Special Board of Aldermen 06-07-2021 Page 12
| ask you to consider carefully the decision and the legacy that we will leave on the Nashua Police Department
based on how you vote going forward. Thanks for your time.
John Fischer — Thank you very much. My name is John Fischer, | live at 21 Indiana Drive. | Know most of you
here, | either know you from my 23 years at the Nashua Police Department, from my 25 years at the Nashua
Soup Kitchen Board or through my 35 plus years of coaching youth athletics here in the City. | could not be
more opposed to this. Most of you that know me also know that after 23 years | have served as a Police Chief
in Massachusetts for the last decade. I’ve had the opportunity to visit a lot of Police Departments. Importantly,
Nashua is what everybody else uses as a hallmark. | taught at Roger Williams University for 10 % years in Law
Enforcement Management, 5 % years at Rivier, I’ve been on loan from BJA currently working on a project right
now and almost everyone chooses Nashua as a go by and for very important reasons.
| know that Chief Hefferan has talked about interference outside and | have had the opportunity to work in a few
different systems. And | can tell you what that phone calls feels like when you get a phone call from a local
appointed official that has power over you for lack of better words, it is a very unsettling feeling and they usually
talking about hiring. They are talking about hiring or they are talking about a decision that was made that is
already in the courts. I’ve had the good fortune to live in Nashua for my entire adult life. The safety of my
family has been incredibly important. And | think that this decision while well intentioned is short sighted. | think
the Nashua Police Department is what it is for very important reasons and one of those is that insulation it has
with the Commissioners who are appointed by the Governor. In closing | want to thank you for your time and
consideration. And I’m easy to find if you want to give me a ring and talk about other Police Departments that
I’ve been on loan to in the country and why they always harken back to the way things are done in Nashua, |
am happy to answer your questions.
Sandy Cleary Hi my name is Sandy Clearly, | live at 17 Adella. | want to give you a little background on myself
because | think it is important in understanding what my perspective is. My first career was in aerospace
engineering designing guidance systems for ballistic missiles. Upon leaving that, | started my own business,
moved it up to the Lakes Region and grew it to $135 million dollars in annual sales and then sold it in 2017. |
then looked around as to where | was going to have my next venture. And | chose Nashua. | then purchased a
commercial property in Nashua as well as my own residence in 2017. | became involved in the community and
started actively supporting all the local charities or many of the local charities, including committing
$100,000.00 to the Performing Arts Center. This is all to explain to you that | am indeed Team Nashua. | am
not a politician, | am a business woman. I’ve been told that one of my best skills is that | have the ability to cut
through the BS to heart of the matter and to identify the core issue and address it head on.
So | asked myself, what reasons have been offered for this change. From what | am hearing is the Police
Department is good but could be better and that the Commission needs more diversity. The reality is that you
are going from one type of political appointment to another type of political appointment. You can say all you
want about qualifications, merit and community service, but ultimately you are still appointments. And | think
we have to call this what it really is. This is clearly a power grab under the cloak of diversity and feel good
verbiage about the selection process. As a woman who has been the lone woman in a room full of men many,
many times in my career | do take certain amount of umbrage at this cloaking-ness as a diversity issue. | do,
however, understand power grabs and sometimes they are very necessary. However, there are times when
power grabs are also so detrimental that they need to be shut down and shut down very quickly because of the
collateral damage that can be done. | fear that if you let this go to the voters, that you will hurt Nashua by
having two distinguished, trusted and necessary entities defending themselves and attacking one another only
to cause the residents much insecurity and unease in the whole process.
One of the reasons | relocated here is that we have a Police Department...
Alderman O’Brien
30 seconds.
