Board of Aldermen 6-23-2020 Page 6
And | wonder if the Mayor, if you are just considering holding back on any of the other projects of the City to
contain costs over the next year while we reassess our financial situation. | am thinking of just some of the
projects that are in their early stages (audio cuts out) project that | love. But | wonder where the Mayor’s
Office stands on halting those expenditures for (audio cuts out).
Mayor Donchess
Would you like me to respond, Madam President?
President Wilshire
Sure Mayor that would be great.
Mayor Donchess
Well, of course we need to continue to evaluate circumstances as they evolve and as | have said, we don’t
know what is coming. | would say that we need to, in looking at future projects, one thing we need to
consider is that often infrastructure projects create stronger economy. Even though they require an
expenditure of money, they create economic activity, the build a stronger economy. And in a situation like
we have where small business especially may need a real jumpstart, anything we can give them to recover
from the downtime they have suffered, sometimes making an infrastructure investment is worth doing,
because it will, in the end, produce more for the community than it costs. Think about the impact that we
could have here, | mean we have 10,000 people unemployed, many of them getting $600.00 a week that’s
$6 million dollars a week if you multiply that. When that ends, there could be a downturn and at that point
we certainly, that may be exactly the wrong time to decide, “Oh we are not going to build anything that
could boost our downtown economy or our City’s economy”. That may be the time that we need to invest
to make sure that we come back stronger than we did before the Coronavirus, before the COVIVD-19
crisis.
President Wilshire
All set Alderman Lu?
RECOGNITION PERIOD - None
READING MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS
There being no objection, President Wilshire declared the minutes of the regular Board of Aldermen
meeting of June 9, 2020, and Special Board of Aldermen meetings of June 10 and June 16, 2020
accepted, placed on file, and the reading suspended.
COMMUNICATIONS REQUIRING ONLY PROCEDURAL ACTIONS AND WRITTEN REPORTS
FROM LIAISONS
From: John L. Griffin, Chief Financial Officer/Comptroller
Re: NHRS Lower Assumed Rate of Return from 7.25 to 6.75 Percent
From: Kim Kleiner, Director of Administrative Services
Re: Health Insurance Fund and FY21 Health Insurance Enrollment by Union
From: Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager
Re: Communications Received from the Public
From: John L. Griffin, Chief Financial Officer/Comptroller
Re: 7.03% Tax Rate Increase Projected for FY2022
