Board of Aldermen 07-13-2021 Page 3
under these difficult circumstances for our hard working Nashua tax payers. So going in the budget | asked that the
Departments seek to achieve a 0% increase which | thought could achieve a very minimal tax increase or the
lowest we could get it.
Now at City Hall | want to thank everybody that worked hard on the City Hall, the Library, and the Public Works
Budgets. City Hall was down 1.9% this year from last; the Library is down 2% or 1.9% and Public Works a little
over 1%. So we got significant sacrifices and contributions, those weren’t easy decisions. We had to set priorities,
we had to make difficult decisions but we were able to achieve those results for the taxpayers while still maintaining
the quality of service. | asked the same from our uniform services; now, of course, we all appreciate everything that
they’ve done for the City and continue to do. But | did ask them to try to help us this year given that we had raised
their budgets over the cost of living for numerous years in a row.
When | met with them and | think they told you the same thing, they could not do that without significant reductions
in service. So as in proposing my budget to you, the Board of Aldermen, | proposed a compromise. And instead of
the 0% that | had achieved in some of the other departments, | proposed 1.7% the cost of living, a cost of living
increase. And | asked the departments to live with that for one year. Still they came to the Board of Aldermen and
persuaded you that they needed pretty much all of the money that they had originally asked for. Therefore | now
reduced the budget and have now attempted to compromise one more time by reducing the budget to half way
between the cost of living increase for each of those two departments and the figure that you passed back on at the
last meeting of the Board of Aldermen.
So | am now proposing another compromise. | know it is a difficult decision, | know the departments feel that this
too much to do but | believe that $100,000.00 reduction on a $35 million dollar Police budget and a $200,000.00
reduction on a $20 some million dollar fire budget is a compromise that could be worked and done through the
management of the budget in each of those departments. But you all, of course, have to make your own
judgements. In any event | think we could be headed for a 4% tax increase so | am trying to, given what the State
did to us in the beginning of the year, at least my objective to just try to save as much as we can to keep the
increase in the tax rate as low as possible. And again, obviously, you are going to have to make your own
judgements on that.
But Madam President there was one other item that | wanted to mention which is certainly of a different sort. |
wanted to announce that longtime City Treasurer / Tax Collector David Fredette has submitted his retirement letter.
He’s been with the City, as you know, a long time. He served the City very well but he has been going to Florida
and spending time with his family and he feels that he really wants to retire. He is not leaving to the end of October
so we certainly have a lot of time to see him and talk with him between now and then. | mean we definitely will hold
a retirement party for David which, of course, you all will be invited to. Now | first knew David back in the 1980’s
when | was first Mayor and we at that point had an Affordable Housing Task Force. And | nominated him, he was
then a resident of Ward 6 and | nominated him to be on the Affordable Housing Task Force. David was later
elected to be on the Board of Aldermen from Ward 6. He then subsequently was elected as an Alderman-at-Large
and served as the President of the Board of Aldermen for 2 years. Then he was asked to become the Business
Administrator for the Department of Public Works where he worked for about a year before Mayor Streeter
nominated him to the then vacant position of Treasurer / Tax Collect.
Now during that time, of course, he served as we all know, he served the City very, very well but in addition to those
responsibilities he served, believe it or not in addition to Treasurer / Tax Collector as the interim Board of Public
Works Director for 9 months while the City was searching for a new Public Works Director. And again at another
time he served as the interim CFO for 3 months. So he has given his all to the City. | know he is a friend of all of
us. He miss him around City Hall; we will miss his expertise and all that he has learned about the City over the
years. But he still will be around Nashua so | know that we are all, | Know you all will be very sad about his
departure, as | am, and | just want to thank David who may be listening for all of the years you gave to the City on
the Board of Aldermen, the Affordable Task Force and particularly in your employment for the City where you have
served the City so, so well. So Madam President | was sorry to hear that, of course, but | wanted to pass it on to
you as soon as David gave me the green light to go forward and tell you about his plan to depart at the end of
October.
