Special Board of Aldermen 07-01-2021 Page 5
Laurie Ortolano
| object to Attorney Bolton sitting in this chamber. There should be somebody else sitting in this chamber
representing the Legal office. Thank you.
President Wilshire
Anyone else — public comment?
Sherry Dutzy
Sherry Dutzy 18 Swart Terrace. | am also a State Rep. for Ward 3 and | can verify what Mayor Donchess
is saying. Six months sitting in sessions in the House and | have seen over and over again where
Representatives from the rural parts of the State not only have no interest in supporting the cities but
actively work to downshift and pass bills that will make the spending more difficult and delivering services
more difficult for our cities and for our towns. | support this budget.
| am also the Chair of the Nashua Conservation Commission. We work very closely with the Community
Development. They do a great job. | believe they are understaffed. | see the hours that many of them work
to be able to support us. We are a small part of what they do. They support the Zoning Board and they
support the Planning Board and it takes enormous amounts of time because of the detail that’s involved.
So | appreciate the effort that is made by everybody. | have said this again and again that New Hampshire
wouldn’t exist without the volunteers and without underpaid, overworked government employees. Thank
you.
President Wilshire
Thank you. Anyone else wishing to give public comment? Seeing no one, I’m going to move on to Reports
of Committees.
REPORTS OF COMMITTEE
There being no objection, President Wilshire suspended the rules to allow for the oral report of the
Budget Review Committee meeting held Monday, June 28, 2021, regarding proposed Resolution
R-21-142.
Alderman Dowd
Yes thank you. The Budget Committee went through all of the Departments over the last month and half,
two months listening to all of their requirements. We heard that they all tried to meet the requirements that
were put forth by the Mayor. | know the Mayor has said he allowed cost of living increases to Police & Fire
but | think we determined that the cost of living increase doesn’t protect our public safety. The lack of
money coming down from the State or the amount of money that we are having to send to the State to
cover their expenses is costing the citizens of Nashua a public safety issue. And we don’t think that’s
correct. So the motions that were made or the first motion that was made was to add to the bottom line of
the Police Department — Department 150, Account 90120 the amount of $241,338.00. The next motion
that was made was to take the Police Command Van Vehicle that was going to be bought this year out of
cash in the CERF Special Revenue Fund to the bond line because of the cost of the vehicle and the
amount of years that it would be on-line, the current one is at 16 years. It needs to be upgraded because
the equipment on it is antiquated and it is, again, a public safety issue. That's the command vehicle that
they use on all major events in the City. So that amount $495,745.00 was moved from the cash line in the
CERF acquisition to the bond line. That will allow us to keep $500,000.00 in the CERF Capital Reserve
which has not been funded this year as part of the budget and all of our finance people will tell you it is
woefully underfunded. So this will help that.
