Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 6/23/2020 - P40
Board of Aldermen 6-23-2020 Page 40
Alderman Jette
Yes, thank you Madam President. | just want to clarify where | got my information. So all of these
Collective Bargaining Agreements are available on-line. So you can go to | think the State has all of the
Collective Bargaining Agreements through all the cities and towns in New Hampshire. And each City has
available on its web site. So that’s where | got my information. | looked at the proposed Collective
Bargaining Agreement that’s before us. There’s a —| don’t remember what the appendix number is — but
there’s a schedule showing what the range of pay is. And for firefighters in Nashua the range is from
$52,460.00 to $69,757.00. And in Manchester it’s $44,650.00 to $63,661.00. So they are a lot lower than
us. In Portsmouth the range is $43,899.00 to $57,362.00. In Nashua, Lieutenants their range goes from
$82,000.00 to $90,000.00. In Manchester, it’s $55,000.00 to $78,000.00. In Nashua, Captains earn from
$91,000.00 to $99,000.00 and in Manchester it’s $67,000.00 to $95,000.00.
So | don’t pretend to be an expert on labor statistics, but that’s where | got my information and | said this at
the Budget Review Committee and no one contacted me since then and said, “hey you screwed up, you
got your numbers wrong” or “you interpreted them wrongly”. No one has said that. That may be true,
maybe | am way off base here, but based upon the numbers that | reviewed, | came to the conclusion that
our firefighters are being paid fairly and certainly not being paid unfairly. And when you look at how our
Fire Department is rated in the State, | think everybody agrees it is the top Fire Department in the State if
not New England.
Now when you look at our schools, our schools don’t fare so well. How we rate Statewide, in a Statewide
comparison we are nowhere near the top. What we spend per pupil is way less than the average, not only
less than other comparable cities and towns, we don’t even spend the average statewide, the average
amount So if there’s an area that needs help in this City, to achieve more parity, | would suggest it is the
schools not the Fire Department. Thank you.
President Wilshire
Alderman Kelly did you want to weigh in again?
Alderwoman Kelly
No | just never lowered my hand, thank you.
President Wilshire
Ok. Alderman Klee?
Alderman Klee
Thank you, Madam President. Alderman Jette if you thought that | was stating that your numbers weren’t
correct, please understand | will say this to the public, | was not disputing your numbers under any
circumstances. | was just saying that | didn’t do as well of homework as you had done. And | just had a
general comment about throughout the entire State that we were paid more in the middle than being at the
highest rate. So my apologies to you if you felt that | was being critical of your comments; | absolutely was
not.
But | did want to make one more comment about something that | forgot about the steps and that is while
they are contract wise, they don’t have a contract sort to speak no one is getting steps either. So that is
something that we should be keeping in mind is while they are not, while they don’t have a signed contract
there are members that aren’t getting steps that were due steps this past year.
