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Special Board of Aldermen 06-21-2021 Page 3

One area where we really wanted to focus was particularly in the pandemic was the fact that small
businesses were very affected and hurt by the pandemic by the closures mandatory and otherwise. The
city assembled in various batches about $2.5 million of federal funds and we created a COVID-19 impact
fund which was used to extend loans and some grants to small businesses and to some nonprofits
throughout the city.

In addition to address the closures downtown, we expanded outdoor dining. That was authorized by the
Board of Aldermen very early in the pandemic — in the spring of last year April/May timeframe. | think it
went into effect in early May. As a result according to at least one of the largest restaurant tours downtown,
we probably saved many businesses by doing that. That has turned out to be a very popular success.
We've received a lot of positive feedback on that and we have many, many more people downtown than
ever before as a result of it.

Also we are about to complete Public Health building renovations. This is a project that has been
discussed and in the works for at least probably a decade. It’s a renovated space over at Mulberry Street.
They will occupy that really within about a week.

Another project that we’ve undertaken during the pandemic is the Imagine Nashua Master Plan. Of course
the Master Plan is a land use document required by the State of New Hampshire. So periodically it’s
necessary to update the Master Plan. The last one was about in year 2000. So it’s been about 20 years.
That was an interesting exercise, an interesting project because normally of course of all the meetings
would be held in person which could not be done during the pandemic. A benefit or interesting side effect
of the pandemic and the remote participate in the Master Plan is that because it was done remotely, we
had a lot more public input than we have with respect to prior Master Plans. We had hundreds of people
involved. People who probably might not have taken the time to go to City Hall or somewhere else to
attend in person. They attended remotely and provided their input. That will eventually in the next few
months result in a Master Plan document. We're still taking public input so anybody who is interested and
wants to put in their two cents worth regarding any of the areas of the city that we’re looking at, please we
encourage you to do so.

Now let’s go on to the budget that I’ve proposed. The budget that | proposed to the Board of Aldermen and
of course the way this works is that the departments submit budgets to me and then | make changes or not
and | pass it onto the Board of Aldermen — the Mayor’s proposed budget. They are basically the final
decision makers subject to veto and override.

So the budget is up $7.5 million to $290 million but | would like to stress that more than half of that increase
was as a result of the State of New Hampshire’s pension costs increase. Were it not for that, the city
budget would be up as | proposed it about $3.1 million or a little over 1 percent. Now unfortunately the
State of New Hampshire is really going to slam the city, our city, as well as cities and towns across New
Hampshire during Fiscal 2022. One could argue at the worst possible time. These pension costs are going
up. Our bill will now be nearly $29 million. This is unrelated to any increase in wages. Sometimes people
say that oh well you shouldn’t increase wages so much. This has nothing to do with wage increases. In
fact, the State pension system will tell you that 80 percent of the money we're paying in — in other words 80
percent of $29 million is just to just build up their assets. They were fully funded around 2001. They
mismanaged the system, a big mess resulted, and now the cities and towns are being forced to pay to
correct the State’s mistakes. So again $24 million of taxpayer money from the hardworking taxpayers of
Nashua is going - $24 million of the 29 is going to compensate for the State’s mistakes and that will
continue until the indefinite future.

The other thing that happened is that the State of New Hampshire reduced school aid by $7.4 million. A
big hit during the pandemic. Now if you total those two actions, that is the pension increase and the
decrease in school aid, you come up with about $11.8 million. A negative impact to the city’s taxpayers.
That equates to a 5 % percent tax increase. So going into the budget, we really had to take a hard look
because we needed to try to compensate offset some of this increase in expenses and reduction in
revenue being imposed by the State of New Hampshire.

Special Board of Aldermen 06-21-2021 Page 4

With the budget that | have proposed if it were — and we’re going to talk about more of the details ina
moment — but if it were not for the State the actions that they have taken in increasing expenses and cutting
revenue, Nashua’s tax rate for Fiscal 2022 would actually be flat and probably down but we have to try to
deal with this $11.8 million. So at the beginning of the budget, | asked all departments but for one which |
will mention to come in with no more than a zero percent increase to try to compensate for what the State is
doing and because we were in the middle of the pandemic, unemployment at least at that point was very
high. There were a lot of people out of work and it seemed like many people in distress. So we needed to
propose a very tight budget.

| did for one department — that being the School Department — asked for a different guideline. That was
without pension and benefits, | asked for a 1.5% instead of zero. The reason for that was the disruption
that they suffered as a result of the pandemic, the effect on children — education for our children is a right
not a privilege. Every kid deserves an excellent school and certainly the remote on-line learning was a
challenge for both teachers who worked very hard and many students. So the idea there was to allow them
a little more slack to try to compensate for all the disruption that had occurred. So | asked for zero.
Remember that and 1.5% excluding pensions and benefits for the schools. So here’s what in the end |
proposed because you will see that the departments over which | have more direct control certainly
complied with and exceeded the zero percent guideline. Those that run by independent commissions, or
boards, or the like didn’t necessarily agree or comply with the zero percent idea.

So for the City Hall departments, and Department of Public Works, and the Library, City Hall will be down
2.85% percent from the current year. We did that through the health changes, through the elimination of

duplication so thank you to City Hall and all of our employees there who worked very hard and helped the
taxpayers in this way.

The Department of Public Works basically the same thing. We eliminated some unfilled positions, made
some economies, and their budget for Fiscal 2022 is down 1.28% below the current year. Library as well.
They’re down 1.94%. So thank you to all of those departments — Department of Public Works, City Hall,
and the Library.

Now police and fire, and | will mention a little bit — I'll show you what the proposed increases are in a minute
but the Fire Department requested a 4% increase. The Police Department about 2.6%. Now I’ve been
suggesting to all of our outside departments and for several years that they were building in costs which
were not sustainable and that we would ultimately reach the point where we would either have to cut
services or raise taxes significantly. It seems we may be at that point now. | didn’t feel that the — especially
given all these discussions over several years, | didn’t feel that we could afford those increases. On the
other hand, these are very important departments. We all respect the work that our Fire and Police
Departments do for the city so | proposed a compromise with each of them. Instead of the zero percent
increase that | had suggest, instead of the 2.8% reduction like for City Hall | so okay look. How about a
cost of living increase. Cost of living is 1.7 so for each of those two departments | proposed a 1.7%
increase.

For the School Department, things are a little more complicated because although this suggests a 2.29%
increase, they proposed 2.39 with healthcare. The thing you should keep in mind is that under the
teacher's contract and our teachers based upon comparisons with other districts are underpaid. We're
about 60" jn the districts of New Hampshire. About 60 districts pay more than Nashua does. This includes
the healthcare but healthcare is not resolved for our largest employee group those being the teachers
because that’s in negotiations now. If the teachers were to adopt the healthcare plan proposed by the city,
that number would drop from 2.29 to about 1.6%. So that’s in discussions in negotiation. We'll see how
that comes out but unlike the other departments where healthcare is a fixed. We know what’s going to
happen. There’s nothing agreed to on either side with respect to healthcare for the school department.
Overall, they really did what | asked and without the benefits and without healthcare, they came in at 1.7. |
had asked for 1.5 so there again a proposed a compromise to split the difference at 1.6. If you go to the
next page which Mr. Griffin is going to get for us, this just gives you some of the detail. It just shows you
what the detailed numbers are and you see the same percentages on the right-hand column that you saw

Special Board of Aldermen 06-21-2021 Page 5

on the previous slide. Again it just gives you what the raw numbers are. Now just to review what the
departments requested, again the Fire Department requested a 4% increase. My budget proposes 1.7.
Police — 2.59. My budget proposes 1.7 and the School Department requested again with the assumption
that the healthcare would not change but it very well might — | think it will benefit everyone if it does. They
proposed 2.38. My proposal was 2.29 with the healthcare or 1.6 without it. So that kind of shows you more
of the detail again.

Now | thought it was interesting to show you the six year budget analysis because | have been saying in
various State-of-the-Cities, and budget discussions, and all over the place that building these budgets that
are not sustainable there’s going to be an end to this. There has to be. Over the last six years you can see
what’s happened. There is a significant difference in the amount that the budgets have been raised over
the last six years. Fire Department is the most — 27% and that’s if their 4 percent raise is agreed to by the
Aldermen, then that will be a 27% increase over six years. If my budget held, it would be more like 25%
over six years.

Police same deal — 21%. Schools — 17.9%. Again if their proposed budget is adopted not mine. City Hall
almost 17 but 10% below the top. BPW 15 and the Library almost 12. DPW almost 16 but you can see
that — and | had this in mind when | proposed some of these guidelines. | certainly had in mind that over
time not that these percentages should be absolutely equal but we need to — all of these services are
important and we need at least to have in mind what we’ve done in the past to decide what we can afford
and where the most needs are in the future.

That gives you | think an overview of the numbers and the increase. I'd like to stress, again — oh one more
thing. Fortunately for us there is funds coming through the federal government through the most recent act
that was passed and so the budget suggests that we would apply about $4.4 million to replace some of this
lost school revenue. That will help us get it below that 5.5% increase imposed by the State of New
Hampshire. So thank you to the federal government. The American Rescue Plan helping to rescue us.
But if we left — and I’m going to stress one more time what that one slide said — if we could eliminate these
actions by the State — if we could just keep those things the same without the federal government, this tax
rate would be lower and probably down coming this fall but the $11.8 million from the State of New
Hampshire is a lot of money to make up and to try to maintain quality services.

Looking forward which is our last slide here, we are going to continue with the paving plan of action. The
city got way behind in terms of its infrastructure, in terms of paving and we are trying to catch up and | think
we’ve done a lot in that direction but still we have some streets that are not in good shape so we need to try
to press forward and continue with the 20 to 25 miles a year threshold that we’ve been reaching.

Another thing we’re pushing for is to try to increase tax revenues and deal with a housing crisis, a shortage
of housing at all levels of affordability. So we are optimistic that we can complete the School Street
housing 150 units. That’s market rate housing. Henry Hanger conversion — that’s 88 units. Again market
rate but also a Bronstein redevelopment which we’ve agreed to with the Housing Authority. They’ve been
very innovative in developing a financial plan to increase the affordable units on Bronstein and increase the
number from about 48 units to something over 200 units. So | think it’s an increase of about 160. That will
be helpful but we still have a housing crisis. We still have a shortage of housing and we need to add
housing wherever we can. There are other smaller projects that we’re working on. Things that are in not
quite the final stages that those are and of course we'll be talking about those in the future.

The middle school upgrade project, the expansion of Fairgrounds Middle School, which has already
occurred, the work at Pennichuck which is going on now and then the construction of a new Middle School
out on Buck Meadow Road which is a less expensive — still a lot of money — but a less expensive way to go
than trying to refit Elm Street. That’s an important project for the City, we are trying to upgrade the Middle
Schools and when we finish we will have State of the Art schools, all powered electrically at least by solar.
Alderman Rick Dowd is Chair of the Joint Special Building which is overseeing those projects. And we will
be moving forward with the Riverfront Master Plan; that was adopted some time ago to enhance the beauty
of the Nashua River which, of course, is a wonderful natural asset that the City has right in the core of
downtown.

Special Board of Aldermen 06-21-2021 Page 6

Now | think that gives you an overview and, of course, we are here to listen to comments and answer any
questions. So | will turn things back over to you Mr. Chairman.

Chairman Dowd

Thank you Mayor. Just before we get going, just a couple of things. | would prefer that people restrain from
using any City employee’s names; rather use a position because the Board of Aldermen can only add or
cut positions, they cannot hire or fire any employees. So we are talking about the budget so let’s keep it to
that. The other thing is on the 51 Accounts — the Salary & Wages — that is either by Union Contract or Non-
Affiliated Legislation so those are fixed as long as it is the same number of employees. And the 52 — Fringe
& Benefits — also set under the guidelines by City Hall and are not in the purview of that particular
department. Again just reiterating the rules as we go along. When | open up a Division, | will mention
which Departments are in that Division and you can ask a question on any one of the Departments; come
up to the microphone. Please try to socially distance, six feet apart if you’re in line. You can ask one
question at a time on that Division and you have 3 minutes and when you have 30 seconds left we will give
you a warning. Please do not extend over that, because we have other people that wish to speak. When
everyone has had an opportunity for that Division, if you have another question on a Division you can come
back up and ask the question again, same thing, one question — 3 minutes. You can also not yield any time
to another speaker.

Sequence in Which City Department Budgets will be Discussed:

Dept. Revenue Appropria
# tions

GENERAL GOVERNMENT DIVISION

101. | MAYOR'S OFFICE 54
102 | BOARD OF ALDERMEN 55
103 | LEGAL DEPARTMENT 58
107 | CITY CLERK’S OFFICE 30 63
108 | ENERGY MANAGEMENT 68
109 | CIVIC & COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES 69
131. | HUNT BUILDING 309
158 | PARKING ENFORCEMENT 30
166 | PARKING OPERATIONS 31

183 | ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES|

DIVISION

106 | ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES 89

110 | ARLINGTON STREET COMMUNITY 93
CENTER

111 | HUMAN RESOURCES 97

113 | BENEFITS 98

120 | TELECOMMUNICATIONS 101

122 | INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 107

Special Board of Aldermen 06-21-2021 Page 7
128 | RISK MANAGEMENT 112
129 | CITY BUILDINGS 116
130 | PURCHASING 32 120
132 | ASSESSING 32 125
134 | GIS 32 129
FINANCIAL SERVICES DIVISION

126 | FINANCIAL SERVICES 33, 34 136
POLICE

150 | POLICE 36, 300 142
FIRE

152 | FIRE DEPARTMENT 37, 311 150
EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS

156 | EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT 158

157 | CITYWIDE COMMUNICATIONS 162
OTHER PUBLIC SAFETY

159 | HYDRANT FEES — FIRE PROTECTION 165

162 | STREET LIGHTING 166
PUBLIC HEALTH & COMMUNITY
SERVICES DIVISION

171 | COMMUNITY SERVICES 173

172 | COMMUNITY HEALTH 38 179

173. | ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH 39 183

174 | WELFARE ADMINISTRATION 188

175 | WELFARE ASSISTANCE 189
PUBLIC WORKS DIVISION

160 | PUBLIC WORKS ADMINISTRATION 40 195
AND ENGINEERING

161 | STREET DEPARTMENT 40, 312 200

177 | PARKS AND RECREATION 41, 301, 302 205
PUBLIC SEVICES DIVISION

140 | PINEWOOD CEMETERY 211

142 | WOODLAWN CEMETERY 42 212

City of Nashua

Purchasing Department
Administrative Services Division (603) 589-3330
229 Main Street - Nashua, NH 03060 Fax (603) 594-3233

February 23, 2022
Memo #22-245

TO: Mayor Donchess
Finance Committee

SUBJECT: Digester Coating in the amount not to exceed $339,500 funded from 54210 Construction
Services/Wastewater Fund

Please see attached communications from David Boucher, Superintendent of the Wastewater Department,
dated February 24, 2022 for project specific details related to this purchase. Below please find a summary
of the purchase approval request:

Item: Primary and Secondary Digester Coating at the Wastewater Treatment Facility
Plant

Value: not to exceed $339,500

Vendor: John W Egan Company

Department: 169 Wastewater

Source Fund: 54210 Construction Services/ Wastewater Fund

Ordinance: Pursuant to § 5-78 Major purchases (greater than $25,000) A. All supplies and
contractual services, except as otherwise provided herein, when the estimated
cost thereof shall exceed $25,000 shall be purchased by formal, written contract
from the lowest responsible bidder, after due notice inviting bids.

A competitive bidding IFB1092-010522 for this project was issued on 12/22/2021 and the following bids
were received:

Vendor Location Amount Note
John W. Egan Newton MA, $339,500
RJ Forbes Attleboro, MA $347,040
Soep Painting Corp Lawrence, MA $634,950

We recommend this bid to be awarded to the lowest total cost vendor who met the RFP specified
requirements.

The Board of Public Works (2/24/22 BPW meeting), Division of Public Works: Wastewater, and the
Purchasing Department respectfully request your approval of this contract.

Regards,
Kelly Parkinson

Purchasing Manager

Ce: D Boucher
C O'Connor

Special Board of Aldermen

06-21-2021

Page 8

144

EDGWEOOD & SUBURBAN
CEMETERIES

42

217

PUBLIC LIBRARY

179

PUBLIC LIBRARY

43

224

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
DIVISION

153

BUILDING INSPECTION

44

230

155

CODE ENFORCEMENT

234

170

WATERWAYS/HYDROELECTRIC
OPERATIONS

44

238

181

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

44, 45

242

182

PLANNING & ZONING

45

245

184

URBAN PROGRAMS

250

250

186

TRANSPORTATION

256

256

EDUCATION

191

SCHOOL

317 - 331

263

DEBT SERVICE, CONTINGENCY &
INTERFUND TRANSFERS

193

DEBT SERVICE

267

194

CONTINGENCY

271

198

INTERFUND TRANSFERS

272

CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS

1001

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT

274

ENTERPRISE FUNDS-REVENUE &
APPROPRIATIONS

6000

SOLID WASTE FUND ESTIMATED
REVENUES

281

6000

SOLID WASTE FUND
APPROPRIATIONS

282

WASTEWATER

6200

WASTEWATER FUND ESTIMATED
REVENUES

291

6200

WASTEWATER FUND
APPROPRIATIONS

292

SPECIAL REVENUE FUNDS-
REVENUE & APPROPRIATIONS

City Special Revenue Funds

Special Board of Aldermen 06-21-2021 Page 9

2501 | PUBLIC HEALTH CLIENT FEES FUND 299

2502 | LAW ENFORCEMENT TRAINING 300
FUND

2503 | PARKS & RECREATION PROGRAMS 301
FUND

2504 | HOLMAN STADIUM EVENTS FUND 302

2505 | PEG ACCESS CHANNELS FUND 307

2506 | HUNT BUILDING FACILTY RENTAL 309
FUND

2507 | FIRE TRAINING FACILTY RENTAL 311
FUND

2508 | SPECIAL ROAD & HIGHWAY FUND 312

2510 | PENNICHUCK ACQUISITION BOND 314
FUND

School Special Revenue Funds

2100 | FOOD SERVICES 317
2120 | SUMMER FEEDING PROGRAM 319
2201 | DRIVER’S EDUCATION 320
2204 | SUMMER SCHOOL 321
2207 | ADULT CONTINUING EDUCATION 322
2212 | ATHLETIC REVENUE FUND 323
2217 | SCHOOL FACILITIES RENTAL 324
2222 | AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM 325
2227 | NORTH STUDENT SHOP 326
2232 | SOUTH STUDENT SHOP 327
2247 | CULINARY ARTS 328
2252 | DAY CARE 329
2257 | SPECIAL EDUCATION-LOCAL 330
TUITION
2258 | SCHOOL CTE TUITION FUND 331

SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION

NASHUA AIRPORT AUTHORITY 357

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT RESERVE 359
(CERF) PLANNED REPLACEMENTS

EXPENDABLE TRUST & RESERVE 360
FUNDS-FUNDED BY
APPROPRIATIONS

EXPANDABLE TRUST FUNDS- 363
FUNDED BY CONTRIBUTIONS

Chairman Dowd

Ok the first Division that we are going to cover is the General Government Division. It is Department 101 —
the Mayor’s Office; 102 — the Board of Aldermen; 103 — the Legal Department; 107 — the City Clerk’s

Special Board of Aldermen 06-21-2021 Page 10

Office; 108 — Energy Management; 109 — Civic Community Activities; 131 — Hunt Building; 158 — Parking
Enforcement; 166 - Parking Operations and 183 - Economic Development. That particular Division has a
lot of Departments but most of them are relatively small and you can ask a question on Revenue or
Appropriations. Is there anyone that has any questions on General Government Division? Please give
your name and address for the record?

Fred Teeboom 24 Cheyenne, former Alderman-at-Large, elected twice. First of all, where does this 3
minutes come from? I’ve never heard of that before?

Chairman Dowd
Itis by Legislation passed by the Board of Aldermen.
Mr. Teeboom — Of Public Hearings?

Chairman Dowd
Yes.

Mr. Teeboom — Well that makes it very a very difficult public hearing. | thought there was no limit on the
public hearing.

Chairman Dowd

Well we found that at all the public hearings that we’ve had that 3 minutes doesn’t seem to limit people if
they have a question.

Mr. Teeboom — We will have to change that, get around to change that. What | want to do is skip to page
54 but | want to skip to an earlier page like page 10. | know that Mayor Donchess made a presentation
which | could hardly read. But on Page 10 and | think Page 10 gets interesting. He compared the
departments taking out the pensions and Medicare and social security. That’s a very unusual way to
compare departments, maybe you do that for internal purposes, but | am a taxpayer. | have no interest, |
don’t have that much interest in how you manage things internally. What | am interested in is how you pay,
how many taxes | have to pay. Now when | look at the Budget what | did is | took the current budget, | had
to go to City Hall to get a copy of the budget, | don’t see there’s any of them here. And then | got my
(inaudible) budget out, which is (inaudible) and | made that comparison. | come up, Mayor, with a
completely different conclusion than you did. First of all, the Police Department increase between this
budget and last year’s budget is 6.6%. The Fire Department, 9.1% increase. The School Department a
3.5% increase. All you do is take the budget for that department this year and the budget for that
department year, take the difference and compute the percentage increase. That’s not 1% it’s 6% for the
Police; 9% for the Fire; 3% for the schools; City Hall 2% only. And DPW took a hit they only show 1%. So
there’s nothing equitable about this budget. The General Fund increase is 2.6% which is about the
percentage over the inflation rate. There’s no cap right now but | just got notice today that Governor
Sununu signed the cap. The cap is back.

Chairman Dowd

30 seconds.

Mr. Teeboom The Cap is back. By the way when | come back, you’ve only got 30 seconds, | can come
back a second time, and a third time and a fourth time, correct? The total appropriations is a combination

of taxes and fees. That went up 4.7%, not 2.6% which is the General Fund but you take into account
Enterprise Funds, (inaudible) funds the total appropriations went up $15 million dollars about 4.7%.

Special Board of Aldermen 06-21-2021 Page 11
Chairman Dowd
Your 3 minutes are up. Do you want to finish with a question?

Mr. Teeboom_ No I'll come back with a question.

Mayor Donchess

| don’t agree with your numbers really. But the reason for segregating the pensions is that we don’t control
that. So we are trying to isolate and look at City controlled cost. | made it pretty clear we are being hit by
$4.4 million and that’s part of the budget, no question about it. And the $29 million dollar pension budget is
part of the budget. So when you add the pension figures in, yeah those departments are going up more
than the figures that look at what the City can control. The reason Public Works would be down under that
scenario is that Public Works is the only group of employees that’s not under the State Pension System.
So their cost didn’t go up equivalent to this $4 million dollars. Mr. Griffin and the whole budget team has
gone over the numbers pretty carefully and | don’t think that some of the numbers you gave were accurate.

Mr. Teeboom They are very accurate (inaudible audio).
Chairman Dowd
Next speaker, name and address for the record please?

Laurie Ortolano — 41 Berkeley Street. | am here and when | come to the microphone | am going to be
addressing positions. | understand your budget increase is small but | really think you have positions in this
budget that need to be removed. And in the Legal Department this Right-to-Know Coordinator has got to
go. It is a $75,000.00 position that did not produce the results we had wanted. | really feel that there
shouldn’t of been a dedicated position for Right-to-Know and | don’t think it is a viable position for you to
fund. You are not going to get an attorney in there who is going to come in as a Right-to-Know Coordinator
and stay. The Attorney you hired punched out after 6 months and it’s going to be a roll out ground for
anyone. It really is a mascaraed position if you just want to add an attorney. In the time that the attorney
was here, we had 3 lawsuits on Right-to-Know largely because of his work. And | can tell you there are
several more that are going to roll in. So | am not a fan of this Right-to-Know Coordinator Legal Position. |
think what you want to fund is a taxpayer’s attorney that is there to serve us. So that when our City wants
to go after us with these frivolous lawsuits, we have some means of being funded so people who can’t
afford lawyers to come in on a Right-to-Know request issue which is standard Right-to-Know, basic Right-
to-Know costs a citizen $5,000.00 to take into Court. That’s not cheap. So instead of using the system to
abuse your citizens, let’s roll it the other way. And | think this Right-to-Know Coordinator should be taken
out of the budget, there’s $100,00.00 savings there, very misguided position. Thank you.

Chairman Dowd
Thank you. Miss Johnson can you just lower the mic a little bit?

Paula Johnson — Good evening Mayor, Members of the Board of Aldermen and members of the City. My
name is Paula Johnson, | am a member of the Board of Education and | ran this by Legal to make sure that
| had the right to speak here tonight as a citizen and a taxpayer of this City. So | am going to speak here
and tell you how outrageous | am about what has gone on in this last year. City Hall was shut down at
taxpayer’s expense. Yes, we had a pandemic. | went to work last June in retail with a mask on to make a
living to be able to put a roof over my head and food on the table although the Governor deemed me non-
essential; how dare he do that. And how dare you keep the citizens out of City Hall but you arrest them but
they can’t go in there. So | am proposing right now that the Mayor’s Office loses his staff because | went
there the other day and | went through City Hall and took pictures of the renovations, great job with
taxpayer’s money, doesn’t matter which pot it comes from, it came from us the taxpayers. And you talk
about people who haven't worked, that’s right. A lot of us lost a job or took deep decreases in salary rather
than increases. | went to your office Mayor and | had this little conversation, you invited me to come into