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What should your manager know that he or she currently doesn’t know?

If you were the manager here, what would you do differently?

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What’s being done about it?

Has the amount of complaints changed over time?

How are personnel trained in their roles in preventing complaints?

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27

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28

REVISED
SPECIAL BOARD OF ALDERMEN

MARCH 7, 2019

7:00 PM Aldermanic Chamber

PRESIDENT LORI WILSHIRE CALLS ASSEMBLY TO ORDER PRAYER
OFFERED BY CITY CLERK PATRICIA D. PIECUCH

PLEDGE TO THE FLAG LED BY ALDERMAN-AT-LARGE MICHAEL B. O’BRIEN, SR.

ROLL CALL

COMMUNICATIONS

From: Lori Wilshire, President, Board of Aldermen
Re: Special Board of Aldermen Meeting

PERIOD FOR PUBLIC COMMENT

ADJOURNMENT

Board of Aldermen

City of Nashua
229 Main Street Lori Wilshire
Nashua, NH 03061-2019 President, Board of Aldermen

(603) 589-3030

March 1, 2019

Patricia D. Piecuch, City Clerk
City of Nashua

229 Main Street

Nashua, NH 03061-2019

Dear Ms. Piecuch:

Please be advised | am hereby calling a Special Meeting of the Board of Aldermen on Thursday, March
7, 2019, at 7:00 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber. Mayor Donchess, CFO John Griffin and Chief of Staff
Kim Kleiner will be in attendance to discuss the Management Audit Report for the Assessing Department
dated March 1, 2019.

Thank you.

Sincerely, Mhiis
Lori Wilshire

President

cc: Mayor Jim Donchess
Steven A. Bolton, Corporation Counsel

A regular meeting of the Board of Aldermen was held Tuesday, February 26, 2019, at 7:30 p.m. in the
Aldermanic Chamber.

President Lori Wilshire presided; City Clerk Patricia D. Piecuch recorded.

Prayer was offered by City Clerk Patricia D. Piecuch; Alderman-at-Large Brandon Michael Laws led in
the Pledge to the Flag.

The roll call was taken with 12 members of the Board of Aldermen present; Alderman Gidge and Alderwoman
Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja were recorded absent.

Mayor James W. Donchess and Corporation Counsel Steven A. Bolton were also in attendance.

REMARKS BY THE MAYOR

Mayor Donchess

First | wanted to mention R-19-113, which is the resolution which we are sponsoring to put before you the
recommendations of the Energy and Environment Committee. You may remember that after the United
States withdrew from the Paris Agreement that | became a Climate Mayor and we formed the Energy and
Environment Committee to begin to look at ways to meet certain goals regarding saving energy, saving funds,
saving monies and reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases. As you will see from the resolution, the
recommendation of the committee is that we seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by
2025, vehicle emissions by 25 percent by the same year and to ultimately derive 100 percent of our energy
from renewable, clean energy sources by 2050. We've already made quite a bit of progress in terms of
reduction of energy use, which | discussed at some length in the state of the city last week. As | said then, |
will be recommending in the budget coming up that we have an Energy Manager because as you get into this
in some depth, these projects are very involved, very detailed and require someone with a lot of expertise to
make sure that we get as much as we can out of any energy saving projects. I’m sure that will be referred to
committee, and | hope you will act favorably on it.

Number two, at the next meeting on March 12, | will be proposing to you the city budget. As | again
mentioned last week, the biggest challenge facing us this year is that the health care costs for city employees
are up about 11 percent, which we will get into more details later, but translates to about $3 million. This
creates a budget challenge if we are going to keep the tax rate to a reasonable level. This will require that we
be very cautious regarding increases in the remainder of the budget. As you will see, and as the budget
committee will see once this gets proposed, we will need to exert quite a bit of discipline to make sure that
any tax increase does not exceed the percent cap that | proposed in the State-of-the-City.

Number three, Friday we expect that the audit being conducted by CFO Griffin and Chief of Staff Kim Kleiner
will be issued and will be sent to you, to the Board of Assessors, to the public. Of course, they have been
asked to look into the organization, the processes, the procedures, the management, the organization of the
Assessing Department. | think you will find ultimately their work to be very thorough, and they will have a
number of recommendations for the city to follow including issues relating to technology. That will be
interesting, and | think ultimately we should follow up on their recommendations and implement the
suggestions and recommendations that they make in the audit.

Finally, there was some good news on in the State legislature on the rail front. The full Senate passes what’s
called SB241, which is the bill that would insert federal funds back into the ten-year transportation plan which
Commissioner Sheehan, and she met with us, has accurately called the final project development phase of
the Capital Corridor Project. That was good news. It is now through the Senate, it goes to the House. I’m
sure our very able representatives under the leadership of Chair Jan Schmidt will work hard to try to
accomplish the same goal in the House. Once that occurs, we will then be on the way to completing this
planning phase and looking seriously at how to implement rail in the future. | thought that was good news
and thought | would mention it. | testified in favor of SB241. | think Alderman O’Brien did as well in the

Board of Aldermen 02-26-2019 Page 2
Senate, and Tracy Hall did as well. So, there was a good representation of Nashua as well as both of our
state senators did. We had a good representation of Nashua people at the committee where SB241 was
heard.

RESPONSE TO REMARKS OF THE MAYOR

Alderman Lopez

| was curious about the manner in which the audit would be dispersed. Is it going to be emailed, hard
copied, on the website if it is going to be on the website, the Civic Sounding Board?

Mayor Donchess
In your case, I’m sure we will email it to you. It will be given to the newspaper. It is a public document so

anybody will be able to get it. We may be able to put it on the website as well. Whether it will appear on
the website on Friday, I’m not sure, but it will be readily available for anybody who wants it on Friday.

Alderman Lopez
If it is in the paper, everybody will see it probably.

RECOGNITION PERIOD — None

READING MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS

There being no objection, President Wilshire declared the minutes of the Board of Aldermen
meetings of February 19, 2019, accepted, placed on file, and the readings suspended.

COMMUNICATIONS REQUIRING ONLY PROCEDURAL ACTIONS AND WRITTEN REPORTS
FROM LIAISONS

From: Len Fournier, Superintendent, WWoodlawn/Pinewood Cemeteries
Re: Request for Joint Convention with the Woodlawn/Pinewood Cemeteries Board of Trustees

There being no objection, President Wilshire accepted the communication, placed it on file, and
scheduled a Joint Convention with the Woodlawn/Pinewood Cemeteries Board of Trustees on
Tuesday, March 12, 2019, at 7:30 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber.

PERIOD FOR PUBLIC COMMENT RELATIVE TO ITEMS EXPECTED TO BE ACTED UPON THIS
EVENING — None

COMMUNICATIONS REQUIRING FINAL APPROVAL

From: Celia K. Leonard, Deputy Corporation Counsel
Re: Environmental Indemnity and Release Agreement

MOTION BY ALDERMAN O’BRIEN TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE, AND AUTHORIZE THE CITY

TO ENTER INTO THE ENVIRONMENTAL INDEMNITY AND RELEASE AGREEMENT
MOTION CARRIED

PETITIONS — None

Board of Aldermen 02-26-2019 Page 3
NOMINATIONS, APPOINTMENTS AND ELECTIONS

The following Appointments by the Mayor were read into the record:
Board of Assessors

Mary Lou Blaisdell, Alternate (Reappointment) Term to Expire: April 24, 2021
32 Webster Street
Nashua, NH 03064

Cultural Connections Committee

Suzanne Harvey (New Appointment) Term to Expire: March 1, 2022
8 Crawford Lane
Nashua, NH 03063

There being no objection, President Wilshire accepted the Appointments by the Mayor as read
and referred them to the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee

REPORTS OF COMMITTEE
Finance Committee....0. 0... ccc ccc cce cee eee cee ceeeeeteeeeevavavavaneererenenanevas 02/20/2019

There being no objection, President Wilshire declared the report of the February 20, 2019, Finance
Committee accepted and placed on file.

CONFIRMATION OF MAYOR'S APPOINTMENTS — None

UNFINISHED BUSINESS — RESOLUTIONS

R-18-073, Amended
Endorsers: Alderman-at-Large Brian S. McCarthy
Alderwoman-at-Large Shoshanna Kelly
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman Jan Schmidt
Alderman Tom Lopez
Alderman-at-Large Brandon Michael Laws
Alderwoman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja
PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO THE CITY CHARTER RELATIVE TO FILLING VACANCIES
ON ELECTED BOARDS BY MAJORITY VOTE OF THE REMAINING MEMBERS OF THAT BOARD
e Amended and Tabled pending Public Hrg scheduled for 3/12/2019 at 7 PM in the Chambers

R-19-110
Endorser: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman-at-Large David C. Tencza
Alderwoman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja
Alderwoman-at-Large Shoshanna Kelly
Alderman June M. Caron
Alderman Tom Lopez
Alderman-at-Large Brandon Michael Laws
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF NASHUA TO ENTER INTO A LEASE AGREEMENT WITH
MAKEIT LABS, CORP. FOR 25 CROWN STREET

Board of Aldermen 02-26-2019 Page 4
Given its second reading;

MOTION BY ALDERMAN TENCZA FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF R-19-110
MOTION CARRIED

Resolution R-19-110 declared duly adopted.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS — ORDINANCES — None

NEW BUSINESS — RESOLUTIONS

R-19-113
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderwoman-at-Large Shoshanna Kelly
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman-at-Large Brandon Michael Laws
Alderman Ernest Jette
Alderman-at-Large David C. Tencza
Alderman Jan Schmidt
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
ADOPTING ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS
Given its first reading; assigned to the PERSONNEL/ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE by
President Wilshire

NEW BUSINESS — ORDINANCES

O-19-039
Endorser: Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman Tom Lopez
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
AUTHORIZING STOP SIGNS AT THE INTERSECTION OF FAIRMOUNT STREET AND
CHARLES STREET
Given its first reading; assigned to the COMMITTEE ON INFRASTRUCTURE by President Wilshire

PERIOD FOR GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT

Laurie Ortolano, 41 Berkeley Street. | wanted to get back to you a little bit on some of the work that I’ve
been doing and continue to do with the assessing issues; looking forward to seeing the report coming out
on the first. | wasn’t expecting it out so soon so that’s great. | did file my PA71 with the State and | got
my abatement in. | went to the Board of Assessors and they said — Well you know it would have been
nice if you had waited until the City had filed their report. But | had a deadline both at the State level and
with my abatement. So | had to have my report in to the State by the first of March and | had to have the
abatement in by the 1* of March so | can’t wait for a City report to come out. | want you all to know that,
that wasn’t an option at the State level for me either. So that is why | moved forward.

| am looking forward to seeing the information with the changes to potentially the technology and how we
can access information because | see that as obstacles. But | am not going to tell you that | don’t see
some really significant personnel issues as well and those aren’t up for discussion; | understand that. But
the technology isn’t going to fix the issues alone because it is the people behind it that make all the
difference in the world and | cannot overlook that given what we have gone through and given what | see
in there.

Board of Aldermen 02-26-2019 Page 5

Regarding the technology and having finished out abatement process | really came to an understanding
a lot about this abating process and | think it is so flawed for the homeowner or taxpayer to carry the
burden of proof, you know? It’s up to us to prove that our assessments are too high and to do that we
need access to the data and for us, you know, a benchmark point was the effect of your build issue on
our property card and that data isn’t available publicly at all on the website, on the computers down
inside the office, on your home computer. It required the printing of the property cards and | went after
like 100 because | was trying to look at my neighborhood, first of all, all of Berkley Street to look at where
| fell out, that is 55 cards right there. Then | didn’t want to just say | am only looking at Berkley because
people would think — | was afraid they would say — you are being too narrow. So | grabbed Chester, |
grabbed Raymond, | grabbed a few on Concord and all of a sudden you are up to $200.00. | don’t think
that’s right. | mean that information should be readily available and you can’t tie the EYB to the grade
either. The grade is not available on the web site down in the office for you to look at the cards as well.

When | started this process | did send an e-mail to Mr. Duhamel and | asked him if he would be willing to
help me or give me the grade information for Berkeley Street and | did not receive a response back. It
was really the State that said to me — Ask him to give you that data, that’s a reasonable request so that
you have access to it. And | never got it; so | ended up going in and printing it all. So | hope that we are
able to create, you know, a system where the accessibility is better. I'd love to be able to print out a
property card without paying a dollar and really have the information on the property card. | really
learned to read those and understand them much better than | did four months ago. You’ve got to have
the card to really look at the houses and make the comparable.

Also | think the search data base for abaters who go in and use the sales data is not very good because
you can’t narrow the search fields to the year the house was built or pick a range. So we live in an old
neighborhood, | went in and helped a neighbor who had a colonial house, | wanted to grab colonial
houses sold over the last two years; it came up with like 221. | can’t narrow the field because there is no
date range that you can put in. So that’s a lot of data to cull through and it is pretty easy now to adda
couple fields that narrow a search and give us a little more flexibility mostly so that when we are picking
houses and people are that they are picking houses that are the age that their home is and a good
comparable; that they are not looking at something that is 1995 when they are 1925. So it is just better
for the assessors to get an abatement done to that level of quality and it is better for the property owner
to be able to access data like that. So that’s that.

The last time | was here | talked to you about equalization ratios and | had done a little research down in
the office and | had only looked at some commercial properties and | found a commercial property that or
any of the commercial properties that had representation, namely CPTM up in Manchester or tax
consultant. The equalization ratio was being applied but when the property owner did not have
representation and was on their own, the assessors were not applying the ration. | actually spoke to
somebody about that in the office and they had questioned it as well and the answer was, from the
assessor was — the people don’t know the difference so it doesn’t matter. Well | beg to differ on that.
That is a ratio produced by the State and | have had extensive conversations with the State and their
position is the ratio is applied to everybody. It sets the equalization for the data base. The last couple of
days | went in and started looking at residential properties and how we handle the equalization ratio for
2015 and 2016. | hadn’t had time to do it before because | was so busy with my abatement and my
paperwork for the State, | had to push that aside and | said - Ok when | get that done | am going to back
and take a look at that.

| pulled 10 abatements for 2015 from one assessor, 4 of them were fire issues, so there was a different
proration form that is used for a fire, itis not the same as a typical abatement form so that knocked 4
data points out. The other 6 | grabbed, 3 of them received the ration, 3 of them did not. But the
paperwork is all done, the math is all there where the assessor takes the homeowner’s value, gives it the
88.5%, they put down their value of what they believe the property should be, they give it the 88.5% and

NH Tax Shift Plan - Income Tax Table

Number of Exemptions

AGI 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
$2,915 $2,718 $2,520 $2,323 $2,125 $1,928 $1,730 $1,533 $1,335 $1,138
$85,000 $2,670 $2,473 $2,275 $2,078 $1,880 $1,683 $1,485 $1,288 $1,090 $893
$2,801 $2,603 $2,406 $2,208 $2,011 $1,813 $1,616 $1,418 $1,221 $1,023
$3,113 $2,915 $2,718 $2,520 $2,323 $2,125 $1,928 $1,730 $1,533 $1,335
$90,000 $2,868 $2,670 $2,473 $2,275 $2,078 $1,880 $1,683 $1,485 $1,288 $1,090
$2,998 $2,801 $2,603 $2,406 $2,208 $2,011 $1,813 $1,616 $1,418 $1,221
$3,310 $3,113 $2,915 $2,718 $2,520 $2,323 $2,125 $1,928 $1,730 $1,533
$95,000 $3,065 $2,868 $2,670 $2,473 $2,275 $2,078 $1,880 $1,683 $1,485 $1,288
$3,196 $2,998 $2,801 $2,603 $2,406 $2,208 $2,011 $1,813 $1,616 $1,418
$3,508 $3,310 $3,113 $2,915 $2,718 $2,520 $2,323 $2,125 $1,928 $1,730
$100,000 $3,263 $3,065 $2,868 $2,670 $2,473 $2,275 $2,078 $1,880 $1,683 $1,485
$3,393 $3,196 $2,998 $2,801 $2,603 $2,406 $2,208 $2,011 $1,813 $1,616
$3,705 $3,508 $3,310 $3,113 $2,915 $2,718 $2,520 $2,323 $2,125 $1,928
$105,000 $3,460 $3,263 $3,065 $2,868 $2,670 $2,473 $2,275 $2,078 $1,880 $1,683
$3,591 $3,393 $3,196 $2,998 $2,801 $2,603 $2,406 $2,208 $2,011 $1,813
$3,903 $3,705 $3,508 $3,310 $3,113 $2,915 $2,718 $2,520 $2,323 $2,125
$110,000 $3,658 $3,460 $3,263 $3,065 $2,868 $2,670 $2,473 $2,275 $2,078 $1,880
$3,788 $3,591 $3,393 $3,196 $2,998 $2,801 $2,603 $2,406 $2,208 $2,011
$4,100 $3,903 $3,705 $3,508 $3,310 $3,113 $2,915 $2,718 $2,520 $2,323
$115,000 $3,855 $3,658 $3,460 $3,263 $3,065 $2,868 $2,670 $2,473 $2,275 $2,078
$3,986 $3,788 $3,591 $3,393 $3,196 $2,998 $2,801 $2,603 $2,406 $2,208
$4,298 $4,100 $3,903 $3,705 $3,508 $3,310 $3,113 $2,915 $2,718 $2,520
$120,000 $4,053 $3,855 $3,658 $3,460 $3,263 $3,065 $2,868 $2,670 $2,473 $2,275
$4,183 $3,986 $3,788 $3,591 $3,393 $3,196 $2,998 $2,801 $2,603 $2,406
$4,495 $4,298 $4,100 $3,903 $3,705 $3,508 $3,310 $3,113 $2,915 $2,718
$125,000 $4,250 $4,053 $3,855 $3,658 $3,460 $3,263 $3,065 $2,868 $2,670 $2,473
$4,381 $4,183 $3,986 $3,788 $3,591 $3,393 $3,196 $2,998 $2,801 $2,603
$4,693 $4,495 $4,298 $4,100 $3,903 $3,705 $3,508 $3,310 $3,113 $2,915
$130,000 $4,448 $4,250 $4,053 $3,855 $3,658 $3,460 $3,263 $3,065 $2,868 $2,670
$4,578 $4,381 $4,183 $3,986 $3,788 $3,591 $3,393 $3,196 $2,998 $2,801
$4,890 $4,693 $4,495 $4,298 $4,100 $3,903 $3,705 $3,508 $3,310 $3,113
$135,000 $4,645 $4,448 $4,250 $4,053 $3,855 $3,658 $3,460 $3,263 $3,065 $2,868
$4,776 $4,578 $4,381 $4,183 $3,986 $3,788 $3,591 $3,393 $3,196 $2,998
$5,088 $4,890 $4,693 $4,495 $4,298 $4,100 $3,903 $3,705 $3,508 $3,310
$140,000 $4,843 $4,645 $4,448 $4,250 $4,053 $3,855 $3,658 $3,460 $3,263 $3,065
$4,973 $4,776 $4,578 $4,381 $4,183 $3,986 $3,788 $3,591 $3,393 $3,196
$5,285 $5,088 $4,890 $4,693 $4,495 $4,298 $4,100 $3,903 $3,705 $3,508
$145,000 $5,040 $4,843 $4,645 $4,448 $4,250 $4,053 $3,855 $3,658 $3,460 $3,263
$5,171 $4,973 $4,776 $4,578 $4,381 $4,183 $3,986 $3,788 $3,591 $3,393
$5,483 $5,285 $5,088 $4,890 $4,693 $4,495 $4,298 $4,100 $3,903 $3,705
$150,000 $5,238 $5,040 $4,843 $4,645 $4,448 $4,250 $4,053 $3,855 $3,658 $3,460
$5,368 $5,171 $4,973 $4,776 $4,578 $4,381 $4,183 $3,986 $3,788 $3,591

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