Board of Aldermen 06-08-2021 Page 24
When he was recalled | supported him in the recall and | supported him in his reelection campaign which he did
not ultimately win in 1999. But | think his legacy here in the City you can see it everywhere, whether you are
traveling down Kinsley Street or West Hollis Street, he changed those streets to one-ways, those are major
thoroughfares in the City. Now when you go down to the Maplewood Area we often call that Captain’s Corner
which was named after his convenience store which was there. Mayor Davidson will always hold a place in
Nashua, he served the public very well and his family should be proud. And | was proud to be a supporter of his,
to come around to be a supporter of his. So thank you very much.
Alderwoman Lu
Thank you Madam President. | would like to address just some concerns about unsealing minutes. There have
been a lot of requests by Nashua residents for sealed minutes to be unsealed when appropriate. | have heard a
great deal of concern particularly regarding the Assessing Department minutes. And it doesn’t seem that they
are being unsealed with qualifying reasons cited for sealing them no longer apply. And residents are asking for
them to be unsealed. | understand that we seal minutes because they involve discussion of settlement proposals
and it is an excellent reason to seal minutes. But it would seem to be that once the settlement is made, unless
there are qualifying reasons that remain that we would unseal these minutes as a matter of course.
| understand the rationale for not unsealing the minutes in the Assessing Department that the settlements that
are under discussion become publicly available. But | don’t agree that this is the same as unsealing the
contemporaneous minutes of the meeting. | feel that true transparency would involve unsealing the records when
the reason for sealing no longer exists to allow the public a view of how decisions are made by our officials. To
the Chairmen of the Committees | am requesting that the use of a non-public session be viewed as a temporary
means to keep sensitive information quiet while it can damage reputations or to keep negotiations effective. But
in the interest of some people who are asking and for the rights of all of the City of Nashua residents, that those
rights and interests be keep in mind when weighing how much priority is given to unsealing the minutes in a
timely manner. Thank you.
President Wilshire
You're welcome. Alderman Lopez, you’re up.
Alderman Lopez
| wanted to start by expressing my condolences to Melbourne Moran, State Representative on the passing of his
father; recently his father passed way due to COVID-19. So | wanted to express my condolences to him and his
family and those who knew his father. | wanted to extend my condolences to the family and friends of the
recently deceased Mayor Davidson. And then | also wanted to comment on the spending cap issue too. Those
State issues and those bipartisan back and forths are why | dislike the intrusion of partisan politics into local
issues. As local Aldermen, we represent our Wards just our Wards and our fidelity needs to be to the people we
are elected to serve. And | feel like bipartisan politics can definitely take the focus off of the issue and have
people start playing larger games that removes the public from the decision making. And | think for the entire
Nashua Delegation to vote against something that would impact Nashua but for a larger than them group to vote
in favor of something that impacts Nashua on party lines is detestable. It definitely gives me pause when we
consider things like the appointment of Police Commissioners, because while we certainly have good
Commissioners at this point, | don’t want to see the day come where the Police Department is weaponized
against us for political purposes.
| was in a discussion today where someone accused Mayor Craig of dislocating a group of homeless people
because she was running for office. That’s not the case. There’s accountability and there is change. But if it
were a circumstance like that had happened in Nashua, | would want our constituents to be able to take action.
So | personally am very closely, | am very conflicted over the actual decision over whether we should change the
Police Commission or not but it is becoming more and more clear to me that it will be a political issue unless we
make it a referendum. | have been outreached by a lot of people who are opposed to it who do not live in Ward 4,
a number of whom do not even live in Nashua and they are expressing their opposition while asking me not to
