Board of Aldermen 09-22-2020 Page 32
President Wilshire
Mr. Griffin.
Mr. Griffin
Madam Present, other Members of the Board, this particular approach that is encapsulated in the Mayor's
letter is the same approach that has been taken for at least the last 10 years. | believe it was taken the
previous several years in calculating the percent of unassigned fund balance to total appropriations. If you
may recall, for those of you that were present probably 2 and 3 years ago, the resident had questions back
then and we successfully indicated thatthis is a past precedent and that the calculations have been done
very consistently which is a key component of any accounting system. That's why we use the NRO
language in this particular Memo that is dated September 1, 2020 and September 1 on previous years to
the Board of the Aldermen. So! personally as the CFO of the City (inaudible) the calculation and it has
been for those relatively newer Aldermen it’s been the same calculation that I've done for the last 10 years.
Thank you.
President Wilshire
Thank you, Mr. Griffin. Attorney Bolton.
Attorney Bolton
| can add to thatifl may. We have the highest possible bond rating that a municipality can get. The rating
agencies write a summation of why they provide the bond rating that they do. And when it comes to
Nashua one of the things they say is the fact that we maintain a more than adequate fund balance. And
that has been true for several years now and those rating agencies which don't give high ratings away on a
whim, found this approach to be acceptable to them and, in fact, desired by them and it plays a big part in
the very good rating that we achieve. | think we’d be fooling around with something that works if we were to
take that speaker’s advice and tamperwih the Ordinance as it is written.
President Wilshire
Thank you, Attorney Bolton. Mayor?
Mayor Donchess.
Madam President, may | elaborate slightly. So Alderwoman’s Lu question basically | think was about you
know, what we are trying to accomplish. The Ordinance says that we need to have 10% of the amount of
the City Budget in the Undesignated Fund Balance. We have more than that: we have, Mr. Griffin can give
you the exact number, but somewhere between 11% and 12% and after the conclusion of all of this we will
have added to that balance which typically we do so it gradually goes up. | mean ina way | wish that we
didn’t have to reserve so much money but in the financial climate we face right now and with the Ordinance
in place and everything, itis really an operational necessity and certain is necessary to maintain the bond
rating.
President Wilshire
Thank you, Mayor. Alderman Lu are you all set with those answers.
Alderwoman Lu
Yes. Just a quick, so the total of the fund appropriations are what we need to have 10% of in our balance
on June 30", correct? And so the total fund appropriations are (inaudible) that got budgeted and
appropriated for 2021, is that correct?
