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Board of Aldermen Page 13
April 26, 2016

Alderman O’Brien

| think most of us in the city delegation as far as state do take this very seriously but you must keep in mind
that when this originally occurred, the money was supposed to be put back and it never did. This is what
happens when you have an ultra-conservative opinion. What is unique to Nashua is that we have a spending
cap and not all communities that are affected by this...yes, globally in the state, many cities and towns have
this very same problem but they do not have a spending cap. Because of the spending cap this makes
Nashua’s situation extremely unique.

MOTION BY ALDERMAN SIEGEL TO RE-REFER TO THE BUDGET REVIEW COMMITTEE
A Viva Voce Roll Call was taken, which resulted as follows:

Yea: Alderman Wilshire, Alderman Clemons, Alderman Cookson, 12
Alderman Dowd, Alderman Caron, Alderman Siegel,
Alderman Schoneman, Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja.
Alderman LeBrun, Alderman O’Brien, Alderman Lopez,
Alderman McCarthy

Nay: Alderman McGuinness, Alderman Moriarty 2
MOTION CARRIED
Resolution R-16-015 re-referred to the Budget Review Committee

R-16-022
Endorsers: Alderman June M. Caron
Alderman Don LeBrun
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO APPLY FOR AND EXPEND THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK
GRANT (“CDBG”) AND HOME INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM GRANT FOR FISCAL YEAR
2017
Given its second reading;

Alderman Wilshire
| will be recusing myself from this vote as my employer is an applicant for these funds in this resolution.

MOTION BY ALDERMAN CARON TO AMEND R-16-022 IN ITS ENTIRETY BY REPLACING IT WITH
THE GOLDEN ROD COPY PROVIDED WITH THE AGENDA

ON THE QUESTION

Alderman Siegel

In honor of former Alderman Chasse, | would assume that Alderman Caron or some other appropriate person
would be willing to discuss the changes in the golden rod copy.

Alderman Caron

| don’t have my notes. We made some changes to some of the amounts that we had originally given out to the
agencies. One was to Labine Park. The other was to give back to the Housing Improvement and the Project

Board of Aldermen 09-24-2019 Page 25

O-19-055
Endorser: Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman-At-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman Ken Gidge
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman-At-Large Brandon Michael Laws
Alderman Tom Lopez
Alderman June M. Caron
Alderwoman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja
Alderman-At-Large David C. Tencza
Alderman Jan Schmidt
Alderman-At-Large Ben Clemons
Alderman-At-Large Lori Wilshire
AUTHORIZING THE POLICE DEPARTMENT TO DONATE LOST OR ABANDONED
BICYCLES
Given its first reading; assigned to the BUDGET REVIEW COMMITTEE by President Wilshire

O-19-056
Endorser: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman-At-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman Ken Gidge
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman Tom Lopez
Alderman Jan Schmidt
UPDATING THE ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY COMMITTEE
Given its first reading; assigned to the PERSONNEL/ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE by
President Wilshire

O-19-057
Endorser: Alderman Tom Lopez
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman-At-Large Brandon Michael Laws
Alderwoman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja
Alderman Jan Schmidt
INCREASEING THE PARKING TIME LIMIT AT METERS IN ZONE |
Given its first reading; assigned to the COMMITTEE ON INFRASTRUCTURE by President Wilshire

Alderman Clemons

Could you forward that to the Downtown Improvement Committee as well?
President Wilshire

| will also assign to the Downtown Improvement Committee. Yes.
Alderman Clemons

Thank you.

Board of Aldermen 09-24-2019 Page 26

O-19-058
Endorser: Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
Alderman Tom Lopez
Alderman Ken Gidge
AUTHORIZING STOP SIGNS ON DINSMORE STREET AT ITS INTERSECTION WITH
DOUGLAS STREET
Given its first reading; assigned to the COMMITTEE ON INFRASTRUCTURE by President Wilshire

PERIOD FOR GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT

Stacie Laughton Stacie Laughton, 80 Elm Street, Nashua, New Hampshire, Ward 4. | come before
you tonight raising an issue we talked about earlier this year. That was, we were talking about raising
the minimum smoking age to 21. And as we have been seeing lately in the news, people are actually
starting to die from these devices and the nicotine and the vaping products. | am not specifically talking
about cigarettes; I’m talking about the vaping devices. We've seen a lot of deaths, we have seen a lot
of additives being added to them and they are not a safe product to have in our stores for anybody to
consume at any age. We saw today in Massachusetts, the Governor of Massachusetts put a 4 month
ban on vaping devices and the City of Boston in itself as a City is taking action.

That’s why | am here tonight. As a City, we can still bring this issue back up, we can either raise the
minimum age, we could potentially ban the sale of vaping devices throughout the City and set an
example for the State. Hopefully we can get Governor Sununu to do something similar if he’s allowed
or something needs to be done. These products are very dangerous and | think they are even more
dangerous the combustible cigarette which is dangerous in itself, yet the complications and death that
could occur from regular combustible cigarettes will take longer, but we’ve only seen vaping devices out
for a short few years now and they are causing heart failure, all kinds of other deaths, other types of
problem. | am a medical cannabis patient and | am even questioning if the dispensary should be
carrying the cannabis type of vaping products at this time until, | mean, we can determine fully if vaping
is 100% safe. So even as someone who would be interested in using a cannabis vape product, | don’t
even think it is safe for my own consumption.

Also, on a separate note, when | was here last and speaking about that, | had mentioned that | had
been eligible to serve in public office. That was confirmed recently by the City’s Legal Department. |
had filed to run as a selectman in the City; however my petitions were not verified due to a certain
complication. However, my Committee that | spoke about last time, my exploratory committee has
shifted gears. We are now the Committee to Elect and | am running as a write-in candidate for Ward 4
Selectman. With that | will end my comments for tonight. Thank you all. And | would also like to
welcome the new City Clerk, Susan Lovering.

Laurie Ortolano 41 Berkeley Street. Just wanted to address a couple of things. The new Assessing
Manual and procedures was released at the Board of Assessor’s meeting on the 29" of August. That
was of pretty big interest to me and a few other people based on a lot of the concerns that we had and
what we were looking for. | was excited, the newspaper was there, they covered an article, they asked
for comments and you know Ms. Kleiner had said that the concerns of the public were addressed. Any
concerns brought forth citing the manual addresses many of the concerns brought forth by Ortolano
and others. They are all addressing concerns that the public brought to us so it’s not like they haven't
had any input because they have. We listened to those concerns and we constructed the procedures.
These are policies on updating a property record card, how you look at grade and condition, what
constitutes fair and poor and that’s very important that we get all our assessors looking at properties the
same way.

Board of Aldermen 09-24-2019 Page 27

When she presented the Board with the book she said that they welcomed any questions and | want to
make certain | have the words correct, that she was presenting them with the new procedural manual.
And inside you would find it divided into two sections. | took the time, a week after it was released, it
was put down in the Assessing Office to view and | took the time to go down there, | spent about 2, 2 %
hours down there reviewing the manual and | typed up a paper on it, on what | thought was missing and
what areas thought might have some weaknesses. But what shocked me is that any of the concerns |
raised, and | mean | know | am not liked, but there was nothing in there, absolutely nothing for the
concerns that | addressed. | mean | really think there was nothing.

Policy hearings, one of the things | had asked about months ago, was well if you are going to write
these policies the old manual had no headings, no revisions, no dates, no page numbers. If you are
doing Policies & Procedures you want to have revisions and some way of tracking when they were
activated and what their standing is. So this new manual comes out, there’s none of that. The
Condition and the Grade Issues were not in the book, | started getting very confused. The EYB was not
in the book. The other one was the Ratings on Kitchens & Baths; when we had talked last November,
how do we look at fixtures, how do we look at something that is good, average, fair, excellent. VVhat
are the qualities of a bathroom and kitchen that would give those ratings and that is independent of an
upgrade for AssessPro5. That’s just how the Assessor is looking at this stuff; that wasn’t in there.

Documenting abatements and how we would document abatements on property files; that wasn’t in
there. The percentage increase concern | had, the increase on properties when we would send a letter
home, | did address that | was concerned about using a fixed number because lower income people are
hit harder. A $200,000.00 home is experiencing a 10% increase to have a letter delivered and a
$600,000.00 home is only experiencing a 3% increase and they get a letter. And for people at lower
income notifying them earlier or based on a percentage might be better financially for them. And EYB
and Grade; so | was shocked and | was struggling down there. | was struggling with the manual
because | couldn’t find these things. | kept thinking | was missing them, so | went Friday, | went
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday morning before the Board of Assessor’s meeting | went in for 2
minutes and | asked for the manual. And | stood at the counter and | looked and | realized pages were
missing, were missing little segments of pages are not in the book and they are not in the index; the
EYB, the Grade & Condition, the Bathroom, Total Rooms & Kitchens. Those sections were all missing.
| said to the woman at the counter, | said, “All these pages are missing”. “What?” | said, “There are no
pages so all the information I’ve been looking for isn’t here”. She was shocked and she looked at me
and said, “I don’t know why”. She walked back to an assessor and she said, “All these pages aren’t in
the book” and the Assessor went “Hmmm”.

| come out tonight and | hear Ms. Kleiner mention you know EYB and Condition and stuff are going to
be addressed with AssessPro5. | don’t understand why the Board wasn’t told that and the Board was
presented with this manual as if it was a complete manual. | don’t have any way as a citizen to go and
ask them, “where’s the stuff’ because for me it becomes a Right To Know Request. It goes up to Legal,
it could spend 4 weeks up there, it can get denied because it’s not a document request. This one would
be provide me with the documents. As a matter of fact | wrote 2 Right to Know’s before coming out
here; one to the Board of Assessors and one to Kim Kleiner for all of this missing documentation,
because | have no way of getting it. | can’t ask a question at the desk because they wouldn't tell me the
answer anyway.

But it is just disappointing that you do all of this work and you wait so long and somebody who in charge
of the office goes to the press and says, “All of this is in there, we’ve looked at grade and condition and
what constitutes fair and poor, it’s all in there”. And I’m digging around and | can’t find any of it. | feel
that’s not transparency, that just isn’t transparency for me; that’s shutting the public out, making us run
through hoops, making me work extra hard to try and figure it out. | know that she really dislikes the
public, because in her thanks in the end, there was no recognition of the work that the public has done
to try to help with what’s gone on in Assessing.

Board of Aldermen 09-24-2019 Page 28

And that happened every presentation she has given. She has thanked the City but never the public
and that just shows a very strong dislike and I’m not the only one. She mentioned she took input from
other people, | don’t know if she incorporated theirs, but she’s not overly appreciative of any input.

On a second note, at the prior meeting on August 13", Ms. Kleiner got up and spoke about
investigations that have been going on. She mentioned, because | submitted a letter, that there was
concern on my part studying what happened in an audit report to $24 million dollars that was reduced
from 12 properties. She said during the 2018 update it was determined that the base rate for school
colleges, what we call Assessing Code 72 was incorrect. Correcting the table for Code 72 resulted in
the bulk of a $24 million dollar adjustment that you keep hearing about. This has been verified by KRT.
| am not certain how much you’ve all heard about the $24 million dollar adjustment. What happened,
and this was the launching of Right to Know requests. | requested an audit report and in that audit
report | discovered that one assessor, two days before the MS1 was going out, made a $24 million
dollar adjustment to 12 properties. It was unprecedented: it was strange. | was really concerned
because when | tried to look on the property cards to understand what happened there wasn’t full
documentation. | did find that a Code 72 change was done on a few of them. All of those properties
that were changed are not all tax paying properties, some were exempt, but some were tax paying
properties and they got massive reductions, massive.

When she said that this has been verified by KRT, | don’t, now first of all, when this happened and was
discovered in I’m trying to think when, May —| wrote a letter to her. | said, “Have you looked at that
audit report you sent me, are you concerned by these reductions, do you understand why they are
done, would it be helpful to meet, could you offer any explanation”. | heard nothing. After 2 weeks |
wrote back again. | got a letter from Legal saying this didn’t meet the requirements of a document and
therefore your concerns wouldn’t be addressed. At that point | went to the Attorney General’s office
and several other citizens did and said, “We want to understand what happened with $24 million
dollars”. And we camped out with our concerns at the AG’s office and they pushed it down to Nashua
and they came to us and said, “You’ve got to bring it to your Nashua PD”. So the Nashua PD opened
an investigation into this $24 million dollars. When you hear that there is no investigation going on,
there is no further investigation of the $24 million you keep hearing about, to my knowledge there is an
open investigation about this. And it frustrates me that it had to go to that extreme, that we had to
involve the Nashua Police and the AG’s office.

When | went and met with Mike Carignan, his comment to me was “Why didn’t they just answer your
questions, why didn’t they just answer you”. And | said, “Because they don’t, they don’t tell you why”. It
is even up at the DRA. You know, we as citizens should be able to question what happened to $24
million dollars and you know why did the reduction happen. This Code 72 change that she says was
verified by KRT what does that mean? You're a lawyer, you’re a lawyer, we’ve got some lawyers in
here? Did they verify that the change was correct? Did they verify, yes a change was made? Did they
verify yes it was done by that Assessor? It doesn’t mean they approved it. | don’t know what that
means.

So you know it is enormously disappointing because | hear a lot of concerns from this Chamber on the
money | am wasting in this City looking at things like this. But | would waste so much less had there
been some communication. Our PD wouldn't be involved with this; the AG wouldn’t have been
involved, the DRA wouldn't be looking at this. The Right To Know’s wouldn’t be happening.

President Wilshire

Ms. Ortolano, you have one minute left for our Public Comment Period, please.

Board of Aldermen 09-24-2019 Page 29

Ms. Ortolano Yes | just wanted to make you all aware of this because | think it’s important. Thank you.

REMARKS BY THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN
Alderman Tencza

Just briefly and | had hoped that Mr. Teeboom had stayed, but | wanted to congratulate to him. He sent
an e-mail to the Board as to other members regarding a sculpture that has been included at the
Holocaust Memorial over off of Main Street. It is an important memorial for the City; | credit his passion
in bringing that for people to view and for all of us to continue to remember the awful tragedy that was
the Holocaust. So if people have a change, please go over and view the whole memorial but in
particular the new sculpture that was, that is dedicated to the children who died in the Holocaust.

Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja

Yes | would like to join Alderman Tencza in congratulating Mr. Teeboom on the restoration of that
sculpture. Certainly | think all of us who have attended events there, who have talked to Mr. Teeboom,
know how passionate he is about the plight of children during the Holocaust. So | was happy to see he
had gotten that restored.

Then just a reminder that the Brian McCarthy Foundation Fundraiser is coming up on October 5" at the
Bounty from 7:00 to 11:00 p.m. Tickets are available on line and will be available at the door. There
will be a cash bar, live music and some silent auction items, as well as raffle items. As | stated a couple
of weeks ago, this is really the beginning of fundraising for the Foundation which is focused on
supporting STEM activities and scholarships for students at Nashua High North & South. Thank you.

Alderman Lopez

First | would like to start by congratulating Great American Downtown on another great dinner on
downtown event. It was really well-run, | Know the Mayor volunteered; | was there as well. | would like
to thank Shanae for telling me | had to wear a black T-shirt on a 70 degree day, that was great. It was a
really great event and it was very well run. All of the chefs did an amazing job with their contributing
restaurants and the meals that they prepared. The participants all very much enjoyed it as well as the
performances, the show, all of that kind of stuff. | encourage anybody to attend it next year if they are
able. If you missed it this year then you missed out on like quiet a snack.

Additionally, | wanted to call attention to this Saturday. The “Out of the Darkness Walk” is going to be
Greeley Park. It starts at 9:00 a.m. The Walk begins at 10:00 a.m. and then it ends at 1:00 p.m. The
“Out of the Darkness Walk” is hosted by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. | participated
in it for several years; it raises awareness of a major issue in our community. But it also provides
support and solidarity to people who have been impacted by that issue and | think we need to have
more community conversation about that. Again | know the Mayor is taking steps to lead in that
direction. So if you want to get involved immediately and support a very worthy cause, that is this
Saturday, it is “The Out of the Darkness Walk” at Greeley Park. The Walk starts at 10:00 and then
ends at 1:00.

Alderman Klee

Yes I'd like to start by thanking my fellow members here for your support and your kindness during all
that I’ve been going through with this cat thing and | truly hope that it’s literally put to bed and | don’t
have to see it again and the phone calls stop.

But I’d also like to mention something that | mentioned at the previous one, | really was so proud when |
sat as a State Rep in a meeting that had DRA and the NH Municipal Association and hear that the go-
to, boots on the ground person was someone who worked in our Assessor’s Office, Louise Brown. |

Board of Aldermen 09-24-2019 Page 30
really do want to take the time to thank her again. It did make me feel wonderful and they really had
kind things to say. | know that we’ve gotten a lot of bad press and so on but | think they are heading
towards the right direction and | think time will prove that out, so thank you.

And one more thing. I’d like to welcome Ms. Lovering as our City Clerk and our new Legislative Manger.
And Donna | am so sorry | don’t Know your last name.

Donna Graham, Legislative Manager

Graham.
Alderman Klee
Graham. Thank you so much.

Committee announcements:

Alderman Gathright

| am announcing that on October 11" the Reverend William Barber who is the Co-Chair for the Poor
People’s Campaign, a National Call for Moral Revival, he will be here in Nashua at First Baptist Church,
121 Manchester Street at 5:30 p.m. on October 11". And | would suggest that folks come out and
celebrate and have a good time, a lot of music and everything.

Alderman O’Brien

Thank you. First | would like to congratulate all those who were appointed to the Committees, it is an
exhaustive list. Thank you for serving. The second thing is the Mayor starting this Mental Health, I’d
like to thank the Mayor for doing that because we had one Police Officer that tragically took his life and
we had a month earlier a Fire Fighter took his life and a year before that another Firefighter took his life.
For such a small percentage group, it is acute, you know, and the fact that the Mayor was to recognize
that, | think that is good as well as the other residents of our City. So | think that’s fantastic.

| would like to thank Chief Rhodes for bringing the newest to Nashua Fire & Rescue. The fire truck
tonight, | personally enjoy fire trucks, | wanted a ride. | want you to all notice | have my steamer tie on
tonight to welcome the new apparatus. But! wish the vehicle luck, that it takes the firefighters to their
appointed watch and that they all come back safely.

One of the last things I’d like to mention, | don’t know who did it, but whoever put the VeoBike on that
stand in the middle of the river needs to be accommodated, that was quite a feat, | enjoyed it. And also
the ones who are on Facebook or anything else, doing the art work, | never thought | would see ET on
a VeoRide on the backdrop of Main Street, but it was very good.

And also to what Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja, the Brian McCarthy Foundation, Karen McNally is the
entertainment and if you need another excuse to go there’s gifts | should say, you can bid on them and
everything else, so it’s going to be a grand time. So | hope to see you all there. Thank you.

President Wilshire

| too would like to welcome Donna Graham our new Legislative Affairs Manager, she’s going to be
doing a great job for us; she already is. So welcome and thank you for being here.

Board of Aldermen 09-24-2019 Page 31
COMMITTEE ANNOUNCEMENTS
Alderman O’Brien

Tomorrow night 9/25 at 7:00 p.m. here in the Aldermanic Chamber will be a meeting of Infrastructure;
you are all welcome, they are usually lots of fun. Thank you.

Alderman Dowd

Yes this coming Thursday, the 26" at Nashua High North we have a Joint Special School Building
Committee. We are going to be giving some results of some of the tests that have been done on all
four sites and some preliminary high level layouts of potential changes to the school. However the final
report is going to be available for a Special Joint Special on October 9" at Nashua High North and
that’s when the architect will be presenting the final report. That is not the night when a final decision is
going to be made. After that report comes out and everyone will get a copy, the Board of Aldermen, the
Board of Education, the Mayor and others and then we will have a review of the Board of Education to
get comments from them on what was presented. Then we are going to have a public meeting at some
point so that the members of the public can come and see what the findings are. And after all of that is
collected, then we will have, a yet-to-be determined date, but a Joint Special School Building
Committee meeting to make the final decision on which way we are heading.

ADJOURNMENT

MOTION BY ALDERMAN O’BRIEN THAT THE SEPTEMBER 24, 2019, MEETING OF THE BOARD
OF ALDERMEN BE ADJOURNED

MOTION CARRIED

The meeting was declared adjourned at 9:432 p.m.

Attest: Susan K. Lovering, City Clerk

Board of Aldermen

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

(603) 589-3030

September 10, 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 for Tuesday,
September 24, 2019, at 6:45 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber to allow for an assessing update.

Thank you.
Sincerely,
Lori Wilshire
President

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

SPECIAL BOARD OF ALDERMEN
SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

6:45 p.m.

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

ROLL CALL

COMMUNICATION

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

PRESENTATION

Assessing Update

ADJOURNMENT

Aldermanic Chamber