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Q-20-032

ORDINANCE

REDUCING THE FINE FOR OVERNIGHT PARKING VIOLATIONS

CITY OF NASHUA

In the Year Two Thousand and Twenty

The City of Nashua ordains that Part II “General Legislation”, Chapter 320 “Vehicles
and Traffic”, Article XIH “Night Parking” Section 320-78 “Parking time limits”, subsection B of
the Nashua Revised Ordinances, as amended, be and hereby is further amended by deleting the
struck-through language and adding the new underlined language as follows:

“320-78 Parking time limits.

B. Anyone violating this provision shail be fined a minimum of $2510. If such fine is
not paid within seven days, the fine shall increase by $10, to $3520.”

All ordinances or parts of ordinances inconsistent herewith are hereby superseded only to the
extent necessary to effectuate this legislation.

This ordinance shall become effective immediately.

LEGISLATIVE YEAR 2020

ORDINANCE: Q-20-032

PURPOSE: Reducing the fine for overnight parking violations

ENDORSERS: Alderman-at-Large Brandon Laws
COMMITTEE
ASSIGNMENT: Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee
FISCAL NOTE:

A sixty percent reduction in the overnight parking violation fine

amount would result in an approximate loss in annual enforcement
revenue of $225,000 to $250,000.

ANALYSIS

This legislation reduces the fine for overnight parking violations.

Approved as to form: Office of Corporation Counsel

By: Varad Chu Ie

Date: LG Se plese e070

A regular meeting of the Board of Aldermen was held Wednesday, September 9, 2020, at 7:30 p.m. via
teleconference.

President Lori Wilshire presided; City Clerk Susan Lovering recorded.
Prayer was offered by City Clerk Susan Lovering; Alderman Skip Cleaver led in the Pledge to the Flag.
President Wilshire

As President of the Board of Aldermen, | find that due to the State of Emergency declared by the
Governor as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and in accordance with the Governor's Emergency
Order #12 pursuant to Executive Order 2020-04, this public body is authorized to meet electronically.

Please note that there is no physical location to observe and listen contemporaneously to this meeting,
which was authorized pursuant to the Governors Emergency Order. However, in accordance with the
Emergency Order, | am confirming that we are:

a) Providing public access to the meeting by telephone, with additional access possibilities
by video or other electronic means:

To access Zoom, please refer to the agenda or the City’s website for the meeting link.

To join by phone dial: 1-929-205-6099 - Meeting ID: 815 3168 1211 Passcode: 873807

The public may also view the meeting via Channel 16.

b) Providing public notice of the necessary information for accessing the meeting:

We previously gave notice to the public of the necessary information for accessing the meeting,
through public postings. Instructions have also been provided on the City of Nashua’s website at
www.nashuanh.gov and publicly noticed at City Hall and Nashua Public Library.

c) Providing a mechanism for the public to alert the public body during the meeting if there are
problems with access:

If anybody has a problem accessing the meeting via phone or Channel 16, please call 603-821-2049
and they will help you connect.

d) Adjourning the meeting if the public is unable to access the meeting:

In the event the public is unable to access the meeting via the methods mentioned above, the
meeting will be adjourned and rescheduled. Please note that all votes that are taken during this
meeting shall be done by roll call vote.

Let’s start the meeting by taking a roll call attendance. When each member states their presence, please
also state whether there is anyone in the room with you during this meeting, which is required under
the Right-To-Know Law.

Board of Aldermen 09-09-2020 Page 2

The roll call was taken with 14 members of the Board of Aldermen present: Alderman Michael B. O’Brien,

Sr., Alderman Patricia Klee, Alderwoman Shoshanna Kelly, Alderman Richard A. Dowd, Alderman June M.
Caron, Alderman Benjamin Clemons, Alderman Thomas Lopez, Alderman David C. Tencza, Alderwoman

Elizabeth Lu, Alderman Jan Schmidt, Alderman Brandon Michael Laws, Alderman Skip Cleaver, Alderman
Linda Harriott-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire.

Alderman Ernest Jette was recorded absent.

Mayor James W. Donchess, Corporation Counsel Steven A. Bolton, were also in attendance.

Alderman O’Brien

| am present, | can hear the proceedings and | am alone.

Alderman Klee

| am here, | can hear the proceedings and | am alone.

Alderwoman Kelly

I’m here, | can hear everyone, | am alone.

Alderman Dowd

Yes, | am here, | can hear everyone and | am alone and am practicing social distancing in accordance with the
Governor's Orders.

Alderman Caron

| am here, | can hear everyone and | am alone.

Alderman Lopez

| am here, | am alone and | am practicing social distancing, | am really good at it at this point.
Alderman Tencza

| am here, | am alone and | can hear everyone.

President Wilshire

Can anyone else hear Alderman Lu? We can’t hear you Alderman Lu. Alderman Jette will not be joining us this
evening.

Susan Lovering, City Clerk

Thank you, President Wilshire. Alderman Schmidt?
Alderman Schmidt

| am here, | am alone and | can hear everyone.

Board of Aldermen 09-09-2020 Page 3
Ms. Lovering

President Wilshire, can you hear Alderman Laws?

President Wilshire

| cannot.

Alderman Cleaver

| am here and | can hear everyone except Alderman Laws and | am alone.

Alderman Harriott-Gathright

| am present, | can hear everyone and | am practicing social distancing and | have three family members here
but | am in this room alone.

President Wilshire

| am here, | am alone and | can hear everyone; | am social distancing. | believe Alderman Lu is back. We can’t
hear you Alderman Lu. Alright, Madam Clerk?

Ms. Lovering

You have 11 in attendance.

President Wilshire

Thank you very much.

Alderman Laws

Madam President, I’m back, | don’t know what happened.
Ms. Lovering

Thank you Alderman Laws.

President Wilshire

Thank you Alderman Laws. Also with us this evening is Mayor Donchess and Corporation Counsel Steve
Bolton. Mayor, do you wish to address the Board this evening?

Steve Bolton, Corporation Counsel

Madam President, before we proceed, | think we ought to do whatever is necessary so that we can all hear and
she can hear us in the case of Alderman Lu.

President Wilshire
Thank you. Alderman Lu, can you hear us?
Alderman Harriott-Gathright

Can you dial in?

Board of Aldermen 09-09-2020 Page 4

President Wilshire

| think she’s trying to dial in.
Alderman Clemons

Hello? Alderman Clemons is here.
President Wilshire

Thank you Alderman Clemons.

Attorney Bolton

Maybe you should inquire if Alderman Clemons can hear us and establish whether he’s alone or if others are
present?

President Wilshire

Alderman Clemons?

Alderman Clemons

Yes | can hear everyone, | am by myself and social distancing at home.
President Wilshire

Thank you Alderman Clemons.

Alderman Dowd

Also President Wilshire, Director Marchant is with us this evening and Assistant Chief Jim Testaverde.
President Wilshire

Thank you Alderman Dowd; Alderman Lu?

Alderwoman Lu

Can you hear me now?

President Wilshire

Yes.

Alderwoman Lu

Alright.

President Wilshire

You are on mute Alderman Lu; Alderman Lu, can you hear us?

Board of Aldermen 09-09-2020 Page 5
Alderwoman Lu

Yes | can, | can hear you (audio cuts out).

President Wilshire

Ok, alright. Now, Mayor do you wish to address the Board?

REMARKS BY THE MAYOR

Mayor Jim Donchess

Yes, thank you Madam President. Well first, as you all Know, we had our primary election yesterday which was
the first of a kind one in which people could vote via absentee with COVID-19 as their rationale. As a result of
that, we had many, many more absentee ballot requests than ever before. The number exceeded 5,000
although | don’t believe all those votes were actually cast absentee but over 3,000 and Ms. Lovering can give
you the details. Over 3,000 were cast via absentee. Again, this was a first of a kind event and also the
procedures that had been established by the State of New Hampshire for the City Clerk to track all these ballots
are very complex and very time consuming. There are multiple times when the City Clerk or her staff has to
check in with the State data base, record various stages of where the ballot is in the process. And during this
entire time, Sue Lovering, the City Clerk and her staff, worked way beyond expectations in order to make sure
that this election came off. Ms. Lovering herself worked 7 days a week, entering data, taking care of other
problems, registering people, many, many different tasks. And as we added to the staff through temporary work
force, managed a much larger workforce than she had in the past.

Her staff also worked many extra hours and were entering this data and processing these absentee ballots. At
times we were getting 500+ requests per day and those all had to be processed quickly. So in the end, this
never could have been pulled off without the extraordinary efforts of Ms. Lovering. The election went by with
great success and the count came in and again, | can’t say enough about how hard Sue worked. | went in at
various times, you know, at night, Saturday afternoon, there was Sue working away, as well as some of the staff
members. So | just wanted to, you know, we’ve got a bigger election coming up but this was a great trial run, |
think we set up a good system and again it is all thanks to Ms. Lovering and her staff.

Now it has been my custom, Madam President, to update you on the Coronavirus when we meet in this fashion
at the meeting of the Board of Aldermen. We continue to have a very low number of cases, around 8 active
cases in Nashua right now. And as you know we have been very careful around City Hall to try to prevent any
outbreaks by keeping City Hall closed in part, by requiring appointments, by limiting the number of people who
have come in for automobile registration. And, of course, | personally have limited the number of people that |
met with in City Hall to a very small number and a small number of occasions. However, one of our City Hall
employees called me, excuse | think someone from the City Government called me late Thursday, this past
Thursday and said that one of the people that | met with had a family member test positive for COVID-19. So |
immediately, “Oh really?”. So | immediately called that employee and said, “You better get tested, |’ll talk to
Bobbie Bagley the Director of Public Health, we'll get you tested right away” which we did. And in talking about
it, we decided that | and at least one or two others that had been in these meetings should also be tested. So |
got tested Thursday night as well.

A couple days went by and on Saturday afternoon, | got the call from Director Bagley saying, “Well your test
was inconclusive”, “what does that mean”. “Well to confirm a test you need two strands of RNA that is some
kind of genetic material, you had one, so we are going to re-test you on Sunday”. So Ms. Bagley, of course,
she’s also been working beyond the call of duty for many, many months, Ms. Bagley who had already been up
to the State on Saturday to deliver those tests, because more tests were run then, came to my house on
Sunday morning, we ran the test again and she called me later in the afternoon to say, “You tested positive”. So
| tested positive. My wife also seems like she has symptoms, she’s been tested but the results haven’t come
back yet. | think the lesson here is that no matter how careful you are, that we need to continue to exercise a lot
of caution.

Board of Aldermen 09-09-2020 Page 6

| have not gone — outdoor dining only, no group gatherings except at great distances, but despite all that,
somehow this virus slipped through at City Hall and there are several people including myself who have tested
positive. So we need to continue to be careful, we want to continue to protect our neighbors, our friends. So far
for me the disease hasn’t been too severe but certainly | know that | have a virus. So | just wanted to update
you and let you know what had happened, again urge caution for the entire community as we have been doing
throughout the last 6 months or so.

The next item on the Agenda is the introduction of our new Planning Manager which Ms. Marchant is going to
handle. She will introduce you to Matthew Sullivan who has come down from the North Country to join us or will
be coming down from the North Country to join us. Because | am feeling the effects of the Coronavirus, COVID-
19, | am going to depart once Ms. Marchant is finished but if you have any questions for me, now would be the
time to ask. That’s all | have Madam President.

President Wilshire

| am really sorry that you tested positive for that, but as you said, everyone needs to be on their best, you know,
cautious every day, all the time. So | hope your symptoms clear up fast and you are feeling better.

Mayor Donchess
Thank you.

RESPONSE TO REMARKS OF THE MAYOR

Alderman Lopez

Yeah | just want to express my concern for the Mayor and | hope you are getting the best care. | agree Director
Bagley has been doing an outstanding job in being responsive and quick to address these cases. | am glad that
your case was identified very quickly. | hope that everything goes alright for you and for your wife.

Mayor Donchess

Thank you.

Alderman Klee

Thank you Madam President; Mr. Mayor, | too would like to tell you that | hope you are feeling better and that
your wife is feeling equally better. | know these are kind of scary times but | also know that the two of you are
very strong, you'll kick it. Take care.

Alderman O’Brien

Yes basically the same thing, best wishes Mr. Mayor to you and your wife, speedy recovery and wish you the
best.

Mayor Donchess

Thank you everyone.

Board of Aldermen 09-09-2020 Page 7
Alderman Tencza

| just wanted to briefly echo the Mayor’s comments as they relate to Ms. Lovering and the work that her office
did with the elections yesterday. It wasn’t easy, we’ve gotten some negative feedback | think but | think overall
it was a positive experience for people to feel safe going out to vote in an environment where they can remain
socially distant and wearing masks and doing it a safe way. And then finally, Mr. Mayor, | hope a speedy
recovery for you and Mrs. Donchess.

Alderman Cleaver

Yes thank you. | would like to thank the Mayor for all the hard work he’s done and the Mayor’s staff and
everybody at City Hal. And Ms. Lovering that was an outstanding job you did in a very unusual circumstance
and we can’t thank you enough. | think it went very, very, very well. But kudos to the Mayor and to the staff and
to Director Bagley and everybody in fighting this virus. It’s been a fantastic learning experience in many ways
but it’s also been very, very, very hard work. We appreciate all that has been done.

Alderman Dowd

Yes | know what we had some concerns at Ward 6 because it is the Fairgrounds Middle School and it’s in the
middle of construction right now. We did what we could to make it passable working with Ms. Lovering and we
did have a couple hiccups that we are not sure what they were caused by, but it is being moved across the
street to the elementary school for November so there will not be an issue. And Mayor, | hope you and your
wife kick this real fast.

Alderman Harriott-Gathright

Just want to echo all my colleagues’ comments to the Mayor. | hope that you and Vicky recover abundantly and
soon. And to Sue Lovering and her staff, job well done, Ward 9 was well done. | did stay there until the end and
| actually watched them unassembled and take down things just really, really working as a team. So just want
to say hats off to you as well. And of course to Director Bagley, the lady of the hour, thank you so much for all
that you’ve done, not just for the Mayor but for a lot of other families here in Nashua, because I’ve heard nothing
but great things about your team and how they went overboard to help someone get the testing that they
needed. So | just want to say thank you, we really appreciate it.

RECOGNITION PERIOD
Introduction of New Planning Manager Matthew Sullivan, AICP
Sarah Marchant, Director of Community Development

Thank you President Wilshire and the Board. | am here before you tonight to introduce you to the new
Planning Manager, Matthew Sullivan, AICP who will be starting with us at the end of the month. This was a
long search in seeking the new manager; we really needed a very broad skill set and we were looking for
somebody with the enthusiasm and the energy to really bring this to this position, the Board and coming
back into the new Master Planning effort. And we have been incredibly busy in this time.

Bobbie and her team have been doing an amazing job with the COVID response and we have been
keeping the economy moving smoothly with non-stop Planning Board, Zoning Board, Conservation
Commission and all of the applications moving right along through and development has been proceeding
at a pretty breakneck pace. So we are really excited to bring Matthew on board and to keep this moving. |
will let you give him a little bit of a background about himself. So introducing Matt, hopefully you can see
him.

Board of Aldermen 09-09-2020 Page 8

Matthew Sullivan, Planning Manager

Hey everyone, thank you everyone, | appreciate you having me this evening. | want to thank members of
the Board, Director Marchant, Mr. Mayor; | appreciate you taking the time to say hello albeit in the
circumstances that we are this evening, virtually. | don’t know if | can begin to express my enthusiasm for
joining the City. Some background, Mr. Mayor said that | was from the North Country, that is true. But
originally, | was actually born in Nashua, | lived there the first 5 years of my life on Huey Street adjacent to
the Mohawk Tannery. And then subsequently went through education in Milford, just next door so | am
certainly well connected to the Nashua area. And in a way, this is a bit of a homecoming for me so | am
very excited to come back and contribute to a community that’s very near and dear to me.

Just to simply add to that, my family and friends are still located in the Nashua area, many of which are
actually working or living in Nashua. Certainly | understand the role that both Housing & Economic
Development play in Nashua’s character and how they will play a role in Community Development moving
forward. As was mentioned, | was the Planning Director in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire until just recently.
Before that | worked a consulting planner for a Regional Planning Commission in the Seacoast area of New
Hampshire, working in Dover, Rochester and other smaller communities in that area focusing primarily on
land use, economic development and housing and planning. | had a really great experience there and really
gave me a taste of working in a more urban environment, which made me (audio cuts out) to come back
and exercise some of those skills in Nashua. And certainly working with Sarah and the team, | am very
excited about moving forward on efforts like the Master Plan, the Comprehensive Code Update and
subsequent efforts that will come out of that.

| am ready to hit the ground running, | will begin on September 28", | am extremely excited, again | will be,
in light of the circumstances that are before us today, excited to get started with the team and really get
going on the Master Plan. That is one of our highest priority items right now. And | expect that through that
| will get a chance to be exposed to each of you hopefully in one sense or another and certainly get to know
the community in a better way. | am happy to answer any questions that you might have this evening, but
again, | want to thank you again for your time and for this brief sort of chat and get to know you and
hopefully we get a chance to meet in person sometime in the near future.

President Wilshire

Thank you Mr. Sullivan and thank you Director Marchant. | hope that you’re in for a big job because
Nashua has a big job for you.

Mr. Sullivan
Yeah.
President Wilshire

A lot of excitement, right we have a new Master Plan and all these things going on; it’s a great time for you
to be here and | am excited, for one, that Sarah found you. So thank you.

Mr. Sullivan

Well | appreciate that and you’re so right, it seems like the perfect time to come on board. It seems like a
very exciting time and certainly | think both during and after COVID is going to be a very interesting time for
the City and hopefully the Master Plan gives us some direction on what that looks like moving forward. So
thank you.

President Wilshire

Well that’s going to be on you; | mean not all of it.