Board of Aldermen 6-23-2020 Page 45
We had a meeting, come up with a development in the northern part of the City in the Tinker Road area;
granted they are covering that area now. But the more that you build, and let’s look what we built, we built
down on Marshall Street, Loft 34 down on Franklin Street. All these buildings that we have now, and living
spaces put up, create more traffic so there’s car accidents. More people are going to have heart attacks so
there is medical emergencies and there’s also those calls with a type of building fire. So it is kind of
dangerous when you compare.
And then also was not brought up with the contract agreement, what is the life of the Manchester
agreement? It seemed pretty much pretty close; is it up this year? Would they get more money when they
go into their negotiations? So it is kind of really challenging to really compare the fire departments. |
encourage everybody on this Board to look at that original Five Pro Report and weigh the balance. | think
previous Boards and Mayors have not really treated this Fire Department fairly and | can speak from my
experience. Where are the two additional engine companies that were suggested in the early 80’s? They
are nothere. Yet the Fire Department still answers the call volume. We've got engine companies that are
doing 3,000 runs a year and on top of that, this City asked them to step to the plate to do the Safe Stations.
And they did it. And then also too, when COVID came in, there was not enough masks to put the face
covering on the firefighters, what they wore were bandanas in the beginning and saved the masks for the
patients. And yes, they went into the homes were the people actually had COVID. Everybody that got
transported to the hospital, the first person that they saw was a member of an engine or a ladder company
of the Nashua Fire & Rescue that came in to assist them.
Taken all of that into account, it is apples and oranges and it goes back to what | said earlier. It is what you
or |, the value of each of us in the community and what you want to put on your fire department, what it is
worth. It is the same with the schools, same with the police department. | am disappointed that this Board
took a duly, fairly negotiated contract that was with the City of Nashua and with Local 789 of the Fire
Fighters, it was agreed by both parties. | am very disappointed that this evening we sent it, cast the ropes
off, and cast the contract to drift. Yes it has a procedure, it will go back and it depends on what the level of
comfort is going to be and what you’re going to pay or what you feel is paid.
| think Alderman Tencza did bring up a very good point in the discussion and | thank him for doing so. |
don’t think the Firefighters are looking for parity, and | know that they are not looking for parity with the
Police Department. But there is many discrepancies and | think if you look at what the Police Officers are
paid, | think Alderman Klee brought up a very good point. It refers back to the Garcia Decision. What the
Garcia Decision said that a municipality does not have to pay overtime until 56 hours. The Fire Department
did negotiate it down from 56 to 52. If you own a business in the City of Nashua, Federal Law says you’ve
got to pay overtime after 40 hours, but for some reason in the Garcia Decision, it said that — well it said 56
hours and the Firefighters like | say negotiated it down to 52.
As we look over to our very well qualified and great Police Department, they are on the clock at 40 hours,
they get time and a half. If you look at Manchester and | wish Alderman Jette would look at that. | think
Manchester also gets paid shift overtime at time and a half. If you ever wonder why the firefighters do not
call extra shift duty overtime, it’s because they don’t get overtime pay. They call it shift coverage and that’s
reflecting on the amount of pay that we are paying them. So there’s many different things, | think now
when it goes back to negotiation, | kind of hope that the parties will come to an agreement and bring up
some of the disparities and hopefully get to correct some of the misinformation that was not entirely put out
there.
And like | say, | hope in the future that when we look at things, there is a difference in the Fire Service and
the Police Department, | think as we see in the troubles that are out there today. | think we have a very
good Police Department. | have seen other communities that have done very bad things, cops that have
done bad things. To say that they are all same is wrong. And | would agree with that completely. In
comparing the two Fire Departments together, it is up to us to decide what we want to do.
