Special Board of Aldermen 06-21-2021 Page 26
Ms. Ortolano Thank you.
Chairman Dowd
Last question on this Division?
Dan Richardson 70 Berkeley Street, Nashua, New Hampshire. | am not sure where it occurs in this book so
you might help me with it. What | am looking for is the financial payments that were estimating for lawsuits
this coming year, Fiscal ’22. We have to provide for that so if you’d be kind enough to tell me where in the
Budget Book, under what Department that I’d find that number.
Mayor Donchess
Legal Department.
Mr. Richardson That would be under the Legal Department. That would be on Page what?
Chairman Dowd
Mr. Griffin? That actually was in the previous section, the Legal Department. | am not sure they are found
there anyway.
Mr. Richardson Page 63 someone said?
Chairman Dowd
Corporation Counsel is going to answer the question.
Mr. Richardson I'd be interested in the amount; hopefully it shows that.
Steve Bolton Corporation Counsel
Steve Bolton, | am the Corporation Counsel for the City, essentially City Attorney and | am seeing a person
in the Legal Department. | am not sure | fully understand the question. Most of the lawsuits we handle with
the lawyers who are on staff so there’s no, in most cases, there’s no outside legal fees that we are paying
to deal with the situation when the City gets sued. Now in what | hope is the very unlikely event that there’s
a judgement against the City, it would depend on the circumstances what the alleged wrong doing is on the
part of the City where the judgement would be paid. So for example, if a paving contractor who we hire to
do the 25 or so miles of paving of streets each year, if one of those contractors were to say that, OK the
contract called for payment of $100.00 per mile for certain quantities and there was a dispute over whether
that contract provided 10 miles of paving or 15 miles of paving, when that dispute got resolved the payment
would come out of the paving account so somewhere in the Public Works’ Budget or in an Special Bond
Proceeds Account where the money for the paving program was held.
Other types of judgements against the City would come out of other accounts. So a tax abatement appeal
that results in a refund of taxes paid to a taxpayer would come out of what is called the overlay and that’s
money in addition to the budget that is added in to the amount to be raised in taxes for the express
purposes of paying the expenses of dealing with tax abatement appeals and any refunds that are ordered
or agreed to in a settlement. As | say, different types of litigation judgements can be funded from different
sources depending on what the nature of the case is.
Mr. Richardson OK | think | understand what you are saying. You are saying for whatever Department that
it is associated with that money would be coming out of that Department for payment of judgement from a
lawsuit?
