained to me the different costs that
are going on on the school board, and how year after year the cost for special education goes up and up and
up. Those are things that we have to spend money on. You can’t deny a child’s education. So if it costs the
city $100,000; $200,000; $500,000 dollars to send that child to a particular special school because of their
special needs then the city has to pay that cost. Unfortunately what that means is we have to find other areas
where we can make up the difference. It is an unfunded mandate from the federal government. It is an
unfunded mandate from the state government.

We see this from everything. We see this coming down from Concord with the pension system. We see it with
special education costs. Things that we have no control over. Yet, we have a spending cap and those things
come under the spending cap.

It’s not right. It’s just not right. Not in this economy. When | first got elected in 2008 to the Board of Aldermen
and in 2009 when the economy crashed, ya, that was tough times. Those were tough times. That’s when we
had to make the difficult decisions. And | was proud to be on this board at that time and make the tough
choices and vote for a few budgets that Mayor Lozeau proposed because they didn’t lay people off. And those
were the most difficult times that this city has faced in the last 20 years, the last 50 years. We didn’t lay
anybody off. We did that because it was the right thing to do. Now we're faced with a budget that’s probably
going to come in and lay off people when the economy has never been better. | guess that’s good for them
because that means they can go out and probably find a job. But it is not the right thing to do.

Jim Donchess
Mayor e City of Nashua

To: Board of Aldermen

From: Jim Donchess

Date: 6/16/16

Re: Award of Nashua City Wide Telecom Project

Pursuant to NRO § 5-90 (E) which states that approval by the Finance Committee of a contract award in
excess of $1,000,000 shall be submitted to the full Board of Aldermen at its next regularly scheduled
meeting for final approval prior to award of the contract, please consider the following. The Finance
Committee approved the award of the below referenced contract at their June 15, 2016 meeting. | request
the Board of Aldermen’s concurrence and approval for this purchase.

Award of Nashua City Wide Telecom Project — Attached please find Purchasing Manager's Memo # 16-163
regarding this contract.

229 Main Street * PO Box 2019 « Nashua, New Hampshire 03061-2019
603.589.3260 © fax 603.594.3450 * NashuaMayor@NashuaNH.gov
www. NashuaNH.gov

Board of Aldermen — 4/11/17 Page 22

Getting back to this ordinance, ya, it creates a little room under the cap. And thank goodness that it does
because you know what? The taxpayers would get jipped if it didn’t’ because they would be paying more
money for less services. That’s not right, and | will never support a budget, not in this economy, that says to
people give me a little bit more but I’m not going to give back to you what you’re paying me extra.

Alderman Siegel

Excess money is not because we overtax people. It’s because we haven't spent money. We have positions
that become unfilled because people leave. That salary money accumulates, and it is leftover. There’s a
number of reasons why we have leftover money. It’s not because we overtax people. | also want to say that
while the economy may be good for some people, there are people on fixed income that the ups and downs of
the economy are irrelevant. We should all be sensitive to that. | respect my colleague Alderman Clemons’
comments, but just want to add a little balance.

The point | want to make is again for those people who want to say we'll just have to go through a process, |
actually did go through a process at one point. We had a piece of legislation that took earmarked money that
was specifically set aside to deal with our pension issue. What it wanted to do was put it into an expendable
trust fund and use that money to help us in the situation we’re in right now. That money, which was
earmarked, would have had zero effect on the taxpayer. It wasn’t additional money coming out of taxpayer’s
pocket, it wasn’t going to be replenished. It was specifically earmarked, in fact bond counsel knew it was
earmarked so it wouldn’t have affected our bond rating either. It was earmarked for that purpose. This board
voted no on that. People had their reasons, they wanted to see what would happen down the road. Let’s see
if we can tighten our belt and maybe not do that. But that option was shut down. That doesn’t exist. We took
that one off the table. That to me was process. That was at least myself and some other people that are
creative in the mayor’s office thinking about what we could do. Again, | want to say: what’s the solution,
everyone? You tell me. I’ve come up with some. They got shot down. Any new ideas? | don’t see them.

| think it’s incumbent if you say this isn’t acceptable, | don’t want this to happen, you always want to have an
alternative. In my company when people come up to me and they want to say | don’t want to do this, alright.
Fine. What’s your alternative? That’s how we deal with things in real life. Tell me what you do want to do to
help solve the problem. So, | would urge that. Thank you.

Alderman Moriarty

It’s worth noting that there was, by example, a union salary contract that grew by 20 percent over a course of
three years that passed by this Board recently. In fact it did include pension costs, but the bottom line grew by
20 percent over three years. From the day | was elected on this Board six years ago, it was time after time the
majority of the board chose to ignore the warnings that | made that we can’t afford this; that this was going to
come back and haunt us. And, here we are today. | take great exception to the assertion that the problem that
we have before us is outside of our control and is because of the spending cap. That is not true.

We knew this was coming. We could have planned for it. We chose not to. Yet at the same time, many
people, my colleagues, have made, the Mayor in particular, has made very persuasive arguments for why we
need to continue spending money. | encourage you to make those persuasive arguments and abide by the
Charter and get ten votes to move money outside the budget as the Charter states. Basically, you override the
spending cap. You just got to bond, a massive $37.5 million bond, with 13 votes. What makes you believe
that you can’t possible get ten votes to do what you want? | think that’s the honorable thing to do to approach
this properly.

A month or so ago it was taboo it seemed to even admit that what we are doing, O-17-031 is a spending cap
end-around. People weren’t going to admit to the public that it was a spending cap end around. | simply
wanted everybody to know, | wanted the Mayor to know, | wanted people who are supporting this to know that
the public knows this is a spending cap end around. But we sure made a lot of progress in the sense that that
has no effect on anybody. Alderman Clemons has said from the get go, | respect you for that, your position

Board of Aldermen — 4/11/17 Page 23

has been consistent. You outright say you’re against the spending cap. But for someone to not even answer
the question that it’s a spending cap bypass is just poor forum.

I’m going to vote against it out of principle. But may | remind you that 56-c refers to the combined annual
budget and section 5-154 defines what the combined annual budget is. There’s only one definition of the
combined annual budget. Only one definition. That definition applies to this year and next year. Whether or
not you move wastewater out of the budget or in the budget, it does not allow you to use one set of rules for
this year and another set of rules for next year. Nobody, | take that back, Attorney Bolton did, he is the only
person to make it an attempt to rebut that specific argument which he quoted 5-146 and 5-147 which defines a
separate term. The reality is, as the Charter is written, and the Nashua Revised Ordinances are written, this
does not accomplish the spending cap end-around that you want. The problem is what recourse do we have
as a public aside from a Writ of Mandamus? Do | personally have $2,000 to pay in attorney bills to fight the
city on a Writ of Mandamus to adhere to the law as it is written? | don’t know. So! am voting against it out of
principle. | recommend that afterwards you all read those sections, and insist that the Mayor adhere to the law
as it is written and not interpreted incorrectly.

Alderman Schoneman

With regard to the other attempts to fund the pension fund, or whatnot, these were appropriations that were a
spending cap end-around at the time. | think that all of these things should just be dealt with at the budget
time. That’s the time to do it. | didn’t support those then. I’ve never said that | don’t support paying the extra
$2 million. | never said that. | don’t want anyone to think that there’s an impossibility to get ten votes as
Alderman Moriarty just said. But those things should not be done in advance. They should be done at the
budget where we can talk about it and have a meaningful conversation on it. Thank you.

Alderman O’Brien

| kind of sat here quietly and listened to many of different points of views on both sides of the equation. |
thank you for your opinions. Wearing a double hat as a state legislator, we saw this coming down the road in
2010. It is here now. The elephant is right here in the Chamber. Many of us that are state legislators,
particularly this year and one colleague is sitting in this horseshoe, three bills were written trying to alleviate the
problem. But those that read the paper and kind of see what’s happening up in Concord, the Calgary coming
from the north, this is a Nashua problem right now. We have to pay the pension issue. You talk about bonds,
what happens if we default with the State of New Hampshire for $2 million? They will get it somehow. They
assess the tax rate for our community. The state needs to be paid.

Looking at that, we did our due diligence. We wrote bills. We looked at the current city budget. | complement
the Mayor. He looked through and saw maybe what was omitted, a loophole, or something. Fortunately it
was. lf it was intended to be under the spending cap, | take the former alderman who claims self-author of the
spending cap, he knew what he was doing when he wrote it. Why wasn’t it in in the beginning? This is not an
end around.

Necessity is the mother of invention. This issue that came down to us from the state gave us an opportunity to
relook at the ordinance and come up and Say it is not in it. | take great comfort in knowing what the city
counsel has said that we are not violating. | would never vote to violate any law. | take his advice, corporate
counsel advise that this is going to stand. If somebody wants to bring a challenge, they will bring the challenge
no matter what. | take confidence in knowing.

Therefore, looking at the whole problem, we got to do something because we don’t make anything sitting here
in the horseshoe. What we provide is a quality of life to our constituents. That is good education, good
schools, good fire, police, everything else. A wonderful downtown. We have the makings of one of the best
places in New England. | think if we don’t pass this tonight, we will probably do ourselves more harm and start
to erode something that many of us have stood here and tried to build. | think it would be prudent to support
this bill. Thank you, Mr. President.