Special Board of Aldermen Public Hearing — May 20, 2020 Page 10
Mayor Donchess
That’s Mr. Griffin. | can address it without, so we will leave that up and | will talk through the next information
and we will get it up on the screen if we can. | am recommending and | have discussed this with some of the
Aldermen that the one-time State Aid that is projected to be spent on various one-time items, that that
expenditure be reduced by $1.9 million dollars and that $1.9 million dollars of this one-time State Aid be
directed to tax relief and that would be split between the School side and the City side. | am recommending
that under the circumstances that we have outlined, that there should be no increases in the Proposed
Operating Budget above the 2.25% for Schools, Police, Fire and DPW. With 8,000 people unemployed, with
downtown - at the least the downtown economy largely shut down for 2 months — my opinion my
recommendation is we hold the line on any increases, and we apply an extra $1.9 million to tax relief.
In addition, we need to make sure that the new plan design is included in all Collective Bargaining
Agreements. We cannot approve, in my opinion, Collective Bargaining Agreements that enable health
insurance costs to continue to escalate the way they have now. We need these new deductible features and
the new co-pays, you know, all the healthcare so that we can bend the curve so that we can limit increases
and possibly, possibly even reduce the overall cost for the City and for our employees in the weekly
contributions that they make.
|, as Mayor, have instituted a hiring freeze for all non-essential personnel. Again, | want to reiterate that we
don’t know what is going to be happening over the next few months. We are working our hardest to think it
out and to project what could happen but we want to save as much money as we possibly can right now. So
any positions that are currently open and are non-essential, | have ordered a hiring freeze and for the time
being we will not proceed with those non-essential hiring and we will save the money to see how things
progress through the remainder of the calendar year.
Now | wanted to go to a little more of good news, again, | Know how difficult this period is. | know how difficult
COVID-19 has been to deal with. Closing down our lives has been very hard, but we are doing something
very important together. We are helping to save our community members; we are working to contain the
spread of the virus. So far 10 people in Nashua have died and that’s tragic. But | know by taking the steps
we have taken together, we have saved a lot of lives and as we look back on all of this, down the road, we
will be proud of what we accomplished in terms of attacking this virus with a totally unified action. All of our
City Employees and our Residents working together.
Some of the things that have occurred over the last couple of years, | wanted to remind you of because we
have a great City. And | am very proud to be the Mayor of it. In 2019 we were the 8" Safest City in the United
States. We were awarded Best Suburb in New Hampshire, suburb of Boston that refers to. In 2019 we are
rated the 13" Best Run City in the United States. In 2018 we were named one of the Safest Places to Retire
in the Country. In 2018 we were also named one of the Best Run Cities in the Country, | think we were
actually 8" that year. In 2018 it was said that we were the best place for millennials in Hillsboro County. We
are the most inclusive place to live in New Hampshire. We have a triple AAA Bond Rating which is
something we do not want to put at risk by doing anything unwise financially. We have a triple AAA Bond
Rating from both S&P, Standard & Poor’s, and Fitch, two ratings agencies. When | came into office, we had
one triple AAA, now we have two and Nashua 2018 has among the lowest crime among mid-sized cities in
the United States.
We have a great City, we are facing a few difficulties, challenges that | know we can come through. We are
unified, we are determined and we are going to come out stronger on the other end. But! am urging, no
question about it, caution when it comes to considering this years Budget. And that is my conclusion, Mr.
Chairman. Of course, | am available for any questions.
