APPOINTMENT BY THE MAYOR
APRIL 12, 2016
Conservation Commission
William S. Parker (New Appointment) Term to Expire: April 4, 2019
1 Rockland Street
Nashua, NH 03064
| respectfully request that this appointment be confirmed.
Jim Donchess
Mayor
Special Board of Aldermen
April 2, 1016
A Special Board of Aldermen tour was held Saturday, April 2, 2016, at 10:00 a.m. at 141-143
Burke Street.
President Brian S. McCarthy presided.
The roll call was taken with 9 members of the Board of Aldermen present; Alderman Moriarty,
Alderman Cookson, Alderman Dowd, Alderman Lopez, Alderman Clemons, and Alderwoman
Melizzi-Golja were recorded absent.
Also present was Mayor Jim Donchess, Board of Public Work’s Commissioner Paul Bergeron,
Director of Public Works Lisa Fauteux, Division Operations Manager Andy Patrician,
Superintendent of Parks & Recreation Nick Caggiano, Superintendent of Solid Waste Jeff Lafleur,
City Engineer Steve Dookran and Interim Superintendent of Streets Jon Ibarra were also in
attendance.
Remarks by the Mayor
Mayor Donchess introduced the Aldermen, Board of Public Works Commissioner, other Nashua
Representatives, Division of Public Works’ Director, Division Operations Manager,
Superintendents and City Engineer.
He spoke briefly about the building itself including the cost, how it will be used to consolidate the
Division of Public Works and the benefit of its proximity to the Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The Tour
Director Fauteux provided a tour for all of the Aldermen. All residents were free to walk through
the building and ask questions.
ADJOURNMENT
MOTION BY ALDERMAN LEBRUN TO ADJOURN
MOTION CARRIED
The Special Board of Aldermen meeting was adjourned at 10:45 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Lisa Fauteux
Director, Division of Public Works
SPECIAL BOARD OF ALDERMEN
APRIL 2, 2016
10:00 AM 141 Burke Street
ROLL CALL
SITE VISIT
ADJOURNMENT
A regular meeting of the Board of Aldermen was held Tuesday, March 22, 2016, at 7:30 p.m. in the Aldermanic
Chamber.
President Brian S. McCarthy presided; City Clerk Patricia D. Piecuch recorded.
Prayer was offered by City Clerk Patricia D. Piecuch; Alderman David Schoneman led in the Pledge to the
Flag.
The roll call was taken with 14 members of the Board of Aldermen present; Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja was
recorded absent.
Mayor James W. Donchess and Corporation Counsel Steven A. Bolton were also present.
REMARKS BY THE MAYOR
Mayor Donchess
First | wanted to update you on the event that happened over the weekend which is Awareness is Healing, the
Walk against Heroin. Some of you may have been there, but there was so many people, 800 or so, started at
Greeley Park, walked all the way to City Hal and then back to Greeley Park. There was so many people there
I’m not sure | would have seen you. It was a great event. It was organized by Darlene Pena. The turnout was
fantastic, and | think it was something that will help support the families that are deeply affected by the problem
of opioid addiction and also provide some comfort to those who have suffered a personal loss as the result of
that public health epidemic. In any event, it was a great event.
Last night we held the Fight for Rail meeting at city hall. We wanted to schedule that on short notice. Maybe
we could have done a better job in terms of coordinating it with the aldermanic schedule. We set it up on short
notice after the House voted to delete that $4 million from the transportation plan submitted by the Governor.
The Rail meeting, many of you came after meeting here at city hall, and | really appreciate that. As you saw
there’s a lot of support and interest in the rail initiative in Nashua. We had a number of members of the Board
of Aldermen, a hundred and some people, as well as the DOT Commissioner, Victoria Sheehan, who is a
Nashua resident. That went very well.
On tonight's agenda we have four appointments that | think are significant. There are three people for the
Cultural Connections Committee. | think they are all here, but | am not positive. Rafael Calderon, Sylvia Gale
and Deepa Mangalat all have been very active in Nashua for a long, long time. Those people, | am sure, will
do a very good job on the Cultural Connections Committee. | hope you all will, and I’m sure you will, endorse
the committee’s recommendation and confirm them for the cultural affairs committee. Also we have Simon
Sarris, for the Downtown Improvement Committee. Simon is a young man in Nashua who lives downtown,
grew up in Nashua, went to BG, works downtown and lives downtown just north of the river. | think he will
provide a very unique perspective, his own and unique perspective to the Downtown Improvements
Committee. | thought he provided some rather interesting insights when he testified before the Personnel
Committee. | hope you will also agree with the Personnel Committee there.
There were two items that | was hoping you would suspend the rules to consider. One is the recognizing and
congratulating Dody Eid, who is a high school student and who has accomplished something very significant
which is that he was selected for the US Senate Youth Program, one of only two people in New Hampshire.
We have a resolution which | believe has been endorsed by everyone. Dody is a resident of Ward 9, so | think
when we give that to Dody Alderman Siegel may be reading the resolution.
Finally there are a couple of appointments which we hope you will bring in under suspension. One is my
designee on the Planning Board. The timing is such that if we wait until the next meeting in April to introduce
those they wouldn’t get considered until late May. | was hoping you would consider accepting those under a
suspension of the rules. With that, that’s all | have, Mr. President.
Board of Aldermen — 3/22/16 Page 2
RESPONSE TO REMARKS OF THE MAYOR
Alderman Lopez
| also attended the walk to raise heroin awareness. |’d also like to add that the movement was so successful in
Nashua that they have already been organizing another walk in Concord which has over 130 people committed
to it in a span of about eight hours. | like to think that is an indication that our community is now leading the
region to address issues that address the whole region. | am particularly proud of that. Then also as a counter
point to Mayor Donchess’ comment about the Cultural Connections Committee, the Cultural Connections
Committee elected two co-chairs, Lavonne Colon and Jean Adie. Rafael was nominated to be the Vice Chair
pending his appointment by this committee. So he is well known to the Cultural Connections Committee and
has done a lot in raising health awareness in minority communities.
RECOGNITION PERIOD
MOTION BY ALDERMAN SIEGEL THAT THE RULES BE SO FAR SUSPENDED AS TO ALLOW FOR THE
FIRST READING OF A RECOGNITION RESOLUTION RECEIVED AFTER THE AGENDA WAS PREPARED
MOTION CARRIED
R-16-024
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Board of Aldermen
RECOGNIZING AND CONGRATULATING DIAB “DODY” EID
Given its first reading;
MOTION BY ALDERMAN SIEGEL THAT THE RULES BE SO FAR SUSPENDED AS TO ALLOW FOR THE
SECOND READING OF R-16-024
MOTION CARRIED
Resolution R-16-024 given its second reading;
MOTION BY ALDERMAN SIEGEL FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF R-16-024
MOTION CARRIED
Resolution R-16-024 declared duly adopted.
READING MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING
MOTION BY ALDERMAN WILSHIRE THAT THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN
MEETING OF MARCH 8, 2016, BE ACCEPTED, PLACED ON FILE, AND THE READING SUSPENDED
MOTION CARRIED
COMMUNICATIONS
MOTION BY ALDERMAN MORIARTY THAT ALL COMMUNICATIONS BE READ BY TITLE ONLY
MOTION CARRIED
From: Len Fournier, Superintendent, Woodlawn/Pinewood Cemeteries
Re: Request for Joint Convention with Woodlawn Cemetery Board of Trustees
MOTION BY ALDERMAN MORIARTY TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE AND THAT THE BOARD OF
ALDERMEN MEET IN JOINT CONVENTION WITH THE WOODLAWN CEMETERY BOARD OF TRUSTEES
ON TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2016, AT 7:30 PM IN THE ALDERMANIC CHAMBER
MOTION CARRIED
Board of Aldermen — 3/22/16 Page 3
From: Mayor Jim Donchess
Re: Contract Award of Library HVAC Maintenance
MOTION BY ALDERMAN COOKSON TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE AND AWARD THE MULTI-YEAR
CONTRACT TO PALMER & SICARD IN AN AMOUNT NOT-TO-EXCEED $15,000
MOTION CARRIED
PERIOD FOR PUBLIC COMMENT RELATIVE TO ITEMS EXPECTED TO BE ACTED
UPON THIS EVENING
Mr. Bob Dion, Main Dunstable Road
My wife and | are residents of Nashua and we are also landlords to a variety of different places in the city. I’m
speaking on the item of enforcement of ordinances. | am sure you know that there are a lot of good landlords
in the city, probably 98% are very good but there are some bad ones. | always look at my buildings as a safe
place for people to live. We work very closely with the code officers, inspectors, fire department and the police
department. We are not perfect but we do the best we can. | think the bad landlords, | think you are absolutely
right in going after those people; they should be looking at improving or be fined excessively, especially the
ones that have multiple violations and don’t listen to code enforcement or the building department. The
concern that | have with this ordinance is that it is a very broad brushed approach that is hitting everything. |
think it should be more specific and address the critical safety health and repeat offenders. An example that
should not be included is Nashua Revised Ordinance 182-28; Exterior; there is some wording in here that says
your building is to be free from defects. Well, if a child hits a ball against the siding and it cracks it that’s a
defect. So, are you going to be fined excessively? People are going to say no, we won't do it, we will take it
out of the ordinance so why have it in here which makes it confusing and concerning for the good landlords. |
would suggest an alternative that if you have 10% or 15% of your building and dealing with rot, etc. then that’s
a big deal and it should be addressed and should be noticed and a violation issued if appropriate. The citation
system is designed for utilization on an as needed basis in conjunction with other remedies and after all other
avenues, with the exception of court, have been exhausted. After written warning with opportunities for an
individual to correct any violations or written citations. That sounds good but why isn’t it in the ordinance so
everyone feels comfortable that no one is going to come in and start hitting them with fines immediately.
Another conflict in the ordinance is that there is ten days to correct an issue. If the ten days were used and it’s
in the winter and you have some minor siding issues then you should be allowed to wait until the spring to deal
with it. Why not have those comments that Sarah mentioned right in the ordinance. The building codes,
plumbing, electric, ventilation is no problem, we should all be doing that. There are grandfathered items of
course for some of our buildings but we should be following those items. In summary, | think you want to go
after the bad landlords but | don’t think the way that this is written right now will be very effective. | would
suggest you have meetings with landlords and tenants and code enforcement and get a consensus or as close
as we can get to some agreements as to the way this should be written where it will be effective and you can
go after the bad landlord.
Ms. Esther Waisman, Whitman Road
It seems to me that most of the landlords in the city are good and decent people with a few bad apples in
between. Those who don’t want to fix anything and they are habitual offenders, | don’t know that a $50.00 or
$100.00 fine would really make that much of an impression. If the rent would be withheld that would get their
attention. Regarding the tenants, most of them are decent people again, but some of them need to be held
accountable and | don’t see how this ordinance would touch on that at all. They can dismantle smoke
detectors, tear up the screens, break windows, backup the toilets and rip the siding off the house and the
landlord just keeps getting cited and has to keep spending money and the tenant goes free. We feel a little
blind-sided by this whole ordinance thing because we didn’t get to have any input into what was going on and |
believe that if the city and the landlords could meet and have some sort of a discussion then we could come up
with some good solutions that would benefit all of us.
Board of Aldermen — 3/22/16 Page 4
Mr. Jean Parent, 15 % Main Street
| am the president of JP Management, Inc. and | also own property in Nashua. | am totally against this bill for a
multitude of reasons, mainly because | believe it was underhanded and swept through under the carpet. None
of us knew what hit. | found out about it two hours prior to the meeting in the first week of March. | agree with
what the previous two speakers said. Not one of us was notified. This is an ordinance that affects us, why
were we not notified? There is already a due process now and | don’t have a problem with the code officials,
they are great. | don’t understand why we are going to have to put so much teeth now into it to give them more
power. Is this going to bite me in the back next year or the year after? We would like to have input. There’s a
time limit on this ordinance, ten days and | don’t agree that this is enough because some of these violations
can take longer than ten days. This bill seems ambiguous; it goes from verbal to citation to violation to fees
which can go up to $1,000 or more. It needs to be worded in a way that everyone can understand what you
are talking about. This bill gives too much power to them and too much power is not good. It’s great for the
people that don’t follow the code but most of us try to.
Mr. Don Thibault, 10 Caitlyn Circle
| think this should be either killed or re-written so that it’s fair.
Unidentified Speaker, P.O. Box 3854
We are here to ask the Board to table it and bring it back to committee so the landlords can have a say. Years
ago, like in 70’s or 80’s, the city used to withhold rent to bad landlords until the violations were taken care of
and they also did that with taxes. If you owed taxes and the city was providing welfare to a tenant they would
withhold the rent and | think that would be a better way to go after some of these out-of-town landlords. 99% of
us are not bad landlords but we also need to be heard when a bill comes through. We feel that we were blind-
sided. We are not against people having a good, clean home. Some of these landlords own two and three
family homes and they live in the building. All | am asking is that you please table it and bring it back to
committee so at least we can be heard. Maybe some tenants and landlords can get together so we can hear
both sides of the issues and maybe resolve. We used to have meetings with even the bad landlords and
explain to them that the landlords in Nashua are not going to put up with it and that their buildings need to be
as nice as ours. | don’t think fees will hurt them but | think if the city withholds the rent you will get their
attention.
MOTION BY ALDERMAN DEANE TO EXTEND PUBLIC COMMENT UNTIL EVERYONE HAS HAD A
CHANCE TO SPEAK
MOTION CARRIED
Mr. Daniel LaPointe, Tyngsborough, MA
| agree with everything everyone else has said. One thing I'll add is that a lot of things that would fail the code
is not broken by us; it’s broken by the tenants. Who will protect us? We receive the fines and we are
responsible for things they are constantly doing. It puts a strain on the landlord. We didn’t have a chance to
speak on our points and | think you should table it and have a meeting with the landlords.
Mr. Brad Whitney, 38 Fifield Street
| am in favor of what the other people have said so far. | read that the purpose of this change was so the city
could simplify the enforcement and save tax dollars and legal fees but when | look at it, it appears that the city
is solving that problem by transferring the city’s current responsibilities and current legal expenses onto the
landlord. I’ve been a landlord for 60 years and have never had any kind of a citation but we had a bad tenant
and the fire Marshall and the code enforcement people; the building was built in 1875 and they found loose
windows and weather stripping that had to be done. They found some trash in one of the hallways and
missing smoke detectors which the tenant did but we got blamed. The court officer said well | can call the
police and the police will come and arrest the tenant for removing the smoke detector. We get fines for the
Board of Aldermen — 3/22/16 Page 5
actions of the tenants. The city provides a Tenant Bill of Rights and | had one tenant give it to me. Where’s
the Landlord Bill of Rights? | don’t want to be discriminated against. | think the tenants should be cited. There
are unexpected consequences of the law. At 0 Kinsley Street there was a narcotic treatment center and they
rented one of our apartments adjoining their parking lot and because we had to comply with the code
enforcement for the lead paint we had to evict the two tenants because we would be dealing with lead and we
didn’t want to be sued for any kind of contamination. The clinic said that was okay because the apartment
was vacant and today | got a call saying my sign was missing on the front lawn in front of 0 Kinsley Street. |
went down and the tenant had moved out and took all the signs and the fire extinguisher. | also understand
that | am guilty of not inspecting properly if there is no smoke detector. | don’t want to have to be going around
checking on these apartments and | respect peoples’ privacy. | think this law as written is unequitable, one-
sided and incomplete and it needs to go back to the committee. | think there needs to be a differential on
some of the fines depending on the severity.
Mr. Fred McManus, 108 Pine Hill Road
| have owned rental property in Nashua for over 32 years. | have very few problems with code enforcement. |
agree with all of the past speakers. | really think this should be tabled so that we can have a chance to have
input and involve some other people like tenants. | don’t have any other income; it’s going to be passed on to
the tenant at some point in time because of the operating cost.
Ms. Fran Ryan, Courtland Street
| am the treasurer of a landlord organization and | fight bills for landlords in Concord, | help write them but here
in Nashua we have a brand new ordinance relative to landlords and it got by me. | don’t know if everyone
realizes that it doesn’t just impact landlords, it impacts restaurants and | don’t see a whole lot of restaurant
folks here. | bet they don’t know anything about this. There are a lot of things that are missing in this
ordinance. There are a lot of things that code enforcement stated to us that is not written in the ordinance.
Down the road new code enforcement officers may not know what was told to us. | highly recommend that we
table this and get input from landlords and work at either killing this or getting this written so that it’s suitable
and it touches on all points relative to landlords, restaurants, etc. | agree with everything that was said tonight
and | am very concerned.
Mr. Bob Keating, 5 Coburn Woods
My wife and | have had several properties here in Nashua for the past 30 years as rental units. I’m a little
concerned with a number of landlords about what would be the ramifications of and | think the first is that this
ordinance comes right out of a state law that was enacted in 2010 that allowed communities to be able to do
this and to the best of my knowledge about the ordinance; the only difference as we speak about it in terms of
enforcement is that it allows code enforcement people to be able to issue essentially tickets where previously it
had to go to court. As a member of the Granite State Organizing Project | have seen repeatedly people saying
they have had difficulties. There have been code enforcement officers speak at various times about the vast
majority of landlords has demonstrated an interest in good quality housing. There are a few who do not
respond and it provides some leverage that was not existing under current ordinances. It provides a timely
way to address grievances. It does have checks and balances as it always has. With regard to removal of
smoke detectors, there are mechanisms to be able to fine tenants also. | think it’s a good piece and | do
appreciate the concerns of people feeling like they need to provide input. Overall | think it’s a positive initiative
and will support all of our goals in having safe, affordable housing for all.
Mr. Bernie Cote, 22 Greenlay Street
| wanted to talk about the Charron Avenue project that’s over a million dollars. | can’t see the advantage to
that. I’ve lived in Nashua for over 70 years and it’s been like that for over 25 years and nobody has
complained about it. Now, what are we going to do, put a rotary in there with yield signs which half the people
don’t even bother. I’m against spending a million dollars. The other thing is forget what they do in Concord,
Board of Aldermen — 3/22/16 Page 6
Manchester and Haverhill, MA; this is Nashua and we never went to other cities to see what they are doing to
get Nashua to be what it used to be.
Mr. Don Dobens, 210 Pine Street
| would like to see code fine go back to committee and include a variety of property owners to be able to
discuss the whole thing. It’s not specific enough. Life safety is ten days and siding is ten days, it doesn’t make
sense to me.
Mr. Todd Whitney, 32 Gordon Street
| would urge you to table the matter of the administrative enforcements.
Mr. Nick Peck, 99 Taylor Street
’ve talked with a lot of my Aldermen-at-Large this week and | have a problem with this bill. First off, the
landlords found out about this bill but the rest of the City of Nashua has not found out about it. This is not
affecting just the landlords, this effects everybody in Nashua. Anything that has to do with anything under the
fire department’s rules and laws, the building departments and the restaurants in Nashua. None of these
people know about this. | am asking to get it tabled at least until we can talk to some of the building owners
and property owners, especially the larger ones in Nashua who don’t know about this.
PETITIONS — None
NOMINATIONS, APPOINTMENTS AND ELECTIONS
MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS THAT THE RULES BE SO FAR SUSPENDED AS TO ALLOW FOR
THE READING OF MAYORAL APPOINTMENTS RECEIVED AFTER THE AGENDA WAS PREPARED
MOTION CARRIED
Appointments by the Mayor
Arts Commission
Alison Bankowski (New Appointment) Term to Expire: April 1, 2017
35 Manchester Street
Nashua, NH 03064
Judith Carlson (New Appointment) Term to Expire: April 1, 2017
15 Manchester Street
Nashua, NH
Planning Board
Michael Pedersen (New Appointment) Term to Expire: January 5, 2020
11 Delaware Road
Nashua, NH 03062
MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO ACCEPT THE APPOINTMENTS BY THE MAYOR AS READ AND
REFER THEM TO THE PERSONNEL/ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
MOTION CARRIED
Board of Aldermen — 3/22/16 Page 7
REPORTS OF COMMITTEE
Finance Committee 200.0... cece ceccceecceecceeeceeceeeceeetaeeeaeeeseeteeereeereneraees 03/16/16
There being no objection, President McCarthy declared the report of the March 16, 2016
Finance Committee accepted and placed on file.
Human Affairs Committee 2.0.0.0... ccc ccccccecceecceeeeeeeeecesecerevereeeaeeraees 03/14/16
There being no objection, President McCarthy declared the report of the March 14, 2016
Human Affairs Committee accepted and placed on file.
Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee... ceeeceeeeeeeeeees 03/07/16
There being no objection, President McCarthy declared the report of the March 7, 2016
Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee accepted and placed on file.
Planning & Economic Development Committee... 03/15/16
There being no objection, President McCarthy declared the report of the March 15, 2016
Planning & Economic Development Committee accepted and placed on file.
MOTION BY ALDERMAN DOWD THAT THE RULES BE SO FAR SUSPENDED AS TO ALLOW FOR THE
ORAL REPORT OF THE PUBLIC HEARING AND SPECIAL BUDGET REVIEW COMMITTEE MEETING
HELD MARCH 21, 2016
MOTION CARRIED
Alderman Dowd
Last evening we had the public hearing on the intersection of Charron Avenue and Amherst Street, along with
the Budget meeting for the two motions associated with that construction. Very simply during the last session
of the Board of Aldermen, we had approved a contract value. When it went out to bid because of a few
different changes, the bids came back a little higher than we had anticipated. Last night the Mayor and Chief
Engineer Dookran gave a presentation what this involved. Aldi and a couple other stores are going into that
mall there. They originally had earmarked some money to just tie into the jug-handle. The jug-handle had
already reached capacity and was not operating correctly as was the other one on the other side of the street.
What this does is it allows for Charron Avenue to be widened by one lane. It allows for two left-hand turns, two
lanes if you take a left-hand turn onto Amherst Street when the light changes. It also allows for two lanes for
taking a right-hand turn off Charron Avenue onto Amherst Street at the light. The jug-handle that is there now
where Aldi is going in is being eliminated with traffic signals in there. There will be a turn lane to go into that
mall. There will be another turn lane on the other side to queue up cars to take a left-hand turn into where
Whole Foods is. It’s basically the same thing reversed on the other side to allow cars to either turn into the Aldi
site or into the Whole Foods. That section of Amherst Street has been a bottleneck for quite a long time. The
increase in traffic from Whole Foods caused an issue because it’s highly successful. Now we have the mall
across the street. We wanted to look at developing a solution to that problem to let the flow through that area
be much smoother. In our discussions with the businesses in the area, we were able to get them to contribute,
on the initial estimate, half of the cost. When we came back and there were increased costs due to things we
found out when it went out to bid, we then also got some small addition of money from the businesses in the
area because they already were having concerns about the costs. Basically we had to add to the amount of
the money for the bond to complete this project. It’s going to eliminate the jug-handle. It’s going to reduce
significantly the flow of traffic in the other jug-handle. And, it’s going to allow for better access of flow of
Amherst Street through that area. Plus, we will be repaving all of that area which we were going to have to do
anyway. In this instance, it’s going to do all this work with a substantial amount of the fees being paid by
private enterprise and not the city. If we waited until some other time, the city would have to pay the entire
