Board of Aldermen 06-08-2021 Page 25
politicize it. | feel like it has been politicized when somebody who does not live in the area and is not directly
engaged in that situation or when their experience with the Police are much more visceral and profound than
going to their administrative office and being impressed with their ability to provide Right-to-Know. That’s not the
experience of a lot of local Ward 4 resident’s experience with the Police. That’s not a lot of the work going on
here. Police are seen sometimes as the first contact is when a Police Officer might arrest a family member and
we have a lot of programs in place in the community to create a positive experience like the Nashua PAL
Program, like the NERD Program — Nashua Economic Racial Disparity.
The Police work very hard to manage their impact in the community in a positive way in Ward 4. That’s
recognized, that is not political. That is a consequence of being in a community and doing community policing.
So | think there’s an assumption here, possibly a political one that if those goes to Nashua constituents they will
be uninformed, they will be ignorant, they won’t come up with the right decision and | think that’s when people
start to use politics. That’s when people who are not in a specific area or directly impacted by something seen as
part of a larger strategic goal. | caution against that kind of thinking. Like | said, there’s still a lot more discussion
to be had on even the Ordinance that we have right now which would put it in referendum. But! am starting to
think that this is not a decision that Concord should be making because if Concord is going to make decisions
about our spending cap in this particular manner, that’s not doing it for the right reasons.
| will also point out that this is my 3" term as Alderman, no one has ever approached me about repairing the
spending cap. We are authorized as Aldermen to at least propose an Ordinance or the amendments to those
Ordinances that would do that and no one has brought it up. No one has even asked for it to be put on the table
for discussion. So there was never even a discussion here or the debate or any of that kind of thing which robs
Nashua constituents and residents of that opportunity. Because they saw no public hearing, no public comment,
no in-Nashua or Nashua managed conversations. They, at best, would have had to be following all of the State
exercises that happen and they, at best, would have had their voices divided 400 times by the other State
Representatives, which is unfortunate. | think election season is coming up for many of us; | hope we are able to
keep things focused on local issues and not partisanship and not larger political parties.
On to a more positive note, we were talking about different past Mayors. The mural in Le Parc de Notre
Renaissance Francaise is underway, it is being painted. One of the faces that the Richelieu Club nominated to be
put on as a person of Franco-Nashuan descent who has contributed to the community is Mayor Lozeau. So |
hope people will stop, take a look at that, if they are interested in supporting or sponsoring project it can be found
by going to www. involvedtoimpact.org. And if you are interested in participating in the Tree Streets Block Party,
that is going to be on June 26 on Ash Street as well. Some of the Aldermen might recognize the address as
containing the house that we are looking at supporting Neighborworks revitalizing. So there are a lot of positive
things that are going on. If anyone is interested in sponsoring any of the events at the Block Party or getting
involved in the more local issues that affect people in the Tree Streets, then feel free to come by. You are all
welcome. So that’s June 26" and if you want more information you can find it at www.involvedtoimpact.org.
Thank you.
President Wilshire
You’re welcome. | too would like to send my condolences to the family of Don Davidson. Enough has been said
this evening. He was a good Mayor, he was a good person so my condolences to his family.
Committee announcements:
Alderman Dowd
Yes, we have two more Budget Meetings this week; Wednesday and Thursday at 7:00. They are going to be
conducted here in the Chamber but the public can access via Zoom. We are still under the Governor’s order.
On Wednesday it is going to be Community Development and on Thursday it is going to be Education; two
very serious budget areas so | hope that everybody will participate.
