Search

Board of Aldermen 05-25-2021 Page 51

President Wilshire

The motion before us now is for final passage of Ordinance 21-065 as amended. Further discussion? OK
would the Clerk please call the roll?

A viva voce roll call was taken to adjourn the Board of Aldermen meeting which resulted as follows:
Yea: Alderman O’Brien, Alderman Klee, Alderwoman Kelly, Alderman Dowd,
Alderman Caron, Alderman Clemons, Alderman Lopez, Alderman Tencza,

Alderman Jette, Alderman Schmidt, Alderman Laws,
Alderman Cleaver, Alderwoman Harriott-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire 14

Nay: 0
MOTION CARRIED

Ordinance O-21-065 is duly adopted as amended.

PERIOD FOR GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT

President Wilshire

Again we have a three minute limit so if you could keep your comments to three minutes. Paula Johnson. Mrs.
Johnson.

Alderman Jette

She said she needs to be unmuted.
President Wilshire

OH | didn’t hear her sorry.
Alderman Harriott-Gathright

She is on mute.

President Wilshire

You are unmuted Paula Johnson.

Paula Johnson Thank you again for allowing me to speak. | am a little bit concerned here with the vote that the
Mayor is going to get the chance to tell people who can and cannot come into City Hall. Again | am speaking for
myself as a taxpayer of this City. It is really sad that we are going to restrict people again to come in and out of
City Hall because we the people own the building, we the people pay for that building and we the people are
being restricted again. I’d like to know how many hours a week the Mayor is actually in the building and when he
is in the building. You call and leave messages but he’s going to restrict the people from coming in. I’d like to
thank Alderman Clemons for coming forward with this. | thank you so much but we the people have put up with a
lot this year with these masks. Yes, there are going to be people who need to wear masks and there’s people
who don’t want to wear masks or people who can’t wear masks because of health reasons. And to again, say to
us in public buildings, these are our buildings we own it with our taxes, we have been paying a lot in taxes this
year we are seeing our taxes go up again and yet you are telling us, the public when we can and cannot come
into this building and that we have to wear masks to come into the building. Shame on all of you. The control is
out of control. Thank you very much.

Board of Aldermen 05-25-2021 Page 52

President Wilshire

Beth?

Beth Scaer | wanted to address....
President Wilshire

Name and address for the record please.
Ms. Scaer_ Mayor Donchess’ testimony.
President Wilshire

Name and address for the record.

Beth Scaer East Hobart Street.
President Wilshire

OK.

Ms. Scaer | just wanted to address Mayor Donchess’ testimony in opposition to SB52 this week which is to
protect our - the City’s spending cap. He suggested that no one in the City was outraged about the spending
of the Mayor and the Aldermen and he also said that because the people pushing to get this passed to protect
our spending cap have their races for Aldermen, then the spending cap is not something people want. He also
pointed out that all you guys are voting in lock step and the spending cap wouldn’t do any good against the lot
of you and your spending, spendthrift ways. | want to tell the Mayor if he is listening that there are a lot of
people who are furious with the spending. We want our spending capped and God willing, someday we will
get some conservative people on the Board and the spending cap will be put to good use. Thank you.

President Wilshire
Is there anyone else wishing to give public comment.

Laurie Ortolano 41 Berkeley Street. | listened to the discussion about the mask ordinance started off ok the
third motion was really disappointing. You know, it is like | am listening to people discuss everything you need
to do micro manage and milk a mouse here. You are supposed to simplify this process and make it easy for
people to come to City Hall and do their business. You are going to draft up a whole bunch of rules and
regulations that people are going to have to follow again when they come in, even knowing what the hours are
that are going to be for certain people. Whether they mask or don’t mask and it puts people in this quandary of
violating rules that they are not even familiar with exist anymore and they’ve got to be conscientious of it and it
just sets up a lot of issues and problems. | don’t think it was necessary. | think it is a control issue. | don’t think
you need to have that level of control. | don’t think you have to put that on the Mayor or anyone else. You
know, open the building. If you open the building and you see issues arise, or there is some outbreak, then you
can readdress it, but that’s the whole purpose of trusting what has gone on with the health program, where we
have taken this and moving forward. | think those City Hall and these Government Buildings are paid for by
the people are really owned by the people and | understand compromised people, let them wear their masks,
hopefully they have vaccinated, they have done what they need to do. If they need to have a mask on they do
it. There’s a lot of email and mail options to get information into City Hall and | don’t think you need special
hours and a special routine for a certain group. | think you just make it as easy as possible to open up your
spaces and let people come use them.

Board of Aldermen 05-25-2021 Page 53
President Wilshire
Next we have Alison Dyer?

Alison Dyer Hello, thank you. Allison Dyer, it is Wellman Avenue in Nashua, New Hampshire. And | just
wanted to say thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening. | do appreciate the repeal of the mask
ordinance here in Nashua. However, it is still a little bit tough where there’s this false choice between public
health and individual freedoms. We have kind of accepted this as binary so that has invited politicians to
politicize it. Public Health in another words is inconsistent with the right to be left alone. Of all the risk factors
for disease or injury it would seem now today that freedom would be the most pernicious. And | am not really
sure when we changed over to this, we can’t trust anybody we look at everyone as a threat. But we just want
the option back. | think that there should be no rules other than the recommendations provided and people can
do with those as they wish. We seem to have missed that and unfortunately walked away from that and | think
that is something that we need to get back to where everyone can make their own individual choices and we
move on. So thank you.

AJ Todd — Yes | just wanted to also comment on....
President Wilshire
Name and address for the record please.

AJ Todd It’s AJ Todd, | live at 4 Greeley Street, Nashua. | just also wanted to comment on my disappointment
in the decision to allow the Mayor to restrict access to our house. You know, maybe if he wants to continue to
restrict access to our house we should stop paying him. | don’t think that’s right at all and | don’t think it’s your
guys’ authority to do that. That’s our house and we pay for it and it is the taxpayers. | also wanted to get on
here really quick and say that I’m very disappointed that this City’s decision not to have a Memorial Day
Parade again, you know, we are sitting here listening to anti-hate, we are going to have anti-hate parade which
| always encourage that type of behavior, | am not going to condemn it at all. When we can’t even honor our
dead, we can’t even do anything patriotic for our City. We missed 4" of July, are we going to miss 4" of July
again this year? |’m so tired of it and | want the City to do something patriotic for once and hold the Memorial
Day Parade, | implore all of you to do.

Charles Forester — Hi Charles Forester, 9 St. James Place, Nashua, NH. | just wanted to say that it is really
shocking to hear for the past, | don’t know 20 to 30 minutes people go back and nitpick this mask mandate, Oh
let’s repeal it, but then let’s add this, let's add these recommendations. | really applaud Jan Schmidt for
actually promoting self-responsibility, saying look, let’s let the businesses do what they want to do. | think |
speak on behalf of a lot of citizens where we can no longer tell the difference between what is actually for our
own health and what is actually virtue signaling. And a lot of us are tired of it. | really appreciated Jan
Schmidt's, it was totally simple | think people should’ve gone with that and just moved on. But for the past 20
to 30 minutes it was nitpicked and it’s all very confusing to us again. So that’s all | have to say. Thank you for
the time.

President Wilshire

Thank you. Is there anyone else that wishes to give public comment? Anna Wendle?

Anna Wendle This is Anna Wendle, Salem Street in Nashua. | just want to applaud the Board of Aldermen for
taking the time to listen carefully to what the Board of Health had to say, take that into consideration and to
continue to work to protect our citizens in Nashua. Thank you.

President Wilshire

Thank you. Is there anyone else that wants to address the Board? Could you give me your name and address
for the record?

Board of Aldermen 05-25-2021 Page 54

Alecia Houston Sorry | didn’t know if | was over speaking. So my name is Alecia Houston, Westwood Drive,
Nashua, NH. | wanted to and | believe that this may be like the first time that I’ve ever said this. | actually
wanted to applaud Alderwoman Jan Schmidt for having the vote of her constituents at her heart. | truly
appreciate that show of support as a Nashua resident. | wanted to take a moment just to discuss some
constructive criticism, even though we are on virtual meetings, | do believe that we should have and hold
ourselves accountable to having the cameras on. As representatives of this City, as Aldermen and women, it is
really important that you remain engaged and it is good optics for the citizenry that you guys are available and
in person.

Additionally, those who had their cameras on | appreciate it, however, | would definitely caution you guys that
some of the things that the public is seeing a not necessarily things that you would be doing during a public
meeting had it been in person. And finally | wanted to ask that the Board of Aldermen just as the Board of
Education and other Committees within the City have done, we need to see you guys back in person and it
would really eliminate some of these (inaudible) with virtual meetings if you guys were back into City Hall. And
| again appreciate and applaud you. | know that brevity is key and | think that in voting in the future you should
always remember that the more that you cloud it, the harder it gets to interpret, especially for the people.
Thank you.

President Wilshire

Is there anyone else? Mayor | know you had wanted to speak.

Mayor Donchess

Well just a brief — | wanted to mention the Veteran’s Day Parade. The Veteran’s Counsel decides on how to
run the parade and the decision had to be made months in advance because we needed the high school
bands and they were telling the Veteran’s Counsel that they weren’t available, they couldn’t organize it. So |
think the decision was a reasonable one at the time and everybody in the Veteran’s Counsel said that we were
confident we could hold a Veteran’s Day Parade in November, but several months ago when the decision was
made it didn’t seem like it would be practical to hold the Veteran’s Day Parade. So | don’t want to second
guess them. Maybe now we could, but we can’t do that on a few days’ notice. Anyway that’s all | wanted to
offer, Madam President.

President Wilshire

Thank you. Is there anyone else? Last call for public comment. Marilyn Todd? Marilyn? Marilyn Todd? OK |
don’t know if she just can’t hear me but she has her hand raised. OK I'll call one more time, Marilyn Todd. No
response, | will contact Christopher Weier.

Christopher Weier — Excellent. This is Christopher Weier, East Hollis Street in Nashua. | appreciate everyone
working so hard to get this thing figured out tonight. | know it is a late night and | don’t want to keep anyone
later than they need to be. | do think it is important that rather than look back at the nightmare that was last
year and this entire process that all of us went through that we really look forward to the next occasion in which
we will need to rely on the Aldermen, the Mayor and the Health Department. We can’t foresee what that would
be but | would say if we were to analyze what happened over the past year, as far as politically, as far as
getting recommendations from the Health Department, it was a complete disaster. Everything was very slow
moving, nothing that should have been an emergency oriented thing was treated as such. And | think people
kind of gauged their feelings and their behavior based on that. So | think there’s a lot that could be looked at
over what happened this past time to kind of better prepare everyone the next time something happens. That
is all, thank you.

Board of Aldermen 05-25-2021 Page 55

President Wilshire

Thank you. Once again | still Marilyn Todd’s hand raised. OK. We will conclude public comment. Remarks
by Members of the Board. Alderman Schmidt?

REMARKS BY THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN
Alderman Schmidt

Thank you Madam President. | just want to make it absolutely clear that because we gave the Mayor the right
to put up signs, keep people out during certain times, offer special times, it doesn’t mean that it'll happen. It
means that if we find that it is necessary, as someone had suggested who called in, should numbers go up,
should we start to worry about this, the Mayor could take this step. We have given him that right. Honestly |
think everyone is going to behave well on this. | think everybody is going to understand their responsibility,
and so we are counting on them. And! am awfully glad we passed this tonight. Thank you.

President Wilshire
Thank you. Alderman Clemons?
Alderman Clemons

Thank you. | wanted to just clarify my vote for anyone that’s listening. So obviously | supported this Legislation
and | supported Alderman’s Dowd amendment and the reason being is that | felt it was good to put the Board
of Health’s recommendation as they were, again, just recommendations as my colleague, Alderman Gathright
also pointed out. It is good to put their hard work and effort and recognize it. And the reason that | supported it
was because they were simply guidelines and not edicts from us. So that’s why | supported that and | did not
support Alderman Jette’s amendment to give the Mayor authorization because | think that there are other
entities like the Fire Department, the Police Department, different buildings that really need to make that
decision and those organizations need to make those decisions for themselves. And while | respect the Mayor
| just think that we were better off with a clean cut ordinance. So that was my vote and other than that | want to
wish everybody a good Memorial Day. May we remember the soldiers who gave their greatest sacrifice and
hopefully in the future we will be able to hold a parade. | understand what the Mayor was saying, that it was too
late to put one together but | hope that in the future we can make sure that that happens going forward. So
thank you all very much and | appreciate everybody’s consideration this evening.

President Wilshire

Anyone else? Alderman Lopez?

Alderman Lopez

Regarding the comments about the Memorial Day Parade, as the Mayor said, it is not a City decision
exclusively, the organizers have to be considered too. | don’t know if the public understands exactly how much
planning goes into those parades. It is also worth mentioning that the Pride Parade is NOT happening, it’s a
virtual pride festival and the announcement made earlier was not a parade either, it is a unity gathering | think.
But they are not walking down any streets or anything like that. So it’s worth pointing that stuff out. But
parades aren't really the only way to honor Veterans or to remember those who have given their lives for our
service. | really think that the better way to do that is to support people now who served with those people.
Honor them in meaningful ways, even with recognizing that there’s Veterans on our Board of Aldermen and
they are obviously very supportive of Veterans in my opinion.

Board of Aldermen 05-25-2021 Page 56

| know Alderman Jette serves with me on the Board of Operation Enduring Welcome and we founded it
specifically to build stronger communities between Veterans and citizens. | know that the Board just recently
passed the Veteran’s Memorial Parkway name change from the Broad Street Parkway. And recently the Boys
& Girls Club in partnership with Involved to Impact have begun decorating the street barriers along Factory
Street being a way from Dalianis House in a patriotic manner explicitly to do something special. So the
thinking was when people are walking out of there to go to their appointment or try to address the problems
they have they can literally be their own parade, walking past a bunch of reminders and positive messages that
kids have made. So! would say support organizations that support Veterans for Memorial Day. Support
Harbor Care Clinic or Harbor Care as an organization because they host Buckingham Place and then run the
Dalianis House which are both programs for homeless Veterans. Buckingham Place for Veteran families.
Support programs like the VFW that offer a place for people to gather and remember people that they have lost
and also find resources and move forward. There’s a lot of ways to celebrate Memorial Day that are just as
effective | think as a parade. And would be just as well received by the people involved.

In addition to that | also wanted to try to clear up at least my understanding of the masking ordinance we just
rescinded. We rescinded the masking ordinance, it doesn’t seem like it is clear to the public. We included the
Public Health guidelines. There are some areas where other considerations do have to be made and there are
other entities involved like the schools, but we did rescind the Citywide Ordinance. It is my understanding from
the vote that we specifically gave the Mayor authority over making rules for masking, we did give him any new
powers to change access or times to use City Hall. | think if people choose to refuse to patronize a business
because that business is following a mask ordinance, or has chosen to create its own rules for its own safety
but that’s their choice but nobody told them to make that choice and their rights are not being infringed on.
They are exercising their right to not patronize that business. Likewise, if the Mayor does decide to make rules
about when people have to wear masks, in recognition of people who are more concerned or more vulnerable
or immune compromised based on health knowledge and information, then you choosing not to exercise your
right to access City Hall during that time and follow that because you don’t want to wear a mask, that’s your
right but you are not being restricted from access. You are just choosing not to follow the guidelines that are
set. If Michael Buckley over at one of his restaurants says, you need to wear a shirt in order to sit down, you
are not being discriminated against by being asked to leave if you show up without a shirt. So | think it’s
important that people differentiate when their rights are being infringed upon and when they are deliberately
choosing to pursue their own ideology. | think a lot of politics have come into place tonight that didn’t
necessarily have to and there’s definitely a lot of confusion but it’s not being helped by people who will
immediately contradict things that were said very specifically in the meeting because they are frustrated and
that’s where they are coming from. So | think people need a clear message and | think we should give them
that. We took the mask mandate down. If there are specific locations that ask you to behave a certain way,
that’s just paying attention to where you are. Thank you.

President Wilshire

Alderman Cleaver.

Alderman Cleaver

Yes thank you very much Madam President. | want to wish everybody a very happy or safe Memorial Day
keeping in mind what Memorial Day really means. It is remembering those we have lost and everybody should
keep in mind that there’s been sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice for us and that is what Memorial Day
should mean. Secondly, any time we are going to give the Mayor administrative duftites or his staff new
responsibilities associated with the buildings or whatever, | think we should consult the Mayor first and write

the ordinance second rather than the other way around. | very much dislike this that City Hall is confused.
Thank you very much.

President Wilshire

Youre welcome. Alderman Klee?

Board of Aldermen 05-25-2021 Page 57
Alderman Klee

Thank you Madam President. | am going to ask for a personal privilege for a moment but | would like thank the
United Way or | should say congratulate the United Way for all that they have done. They are an amazing
group and | appreciated Michael Apfelberg’s shout out to my mask pushing as | used to put it all the time. The
United Way did incredible things during this pandemic. They were right there. They helped all the other non-
profits. Everybody worked together so well and | was proud to work with them. I’d also like to give a shout out
and a thank you to the Toll Street Mission. This past weekend they put together a clean-up of Whitney Street
and all the side streets. | worked with them, | worked with all the volunteers. It was absolutely amazing, they
did much further than what | had done with Locke Street and so on. They cleaned the streets, they literally
cleaned the streets as well as the sidewalks and so on. But they also helped people clean their yards. They
brought rakes and as a result there were people out there that were raking and cleaning, they offered plants,
they did all kind of things. They went so far above and beyond. They normally have kind of a block party but
this year because of the COVID pandemic going on, they didn’t want to have that. But they still had cotton
candy and there were a lot of children that volunteered, grabbed rakes went over there and did that. They had
hot dogs. Soel Sisters came out and made boxed lunches or bagged lunches | should | say for everybody. It
was truly an amazing day on Saturday and | was so proud to stand with these people and to get my hands dirty
once again.

And the next thing I’d like, Madam President, | am going to call it a personal privilege and I’d like to just read
something that | wrote if that’s OK with you.

President Wilshire

Yes.

Alderman Klee

Thank you. And | ask the other members, thank you so much for putting up with this. As | said

| am going to ask for a personal privilege as | would like to speak to something somewhat personal. May is
Mental Health Awareness Month and | believe that it is important to have those difficult and for some
uncomfortable conversations. Many of you may know that | recently lost two dear friends, both 66 years old
and both the most wonderful and kind hearted men that | was in awe of... One passed from an undiagnosed
heart disease that may not have taken his life IF he had gone to his Doctors rather than ignoring his symptoms.
If he had gone to his doctors, | honestly believe that he would have received priority care because in this
country we pay attention when someone has chest pains. Sadly, | lost my other friend to suicide. David lost
his battle with his mental illness. He leaves behind a beautiful young wife and 2 beautiful daughters who are
just starting their lives. As | said he lost his battle with his mental illness. He was NOT undiagnosed and | am
sure that the physician that he was seeing did what they could to help through both medication and
counselling. The one thing that they could not help with is perceived shame and the stigma that too many like
David experience. | am asking you all today to help me and so many others start that conversation and
reduce, if not eliminate, that stigma and shame of mental illness. This was not David’s first attempt at suicide
but as you know today it was his last and most successful. Not only did David leave behind so many who
loved and admired him but he left us all with so many unanswered questions. | am not sure if David were here
today, if he would be able to actually answer any of these questions because unlike cancer, heart disease or
diabetes so much is unknown about mental illness and how to help those who suffer. Telling someone to be
strong and tough your way through does not help someone with a mental illness. No one wants cancer, heart
disease or diabetes and NO ONE wants any mental illness. We can’t just tough our way through it... we need
to make sure that everyone who needs help gets help and if they refuse then we just need to be there when
they are ready for us to help. Compassion and Love will not cure or fix a mental illness but it helps to know
that you are not alone and there is no shame in what you are going through.

Board of Aldermen 05-25-2021 Page 58

Since David’s passing, | have tried to make some sense of it but honestly there is no way to make real sense
of any loss let alone that of suicide. What | have learned is that there are many resources out there and | have
learned that mental illness does not have a one size fits all solution. There is not a single medication nor a
single form of counseling that can help everyone. Sadly, it is a true trial by error. David went through many
medications, some that helped but caused other issues and some that had no effect at all. | don’t know why
David felt so hopeless that he could not go on any longer but | do know that he had to feel so desperate that he
felt it was his only way out, even leaving his wife and daughters that he loved desperately. | don’t want David's
death to go unspoken and | don’t want David’s family to feel that their loss is just one more statistic so as |
said, | have been earnestly trying to do my homework and learn as much as possible about Mental Health in
this country and in our beautiful state of NH. | have learned so much and yet learned that | know so little as
probably many of you feel. The first thing that | am learning is that none of us are alone in this journey. There
are so many people who are there to help us learn and to help us understand BUT equally as devastating is
the fact that in this country and in this state Mental Healthcare funding is below par. We treat Mental Health as
if it is not equal to a Physical ailment even reimbursing Mental Healthcare workers less than those of other
Healthcare workers. What | do want to say is that regardless of the reimbursement rates and the lack of
Psychiatrists here in NH there ARE people and organizations that want to help. Sadly because of the lack of
resources many who need help may have to wait 3, or 6 or even 9 months to get an initial visit.

Greater Nashua Mental Health Center recently had a discussion session with the Honorable Chief Justice John
Broderick. It started with a video of Justice Broderick speaking about HIS story and asking for HELP to break
down barriers, remove the stigma and to increase awareness. He spoke about the fact that Mental Illness is
just that it is an illness that as | said no one asked for and no one deserves. He spoke to the fact that we need
to treat it as we would diabetes, cancer, heart disease etc. If someone was having a heart problem would they
be expected to wait 3, 6, or 9 months for an initial appointment? | don’t think so and to quote Justice Broderick
that would be actually immoral so | guess, | don’t understand why it happens today for those needing Mental
Healthcare?

Chief Justice Broderick’s video spoke about his son’s alcoholism, learning later that it was a tool to self-
medicate his battle with mental illness. He also spoke about the family’s struggles along the way. He speaks
to school children and adults to help eliminate the stigma and perceived shame of Mental Illness. While Mental
Illnesses do not necessarily equal suicide the rate of suicide due to mental illness is on the rise. He usually
starts each discussion with anyone who has NOT had to deal with a personal issue of mental illness or known
a friend or family member with the disease please stand up. As he would look around the room, he was
stunned that almost no one stood up. When! would speak to people about Cancer, | often found that | got the
same response. Like many diseases mental illness touches all or most of our lives and to see it can’t be
treated like it doesn’t exist or that it can be cured goes beyond common sense.

Over the years | have lost 8 family and friends (including David), to suicide and each time | pray that it is the
last that | will have to live through but sadly, | no longer believe that is the case. Chief Justice gave out some
eye popping statistics during our discussion after his video that honestly scared me. He spoke to us about the
results of the CDC 2019 High School Students questionnaire. | won’t sit here and give you all of the statistics
but | will ask that they be included in the minutes along with the link to Chief Justice Broderick’s videos. | do
want to state that per the CDC, Suicide is the 2" most cause of death in our high schools. | will share one set
of numbers that the Chief Justice shared... In our country there are 1.4 million Lawyers; 650K CPA’s and only
28K Psychiatrists. With the number of people in need of help, we have to ask WHY so few Psychiatrists...|
can only guess and say that it is related to the high cost of education and the low pay/reimbursements. | can’t
bring back David, or my uncle Jack, or my cousins Ronnie, Michael & Tommy, or my friend Eddie, or my friend
Laura who was killed by her father, Richard in a murder/suicide, or my ex-husband Michael. With the
exception of Laura, each of these people took their own lives because of the stigma of mental illness and what
they felt it was doing to their families. While we can’t fix the problem tonight, we can start a conversation and
we can listen to those who know so much more that we do and we can work to fix our broken system. We
have so many incredible Mental Healthcare Heroes all around this city, state, and country and even some on
this Board. We need to give them the tools they need to help each of us who has been touched by mental
illness and we need to break down the barriers to getting help. Please remember that mental illness is a
lifelong battle like other diseases like diabetes. There is no quick fix and sometimes we need to try different

Board of Aldermen 05-25-2021 Page 59

modes of care to help the patient and the family to get to a better place. Love, compassion and understanding
can go a long way but we need to begin the conversation that anyone with a diagnosis of any mental illness is
the same as anyone diagnosed with diabetes or cancer.

Okay | have gone on way to long and | thank you for listening but | am going to ask that on the end of this
meeting when it is posted that some information that | have be put up be put up at the end of this meeting and
included in the minutes.. Thank you | really appreciate your time. | know it’s a long night, again thanks.
President Wilshire

Anyone else? Remarks by the Board? Seeing none, not missing anyone right? Committee Announcements/
Committee announcements:

Alderman Dowd

Yes tomorrow night, right after a meeting that’s certainly going to be announced by Alderman O’Brien in a
minute, will be Budget and it will be in the Chamber based on the Governor’s still mandate, there is no public
allowed in. The presenters have the option of coming in and sitting in the audience and the Committee
Members who will sit in the Chamber and any other Aldermen that would like to come but they have to sit in
the audience as well due to the spacing requirements that we still have. So that’s Budget tomorrow night and
then on Thursday, Joint Special School Building Committee via Zoom 7:00 p.m.

President Wilshire

Thank you. Alderman O’Brien. Thank you Madam President, as stated by Alderman Dowd, at 7:00 p.m.
Wednesday the 26" will be Infrastructure. The meeting will be on Zoom, however, as Chairman | am also on
the Budget Committee so | will be in the Chamber but the other Committee members you can join in by Zoom if
you so wish. And that’s it. Thank you.

President Wilshire

Thank you. Anyone else, Committee Announcements? Seeing none, Alderman O’Brien?

ADJOURNMENT

MOTION BY ALDERMAN O’BRIEN THAT THE MAY 25, 2021, MEETING OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN
BE ADJOURNED, BY ROLL CALL

A viva voce roll call was taken to adjourn the Board of Aldermen meeting which resulted as follows:
Yea: Alderman O’Brien, Alderman Klee, Alderman Dowd,

Alderman Caron, Alderman Tencza,

Alderman Jette, Alderman Schmidt, Alderman Laws,

Alderman Cleaver, Alderwoman Harriott-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire 11

Nay: Alderman Clemons, Alderman Lopez 2

MOTION CARRIED
The meeting was declared adjourned at 11:11 p.m.

Attest: Susan K. Lovering, City Clerk

Finance Committee — 02/16/2022 Page 4
MOTION CARRIED

From: Kelly Parkinson, Purchasing Manager
Re: Command Vehicle with Fit-up in the amount not to exceed $74,292.24 funded from 81500 Vehicles/ CERF (Fire
Department)

MOTION BY ALDERMAN GOUVEIA TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE AND APPROVE THE PURCHASE OF A 2022
FORD F250 PICKUP TRUCK WITH CUSTOM BED CAP AND EQUIPMENT THROUGH MCGOVERN MUNICIPAL HQ
& EQUIPMENT TO BE PURCHASED FROM GLOBAL PUBLIC SAFETY IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED
$74,292.24. FUNDING THROUGH DEPARTMENT: 152 FIRE RESCUE; FUND: 81500 VEHICLES/CERF, BY ROLL
CALL

ON THE QUESTION

Deputy Fire Chief James Kirk

Thank you Mr. Mayor. This is a CERF expenditure that is the normal replacement of the command vehicle that the on
duty shift commander Deputy Chief uses. Currently that vehicle is a 2018. The normal life cycle of that vehicle is four
years. The one that we have now will go into reserve and the new vehicle will take its place. You have two pieces of
documentation. One is from McGovern HQ who will supply the 2022 F250 — Ford F250 pickup truck and then Global
Public Safety, a company right here in Hudson, will be doing the upfitting with the custom cap and additional lighting and
sirens that you'd see on that type of vehicle.

Mayor Donchess

Questions? Comments?
Alderman Klee

Thank you again Mr. Mayor. Just for the record, you said this goes into the old one will go into reserve. Is there one
currently in reserve and if so, what will happen to that one?

Deputy Fire Chief James Kirk

So there is currently a vehicle that was actually repurposed from another division from our Training Division that has been
placed in the reserve for the Deputy’s vehicle. In addition to being a reserved vehicle to be used when the vehicle that we
currently have is in for repair, it’s also used for personnel that come in off duty and respond and cover the city in the Shift
Commander role. So the one that we currently have is actually in good shape and it potentially could be repurposed.
We've had some new roles. For example, the K4 position — the investigator and inspector position that we just filled last
week. He could actually use this particular vehicle but we don’t have anything slated for it specifically. Definitely a need
within the Fire Department that this vehicle will take.

Alderman Klee
Thank you very much.

Deputy Fire Chief James Kirk

You're welcome.

Alderman Gouveia

Thank you Mr. Mayor. Just a quick question. Say the one we have now is good shape. Is it needed to do another
purchase of one now? | know we say the shelf life is about 4 years but if the one we have is in good shape, is it
absolutely needed that we purchase a new one?

Deputy Fire Chief James Kirk

It is absolutely needed and that’s a great questions Alderman. One of the things that | would point to is that keeping up
with the life cycle keeps the vehicles because at some point they will be no longer in good shape. What's really important
about this vehicle is as | had mentioned, it’s not only a reserve piece but it’s also a piece that when we have multiple