Board of Aldermen 6-23-2020 Page 48
But | will say that | was disappointed with the vote this evening, | thought we had a fair contract in front of
us. We had folks like Don Davidson a Fiscal Conservative himself supporting the contract. You had lots of
people that from all sides really, saying that it was a fair deal and that it is a shame that it went down.,
particularly because we put money into the Budget to support that. We would have been able to fund it for
this year. We will see what the Mayor does, if he is going to Veto the Budget and have that come back to
us, | guess that remains to be seen.
| was proud of the work that the Budget Committee did, | think that we definitely took a Budget that was
pre-COVID and we really pared it down by almost $2 million dollars out of it. | think that, you know, that’s
not an easy task. | was happy that the Police Department is going to be fully funded and they are going to
have their employees that they need. We didn’t de-fund the Police in Nashua, we funded the Police in
Nashua and | am proud that we did that.
We also took care of our School Department and we put some money, lots of money in there, we got
money from the State. They are going to hire 17 new employees. | hope that those employees stay on
next year considering we are going to be facing a 7% tax increase and it seems most of the Board is
worried about next year. | happen to think that they will make it through. But | was very disappointed in the
fact that while we took care of our Police Department and we took care of our School Department, we
neglected the Fire Department. | thought that was a shame. | hope that when they go back to the
negotiating table, as far as the Budget is concerned, we put $1 million dollars, over a million dollars in
contingency there for negotiations so there’s some money to work with and hopefully they can come up
with a deal that uses that money and get some well needed raises to get those folks what they deserve.
Thank you very much.
Alderwoman Kelly
Thank you, Madam President. So | have just a few remarks, | know it’s getting late here. | wanted to first
thank you for taking into consideration changing the format so that we could take public comment virtually.
| think it worked out well and | appreciate you making that adjustment for everybody. Secondly, | wanted to
say thank you to Great American Downtown for an amazing first Farmer's Market. There were a ton of
Nashuans out just enjoying what was put on there and there were plenty of complimentary comments
around the new location by City Hall. So that was a really great event, | am looking forward to — | think it’s
like 17 more weeks. So make sure you come out on Sundays 10 to 2 at the City Hall Plaza. There are
plenty of really great vendors.
Lastly, the Pride Committee is really proud to be able to put on a virtual pride this Saturday from 2 to 4. It
will be available through our Facebook as a livestream. It will be on Nashua Community Television Channel
16, Access Channel 96 and through the City of Nashua Web Site as well. Don’t miss it, there’s an
incredible group of people who have come forward from speakers to talent and it just going to be an
incredible event, so | hope you all can tune in.
Alderwoman Lu
Thank you, Madam President. | just have three comments I'd like to make. First of all, some of the
correspondence we’ve received (audio cuts out) meetings, correspondence has concerned me, particularly
regarding the Assessor's Department. And | wonder if it would be a good time, we haven’t had an update
from the Assessor's Department in awhile and | wonder if we could hear from them possibly at the next
meeting.
| just wanted to comment on the concer, | really wish that Alderman O’Brien had been able to express his
arguments prior to the vote. It would have been (audio cuts out). | also just want to express that
unfortunately, you know, | hate hearing that the Fire Department had to work without proper equipment, the
proper masks. But | think that is an argument, you know, a complaint that’s reasonable, but not really a
basis for a raise. Certainly we should try to make that not happen in the future. Thank you.
