Search

Board of Aldermen 03-09-2021 Page 14

Alderwoman Lu

Alright. Ok that whole thing was irrelevant. So the only thing, thank you for that answer, my only feeling, you
know, what Alderman Jette is saying makes sense to me. It doesn’t seem, | don’t know why we would leave
something in there just so that we don’t have to bother taking it out. | mean it should reflect our intentions. So
if you want to leave it in there, if we do choose to leave it in there, then to anyone watching, it would send a
message that is our intention. | think that whatever the Board’s intention is should be reflected in our decision
of whether or not to eliminate. Thank you.

President Wilshire

Anyone else? So we have a motion to amend by striking the second paragraph from Resolution 21-116. Is
there discussion on that? Seeing none, would the Clerk please call the roll on the amendment?

A viva voce roll call was taken which resulted as follows:

Yea: Alderman O’Brien, Alderman Klee, Alderwoman Kelly, Alderman Dowd,
Alderman Caron, Alderman Lopez, Alderman Tencza,
Alderwoman Lu, Alderman Jette, Alderman Laws,
Alderwoman Harriott-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire 12

Nay: Alderman Clemons, Alderman Schmidt, Alderman Cleaver 3

MOTION CARRIED
President Wilshire
The motion before us now, Alderman Schmidt?
MOTION BY ALDERMAN SCHMIDT FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF R-21-116 AS AMENDED BY ROLL CALL
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-21-116 declared duly adopted as amended.

Board of Aldermen 03-09-2021 Page 15

UNFINISHED BUSINESS — ORDINANCES

O-21-045
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman Jan Schmidt
Alderman Skip Cleaver
Alderman Thomas Lopez
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
Alderman Patricia Klee
AMENDING THE BUILDING CONSTRUCTION ORDINANCES AND INCREASING THE BUILDING
DEPARTMENT FEES
Given its second reading;

MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEAVER FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF O-21-045, BY ROLL CALL
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

Ordinance O-21-045 declared duly adopted.

O-21-046
Endorsers: Alderman Ernest Jette
Alderman Thomas Lopez
Alderwoman Elizabeth Lu
CHANGING THE STARTING TIME OF REGULAR MEETINGS OF BOARD OF ALDERMEN
Given its second reading;
MOTION BY ALDERMAN KELLY FOR INDEFINITE POSTPONEMENT OF O-21-046, BY ROLL CALL
ON THE QUESTION
President Wilshire
Anyone?
Alderwoman Lu
| do have a question.

President Wilshire

Alderman Lu.

Board of Aldermen 03-09-2021 Page 16

Alderwoman Lu

Thank you. So whether we indefinitely postpone or we vote to nay, if the nay wins, or rather whether we take a
vote and it loses and it does not pass, or if we move for an indefinite postponement and that passes, in either
case the prohibition against bringing it up again is only for this session of our Board, is that correct?
President Wilshire

Yes.

Alderwoman Lu

Thank you.

Attorney Bolton

Well, no.

President Wilshire

Well no? OK.

Attorney Bolton

lf a motion were made for passage and it failed, the Resolution would still be before the Board, it could be
amended, it could be tabled, it could be referred to Committee or it could then be indefinitely postponed or
rejected. If a motion to reject it were to pass, it would be rejected and then for the remainder of this term your
rules say the same Resolution cannot be reintroduced. That is also true if the motion were to Indefinitely
Postpone. If that were to pass your rules would prohibit the same Resolution from being reintroduced this
term. Now what is the “same” is largely flexible and within the Board’s control. So if it gets Indefinitely
Postponed this evening and someone at some later time wants to change it to 7:02 as a starting time,
presumably that could be introduced.

Alderwoman Lu
Thank you, | apologize, | know that this has been discussed and | didn’t remember that fine detail. Thank you.
President Wilshire

Thank you. The motion before us is for Indefinite Postponement, Further discussion on that motion? Seeing
none would 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 Lopez, Alderman Tencza,

Alderwoman Lu, Alderman Jette, Alderman Schmidt, Alderman Laws,

Alderman Cleaver, Alderwoman Harriott-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire 14
Nay: Alderman Clemons 1

MOTION CARRIED

Ordinance O-21-046 declared indefinitely postponed.

Board of Aldermen 03-09-2021 Page 17

O-21-047
Endorsers: Alderman-at-Large Ben Clemons
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman Skip Cleaver
Alderman-at-Large Brandon Michael Laws
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
TEMPORARILY CHANGING THE DOWNTOWN IMPROVEMENTS FUNDING PLAN
Given its second reading;

MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF O-21-047, BY ROLL CALL
ON THE QUESTION

President Wilshire

The motion is for final passage. Discussion on that motion? Alderman Jette?

Alderman Jette

Yes, thank you Madam President. | am a little uncomfortable with this and I'll explain why. We have been told
many times by the Mayor that our Budget for this coming year is going to be very difficult. We are level-funding
all of the Departments except schools are being allowed a very small increase. | am sure you all realize that
we have approved employment contracts, union contracts that allow for employees to get raises, deservedly
so. Some more than others. But those are in effect. So all of these Departments, all of our Departments are
going to have to find ways, their payroll budgets are going up and so that means, so level-funding means they
can’t propose a budget increase more than what we allow them for last year for this current year. So they have
to find ways in order to meet their obligations to satisfy the amount that they have to pay employees, they have
to look at where they can cut in other places.

So it is a very, very difficult thing and we on the Budget Review Committee at first and then the Full Board, we
are going to have to make some very tough decisions about how we are going to be able to come up with this
Budget for next year. This proposal made by Alderman Clemons, | think has good intentions. Because the
Downtown Improvements Committee is funded by a surplus of funds from revenue from the Parking
Department. Last year because of COVID, fewer people coming downtown to park, also because of the
barriers that we put up, there were fewer metered parking spaces to gather revenue. So the excess amount
that funds the Downtown Improvement Committee, you know, we never got high enough to give them that
surplus. So Alderman Clemons is concerned about the Downtown Improvement Committee having a source of
funds to do the work that it does.

Now during the Committee meeting, the people from the Downtown Improvement Committee told us that they
have, | think it was $174,000.00 in the bank, in their budget that is available to them. As the Ordinance reads, |
think it’s clear that they can’t spend money without the approval of the Mayor and the Board of Aldermen, but
they’ve got $174,000.00 there. So it’s not like they have nothing and because of COVID some of the programs
that they normally sponsor didn’t occur and so | know that Alderman Clemons wants to make sure that when
the COVID crisis passes and the restrictions are lifted that the downtown will be able to get up and running as
soon as possible and as well as possible. And | appreciate that.

But what we are doing, | think, and the more | thought about this, | realize at least in my opinion, what we are
doing is we are dedicating $100,000.00 from the Budget, this isn’t coming from excess parking revenue, if we
do have excess parking revenue it'll help us afford to pay this, but if we don't it is $100,000.00 that we are
going to have to find somewhere else in the Budget. As much as | support the Downtown Improvements
Committee, you know, we’ve been spending a lot of money on downtown and | am thinking about all of the
other things that are going to be competing for scarce resources for this coming Budget Year.

Board of Aldermen 03-09-2021 Page 18

Personally | think that it would be better for us, as we go through the Budget Review Process, there are a lot of
worthwhile projects; downtown is one of them. But there are a lot of others that are also competing with those
limited funds. And as we look at the Budget, as we make decisions about what we are going to fund and what
we are not going to fund, | think everybody ought to be competing on a level playing field and | don’t think that
we ought to be taking $100,000.00 out of context and dedicating it to the Downtown Improvement Committee
and then we have to cut something else, somewhere else.

| think all of these projects ought to be on a level playing field, they ought to compete fairly and if we decide,
yes we need to spend $100,000.00 on the Downtown Improvement Committee we can do that. But if we
decide we can’t afford it this year, we can decide not to do that. So | am in the uncomfortable position of
saying that | think we are ahead of the game here. We are making a decision about allocating money from
next year’s Budget without considering all the other things that may need it. So for those reasons | am going to
vote against this.

President Wilshire
OK, Alderman Clemons?
Alderman Clemons

Thank you, Madam President. So | actually agree with what Alderman Jette was just saying, which is the
reason why the Ordinance is written so that it doesn’t take any money from this year’s budget, it takes money
from the 2022 budget of July that year. What this Ordinance does is it takes a calculated sum of $100,000.00
in parking revenue and it puts that as an earmark towards the Budget in 2022, not the Budget that is coming up
in this July. So the reason for that being, is that because the Downtown Improvement Committee does have a
substantial sum in there, my hope is that we can get to do some of the festivals and things, especially within
light of the fact that the vaccine roll out is going much faster than expected. The CDC is probably going to
update guidelines to say that once most people are vaccinated we will be able to resume life as it was. At least
that’s the hope anyway; | hope we can get there.

So with that being said, there’s some opportunities there hopefully this summer and certainly in the fall to do
things like the Holiday Stroll and some other music festivals and things like that. The Downtown Improvement
Committee has plenty of money in there to do those things right now. So we don’t need to fund the Downtown
Improvement Committee this year because they do have a substantial fund and they were able to save that
money by not being able to do those things last year. So with that being said, the goal here is to ensure that
we are putting out the barriers, at least | assume we are going to do that. That parking revenue is going to be
reduced again this year so looking ahead into the future knowing that this parking revenue is going to be
reduced, this is basically forecasting that out and making sure that the allocation will be there for the 2022
Budget.

And | did have a conversation with the Mayor about this and he did indicate his support for it as well as the
cosponsors on the Legislation. | think it’s a prudent move on our part to ensure that regardless of what
happens this year, we will make sure that in the 2022 Budget there will be money for the Downtown
Improvement Committee. And then going forward, as also part of this, is the parking study which has been
mentioned before. Director Cummings is going to put into the parking study a plan to ensure that looking at the
barriers and how a reduced lane Main Street, a two-way Main Street if you will, one in each direction might
have on parking. So what that will do is enable us to look at do we need to adjust the parking revenue in
2022? And the way that we collect parking money, we can study the fact that is this the best way going
forward, if we are going to continue to reduce the lanes on Main Street, maybe even make that a permanent
thing someday, how are we going to recapture the money that the Downtown Improvement Committee gets
traditionally?

Board of Aldermen 03-09-2021 Page 19

So we will be able to study that between now and really 2023 and get a plan in place that will then produce,
hopefully a new way of the Downtown Improvement Committee getting funding. So this is just the start of a
new downtown and a new way to approach how we are going to fund this Committee. But essentially what it
does is it just makes sure that the funding source is going to be there in July of 2022. So | am happy to take
other questions. But | do hope that | can get the support of my colleagues. So thank you.

President Wilshire

Alderman Lopez?

Alderman Lopez

| have a question for Attorney Bolton if | can ask through the Chair?
President Wilshire

Sure.

Alderman Lopez

If we pass this and we think it’s a good idea now and then things start to look not-so-good next year, say in
February or January, can we un-pass it?

Attorney Bolton

You can introduce another Ordinance to change the numbers, delete the numbers, decrease/increase, develop
a whole new formula. It remains within the Board’s ability to adjust.

Alderman Lopez

Ok then | mean for my part as Alderman of Ward 4 and definitely a utilizer of the downtown services, | see
what Alderman Clemons is trying to do. | appreciate what Alderman Jette is bringing up and | think it is
important that we don’t necessarily earmark special projects when we know we are going to have make some
difficult decisions as Aldermen coming up. But this doesn’t sound like that’s doing it, it sounds like we are
presenting faith in our downtown. We are giving them a little bit of courage, | guess, to be able to invest a little
bit more readily and aggressively in the events and activities as it becomes safe for them to do so.

| think that’s going to be very important for Nashua’s morale. | think a lot of times people look at the downtown
area as competing in need with other areas of the City, maybe. It is our storefront, it’s where people see
Nashua as the center of Nashua; that’s what a downtown is. | would say, in practice, no not everybody
downtown is living riches, we have some of the poorest census tracks in the country, adjacent to downtown.

So there’s definitely benefit in investing in that area for the people living in that area and for the businesses that
basically telegraph to the rest of the region, whether it is good to business in Nashua or not. So | think |am
going to support alderman Clemons’ motion while expressing appreciation for Alderman Jette.

President Wilshire

Anyone else? Alderman Klee.

Alderman Klee

Thank you Madam Chairwoman. | am going to echo what Alderman Lopez said. | don’t truly disagree with what
Alderman Jette said but one of the things that we have been trying to do is bolster the downtown and we have

been a lot of projects to it. | am a firm believer that our downtown is the heart of our City. It is not all of the City
but it is the heart of the City.

Board of Aldermen 03-09-2021 Page 20

So | do agree with Alderman Clemons putting it off to the 2022 and towards the end there in making sure we
have this and knowing we can change it if we want to. | think it’s a good idea to have this intent. The
Downtown Improvement Committee has supported different types of ideas that have come up at the last
moment when the City doesn’t have to necessarily put money out for it. They have been there to support
downtown; they don’t just make it look pretty. They are there to help. And they have been so supportive to
businesses, to everything else like that. | think we need to show our support and yes, whether we are going to
pass this or not with the barriers, or whether we are going to do this as a future endeavor every year. It is
something that we know is going to be hitting those parking meters. So | think we need to have some sort of
alternative plan and if we don’t need it at the last minute, so | too will be supporting this. And | have been
supporting this Ordinance as a co-sponsor. | think it’s a good idea and it is well planning for the future. Thank
you.

President Wilshire
Anyone else? Alderman O’Brien?
Alderman O’Brien

Thank you, Madam President. | too, | appreciate the comments and well thought process of Alderman Jette,
but | am also very proud to sponsor this bill with Alderman Clemons and, of course, | am definitely going to
support it. | want to have the public remember exactly next Tuesday is when the Governor came out with his
Proclamation that basically shut down the United States to some degree because of COVID. We took very
radical measures, the thing is — look what we did as far as putting the barriers up and extenuating the outside
dining to meet the safety needs, yet trying to do something to keep our businesses downtown vibrant. And it
has worked. It has worked. | think every single Alderman should take their hand and stretch it out and pat
themselves on the back. We did a very good job with that. We even beat Manchester, which sometimes can
be difficult but anytime we can pull the wool over those guys, | like it, you know?

But the thing is it is the radical thinking or the out-of-the-box thinking that has been done by this Board and
although | take into account Alderman Jette’s, | am a proud sponsor. | hope everybody passes this because
this is part of the piece of the puzzle to help us get through to 2022. 2020 | am writing off the books, 2021 let’s
get by this folks and let’s march on a try to make the City better. Thank you, Madam Presidert.

President Wilshire

You're welcome. Anyone else? Alderwoman Lu.

Alderwoman Lu

Thank you, Madam President. | think that Alderman Laws is the liaison with the Downtown Improvement
Committee. | wonder if he or Alderman Clemons can tell us how much typically the Downtown Improvement
Committee get into their coffer per year under ordinary circumstances.

President Wilshire

Alderman Clemons?

Alderman Clemons

| would say, | don’t have the exact figure, but on average it is about $100,000.00. In year’s past, it has been as
low as $60,000.00; in other years it has been as high as $140,000.00. It depends on how much traffic there is

downtown and that kind of thing and how much revenue we are collecting, but | don’t have an answer to that.
Maybe Alderwoman does because her hand is up. But it is approximately $100,000.00.

Board of Aldermen 03-09-2021 Page 21
Alderwoman Lu

Thank you. | have a follow up but if Alderwoman Kelly has an answer to that question, | don’t know or | will just
finish my follow.

Alderwoman Kelly

Finish your follow up; | don’t have an answer. | have another question.
Alderwoman Lu

Ok. If we were an organization that was printing money like the Federal Government then | could understand
us trying to be supportive in this time but all we are doing is adjusting to reduced revenues all around, and
increased costs. It seems to me that the Downtown Improvement Committee has a good chunk of money
there and rather than go ahead and say let’s decide what’s going to happen in 2022 now, | agree with
Alderman Jette that | don’t feel it is my place to be choosing the winners and the losers and these are
taxpayers whose money this is and | don’t think | can support this. Thank you.

Alderwoman Kelly

Thank you. It’s funny that Alderman Clemons thought | had the answer when | actually was going to ask
another question, because | believe actually this Committee is the result of a Committee that Alderman
Clemons put together a number of years ago. My question was actually, | have only been tangentially involved
in sort of what happens with the Downtown Improvement Committee. | do appreciate all the people who are on
that Committee and the work that they do in the downtown; | am a downtown business owner myself. But | was
just interested if anyone, anyone on the Board has kind of a take list of some of the things that they have
invested in over the years with this money?

President Wilshire

Alderman Clemons?

Alderman Clemons

Thank you. Yeah | can let you know. So basically they have done all of the, they have funded all of the
studies for the Performing Arts Center. They have done the pay and displays, we’ve done, | am trying to think
what the Downtown Improvement Committee over the years, several festivals that have occurred, some of
them on a recurring basis. They have put money towards the Holiday Stroll in years and | am trying to think,
and | think they want to do the lights this year to see if we can reconfigure the lights on Main Street. So those
are, you know, those are some of the things that get done. | know quite a bit of the money for the sidewalk

improvements went from the Committee. So it has been things like that, between infrastructure projects and
events that have been really the — what has the money been spent on over the years.

Alderwoman Kelly
If | could follow up, please?
President Wilshire

Alderwoman Kelly?

Board of Aldermen 03-09-2021 Page 22

Alderwoman Kelly

OK, thank you. And thank you for that Alderman Clemons | thought it would just be a good thing for everyone
to hear what they’ve been up to. | think sometimes that gets fallen by the wayside. | am going to support this.
Obviously | think that our downtown is really becoming quite a draw and | think our Performing Arts Center has
started. If you go downtown, not everybody is downtown every day like | am but you are starting to see that
and | think the work that we did last summer with the expanded dining really just started to make Nashua a
place that people wanted to come and be outside. | am really excited about the Jersey Barriers. So | am
grateful for everybody who is kind of working together to improve sort of everything that is happening in our
downtown. So thanks for bringing this forward.

President Wilshire
Alderman Klee?
Alderman Klee

Thank you, Madam President. Thank you for allowing me to speak again. If | am not mistaken the Downtown
Improvement Committee funds a little bit beyond the Main Street of downtown. | believe that they are also
assisting in the Dog Park Feasibility Study that’s off Mine Falls area right there. And that’s to help the people
who are living downtown as well as the City in general. Whether this goes through, | believe it will, | am
alternate on the (inaudible); Alderman Lopez is the actual person on that. But it’s a good project for the City so
they think outside of directly on Main Street. And | think they do a lot of good for the City and | think we need to
keep them in mind. | see that Alderman Lopez unmuted himself, so he probably wants to add.

President Wilshire

Anyone else? Alderman Lopez.

Alderman Lopez

| felt like | should wait to be called on sorry. So | mean for me the biggest thing that the Downtown
Improvement Committee does that makes an impact in terms of improvement is that they do Christmas Lights
every year. And then they also do the storefront decoration for what would be empty, abandoned storefronts so
that downtown has some continuity to it and some character. With respect to what Alderman O’Brien said
earlier, | cannot pat myself on the back for how we’ve done, because I’d sprain my back.

But | do think that we should continue the trend of seeing how things are unfolding down the road and trying to
be proactive and saying, ok look, we need to be adaptable to this and we need to recognize where there is
opportunities and where there are threats. | think this is an opportunity because we do need to make sure that
we are resolving the threat of COVID-19 and that Public Health is getting the support that it needs and even
this upcoming St. Patrick’s Day, this downtown parking and outdoor dining and everything — the reason we are
redefining what downtown looks like in the first place is because there was a threat but there’s also opportunity
to see how we can make downtown more vibrant and more effective. And turning things like a Global Disaster
into an opportunity for people to celebrate safely and enrich and enliven businesses | think is a great policy. |
understand the concept of printing money and using taxpayer money wisely; | have some misgivings about
how they do that at the Federal Level too. But you can’t print money and be misusing tax money. Like either
there is the money there to spend or there isn’t. In this particular case this is making a plan, it is a plan that we
can modify or change prior to our next Budget Season if we need to.

But it is making that plan and that commitment so that when downtown does start to move towards reopening
and when people are going to be having to make some last minute investments in those events, because you
are not going to have the normal planning timeframe for some of these events. We are very much going to
want to be ready to go. This is a way of putting the resources that we have on the table for this year by

INCEPTI+*N @ Quote

February 23, 2022
Kimberly Kleiner
City of Nashua, NH
229 Main Street

Nashua, NH 03060

Dear Kimberly,

Inception Technologies Inc. is pleased to present our proposal for the scanning of your records. We believe our
experience, technical expertise, and local presence make Inception Technologies uniquely qualified to digitize your
documents while making them searchable.

Our approach to the project is focused on establishing common expectations, good communications, and
comprehensive processing, team training and thorough testing of the images. This helps ensure predictable quality
and results.

We, Inception Technologies Inc. understand that your records are extremely valuable and you would like to start

scan and store digitally moving forward.

Sincerely,

Raymond Feoli
President
603-703-0223 direct

508-801-3279 cell

Inception Technologies Inc. - Quote # 1385 v3 2/10