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Board of Aldermen 12-08-2020 Page 33

So | do think we need to maintain our guard. | think that the results of how well each of us are doing that
individually speaks for itself with the infection rate, with the outbreak rate. The State recently released a
positive test number of 1,000 people in a day and that was really an aggregate of the last two days but it
was basically because there was such a flood of positive tests they had trouble tracking and reporting it all.
| know we are definitely as a State in the Top 5 for infection rates for the entire country. We are losing
ground in terms of what we put into place in April and in May and June in safeguarding people’s lives. We
have started to see people in long-term care facilities die again. We are starting to see our hospitals over
utilize their |CU capacity and start to expand into other areas and other wards.

| know that the State Hospital has already exceeded its isolation capacity and is spreading into other
programs too. And | know that we still have a large number of people that are just not understanding the
concept of what masks are for, why we need them, how important they are. They are unfortunately
dictating much of the terms of what’s happening, because when they show up a Thanksgiving Dinner, you
don’t want to turn them away. They argue with you, you know, as family members over whether or not you
believe in them or not, each chip that they make erodes your confidence in basically the invisible strategy to
prevent and invisible threat. The threat becomes real when it is too late and way too many people have
found themselves suffering in an ICU bed with their family members with regrets. And they have tried to
pass that message on to us, | think we need to hear it.

So | appreciate Gia’s comments, | appreciate the support that Boston Billiards has given in the past to non-
profits, particularly to some that I’ve been involved with. But! also think that | personally am not going to
ignore what the Health Department says, especially before they’ve even said it. Tomorrow there’s a
meeting for them to vet it, they had the opportunity to just make an edict and hand it down to us and they
specifically wanted to be sensitive to businesses and make sure it wasn’t being done in a way that did more
harm than good. | trust that as medical professionals, they are going to do whatever they feel is necessary
to provide a data driven and appropriate response and | think they deserve to be given a fair opportunity to
do that, given that that’s what their role is for the City and given that much of where we are today in
December is because we weren't listening collectively to public health professionals back in February, back
in March back in April.

So | empathize with all the people who are struggling, | work with a lot of the people who are struggling and
have for years. But | also recognize the other impacts and the other forces at work here. | want to see
what the Board of Health has to say. | want to see what their suggestions are and | want to make sure that
Nashuans are safe long enough for us to get access to the vaccine and stabilize this outbreak situation. I'd
love to go back to where we were this time last year, where we had people celebrating together and
supporting charities and focusing more on being generous rather than acting out of necessity. But we are
not there yet and so | think we all have to be very careful over the next couple of weeks, very thoughtful of
others. If there are other ways that we need to be helping the business community, ways that are not
traditional, | think we need to pursue those.

We looked outside of the box in terms of the businesses on Main Street and expanding outdoor dining, |
think we may need to look at some kind of business relief support. We may even need to look at how City
Welfare recognizes the crisis and disburses the COVID funds. | think it’s a conversation we should have but
| don’t think we should be undermining the public health recommendations. | think the line for where we are
negotiating should be way further to the side of people being safe and healthy. Thank you.

President Wilshire

Thank you. Alderwoman Kelly.

Gia Bonilla_|’m sorry could | respond to ...

President Wilshire

This is only remarks by Aldermen at this point, public comment is done. Sorry.

Board of Aldermen 12-08-2020 Page 34

Gia Bonilla Ok.
President Wilshire

Alderwoman Kelly?

Alderwoman Kelly

Thank you Alderman Wilshire. Alderman Lopez said a lot of what | normally want to say around COVID. |
know that everyone is tired and we are going into the holidays. And | just urge everyone to sort of look at
what's ahead. The vaccine is on the horizon and you know one holiday at home with just your family is
definitely, | Know that’s what | am going to do. We did that at Thanksgiving and it wasn’t so bad, we had
Zoom open all day. So | just encourage people to just hold the line.

The other point | was going to make that as you are thinking about holidays if it's something that you
celebrate and you are looking to get gifts, the downtown businesses are open, they are small, you are not
going to stand in line at the mall and they all really, really rely on the community to come out for them. So if
you are able to and you can wear a mask and come downtown, we have a lot of really great businesses
down there that can help you. So that’s it, thank you.

President Wilshire
Thank you. Alderman Tencza?
Alderman Tencza

Thank you Madam President, just briefly the Jewish Celebration of Hanukah begins in a few days before
we will meet again so | just wanted to wish all of our friends and neighbors who are celebrating a Happy
and safe Hanukah.

President Wilshire
Alderman Clemons.
Alderman Clemons

Thank you very much. | just want to thank Gia for coming forward this evening and speaking. Her
comments reflect a lot of the business community's comments that | have gotten and you know and really
the issue | mean and to them is about being responsible, following the Governor’s protocols, following the
Nashua Ordinances, the Mask Ordinance and where the City is lacking | believe is in enforcement. And we
have a lot of work to do in that area. It is a lot harder to, | knew that this was going to be an impossible task
to enforce this with the resources that we currently have. So we are getting into a worse situation than we
were in the spring. | think it is incumbent upon us to have the conversations that Alderman Lopez was
talking about because yes we need to listen to our Health Experts, | absolutely agree 100% with that.

On the other hand, we need to listen to local businesses and we need to understand the financial impact
that it is going to have, that shutting down will have on a business and what that is going to do the
employees and the long-term stability of the community at whole. And it is not about putting economics
above health, what it is about is the fact that in the spring, when the State went for a shutdown, we had
Congress that was working with the American people and working with the States to get us things like the
PPP Loans and helping with a stimulus check and helping with the $600.00 extra in unemployment so that
people had the stability, people could stay at home and they could social distance in a responsible way.

Board of Aldermen 12-08-2020 Page 35

We put moratoriums on evictions and on getting people’s utilities taken away from them. We don’t have
any of that in place right now. All of that is gone at the end of this month. And so, you know, we can’t
simply say that we are going to just make a policy, a blanket policy across the City and expect that it’s not
going to have drastic financial implications to certain people. So we have to find a better way to do that.

I’m all for sitting down at the table and trying to figure that out, but | Know this, that no plan to shut down the
City for any period of time without a plan that backs up that with funds with money with economics is going
to be a viable plan. It is going to be only to the detriment of this City and its citizens and its workers. And so
what | would hope that the approach is moving forward is enforcement so that when people go out and they
see a business and I’ve been to them and | don’t go back, when | see a business where there are people
shoulder to shoulder all the way down at a bar, for example. Or | walk into the mall and there are plenty of
people walking around without a mask on and that’s our Ordinance, and | voted against that Ordinance. But
we need to support that Ordinance, that’s a Law.

We need to have enforcement. So | have always supported social distancing, I’ve always said that we need
to make sure restaurants are adhering to the Governments and to the Governor's guidelines and some of
them are not. And the ones that aren’t should be fined, at least warned and then fined and fined again and
fined again until you figure it out or the Health Department should shut them down. | mean how many times
does it take for someone to violate a different health rule before the Health Board shuts them down. That’s
the kind of approach that we need to take, it’s a scalpel approach, it’s an approach where it is, let’s go in,
get the offenders and change the behavior. But let’s recognize that there are people who are following the
guidelines that were put in place by the Governor and put in place by the City and let’s recognize that they
are following the rules and we shouldn't do things to them to the detriment of the entire City.

That’s my point on that. | am looking forward to the Board of Health Meeting. | am hoping that | can get
there. It’s tough for me sometimes because it is in the middle of the day. But you know these would be the
things that | hope comes out of that discussion. And on a cheerier note, Happy Hanukah everybody, |
know that’s coming up and hopefully we will have another meeting and | can wish everybody a Merry
Christmas at that point. So thank you so much.

President Wilshire
Alderman Dowd.
Alderman Dowd

Just two quick things. One) if we have to address something coming from the Board of Health with a curfew
we have to be really careful about how that is imposed. But the other thing | want to say is that when we
vote on things here at the Board of Aldermen level, there’s a lot of information that comes to us that unless
you follow the Committee Meetings and the inputs and the minutes, it could be difficult for people to
understand where we are coming from. So | would suggest that people try to get knowledgeable on a
subject before they condemn any action or even support any action, that they try to know as much as they
can about the subjects. So that’s all | had.

President Wilshire

Thank you, Alderman O’Brien.

Alderman O’Brien

Thank you, Madam President. Earlier in the public comment | was kind of called out, several other
Aldermen were you know receiving support, financial support on the elections from the Firefighters. But

everybody knows with my son on the Fire Department and by City Charter Rules as it stands right now, |
cannot vote, so it didn’t affect my vote, so | want that to be duly noted.

Jim Donchess
Mayor e City of Nashua

To: Board of Aldermen
From: Jim Donchess
Date: 3/22/16

Re: Contract Award of Library HVAC Maintenance

Pursuant to NRO § 5-74 (B), which states that a contract that extends from the current fiscal year into
succeeding fiscal year(s) in which no funds have been appropriated nor otherwise designated for this
purpose shall be approved by the full Board of Aldermen before the contract shall become binding on the

City.

The Finance Committee approved the award of the below referenced contract at their March 16, 2016
meeting. | am requesting the concurrence and approval of the full Board of Aldermen for the award of the
following contract:

Library HVAC Maintenance — Attached please find Purchasing Manager’s Memo # 16-117 regarding this
contract. This is a two (2) year contract with an option for a third year.

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 12-08-2020 Page 36

But, however, elections do have consequences and 10 years ago there was one majority in the New
Hampshire State House and they did run rip shod and it affected the pension system to which Nashua’s
liability is over $2 million dollars. $2 million dollars is the cutoff point that raises the tax rate 1% and we’ve
been paying that for 10 years.

Also too the New Hampshire Retirement System estimated, as Alderman Dowd brought up a return on
investment of 6%, what we received was 1.3%. That’s an issue. In baseball they fire their managers,
maybe we ought to look at the New Hampshire Retirement System very much closely and find out who is
managing it, because the people who are managing it they kind of counteracted the employees who were
running it and put in these financial gurus. 1.3% like Alderman Dowd said, the stock market was doing
good at that particular time, is extremely disappointing.

So therefore | am proud to say for my maybe $100.00 a year State salary for being on and | share that with
my other friends who have served or are now serving in the New Hampshire House. | have introduced two
bills on the behalf of Nashua and | am proud to say working with the Mayor’s Office, Cheryl Lindner too and
putting at least part of it back, the 50% back that would help alleviate the cost. Also, going to that radical
payoff off of 100% of the pension system, from 2039 to 2044 and adjusting the municipalities contributions
to that will be a great savings to the City. And | hope when people look at this, this was a one sided
Legislature in the past that came down. And when we get down to it, we shouldn’t take what that group did
and beat up our Police, our Firefighters, and our Teachers or anybody else by what the Legislature did. It’s
going to take us a lot of years to get out from that callous behavior but we are in the right direction and | am
happy to work with the Mayor and his office on it. So thank you very much Madam President.

President Wilshire
Thank you, Alderman O’Brien. Alderman Cleaver?
Alderman Cleaver

Yes thank you Madam President, just very quickly it’s been covered already but way too many people are
not wearing masks. | see it on the street, | see it elsewhere, in particular in the Roby Park Sledding Area,
large numbers of people closely packed, no masks and despite the City Ordinance and despite the State
Mandate, people are not wearing masks. It’s the worst possible thing and we see it in the numbers
increased with COVID infections. So | urge everybody to wear a mask to do the things, stay distanced and
do your best because it affects all of us. Thank you.

President Wilshire

Thank you. Anyone else? Attorney Bolton?

Attorney Bolton

Thank you Madam President, my normal rule at these meetings is to speak only when spoken to, so thank
you for your indulgence this evening. Last week Nashua lost an individual who devoted a major portion of
his life to service to our City. Back in the early ‘70’s Phil Howorth served the City as a member of the Board
of Assessors. In’74 he was appointed and became our first full time Corporation Counsel and he spent 10
years in that role serving the City very admirably and in a very dedicated manner. And he was then
appointed to the Nashua District Court Bench where he served for another 20 years, retiring in 04
approximately.

| had the good fortunate as a young lawyer to work as Phil’s Deputy here in Nashua from ’82 to ’84. And |
will tell you, you are still getting service from Phil Howorth because we benefit from the lessons | learned
working for him. So | know you will join me in wishing condolences to his wife Ann, their children and
grandchildren. Thank you.

Board of Aldermen 12-08-2020 Page 37
President Wilshire

Thank you Attorney Bolton. Alderman Jette?

Alderman Jette

Thank you Madam Chairman. So during my research regarding the Firemen’s Contract, when | looked at
minutes of the Fire Commissioner's meeting and | discovered as we all did tonight that Commissioner
Davidson had resigned as a Commissioner back in September. | don’t know about everybody else but |
was surprised to hear that, | don’t know if | just missed that news but it came as news to me. And | just
want to thank him for his service to the City. | remember when he was an Alderman and served as Mayor,
he was | think on the Airport Authority and as Fire Commissioner. So | think for most of his life, he has
devoted it to public service for the City and | think he’s left the meeting now, but | wanted to thank him
publicly.

And | also learned that the Fire Commissioners elected Attorney Gary Lambert to replace him as a Fire
Commissioner and | wanted to congratulate Attorney Lambert. He’s certainly an outstanding individual and
provided great service and continues to provide great service as a Marine and a great lawyer and otherwise
to the City. He was in the Legislature, | can’t remember if he was in the Senate, but | know he ran for
higher office and didn’t make it but he’s a great choice. That being said, | don’t think when we amended
the Ordinances and the Charter to provide to eliminate special elections to replace individuals, you know,
the purpose was to save money and an acknowledgement that those special elections that people just
didn’t come out and vote in them.

But | don’t think we anticipated that Boards would not be more public in their selection. You know the
Charter now provides that Boards can elect their own replacements, which is fine, but | would hope that in
the future, whether it’s the Fire Commission or any other Board, if they are coming to fill a vacancy, that
they would do it in a much more public way; advertise that the position is open. You know, seek people
who might be interested to make known their interest and hopefully have a large select pool to choose
form, interview people and choose the best candidate. | think if all that had been done, Attorney Lambert
would probably have been selected anyway. | think he’s a great choice but | just wanted to say that | hope
in the future that Boards keep that in mind. We have taken the people’s right to elect their replacements,
you know, on a short-term basis to fill a vacancy but we should be cognizant of that and make it a much
more public process. Thank you.

President Wilshire
Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing no one, | wanted to chime in about the Public Health Department and
what great support they have been throughout this pandemic. They work hard, they work long hours, they

have been fantastic. So | just wanted to give them a shout out.

Committee announcements:

Alderman Dowd
Yes tomorrow night, Budget at 7:00 and then next Thursday, Joint Special School Building Committee.
Alderman Tencza

I'd just like to announce that next Tuesday, December 15", there will be no PEDC Meeting. We have no
Legislation and no other presentations so | am giving everyone the night off, thank you.

President Wilshire

Thank you. Anyone else?

Board of Aldermen 12-08-2020 Page 38

ADJOURNMENT

MOTION BY ALDERMAN O’BRIEN THAT THE DECEMBER 8, 2020, MEETING OF THE BOARD OF
ALDERMEN BE ADJOURNED, BY ROLL CALL

A viva voce roll call was taken to adjourn the Board of Aldermen meeting which resulted as follows:
Yea: Alderman O’Brien, Alderwoman Kelly, Alderman Dowd,

Alderman Caron, Alderman Clemons, Alderman Lopez, Alderman Tencza,

Alderwoman Lu, Alderman Jette, Alderman Schmidt, Alderman Laws,

Alderman Cleaver, Alderwoman Harriott-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire 14
Nay: 0
MOTION CARRIED

The meeting was declared adjourned at 10:03 p.m.

Attest: Susan K. Lovering, City Clerk

SPECIAL BOARD OF ALDERMEN

DECEMBER 8, 2020
6:30 p.m.

Join Zoom Meeting: https://usO2web.zoom.us//87421456400?pwd=aGxSanozSjl4WiZkUIJLdk 10bjB 1UTO9
Meeting ID: 874 2145 6400
Passcode: 257397

Join by phone: 1-929-205-6099

Meeting ID: 874 2145 6400
Passcode: 257397

lf there is aproblem accessing the meeting, please dial 603-821-2049 to advise.

PRESIDENT LORI WILSHIRE CALLS ASSEMBLY TO ORDER
PRAYER OFFERED BY CITY CLERK SUSAN LOVERING
PLEDGE TO THE FLAG LED BY ALDERMAN ERNEST JETTE

ROLL CALL

PRESENTATION

Sewer User Fees

ADJOURNMENT

10. REPORTS OF COMMITTEE

Budget Review Committee......... 0... ccc cece cece cent ae cen ee tae cena ee ea enes 11/23/2020
Budget Review Committee. ...0. 0000... ccccccce cee cece set cence ene eeeeen ene eed 12/01/2020
Finance Committee... cece cece eee eee cee cence eee e ceed eetnecenisenaeeenenes 12/02/2020

11. CONFIRMATION OF MAYOR'S APPOINTMENTS
UNFINISHED BUSINESS —- RESOLUTIONS

R-20-086
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman June M. Caron
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman Skip Cleaver
Alderwoman Elizabeth Lu
Alderman-at-Large Lon Wilshire
RELATIVE TO THE ACCEPTANCE OF DONATED SERVICES IN THE AMOUNT OF APPROXIMATELY
$140,369 FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROVIDING CELLULAR PHONE SERVICES FOR LAW
ENFORCEMENT PURPOSES
e Budget Review Committee Recommends: Final Passage

R-20-095
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman Jan Schmidt
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderwoman Elizabeth Lu
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
Alderman Skip Cleaver
Alderman Ernest Jette
AUTHORIZING THE EXPENDITURE OF UP TO TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS ($10,000) FROM THE
CONSERVATION FUND ON CONSULTING SERVICES WITH THE NASHUA REGIONAL PLANNING
COMMISSION
e Budget ReviewCommittee Recommends: Final Passage

R-20-096
Endorsers: Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
AUTHORIZING A REDUCTION OF A $330.00 VARIANCE APPLICATION FEE TO WIDEN DRIVEWAY
AT 16 HIDEAWAY ROAD TO $50.00
e Budget ReviewCommittee Recommends: Final Passage

R-20-098, Amended
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess

Alderman Thomas Lopez
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
Alderman-at-Large David C. Tencza
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman Jan Schmidt
Alderman-at-Large Ben Clemons
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman Skip Cleaver
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire

APPROVING THE COST ITEMS OF A COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY
OF NASHUA, NEW HAMPSHIRE AND U.A.W. LOCAL 2322 CLERICAL AND TECHNICAL UNIT FROM

JULY 1, 2020 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2024 AND AUTHORIZING RELATED TRANSFERS
e Budget ReviewCommittee Recommends: Final Passage

R-20-099, Amended
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess

Alderman Thomas Lopez
Alderman Skip Cleaver
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
Alderman-at-Large David C. Tencza
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman Jan Schmidt
Alderman-at-Large Ben Clemons
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman-at-Large Lon Wilshire

APPROVING THE COST ITEMS OF A COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY
OF NASHUA, NEW HAMPSHIRE AND U.A.W. LOCAL 2322 PROFESSIONAL UNIT FROM JULY 1, 2020

THROUGH JUNE 30, 2024 AND AUTHORIZING RELATED TRANSFERS
e Budget Review Committee Recommends: Final Passage

R-20-088, Amended
Endorsers: Alderman-at-Large David C. Tencza

Alderman-at-Large Ben Clemons
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman Jan Schmidt
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman Thomas Lopez
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
Alderman Skip Cleaver
Alderman-at-Large Brandon Michael Laws
Alderman-at-Large Lon Wilshire

APPROVING THE COST ITEMS OF ACOLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE
MAYOR AND THE BOARD OF FIRE COMMISSIONERS OF THE CITY OF NASHUA, NEW HAMPSHIRE
AND LOCAL #789, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCATION OF FIRE FIGHTERS FROM JULY 1, 2019 THROUGH
JUNE 30, 2023 AND AUTHORIZING A RELATED TRANSFER

e Vetoed portions of line items

UNFINISHED BUSINESS — ORDINANCES