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NEW BUSINESS — RESOLUTIONS

NEW BUSINESS — ORDINANCES

O-16-001
Endorser: Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane
INCREASING THE LOWEST PURCHASING LIMIT FOR SMALL PURCHASES FROM $1,000
TO $5,000

PERIOD FOR GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT

REMARKS BY THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN

Committee announcements:

ADJOURNMENT

Board of Aldermen 09-22-2020 Page 33
President Wilshire
Mr. Griffin, do you have that answer?

Mr. Griffin

It was — yeah — subject to check it was the attachment to the Mayor's letter. | believe the number was $282
million so 10% of that is $28 million and we are at $80.7 million. So we are 11.4% over.

Alderwoman Lu

Ok thank you. | just wasn’t sure how this worked. The document that we received today so thank you for
clarifying that for me. That’s all.

President Wilshire
Ok, thank you. Anyone else have any questions or discussion on Resolution 20-067. Alderman Jette?
Alderman Jette

Thank you, Madam President. So | appreciate former Alderman Teeboom’s reminding us of the Ordinance
that regulates this. So during the discussions, | took the opportunity to look at the Ordinances and you
know | just want to make sure from Mr. Griffin, the Mayor and Corporation Counsel, that we are doing wnat
we are supposed to be doing. The Ordinance that Mr. Teeboom referred to, Section 5-135 says in
paragraph A that we are supposed to maintain as of each June 30"" an amount equal to 10% of the Fiscal
Year Appropriations plus the Statewide Enhanced Education Amount, plus the Local School Net Tax
Commitment and plus the County Appropriation. So | want to make sure that we are doing that.

Secondly it says that prior to September 1* of each year, the Mayor shall provide in writing to the Board of
Aldermen the estimated amount of anticipated, undesignated general fund balance which the Mayor
proposes to use to reduce the anticipated taxrate. And then he is supposed to provide by Resolution and
it says, "The Board of Aldermen must approve that action by Resolution adopted by 10 members of the
Board on or before the Board’s second meeting in September". So that second meeting in September is
tonight. So we have to do it tonight, except if we don’t do it than the Undesignated General Fund Balance
shall not be used to reduce the anticipated taxrate. So | don’t think we want to do that, so | think we are
under the gun here to do this tonight. We really can’t postpone this. But | want to make sure from
Corporation Counsel that — | think the Memo that we received today although it is dated September 1°, we
just got it today, | think. | was on vacation so | don’t know if it was sent and we just got another copy today
or if today is the first copy. And | just want to make sure we are ok with all of this. | guess | am asking Mr.
Griffin, the Mayor and Corporation Counsel, you know, I just want to make sure we are complying with the
Ordinance and we are ok.

Mayor Donchess

Well in terms of the letter, it is dated September 1 because | signed it on September 1 but you did not get
it. | apologize, | don’t really have an explanation as to why it didn’t get to you: it was finished. Mr. Griffin
had prepared it, | signed it, but for wnatever is going on, it was intended to go to you then but it didn’t. And
we realized that it hadn’t so we sent it to you when we figured that out. So | apologize that it’s late getting to
you but it was done on September 1.

Alderman Jette
Ok and as far as the basis that we are using, are we basing it upon the Fiscal Year Appropriations plus the

State Enhanced Education Amount and the Local School Net Tax Commitment and the County
Appropriation, are we doing that correctly?

Board of Aldermen 09-22-2020 Page 34
President Wilshire
Mr. Griffin do you want to respond to that.

Mr. Griffin

Non-legally as | indicated a few minutes ago, | was trained to take the Unassigned Fund Balance and
simply divide it by the - what | think is wnat we are trying to do is the General Fund Appropriations. The
other two or three items is for towns. Net School Aid, County, we don’t even approve the county
appropriations it’s added to the taxrate. So from a practical standpoint, | have been following the same
procedure that | was trained on in 2010 and continue until this day. And as for Attorney Bolton I'm not
going to speak for him, but he just mentioned that the rating agencies are very familiar with our approach.
They are familiar with our audit. They are familiar with our ability to save. We've got over $30 million
dollars in the unassigned fund balance which they very much appreciate when they give us the two Triple A
ratings from Standard & Poor’s and Fitch. Thank you.

President Wilshire

Thank you, Mr. Griffin. Attorney Bolton?

Attorney Bolton

| leave the calculations to the Finance Department, to John and his capable people here. | can say that
Nashua is somewhat different because the School District is part of the same municipal corporation as the
City. So automatically the $2.8 million dollars in annual budget that includes the School Department in
Nashua so that doesn’t have to be added in separately. The other items are small in comparison and while
| have not done the math, my strong suspicion is they are not big enough to affect the calculation. Further,
when our Ordinances require the Board of Aldermen to do certain things by certain dates or in certain
ways, thatis how can | put that. That's how you want things to be done, how you intend to do them and
the dates by which you intend to do them. But truly one Board of Aldermen cannot pass something that
binds its successors to do or not do things in a certain way.

Essentially you can pass these Ordinances and it directs those in your employ, City Governmentto get
things to you at an appropriate time when you would them, how you would want them. But you cannot
prevent yourselves from voting on wnat you want to do when you want to doit. So to the extend that the
Mayor's letter reached you a few days late, you can determine whether that makes such a difference that
you are going to vote against this Resolution, but you are not compelled to do that. You can exercise your
judgement as to whether the best of interest of the City are served by passing the Resolution or by not.
And that’s what you are elected; but your hands are not really bound because some predecessor Board
said it was the intention to have it done by the second meeting in September.

President Wilshire
Are you all set Alderman Jette?
Alderman Jette

| just would like to follow up. | guess wnat you are saying to us is that we can go ahead and vote on this
without fear of getting into trouble. But you Knowwe are a nation of laws. We are city oflaws. And we
have adopted Ordinances and we ought to abide by them. To have the CFO say that he does it his way
because we’ve done it that way for anumber of years, you know, | guess | would ask him to revisit, you
know read the Ordinance and make sure in the future that he does it according to the Ordinance. This isn’t
a State Law, this our Ordinance and it says we are supposed to include the State Enhanced Education
Amount, and the County TaxAmountin this calculation. And | think in the future you ought to do it the way
the Ordinance says itis. If you think it should be changed, then ask us to change it.

Board of Aldermen 09-22-2020 Page 35

| think this Ordinance is just regulating us. | don’t know. | haven’t done the research. | assume it’s not
based ona State Law. But if we have an Ordinance, we are asking our citizens, we are passing
Ordinances and we are asking our citizens to obey. We ought to obey our own Ordinances. | am
comforted by the fact that bond rating companies think so highly of us and | accept Attorney Bolton’s
recommendation or opinion that we don’t have to abide by these dates, but | think we should be. | think the
September 1*' date was just an accident and | don’t think anybody did that purposely and it soundslike it
was done on time but for some reason it didn’t get to us. | hope | don’t get into trouble for this but | thank
Alderman Teeboom for bringing this to our attention. And | would just encourage us in the future to make
sure we do

It's the way the Ordinance says we should do it and/or change the Ordinance. Thank you.
President Wilshire

Alderman Clemons.

Alderman Clemons

Thank you. Yeah the —| mean | know from just discussions in the Budget Committee that it had always
been intended to use $4.5 million against the taxrate. That's what we talked about in the Budget
Committee all through the spring and right up until we passed the budget. So | don’t think that came as a
surprise or it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anybody. As far as what the Unassigned Fund Balance
would be, | mean | think relative to every year we usually put a little bit aside here and there, butitis
always over 10% and | think that the way our CFO has done this calculation and has done this process
makes a lot of sense. And I'd be happy to sponsor Legislation to change the Ordinance so that we can get
it aligned with the way that we do business now because | have to tell you that we have, number one the
best CFO in the State and probably in New England and | would argue the country. And two, we ought to
be doing things the way that he suggests that we do it so that we can continue to have our AAA Bond
Ratings. So if there’s something in the Ordinance that needs to be changed, | am happy to sponsor that
and get it done so that we are aligned in how we should be doing this, which is the way that we’ve been
doing it the last 10 years. Thank you.

President Wilshire

Anyone else? Alderman Lopez?

Alderman Lopez

Yeah Alderman Clemons largely took the words right out of my mouth but! always have more. So | just
wanted to extend to CFO Griffin my support as well, because | mean CFO Griffin has been working here
despite or without change to all of the Boards that have come and gone and the Aldermen who have been
elected. And | think it’s largely because of his leadership and guidance that’s we’ve had such a great bond
rating. So if there is a different way to do it, then | think we need to recognize that. And while | agree with
Alderman Jette that we are a nation of laws, we have to apply some common sense to those laws and we
have to make sure that the laws, when we are elected to influence them or update them or change them,
that we are doing that in a way that makes sure that the needs of the people are actually being met.

And | think if CFO Griffin has a proven track record and can make his case, we need to look at updating the
Ordinance to that effect and we should use that knowledge rather than simply following the letter of the law.
And | don’t think the law is really meant to be like a magic spell that if you do it wrong, you summon a
lawyer. | think in this case it supposed to be guidance on howwe do business in the best interest of the
City. And it would be getting in our own to ignore a system or a plan or presentation just because it was
written down a specific way in the past. If we have to make an override here in this situation, then lam
willing to do that. | don’t have a heard a case for that to be done. But if we need to make changes moving
forward so that it is more clearly communicated with what the expectations are, | wouldn’t mind supporting

Board of Aldermen 09-22-2020 Page 36

that as well. | would, however, like to continue to see the letter from the Mayor that introduces it presented
and as was discussed at the beginning of this meeting, it would be preferable for that to be done with more
advanced notice then has been done this year.

All that being said, | recognize we are in the middle of pandemic and there are difficulties, so | think it’s
important for us to outline our reasoning. But! think itis also important for us to be somewhat nimble

within the context of the law. And | would just remind everybody on the Board that that’s wnat Attorney
Bolton is here for. He’s the one who is guiding us in that particular area. So if he is giving us guidance that
says, we are empowered to do a certain thing, then | think we should probably take that to heart.

President Wilshire
Thank you, Alderman Lopez. Anyone else? Seeing no one, | would ask the Clerk to 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 Laws,

Alderman Cleaver, Alderwoman Harriott-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire 15

Nay: 0
MOTION CARRIED

Resolution R-20-067 declared duly adopted.

R-20-068
Endorsers: Alderwoman-at-Large Shoshanna Kelly
Alderman Thomas Lopez
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
Alderman Jan Schmidt
Alderman Skip Cleaver
Alderman-at-Large Brandon Michael Laws
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
RELATIVE TO THE USE OF U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
HOME INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM FUNDS FOR ACQUISITION AND
REHABILITATION OF 82-92 AMHERST STREET
Given its second reading;

MOTION BY ALDERWOMAN KELLY FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF R-20-068, BY ROLL CALL
ON THE QUESTION

President Wilshire

Alderwoman Kelly.

Alderwoman Kelly

I'd like to speak to it please. Thank you. This piece of Legislation was reviewed at the Human Affairs
Committee and the developer, Mr. Worth, came and the Committee had a good conversation around this
piece of Legislation. It is to allow Mr. Worth to work on a new affordable housing project in Nashua which

Board of Aldermen 09-22-2020 Page 37

we know we gravely need. And so his qualifications, he did this recently on Harbor Ave. and it was a really
beautiful project that he broughtforth so | hope that everyone will support this and | thank you.

President Wilshire

Thank you, Alderman Kelly, any discussion on the motion for final passage. Alderman Klee?

Alderman Klee

Thank you, Madam President. And | want to echo Alderwoman Kelly’s remarks. It was a really
presentation, he spoke to howhe can change these and still be able to maintain the people that live within
there as vacancies would come, he would relocate people possibly to the new areas and so on. |just think

it's an incredible plan. | think it's something that we really need, that’s a beautiful area right there on
Amherst Street and | hope the entire Board will unanimously vote for this. Thank you.

President Wilshire

Thank you. Anyone else? The Motion before us is for final passage of Resolution 20-068. Seeing no one
will 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 Laws,
Alderman Cleaver, Alderwoman Harriott-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire 15

Nay: 0
MOTION CARRIED

Resolution R-20-068 declared duly adopted.

R-20-069, Amended
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman-at-Large Brandon Michael Laws
RELATIVE TO THE RE-APPROPRIATION OF FISCAL YEAR FY2021 ESCROWS
Given its second reading;

MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO AMEND R-20-069 BY REPLACING IT WITH THE

GOLDENROD COPY OF AMENDMENTS MADE AT LAST NIGHT’S BUDGET REVIEW COMMITTEE,
BY ROLL CALL

ON THE QUESTION

President Wilshire

The Motion is to amend, is there discussion on that Motion?
Alderman Clemons

Yes.

Board of Aldermen 09-22-2020 Page 38

President Wilshire

Alderman Clemons?

Alderman Clemons

Thank you. As was stated previously by the Budget Chairman wnat was added, so what we are amending
in this is we are taking $100,000.00 forgive me | don’t have it but it is $100,000.00 out of the CERF line and
putting it to the Police Overtime for Major Crimes. So we are adding that line so there’s no change to the
bottom-line figure, but there is a change to the CERF and then, of course, adding it to the Police Account.
That Police account right now only has | think it’s less than $300.00 or less than $400.00 so they definitely
this, the Police Department definitely needs this change. So! would kindly ask my colleagues to support
this amendment.

President Wilshire

Anyone else? Alderman Lu?

Alderwoman Lu

Could | just have some guidance on whether — I like this change but | have questions about other items.
So would now be the better time to ask those questions or after the vote on the amended copy?

President Wilshire

You could do either. You can wait until we get to those lines or you could make your comments now.
Alderwoman Lu

So as many of you know, | was at the meeting last night but | couldn’t get audio, so | had hoped to hear,
have most of my questions answered, but there were a lot of line items that were not discussed. And |
have tried to get answers to them today and some of them! have. | want to apologize for the time it will
take to ask a couple of questions but | would like to. So one question | have is during budgeting, howis it
that we didn’t budget the Police Department’s Expendable Trust Fund? Was that just something that we
didn’t get to because of a tight budget? |am not on the Budget Committee and I’m not privy to that.
President Wilshire

Yes, that’s the case.

Alderwoman Lu

Thank you, on the Riverfront Lighting, | had a question in to the Economic Development Department. |
didn’t get an answer. And my question isn’t this a TIF or part of the TIF District that currently exists?

Mayor Donchess
Do you want me to answer that Madam President?

President Wilshire

Yeah Mayor, please do.

Board of Aldermen 09-22-2020 Page 39

Mayor Donchess

So there is a TIF District, Tax Increment Financing District that covers the Riverfront and many of the
adjacent parcels. And it generates a certain amount of income per year and that income is directed into
the Riverfront, the implementation of the Riverfront Master Plan which was adopted by the Board of
Aldermen several years ago. Avery extensive, | think a very good project that will add a lot to the City. |
think your question which | just saw up late in the day and so | didn’t have time to answer it in writing. But
the plan is ultimately when the major portions of the project are finally designed and they are in design now
is to bond for those improvements and pay for the bond out of the money generated from the TIF as your
question was suggested.

But in the initial stages here, both for the design work which is going on nowand we have hired a design
firm, they are designing many of the aspects of the Riverfront Master Plan that you can see therein the
Master Plan or in other drawings and the like that have been done since. But the initial stages, the design
work and this lighting project, we are just paying for out of the money that has come in, just paying cash
because we haven't yet, the bond has not been authorized and we haven't yet been able to determine
which until we get the design and an actual price estimate, a detailed price estimate, rather than simply in
order of magnitude, we don’t know what exactly which portions of the plan we could do; maybe all but
maybe not quite for the money, the bond that could be covered by the income generated within the TIF.

So here in the early years before we do the bond, this year we are proposing you adoptthe idea of paying
for the design out of current funds and then this proposal would pay for the remainder of the lighting
project. There is some money allocated towards it already. It would pay for the remainder of the lighting
project with this escrowed money. Again as | said, the current funds have been used for the design and for
part of the lighting project. Now| think this will add a lot to the river, you know, it will provide lighting along
the river walks north, particularly on the north side but some on the south between the Main Street Bridge
and the Cotton Transfer Bridge. It will also light the Cotton Transfer Bridge; | think you'll see a very
significant transformation with just the appearance and the walkability and the safety of the riverfronteven
though it’s really safe. But certainly being lighted will make that more obvious. So this will be a big step
forward for the downtown.

| think we have seen how people have taken to the riverfront idea. And we’ve seen that through just the
increase in activity on the water, but also as we talked about last night, the lighted kayak events which
have been held nowtwice without the City’s involvement at all, just spontaneous events down by
Nashuans which started a fewweeks ago. There was one and then probably it doubled or tripled in size on
this last Saturday night. So | think that provides an answer to just do you think we should do this project
now because it’s been designed, because we have partially allocated the money already. And if we don’t
do it now it would wait a year or two or could; wait at least a year. And it seems like given the value of the
project to the City it is worth proceeding in the short-term rather than waiting for a bond issue.

Alderwoman Lu

| have a follow-up.

President Wilshire

Alderman Lu?

Alderwoman Lu

Thank you. So this is part of the TIF District, thank you. My concern is | love what we are doing to the
Riverfront. Acouple of concerns| have are | don’t know what else could be done with these funds

because | don’t understand if we project a $5 million dollar problem with the retirement fund system in the
near future, then why we would not keep things unallocated. But! am confused about the TIF District will

Board of Aldermen 09-22-2020 Page 40

segment the captured value and devote that strictly to the TIF District. But prior to that we are spending
our general funds on the TIF District. So it just to me doesn’t seem like the process that we have described
in establishing a TIF District. |am kind of surprised that we’ve had that TIF District for about 3 or 4 years. |
have other questions andl am sorry to all of you, | would have liked to have asked these last night.

Mayor Donchess

Can | answer just part of that? The TIF District | think | can say did not really generate funds until 2019.
And the initial funds really have been used to pay for part of this lighting project and the design. The
design is quite expensive and that is ongoing nowwith the design firm and their whole team, team of
associated entities that have different expertise. So sure the money could be allocated to something else, |
mean that’s always true. But it seems like this would be a big step forward and would really enhance the
river, something we could do right now. And part of the money is already there. It's been fully designed.
This has been fully designed unlike the rest of the project because this was a little bit anead, because we
have been trying to light the river for some time. This has been some years in duration even before the TIF
District this started because we wanted to do this several years ago but as we got into it we discovered that
there needed to be ... the electric infrastructure needed to be improved and added to in order to enable this
lighting to actually take place.

| don’t have the exact dates but going back pre the TIF we were working to, we wanted to do the project
but then we discovered Oh My God the electric infrastructure is not sufficient. So nowwe have to get the
design for electrical work. We had to then go out to bid, we hired an electrical contractor to come in and
make the improvements near the river, extend the lines and all that kind of thing. So that delayed this and
really this started before the TIF District and it has taken much longer than we had hoped in the beginning
because of all the electrical work that was required. And so nowitis sort of nearly half paid for and it
seemed worthwhile to just go ahead and complete.

Alderwoman Lu

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. | thought that when we create a TIF District that we bond and so that excess, not
the excess the captured value which is received in taxrevenues goes to pay a bond. | thought that’s the
way that whole mechanism worked.

Mayor Donchess

Well, excuse me, it does you're right. | mean you're right that’s what is one possibility and probably the way
that we will go but it’s exclusive. | mean you can also and we are proposing it here, if there’s a little bit ofa
gap this year, we can fill it with appropriated funds. But you’re right, with escrow appropriated but
unexpended funds in this case. But you're right yes the basic concept of the TIF District as explained at the
time it was adopted would be to as you said bond the project and then pay for the bonds out of the TIF
District. But you could go a different way, you could make the decision, you the Board of Aldermen of the
City could decide well we are just going to do it incrementally with cash, just pay as we go. Butin the end |
think we’ll recommend that we do the approach you describe. But right nowthis seems like it’s worth
doing. Atleast! proposed it obviously in my judgment and in the judgement of the others involved, you
know, Community Development, Sarah Marchant, Tim Cummings and everybody andthe TIF Board,
there’s an Advisory Board. And in their judgement, its worth doing this.

Alderwoman Lu

Thank you. You know, | just feel the need to ask these questions about these things because | would have
liked to just sit in on the meeting and heard the discussion. | understand this is the process | heard. Butit
seems as though this year, | don’t understand why we don’t hold back on some of —| may just not
understand why you need to spend this money or it goes away.

Board of Aldermen 09-22-2020 Page 41

Mayor Donchess

One thing you asked about was the retirement problem.
Alderwoman Lu

Yes.

Mayor Donchess

Using one-time money, which is what this is, doesn’t really solve that problem, because it sort of diminishes
the problem for one year, but then the next year your problem is sort of greater because you don’t have this
one-time money to replace. In other words our Budget is going up $5 million but $4 million because of this
change that was made or $4.something. You know, you use a few hundred thousand against that $4
million in year one but you don’ have that money in year two, so now you get hit in year two. So we could
say we are never going to another capital project. But | think we need to try to balance the need for City-
betterment projects with the ability to pay. | love the Riverfront, don’t get me wrong, but love the park that
is proposed for and has been designed for the Library Plaza. | think that would be a tremendous addition to
the City. But it costs a lot more than this $400,000.00, we don’t have the money. So even though | would
love to do that project, | did not propose the expenditure of any money towards that.

One factor in that judgement is that we can complete this lighting with the money that you see here. And
so you kind of balance how much good will do versus how much can we afford? | mean the park would be
great but it’s a lot more expensive than this and we simply don’t have the money. | think we can squeeze
this money out and do the lighting project. So it will be a big improvement and one-time money towards an
annual, year after year after year increase like wnat the State has imposed on us. It helps us a little in year
one but in year two it’s not there, so in the end we really haven't solved the problem. In the end the
taxpayers are going to have pay for it, year after year after year unfortunately.

Alderwoman Lu

OK thank you. | have a few other questions on the non-like and like escrows. |am basing these questions
basically on you know, why don’t we save the money for a rainy day. But $50,000.00 seems like a lot to get
a plan for the dog park. | am having a hard time understanding why our staff can’t come up — | don’t
understand why that in this year why we would do that. But also, | am confused by the operating expenses
being in here, because | thought operating expenses were fully paid for in the 21 Budget. Those are
operating expenses.

Mayor Donchess

| could address those two if you wish.
Alderwoman LU

OK, thank you.

Mayor Donchess

Alright so the dog park we have a group of passionate citizens who really want and have worked hard to
establish the dog park in the downtown area. And | get the point of view that that might not seem like a
necessity. Buthere’s why, if we are going to do it, this money would be necessary. The parcel that has
been located is at the entrance to Mine Falls Park which is right next to the Nimco Building. | think you are
probably familiar with that building. And between that— so you walk down the hill and into the park, but as
you do that, to your left, as you get to the bottom of the hill, before you actually enterthe park there’s a