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15. Employee Protections

Prevailing Wage and Anti-Kickback

For all prime construction, alteration or repair contracts in excess of $2,000 awarded by FTA, the
Contractor shall comply with the Davis-Bacon Act and the Copeland “Anti-Kickback” Act. Under 49

U.S.C. § 5333(a), prevailing wage protections apply to laborers and mechanics employed on FTA assisted
construction, alteration, or repair projects. The Contractor will comply with the Davis-Bacon Act,

40 U.S.C. §§ 3141-3144, and 3146-3148 as supplemented by DOL regulations at 29 C.F.R. part 5, “Labor
Standards Provisions Applicable to Contracts Governing Federally Financed and Assisted Construction.”
In accordance with the statute, the Contractor shall pay wages to laborers and mechanics at a rate not
less than the prevailing wages specified in a wage determination made by the Secretary of Labor. In
addition, the Contractor agrees to pay wages not less than once a week. The Contractor shall also
comply with the Copeland “Anti-Kickback’ Act (40 U.S.C. § 3145), as supplemented by DOL regulations
at 29 C.F.R. part 3, “Contractors and Subcontractors on Public Building or Public Work Financed in Whole
or in part by Loans or Grants from the United States.” The Contractor is prohibited from inducing, by any
means, any person employed in the construction, completion, or repair of public work, to give up any

part of the compensation to which he or she is otherwise entitled.

Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards

(a) Overtime requirements — Neither the Seller or any subcontractors contracting for any part of the contract work
which may require or involve the employment of laborers or mechanics shall require or permit any such laborer
or mechanic in any workweek in which he or she is employed on such work to work in excess of 40 hours in such
workweek unless such laborer or mechanic receives compensation at a rate not less than one and one-half times
the basic rate of pay for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours in such workweek.

(b) Violation; liability for unpaid wages; liquidated damages - In the event of any violation of the clause set forth
in para. (1) of this section, Seller and any subcontractor responsible therefore shall be liable for the unpaid
wages. In addition, Seller and such subcontractor shall be liable for liquidated damages. Such liquidated
damages shall be computed with respect to each individual laborer or mechanic, including watchmen and
guards, employed in violation of the clause set forth in para. (1) of this section, in the sum of $10 for each
calendar day on which such individual was required or permitted to work in excess of the standard workweek of
40 hours without payment of the overtime wages required by the clause set forth in para. (1) of this section.

(c) Withholding for unpaid wages and liquidated damages - the City shall upon its own action or upon written
request of USDOL withhold or cause to be withheld, from any moneys payable on account of work performed
by Seller or subcontractor under any such contract or any other Federal contract with the same prime
contractor, or any other federally assisted contract subject to the Contract Work Hours & Safety Standards Act,
which is held by the same prime contractor, such sums as may be determined to be necessary to satisfy any
liabilities of such contractor or subcontractor for unpaid wages and liquidated damages as provided in the
clause set forth in para. (2) of this section.

(4) Subcontracts - Seller or subcontractor shall insert in any subcontracts the clauses set forth in this section
and also a clause requiring the subcontractors to include these clauses in any lower tier subcontracts. Prime
contractor shall be responsible for compliance by any subcontractor or lower tier subcontractor with the clauses
set forth in this section.

Board of Aldermen 6-23-2020 Page 31
President Wilshire

Thank you, Alderman Jette. The motion is for final passage of Resolution 20-040. Further discussion on
that motion? Seeing none, would the Clerk please call the roll?

A viva voce roll call was taken which resulted as follows:

Yea: Alderman O’Brien, Alderman Klee, Alderwoman Kelly, Alderman Dowd,
Alderman Caron, Alderman Clemons, Alderman Lopez, Alderman Tencza,
Alderwoman Lu, Alderman Jette, Alderman Schmidt, Alderman Cleaver,
Alderwoman Harriott-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire 14

Nay: 0
MOTION CARRIED
Resolution R-20-040 declared duly adopted.

R-20-041
Endorsers: Alderman-at-Large David C. Tencza
Alderman-at-Large Ben Clemons
Alderman Skip Cleaver
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
APPROVING THE COST ITEMS OF A COLLECTIVE 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 AND
SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATION
Given its second reading;

MOTION BY ALDERMAN TENCZA FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF R-20-041, BY ROLL CALL
ON THE QUESTION

President Wilshire

Alderman Tencza?

Alderman Tencza

I'd like to speak to it, thank you. So |! appreciate Mr. McAllister and the Chief being here tonight. | hope
everyone had a chance to also, if they weren’t at the meeting where Mr. Davidson, Chair of the Fire
Commission, spoke about this contract. And also the Chief and John McAllister spoke a little bit more at
length. | know we have also received a lot of some communications from members of the Fire Department
about what this contract means to them and | think they have really put it into words much better than | ever
could about the level of their frustration and how they are compensated versus members of the Police
Department who have similar years of experience, who are earning a significant more amount of money
than they are.

Both Police and Fire in our City are very well trained, very well disciplined, great Departments. And | think
everyone agrees that we are very lucky to have them. In order to keep Departments and to keep people
motivated and wanting to work and achieve for the City what they have achieved, | think we have to do
what's right and do what’s fair even when it is tough. It is tough for people to ask, especially at this time.

Board of Aldermen 6-23-2020 Page 32

A couple things | just wanted to point out is that really what we are debating here tonight is a difference of
1% per year in my opinion. As the Mayor mentioned earlier, the City believes that the increase should be
about 2.75% per year over four years. The Fire Department and the Union is looking for about 4% per year
so we are not talking about the whole 4%; what we are talking about is just the difference, really what we
are debating is just the difference between what the Fire Department is looking for and what the City has
been willing to negotiate for other Union, which is a much smaller number than some of the ones that we
have received throughout this process.

The other thing I’ll say is that | think every year we have tough Budget cycles since — you know — this is the
third time that I’ve been through the Budget on the Board of Aldermen and each year we hear there are
expenses that are coming from either Concord pushed down on to us or unexpected expenses like the
healthcare costs. Each year the City to the Mayor’s credit, to Mr. Griffin’s credit, to Alderman Dowd’s credit
and everyone else who is on the Budget Committee. Everyone works together to craft a Budget which is
reasonable, which maintains services and which provides for everything that taxpayers in the City need.

So | have faith that even if we pass or even when we pass this contract for the Fire Fighters, that we will be
able to continue to work on Budgets that are fair to both our employees and to the taxpayers in the City of
Nashua. So | hope that people will look at this, especially after the conversation that we just had regarding
the contingency funds. | hope that they will be able to support this, pass this contract tonight and let the
Fire Fighters know that we appreciate them and we are willing to do what is right and fair and in their favor.
Thank you.

President Wilshire
The motion is for final passage of Resolution 20-041. Further discussion? Alderman Klee?
Alderman Klee

Thank you Madam President, | want to echo what Alderman Tencza said. | have been on the Board now,
this is my second term and | agree. Each year there is always something that is coming down. This year it
is the devastating COVID. And the shifting of the retirement system costs and so on: it is always going to
be something. | know that there was expressions used “if not now, when”. But | remember last year when
we were talking about the Budget itself and | sat right next to Chief Rhodes as he was talking about
accepting cuts if necessary and that he would work with whatever Budget he was given. And there were
some cuts and | remember him saying, “next year we can’t do it, next year we can’t do it”. Well then the
next year rolls around and we have COVID.

We did make them whole in the Budget and | appreciate Alderman Clemons stepping up and all of working
to try to get that to happen. | don’t think we can punish the Firefighters, | should say any employee just
because of what’s going on. At the same time, | don’t want to see the taxes go up, | don’t want to hurt our
taxpayers and our residents. But sometimes we have to do the right thing and | think passing this contract
is the right thing.

President Wilshire
Anyone else? Alderman Schmidt?
Alderman Schmidt

Thank you, Madam President. When you talk to citizens about what is important in the Budget they don’t
talk about the little things, they talk about the big things. And the big thing right now that we are dealing
with is the Fireman’s Contract. And it’s hard because it’s big but it is essential. And Alderman Tencza was
right, you know, every year there’s something else that comes down that is pressure on the City. | don’t
think there’s anything that could be pressure enough to make me vote against this budget of this particular
contract. It is fair, itis needed and it’s timely. It has my vote, thank you.

Board of Aldermen 6-23-2020 Page 33

Alderman Jette

Yes, thank you. We have all received letters and e-mails from firemen, explaining how difficult their job is
and they are very compelling, well written letters and really drive home the point that they are trying to
make about the risks that they face in their jobs. But at the Budget Review Committee meeting | said that
certainly we should pay the firefighters fairly, we should pay all of our employees fairly. But the firefighters
are asking for a 3 72% increase per year for four years, which when you compound it, the actual cost to the
City is going to be 17% over those four years.

Now if that’s what it takes to pay the firefighters fairly then that’s what we ought to do. We ought to find
some way of coming up with that money. But at the Budget Review Committee meeting, you know, | said,
you know, | looked around at other comparable departments, the Manchester Fire Department, Portsmouth
Fire Department. And | saw that we are paying our firefighters more, much more than they pay theirs.
That’s true of Manchester Portsmouth, Concord. So the question is, certainly a cost of living increases
have only been — they have been under 2% for a number of years. So what the firefighters are asking for is
not just a cost of living increase, they are asking for raises. They are asking that in addition to the cost of
living, that their salaries go up.

Remember, we are not just talking about whatever the cost of living increase is. | mean every position has
a schedule of what people in that position are paid. And as they achieve longevity, the more years they
serve, they get an increase in pay in addition to the cost of living increase. As they get promoted, they also
get an increase in pay. When | look at what other Departments are paying and | see that we are paying our
people more than anyone else in the State, we are also paying our people more than what they pay in a lot
of the Massachusetts cities. We pay more than Worcester pays; we pay about the same as Lowell. We
don’t pay as much as Boston. But remember, those Massachusetts — the firefighters in Massachusetts
have to pay an income tax of 5%.

| came to the conclusion that our firefighters are being paid fairly. To say that they are not being paid fairly,
you’d have to say that the beginning point, the starting point, what they are getting paid now is much less
than fair, much less than what they should be paid. | just don’t see that the evidence is there to support
that. And of all the mail and e-mails that | got and | think you all got the same e-mails, these wonderful
letters about the job that the firefighters do, no one challenged me on whether or not we were the best paid
Fire Department in the State. In fact, some of the letters said just the opposite, that we were the best paid
and that’s why they came here. That we are the best paid, the best trained, the best equipped and so to
say that our firefighters are being unfairly compensated, that argument just hasn’t been made to me. No
one has presented any evidence to support that view.

Now if this agreement is not approved tonight, they will go back, there will be fact-finding and | think that’s
one of the roles of the factfinder is to look at what other Departments are paid. And if in fact we are not
paying our people appropriately, that can be brought out in the factfinding and | would, if | am wrong in what
| am saying, | will admit it and | will support the increase that they are looking for. But that case just has not
been made. So | cannot support this agreement as it is before us tonight.

Alderman Cleaver

Yes thank you very much Madam President. We are very, very fortunate to have this tremendous
firefighting professional group representing Nashua. Yes, we have the best in Northern New England and
the best comes with difficult price tags sometimes, that is to say, you have to pay for what you get. And
these guys do a great job, these men and women. |’ve seen them operate, they are well trained, they are
very professional and also morale is very, very important. And to maintain that morale, to maintain that
professionalism, to maintain the level of the best in Northern New England, we need to compensate them
reasonably and fairly. The negotiations are over. Negotiations were taking place for months and months
and months, negotiations are done. We are ready to get the contract done.

Board of Aldermen 6-23-2020 Page 34

| think we need to get this contract approved to maintain morale and also to keep these guys coming back
to maintain the high level of professionalism you need to attract the right people year after year, as
replacements and new people. So | am strongly in favor of the contract, strongly in favor of the Union and
the negotiations were reasonable, fair and let’s just get it done.

Alderman Lopez

So | think | am struggling with this a little bit more than some of the other Aldermen who have spoken
because while | understand what the Fire Department’s value is to community, it is potentially you have two
close to superheroes in the world and it is usually freighters and police. And making sure that the
firefighters are treated fairly and making sure that they are one of the municipal services that we offer at a
high level of quality, | think it’s essential. | mean we’ve been seeing like a 3,000% increase in fireworks that
are being purchased and launched from urban areas. That is concerning to me because those can come
down and start fires obviously. We have had a record heat wave, we had a fire in Jaffrey, we provide fire
services to our City very effectively and are called upon as a regional leader as well.

So | understand the role that the firefighters have what | haven’t heard a lot about is, at least during this
motion, the impact that it is going to have on the taxpayers. | was not on the Board during an economic
downturn, but | was working at a homeless shelter at the time and | saw what happened when people lose
their homes. | saw what happened when they weren’t able to make ends meet. | am very concerned about
the impact that COVID-19 has had on multiple industries and across multiple sectors. | am not of the
opinion that we are done with it yet. | think we are still very much likely to see another outbreak in New
Hampshire. | say “another” with the understanding that we didn’t have one last time; we closed down and
prevented one from even happening.

There’s so much that is not understood about this that | don’t think this is fair to compare this to any other
year. | think | heard several people say, every year is going to be a tough year. Well this year was already
going to be tough year, because we had the health insurance issue. That was a big problem. And last
year we narrowly managed to dodge the bullet in some ways by getting more support from the State. But |
don’t know that if we get ourselves into financial trouble here, we can really count on the date because |
would imagine it is going to be in the same situation itself. So | am really concerned about what we are
doing with the tax rate and | am really concerned about how this is going to impact taxpayers. | don’t have
an easy answer and | can’t really come up with a specific recommendation for any other Aldermen right
now, because | am still listening. Because despite my understanding of how important it is for taxpayers to
be able to balance their budgets and to be able to stay in the City, that the fire department protects so
carefully. You don’t really have a place to stay if the fire department is slow to a call or not able to respond
to something.

This is obviously a very difficult situation. | don’t think it’s quite as simple for me as — are firefighters good or
are taxpayers good? | think we have to navigate very carefully here.

Alderman Clemons

Thank you, Madam President. So this evening, we earlier we passed a motion to put the money back into
the Fire Department Budget and then we moved the appropriate amount of money out of there into
contingency, in other words for this Budget if it passes the money is there. So we’ve done Step 1. And it
wasn’t going to be very easy. | remember throughout this conversation it’s always been a matter of where
are we going to find the money? Where are we going to find the money? And there was a couple of
alternatives that | had suggested earlier where we could have bonded something in place of, or done some
money shifting around and things like that. It ended up being a lot simpler and part of the reason it was a lot
simpler was because we were able to save some money in the healthcare line.

A good portion of the reason why we were able to save on the healthcare line is because of the Fire
Department and its employees. There was a sheet that we accepted | think at the last meeting, where it
showed that the Fire Department’s employees do the Lion’s Share of the high deductible plan that the City

Board of Aldermen 6-23-2020 Page 35

is promoting. So, you know, it is through things like that, that we have been able to come up with the
money that is needed in order to support the firemen and to save money elsewhere. So | am hopeful that
this will pass. | think it is a fair contract. | think that the, | look at the parity between this group of people and
some of the other fire departments where pay is similar. We have the best Fire Department in my opinion
and because we have the best Fire Department, we need to pay them accordingly. | don’t think that what
they are asking for is too much and | don’t think that what we are going to have to pay them in the future is
going to be detrimental to our Budget.

| was on the Board of the Aldermen, | was one of the Aldermen on the Board in an economic downturn.
And not only that, but | was on the Board when there were 16 outstanding Union Contracts on the Board in
2008. And prior to that, we had a decent economy 2006/2007 it was the bubble so people were doing ok.
But we had a more conservative board then and contract after contract, and | am talking years, were
rejected and then 2008 came and the Board changed a little bit. We finally were able to get stuff done. We
did that in 2008, 2009, 2010, right in the middle of the Great Recession. And the reason we were able to
do that was because we started to look at the value that we were getting from our employee. So in other
words, what is the right thing to do as far as paying them, what is the fair compensation. How can we come
up with the money to afford to be able to pay for what they were asking?

In many cases it took creative financing like looking at the healthcare savings and applying that to other
things, looking at the end of the year, to find the money. We have always budgeted this way and we used
to do it because we were under the spending cap and we had to, we didn’t have a choice. But we had to
pay our employees and we had to pay them fairly. We were on the verge, | believe it was 2008 we were on
the verge of a strike for the Teacher’s Union; our Schools were going to shut down. And we averted that; |
was on that Board that averted that. | am very proud of that. | have seen when contracts, when it looks like
things might be too expensive. This is not too expensive, we will be able to manage this and we will be
able to do it. What this is going to accomplish is going to get the Fire Department closer in parity to where
they need to be so that in the future when they are looking for raises and they are looking for things like this
and they are looking for their next contract, they won’t necessarily have to come out with something as big
as it is right now. They might have something more reasonable.

| say that in relative terms, because | think that this contract is reasonable. But | think what we are getting
hung up on here is we are comparing it to what they have gotten in the past and what they have done in the
past. And to me what they have gotten in the past hasn’t made up that parity difference that they are
looking for. So, in my opinion, what we have here is a very fair contract, it is something that we can afford.
We have proven we can afford it for the next two years anyway out of the years that are in there because
we approved the Budget earlier for it. So next year will not be a problem for the firefighters contract. The
retro is retro so that’s not going to be a problem either. So if we are really concerned about this, we are
concerned about the out years and what | would tell some of the Aldermen who may be on the fence is that
we will figure it out. And | know that that sounds like | am looking at a crystal ball, but | have been through
this enough to know that when you put your priorities first, when you are doing a Budget you put your
employees first and you say, these are the things that are important.

We did that with the Budget this evening and we did it very well. We had to compromise, we had to cut
things, and they weren’t easy cuts. But the School Department is getting its extra employees, that’s
important. | wasn’t sold on that to begin with. | wasn’t, | had to have a lot of hard conversations and you
know what? | came around to it. It is something that | could support because | understand why they need
it. The Firemen need us now and they need this contract passed because they need this pay increase to
get them to the level where they should be in getting paid. And | think this will make up the difference and
we can afford this. So | would hope that my colleagues would take a leap of faith with me, knowing that |
have been there, that I’ve seen these things and that we will get through it and vote for this contract. So
thank you.

President Wilshire

Alderman Dowd?

Board of Aldermen 6-23-2020 Page 36

Alderman Dowd

Yes, as was mentioned | have received e-mails and read Facebook comments making the inference that if
we don’t approve the current contract that is before us that we disrespect the members of the Fire
Department, we don’t feel that we deserve this raise. Speaking strictly for myself this is as far from the
truth and it pains me to hear it. | have always and still do respect the members of the Nashua Fire Rescue
and feel proud to stand by them when | can. | fully believe that they deserve a fair raise for their continued
efforts to protect the citizens of Nashua and make Nashua one of the best cities to live in this country.
They have always gone the extra mile to do an outstanding job, protecting us as professionals who save
lives and property daily.

Unfortunately the City of Nashua is in the middle of a pandemic through no fault of the members of Nashua
Fire & Rescue and Nashua has many people out of work and many people who have taken a serious hit in
their finances due to this outbreak. Many of us that are familiar with the pandemic and its financial issues
understand there are so many unknowns in FY21 that we have to take a serious look at the Budget and
that’s why we reduced is significantly to get the proposed tax rate down from 4.5, it is around probably 3.7
and even that’s high. But there are so many things that we don’t know that might happen in 2021.

First of all, | want to say that if the contract passes, | won’t be upset, | think you know they certainly deserve
to be compensated well. However, | think that if they restructured their contract a little bit and looked
towards a higher increase in 2022 and 23 when the economy is going to recover, because it has to if it
doesn’t we are all in more trouble. That | would be more in favor of it and still get the endpoint | think that
they are shooting for or close to it.

As Chairman of the Budget we looked at the property tax rate for FY21 and as | said, it didn’t look good and
we’ve done things to try and get that impact down. Now we are hearing that we are going to have issues in
2022. But! agree with Aldermen Clemons that we need to dig our heels in and do something to reduce
these impacts that we are going to feel in 2022, whatever we need to do. But this contract, just the way it is
structured right now, with the percentages and the fact that the percentage increases in ’20 and ’21 impact
pensions and other benefits that add to the cost, that’s why the over all cost is about 17%. If we can just
reduce that impact in the short term and help them make it up more in the long term, | would be more in
favor of that. As | said, if the Board feels that they want to pass it, | am not going to be upset, | fully think
the Firemen deserve an increase. | am just concerned, really concerned that if we get into FY21 and we
start having issues, that we may not be able to afford the salaries that we just passed. And that’s a bigger
issue. | for one would not like to see that. I’ve been on the fence, but right now, they way it’s structured
and we can’t do anything to change the structure of the contract it has to go back and be discussed if it’s
not passed, and | for one just think that restructuring a little bit and bringing it back to us would get enough
support if it doesn’t pass tonight. So having said that, |’ll listen to anyone else, as well.

Alderwoman Kelly

Thank you, President Wilshire and thank you for the debate from everyone on the Board here. | think there
have been very valid arguments on both sides with this. | want to start by saying | appreciate our firefighters
very much. We are very lucky to live in Nashua where we have such an incredible force. 2020 is full of a
lot of uncertainty, | think we have been living day by day and week by week in terms of what things are
happening in our City, in our houses, with our own jobs. | currently, after listening to all of this cannot
support something that puts us directly in a way where we are locked into a Budget that we may not be
able to support in the future. | think, | am not as confident as my other Aldermen who have said that, you
know, “we will figure it out”.

Things are changing every single day, we are in the middle of a global pandemic and | think we have the
responsibility to our taxpayers to make sure that we can sustain a reasonable tax rate. And 3.75 is nothing
to you know, it’s not low and we are working on it. But! think that we can’t just throw caution to the wind
and say we are going to pass this and figure it out later. Thank you.

Board of Aldermen 6-23-2020 Page 37

President Wilshire

Anyone else? Alderman Lopez?

Alderman Lopez

| had my hand up. So | had a question for CFO Griffin if he’s still here. | was just wondering, | am getting a
little bit confused by the 1% raise versus the 14% raise, versus the based on the individuals who are going
to individually receive more but collectively it is 1%. So | just wanted to ask CFO Griffin, the impact to the
overall budget of the firefighters. We are looking at an overall firefighters compensation increase of 14% on
paper but 17% in live reality. Am | getting even close to this right?

Mr. Griffin

Maybe | can help out. The way we have done cost historically is a year. | Know when my predecessor
Mike Gilbar was here in ’08, ’09, 10, they toyed with cumulative impacts. But if you look at the bottom of
the cost sheet, you have that and you take the compensation per fire fighter and it is an average. It takes
all of the fire fighters in the bargaining unit and divides into total compensation you get a number, that’s the
base year. You look down to the fourth year and that number you subtract the base number and divide by a
base that’s where you get the 17%.

Now as far as the numbers in the unit, they get step increases based on years of service. They get other
things. But predominantly there’s the base costs and then there’s other salary cost and then there’s
retirement which is predominantly NH Retirement System and then there’s the benefits.

Alderman Lopez

| just have one other question too if you don’t mind because you might happen to know. Before it was
referenced, Alderman Jette did some research on comparing the firefighter’s fee or compensation rates to
other ones in New Hampshire, | don’t really have anything to doubt him. But is the goal that they are trying
to reach equality with the Police Department and how does their compensation levels compare? Are the
Police compensated more?

Mr. Griffin

| mean if you take, the range of difference that | see is the Police Department has two uniform officer
bargaining units. The Fire Department, on the other hand, all the members are in the same bargaining unit.
But I’ve never done an analysis dividing salaries by headcount and comparing that to Manchester or
Portsmouth. I’m not sure of the analysis that Alderman Jette had performed. But | had never done an
analysis like that.

Alderman Lopez

Ok it was worth a try.

Mr. Griffin

You have different ranks, on the Fire Department you have new hires; Police Department you have new

hires and there are different ranks and so forth. The bargaining has taken place over decades and it’s hard
to compare.

Board of Aldermen 6-23-2020 Page 38

Alderman Lopez

| guess my last question is the step improvements they get for being here longer, are those competitive do
you happen to know, for New Hampshire?

Mr. Griffin

| wouldn’t know if they are competitive, but in the particular Collective Bargaining Agreement they are laid
out pretty effectively. Folks on the meeting here know a lot more about it than! do. I’m not sure if they are
the same as other firefighting units in New Hampshire.

Alderman Lopez

My fault for not looking it up first. | guess for my own comments all | can say is that this isn’t any easier. |
am acutely aware of the irony right now that our number one disaster preparedness plan is coming into
conflict with our anticipation of economic disaster. So | really don’t have any idea where to go from here.
Thank you, President Wilshire,

President Wilshire
Alderman Lu, did you have your hand raised?
Alderwoman Lu

Yes, | did. It’s been so long though, thank you, Madam President. | just wanted to emphasize that the one
really logical way of looking at this to me is just to look at apples to apples. | do see, it does look to me that
over the last 10 years, this contract would put the increases over time at parity, pretty much parity with the
Police Department. But | really don’t think that’s an appropriate way to look, | mean | think you have to look
at what the actual salaries are. And | think that Alderman Jette did us a great favor by looking into, | mean |
think that’s the only way to assess this, is what do other Fire Departments pay? And | think that’s an
important question but | think that determines my feelings on this.

And | also just wanted to point out that in this Fiscal situation that we are in, | don’t want anyone to feel, it’s
the first contract we have come upon this year since COVID-19. So it is very contentious, | mean, | would
love to vote in favor of this contract. But as some point we have to exercise our Fiscal restraint, | feel. |
wish it was a shorter contract, because then there would be less risk there. But it is not a punishment, ok?
Whatever we decide, if we were to vote against it, | just want to emphasize that there’s no punishment
here at all. For me, it’s looking at cost of living increases and are you asking for more than that. And if you
are, then we have to weigh that against the people who are paying these salaries. And if they are not
getting a comparable cost of living increase in their salary, which we pretty much know no one is, then why
should we fund this? Thank you.

Alderman O’Brien

Thank you, Madam President. | speak on using compatibility but | am going to choose not to. | will reserve
my comments of comparing to the end because | really do have an issue with apples and oranges. | know
the difference. Thank you.

Alderman Tencza

Thank you, Madam President. Just to clarify a few comments and questions that were asked before. First,
this would not bring parity between the Police Department and Fire Department. Over the years, the Board
of Aldermen have raised the salaries for the Police Department for the Police Patrolmen’s’ Union at a
greater rate than they have for the Fire Department. So a second-year officer in the City of Nashua right
now is going to make more than someone who has been on the Fire Department for 4 years.

Board of Aldermen 6-23-2020 Page 39

And even if we pass this, that is still going to be the case. The Fire Fighters are not looking to compare
apples to oranges but they are, | think they are pointing that out in a way so that we can understand why
they feel that this is a fair deal for them.

The other thing | would say is that in response to Alderwoman Lu’s comments, you know, | don’t think we
can look and think and compare what everyone else’s cost of living increase is going to be. But! think if we
look at the level of service that the Fire Department has provided for the City, and the increased number of
calls and extra responsibilities that they have taken on over the last 5 years without asking for anything
more and with just agreeing to just a cost of living increase. | have no doubt that they will continue to do
that going forward regardless, because they are professional and that’s who they are. But | just wanted to
clarify that this will not bring parity, it may move pay rates a little bit closer, but the Police Department would
still be paid more than firefighters with comparable years of experience.

Alderman Clemons

Thank you, Madam President. In regards to a comment that was made earlier about throwing fiscal
responsibility to the wind, | just want to state for the record that this is the opposite of that. VWWe know what
the costs are going to be because the contract states them. With the Fire Department, we know how many
employees they have at one given time because there’s a minimum number of employees that they need to
have in order to maintain a fire company. So we can fairly accurately budget this for year to year. The
other thing is the other Departments in the City have a lot of flexibility and a lot of different demands and
needs, so a lot of times they can balance their budgets on the back of vacancies and things like that. It’s
much harder to do with the Fire Department.

| think that it is important that we all understand that we have the cost in front of us. And the fact is, that
this is a retroactive contract if it were to be passed. So it would take care of 2020, we just passed the
Budget for 2021 so we know that those two years would be taken care of. So really the question is, can we
afford it for the outlying years and my thought of that is, yes we can. We have done it before in the past
and we can certainly do it in the future. | would encourage my colleagues to vote yes.

Alderman Klee

Thank you, Madam President. | think a lot has been said about parity and so on and I’ve never been one to
want to compare one person to another so | am going to leave that conversation to others. | do want to
make a comment, please anybody correct me if | am wrong, but in my homework that I’ve been doing, one
of the things that I’ve found which was quite surprising to me was that the firefighters don’t get overtime
until they hit 52 hours, unlike other employees when they hit 40 hours they will get overtime. But for the
firefighters, it’s not until they hit 52 hours.

The other thing is that steps don’t happen every year, they happen every 5 years, and where this is a 4
year contract, there may actually be some people that aren’t going to be getting steps during this time. |
understand where Mr. Griffin is coming with the 17% because he’s very good at his job and I’m sure he’s
calculated that based on the employees that will be getting steps. So | am not to disagree with that; but |
just want that to be known to the public that these are some of the information that we don’t see as part of
the contract that is there.

| also don’t disagree with anything that Alderman Jette said about the other —- Concord, Portsmouth and so
on and that we are above those. | did a superficial and | apologize for not getting more detail when | went to
Concord and talked there, | want to say the Fire Commission but | don’t think that’s what it is. But | asked
them to kind of give me a general feeling as to where Nashua’s payroll was, the equity of pay and so on.
They told us for New Hampshire, we were right down the middle. So | know that’s probably comparing us to
some towns and so on. But | looked at us as being one of the best Fire Departments in the State as far as |
was concermed and yet our pay fell more towards mid-line. They may be higher than what Portsmouth or
Manchester and so on but Manchester is a much bigger — | don’t know the size of Portsmouth or even
Concord. That’s all | wanted to say | think.