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Board of Aldermen 12-11-2018 Page 42

Tim O’Neil assisted with the Nashua Community Television, Dave Pease was the main video
production, Jeff Poehnert from Nashua Community Television and Paul Shea helped with photograph,
Scott Silva who is the main video production, Sean from Nashua Emergency Vehicle helped us with the
vidoes, Chris Stawacz helped us with the AMR photos, Dan Young was the studio director, Harlan
Smith was one of the videographers, Dick Gagnon from Access Nashua was very supportive and in
addition | would like to personally thank all of those that we interviewed: Yusuf Abudi, Judy Carlson,
Tim Cummings, Tracy Hall, Kathy Hersch, Diana Hill, Justin Kates, Sarah Marchant, Brian McCarthy,
Gail Moriarty, Paul Shea, Fred Teeboom, Marc Thayer, Jack Tulley, Manny Ramirez Cecelia Ulibarri,
John Wiedman, the Deputy Michael Carrignan, Chief Brian Rnodes, Bobbie Bagley, and Dr. Jahmall
Mosley.

We have been sending this out and | don’t know how many of you have seen it yet but | ask you to take
the time to really celebrate Nashua and be proud of this wonderful City that Nashua is. And also the
importance of the gratitude for learning and hearing about from each of the people that were
interviewed, what they believed people would want to know about Nashua and what was important to
tell everyone about. Justin Cates said a very important thing to me, he said Yvonne, when you created
this, | did produce and direct it, he said you gave us a time in a moment that captured this City a history
of Nashua and took from its leader’s information that they believed held true. We will use this as a time
that we will go back to in the future to show where we came, where we go and how we got there.

| would hope that the video like all the others that were interviewed, they placed it on their web sites
and | would hope that the City of Nashua would place it on theirs because it should be. It should be
there for anybody who wishes to live here, work here, bring a business here to visit here to just be part
of here to see what a wonderful City it is. | would like to thank each of you for all the work that you do to
support the Nashua Community and to help it to grow and thrive. | also would like thank Community
Television for all they do to help inform our population about everything that is happening. | wish you all
good health and happiness, great Holiday Season and a wonderful New Year. Thank you.

Michael Ortolano Hi | am Michael Ortolano of 41 Berkeley Street and | am attending this meeting to
provide some additional perspective on a comment that the Mayor made at the conclusion of the Board
of Alderman meeting on November 27'". Specifically it was the second time that | am aware of where
the Mayor had specifically mentioned that the Ortolana’s tax bill will be going down 20%. The
implication being in my opinion that we really don’t have anything to be complaining about.

Since the Mayor kind of opened up that book and started the story | want to tell the rest of it to make
sure everybody on the Board kind of understands the situation that we are dealing with. In 2014 Laurie
and | bought the home at 41 Berkley and within 1 month the Nashua Assessor’s Office increased our
assessment by a little over 50% that was without even visiting our home.

| grew up in Nashua, | am a graduate of Nashua High School, | maintain Nashua as my home of record
throughout college and while | served on active duty in the Navy for 5 years. So this was a sort of a
homecoming and | have to say it was a most disappointing homecoming. Anyway the sheer size of that
tax bill together with the availability of all data that has been public as a result of the 5 year reappraisal
cycle has inspired a lot of interest on the part of myself and Laurie my wife in understanding how the
property tax in Nashua is managed.

As of 2017 to put in numerical perspective our property at 41 Berkeley Street, we paid just over
$18,000.00 in property tax. That is a pretty strong number for a 100 year old home on a third of an
acre. So ona dollar per square foot basis, it equates to about $208 per square foot. To further put that
in perspective | thought it would be helpful that there a lot of differences in the City. The Mayors home
which is just a few blocks away from ours had a property tax bill of about $7,400.00 and on a per
square foot basis was about $118 per square foot. In my opinion it takes some brass for the Mayor to

Board of Aldermen 12-11-2018 Page 43

be talking about my tax bill going down 20% when we pay close to 80% more than he does on a dollar
per square foot basis and over $10,000.00 more on a cash basis.

So | would encourage the Mayor to forget about my tax bill and to really focus on what is going on in the
Assessor's Department and the practices that have led to such significant differences. Property tax as
far as | can see is a zero-sum game. So for everybody that gets a sweetheart deal, somebody else is
getting the shaft and that’s kind of how it works. It will be a big win for the City if the current practices
can be improved so all property owners can feel confident that the office responsible for distributing the
tax burden in Nashua does so equitably and with a level of professionalism that is commensurate with
the important nature of that work.

Laurie Ortolano Laurie Ortolano, 41 Berkeley Street. Mike just gave you a nice summary of some of
the details of what happened with our property. | have kind of avoided the personal nature of it but the
Mayor has pushed it in that direction, so | am offering a little bit more. Mike is correct that the data has
been super helpful in giving us a perspective on what happened 5 years ago. | didn’t have a way of
looking at properties in the range of $675 to $725 where we fell out at $700; what those properties were
because | don’t have that access with the data base in the City. But with the KRT data base, we were
able to pull that out and there were 15 homes including ours that fell in that price range.

When you looked at the quality of those homes and where they were and the details of them, if left us
scratching our head on how did this happen to us, how did such a gross error happen to us? | am
looking at properties that first of all are built between 1988 and 2005, that’s the quality of the other 14
homes. Ours was a 1925 home; our acreage was .34, I’m looking at homes that are sitting on lots 1.12,
1.34, 1 acre, .08, 1 acre, 1.6, 1.2, 1.0, 1.3, 2.3, 1.8. Big lots, and | am looking at homes with square
footages 5,700, 4,086, 4,045, 4,200 4,200, 4,800, 4,300, 3,700, 4,800, we are 3,342. | am looking at
bathroom fixtures, 24 fixtures, 23 fixtures, 16 fixtures, we came in at 15 which was the lower end of all
the bathroom fixtures. And all of these properties 1988 and above, attached garages, air conditioning
all the modern features. We don’t have an attached garage, we don’t have air conditioning and unlike
the Mayor’s property, our renovations done in 2008, no wall has ever been moved, we still have all the
plaster, we have all the cast iron plumbing and lead, we still have part of the old wiring. So the level of
renovation that was done on our property was far less than the level of renovation done on his property.
And | don’t understand how it happened to us, that this happened.

One of the things that deeply concerns me when the Mayor brought up his card, he feels that he was
slandered by me, and | don’t feel that was done or that | am somehow implying that as a Mayor or
elected official he affected this valuation. | am not implying that. | am going to tell you that every
property owner that is being assessed by that Assessor’s Office, whatever that number is generated by
those assessors, it is on those assessors, it is never on the property owner. It is on the assessors and
what they are doing in the office. | am deeply concerned about ethics and conflict of interest issues and
| think it has to be addressed.

| am deeply concerned about people who are connected people who are well known in the City getting
these sweetheart deals and we look at ourselves coming in as out of towners, outside people, new to
the City, and we definitely got the shaft. The neighbor next to us that moved in 2010 because of our
assessment being changed, they received a letter their assessment was jacked up $200,000. Outside
of the Citywide assessment period. The reason? Because the renovated the old part of their home,
they renovated 2.5 bathrooms, no new bathroom was put in, they dug out and did half of the basement,
they knocked down walls and they put up new drywall like the Mayor did, they put in new plumbing, new
wiring and part of the kitchen was redone in the old section of the house. When the Assessing Office
calculated those improvements, it was a $200,000.00 increase on their tax bill; the same level of
improvement on your home resulted in a $32,000.00 increase.

Board of Aldermen 12-11-2018 Page 44

When we go down the street on Berkeley Street we have another family that moved in from the mid-
West, they came in, a renovation $85,000.00 done by a prior home owner resulted in a $55,000.00
increase but then the Assessing Office wasn’t happy with that and they kept running the numbers and
they moved that house from $400,000.00 to $615,000.00 until the homeowners screamed uncle in
2011, filed for an abatement got a reduction in 2013 and the house came down $200,000.00. We are in
that situation that the other house on Berkeley Street is in. We’ve been 5 years with it jammed down
our throat way too high and this, we are trying to get to the other side of this. | wish the Mayor had
given us a chance to talk to him about this, | expect my Mayor to understand the difference between a
tax bill and an assessment.

| was very concerned at the last meeting when you were positioning yourself to say that people with
young families, or we don’t want to charge more than $1,000.00 for a new kitchen or $1,500.00
because of their family situation. Our property cards don’t come with family photos, we have to make
assessment a fair issue for everyone. What the Mayor is talking about is a progressive form of tax, we
feel that we paid with the progressive tax, somebody looked at our house, our income level, the fact
that we bought the house for cash and decided these people can pay out the nose. We don’t want that
to happen. | want to make certain that the new people coming in are treated the same as the
established people. And | agree the influence of a Mayor or Alderman although the billing cycle fell
when you got elected for some reason in 2011, they were supposed to come back to your property in
2012, they never came back, | don’t even know if they had finished their assessment cycle. We don’t
know. The notes are a little messy on that card. It’s not that clean.

But what is interesting too with your card, your permit was opened in 2007, nobody followed up until
2011. The property card is updated on a 2010 page, but it wasn’t paid for in 2010, and in 2009 was a
reassessment year and your assessment was dropped $45,000.00 despite the fact that you were into
all these renovations. The property at Berkeley Street that | am referring to in 2009 was raised about
$50,000.00, they didn’t get a drop because they were doing, they had done renovations and the
assessing office was looking to raise it more. You got the benefit of a reduction while doing
improvements because nobody knocked on the door and came out and followed up on what has
happened in 2 years. You didn’t even get a knock on the door. That is the difference. And we just
want it to be fair Mr. Mayor. | am not accusing you of anything, | am not accusing the card | held up
with the City, the appointed position to the Board of Assessors that hadn’t had anyone come to it since
1994 despite 8 permits being pulled, 3 of monetary value. It is a connected person it is a well-known
person. Nobody comes, that’s not what happened to us. That’s not what happened to the house on
our street that is a connected well-known person that got a half value assessment for reasons |
understand now, a lot of bad mistakes were made on that property. That was the most heavily visited
property on Berkeley Street in 5 years with 6 official visits from the Assessing Office and in 6 official
visits nobody did the property card correctly. And a house equivalent to mine was assessed at $343
and we were assessed at $700,000.00. So our tax bill was $18,000.00 and our equivalent home was
$8 so please understand we are just trying to get where we want to feel like we are being treated equal,
we want to pay our fair share, but we want a system that recognizes that new people need to be treated
like the old guard and the system has to be equitable. Thank you.

Mary Robbins Good evening | will make this short because | guess we are running long. My name is
Mary Robbins, | live at 40 Berkeley Street and | have read in the newspaper about the assessment
situation and the particular problems with my neighbor and the way she has tried to contact the
assessors and what not. What! would like to see, maybe even on the web site of the City the
qualifications that these assessors have. What is their educational background and what specific
training do they have to be assessors? And how is the training here in Nashua how does that equate to
the training that assessors get in other cities in maybe New Hampshire or in New England just to see
what we are dealing with here so it seems a little less random than it seems to me just hearing about it
and reading about it. Thank you.

Board of Aldermen 12-11-2018 Page 45

Paul Shea My name is Paul Shea, | am a resident of 102 Toll Street and | am also the Executive
Director for Great American Downtown. | sent you remarks in favor of the Performing Arts Center
updates and | just wanted to stick around this evening to say thank you for the mindful way in which you
are approaching this project. It is a complex thing, there is a lot of work that has gone into and will go
into it. You are all doing great work to ensure that it is done in a responsible and sustainable way and
that the project has great success. So thank you for that.

REMARKS BY THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN

Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja Yes just briefly, this evening as | drove into the City around 5:00 | came
down West Hollis and across Spruce and there was an active fire on the side street on the west side of
Spruce. There were a number of fire trucks and a couple of streets, Temple Street was partially
blocked off because off because of the running of hoses. In less than 2 hours after that, fire trucks went
both north and south on Main Street, so it was a busy night. | would like to thank them for their service
and for those who had the fire emergencies | hope their losses were minor and certainly at this time of
year, we all want to be aware of our wiring, our candles and all of those decorations we have up that
are probably more flammable than we would like to believe. Just a comment on that.

And then finally for those who were here and some who are still here, all of those that were sworn or
will be sworn in thank you to see so many people here volunteering to do the City’s work is really
encouraging. Thank you to all who spoke in support of the Performing Arts Center Amendment. Thank
you.

Alderwoman Kelly

I'll Keep it brief. | just wanted to note that this is the last full Board meeting of the year and | have just
appreciated this is our first year for a lot of our full board. The next one is the 26°? Oh we had this
conversation on the way in and | thought for sure that this was the last one of the year. | will rescind
that. | will save it for that day. But! do want to say Happy Holidays.

Alderman Caron

| too would like to wish everyone a happy holiday and see you the day after Christmas.

Alderman Lopez

I'll be totally brief. | wanted to comment on something | have kind of been watching unfold over the last
couple of months. There is a gentleman who used to play his guitar down on Main Street, kind of just
trying to make some extra bucks and asked a lot of questions and then he started to show up without
the guitar, and explained it was broken, he had a very complicated life and he had a lot of Police
encounters as well. So | saw him again with his guitar and | was like you got a new guitar how did you
pull that off. He explained that somebody had gotten it for him from the recovery community, which |
thought was a tremendously kind thing to do but also that he didn’t have any strings for it and didn’t
really know how to tune it and Nashua PD went out of their way, some officers, to get him strings to
tune his guitar. And this a man that does not have other things or anything. So for me, | wanted to
share that act of kindness because | think it speaks highly of Nashua Police. They do a lot of really
good work in the community. They go well beyond just managing their calls in a courteous and kind
way. They reach out and they really try to connect with people in need in the community.

Next Friday, December 21%, at 5:30 in front of Main Street Methodist we are going to be acknowledging
the people who have passed away who are homeless. We do it on the longest night of the year
because it is the longest night that people have to go through when they are unsheltered. So |
encourage all of you to join us when we are doing that. Also, | am grateful for everybody who does
whatever they can to help people around them who you may just walk by, you may not necessarily see,
find a place to stay especially when it is cold, and it is dark.

Board of Aldermen 12-11-2018 Page 46
Alderman Laws

| just wanted to thank everyone who came here tonight and sat through this incredibly long meeting. It
means a lot to me and | am Sure it means a lot to everyone else on the Board. Thank you.

Alderman Klee

I'd like to give my condolences to the McGuire family, as the Mayor said her passing was quite a shock,
quite a shock. She was a lady, | used to call her a little spit ball of fire, tiny little thing, but no matter
how sick she was, she was always right there to bring soup to somebody else. You could count on her
to volunteer for anything. She was truly a great lady and | want to also share part of my voice is going.
| want to share something that Alderwoman Kelly had said to me earlier today and it is perfect for
tonight, sometimes we agree, sometimes we don’t, but we are going to get the job done. And | think
that really summed up tonight. | too would like to thank everybody who came, who spoke today, all of
you diehards who stayed through the night with us. Thank you.

Alderman Dowd

Happy Holidays everyone and | wanted to mention that the Joint Special School Building has selected
Harriman as our architect and Phase 1 is commencing along with Harvey Construction, who | had
mentioned before is our construction manager and we will be moving forward with the middle school
project. And also I’ve cancelled the Joint Special Meeting on the 20" because we don’t need and |
know everybody on the committee will enjoy that and we won’t be meeting again until January.

Alderman O’Brien

| too would like to give my condolences to the Vivian McGuire family, she was truly a strong advocate of
our democratic process, standing at the polls, doing all sorts of work and her work will be sorley missed
and she was a great person, so my condolences again to the family. Which also leads to the
condolences to City of Worcester, who again in the month of December, the most worth month with
family, suffered another tragedy with the untimely line duty death of fire fighter Roy. My best to my
fellow fire fighters down in Worcester and firefighter Roy’s family.

But on a happier note congratulations to all of those who got sworn in tonight, we really need you to do
some of this work and thank you for doing so.

| would remiss if | did not comment on the fine display that we received tonight in the choice of hat attire
by Alderman Caron, Alderman Kelly and Alderman Klee, it was very nice. | too wore my holiday tie
tonight and took the liberty to decorate my desk so may | wish to everybody Happy Holidays to all.
President Wilshire

| too would like to wish everyone Happy Holidays and we did have plans to go out after the meeting;
however, | think all the restaurants and bars have closed by now so maybe we can reschedule that for
the 26",

Committee announcements:

Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja

PEDC is scheduled for Tuesday the 18". Thank you.

Board of Aldermen 12-11-2018 Page 47

ADJOURNMENT

MOTION BY ALDERMAN O’BRIEN THAT THE DECEMBER 11, 2018 MEETING OF THE BOARD
OF ALDERMEN BE ADJOURNED
MOTION CARRIED

The meeting was declared adjourned at 11:11 p.m.
Attest: Patricia D. Piecuch City Clerk

Greater Nashua

Chamberof
Commerce

DARE TO SUCCEED

December 11, 2018

The Honorable Lori Wilshire, President 142 Main Street, Fifth Floor
and Members of the Board of Aldermen Nashua, NH 03060
Nashua City Hall Phone: 603-881-8333
; Fax: 603-881-7323
229 Main Street snuachamb
Www. Nasnuacnamber.com
Nashua, NH 03060

Dear AiderngpMlishire and Members of the Board,

On behalf of the Board of Directors and hundreds of members of the Greater Nashua
Chamber of Commerce, | am writing to express our strong support for R-18-092, Amending
R-18-001 authorizing the Mayor and City Treasurer to issue bonds not to exceed the
amount of fifteen million five hundred thousand dollars ($15,500,000) for the Performing
Arts Center located at 201 Main Street. | regret that a previous commitment prevents me
from joining you this evening and expressing our strong support in person.

The Chamber was an enthusiastic supporter of the original bond resolution introduced last
year, we were active in endorsing and promoting the passage of the non-binding ballot
question last November and we carried that support through to the passage of R-18-01.
However, at the time, we also had concerns about the impact of the wording around the $4
million endowment requirement on the ability to raise that money in the first place.

In essence, the requirement handicapped the ability to raise funds by requiring that the
funds be raised before any of the bond money could be spent for design - and design is
essential for raising funds. Few if any donors, regardless of how passionate they are a
bout a project, will commit significant dollars towards a building project without being able
to see what that project will look like. Amending the bond resolution to allow for funds to
be used for the design phase removes that barrier and helps ensure the success of the
project.

The proposed language around New Market Tax Credits simply clarifies explicitly that those
funds are in fact private dollars provided by companies investing in approved community
development activities such as the proposed Preforming Arts Center,

| ask for your vote in favor of R-18-092 and thank you in advance for your support.

SAMPLE COOP PLAN

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ABC STREET

City of Nashua

FINANCIAL SERVICES DIVISION

229 Main Street - Nashua, NH 03060 (603) 589-3170
Fax (603) 589-3209
DATE: May 31, 2016
TO: Mayor Jim Donchess
Members of the Board of Aldermen
FROM: John Griffin, Chief Financial Officer w—
SUBJECT: Uncompleted Projects Status Report

NRO 5-134-c requires the Financial Services Division to submit an annual report to the
Board of Aldermen concerning the status of all uncompleted projects.

Please find attached the FY2016 Uncompleted Project Status Report. The information
contained in the report has been reviewed by members of the Financial Services
Division.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at X3173 or the Director of the
appropriate division/department.

Cc: Division Directors

City of Nashua

Planning Department Planning & Zoning 603 589-3090
229 Main Street Fax 603 589-3119
ain WEB www.nashuanh.gov

Nashua, New Hampshire 03061-2019

CHICKEN AND COOP REQUIREMENTS

STANDARDS

Chickens shall be kept in accordance with all applicable City Ordinances and regulations, and
state laws, including but not limited to RSA 644:8, Cruelty to Animals.

A maximum of six (6) adult female chickens may be kept on a lot. Roosters are prohibited.

The keeping of chickens shall be in a separate structure, accessory to and on the premises of a
single-family or two-family detached dwelling. Chickens are for personal use only.

No person shall sell eggs or breed chickens, or engage in commercial activities related to
chickens.

Chickens shall not roam free. Chickens shall be housed in a coop during non-daylight hours.

Coops and enclosed runs must be located in side or rear yards, and cannot be located within
twenty (20) feet of a property line.

Feed must be stored in rodent proof containers.

Stored manure shall be covered and fully enclosed. Up to three (3) cubic feet of manure can be
stored.

All manure not used for composting or fertilizing, waste material (including but not limited to
spent feed, litter, and waste eggs), and dead chickens shall be properly and promptly removed
from the property.

Coop and enclosed run must not disturb neighboring lots due to noise, odor, or other adverse
impacts.

Coops and enclosed runs shall comply with all zoning requirements, including but not limited to:
Accessory Use, Open Space Percentage, Wetland buffers, and Floodplains.

COOP REQUIREMENTS

Space with Enclosed Run: A minimum of three (3) square feet of floor space per chicken
Space without Enclosed Run: A minimum of ten (10) square feet of floor space per chicken

Total Coop and Run Space = Ten (10) square feet per chicken