City of Nashua
229 Main Street
Nashua, NH 03061-2019
(603) 589-3000
MEMORANDUM
TO: Board of Aldermen
FROM: Susan K. Lovering, City Clerk
Donna L. Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager
DATE: December 20, 2021
RE: Proposed Ordinance O-21-082, Requiring Legislation and Related Information
To be Available
At the Board of Aldermen meeting of December 14, 2021, Ordinance O-21-082 was tabled at the full Board
level pending receipt of a memorandum from the City Clerk and the Legislative Affairs Manager.
By way of background in early 2020, President Wilshire, City Clerk Lovering and Legislative Affairs Manager
Donna Graham met with Alderwoman Lu to discuss ways she could more easily research legislation on the
city’s website. Clerk Lovering provided a brief overview of the history of the website, noting that in an effort to
preserve the integrity of the records and the city's website, certain departments were assigned to the maintenance
of certain webpages. The legislative office was assigned the responsibility of maintaining legislation from its
inception to its final disposition.
Several scenarios were discussed to assist Alderwoman Lu with her research online. For example, Clerk
Lovering offered to post the resolution and ordinance logs her office creates to track and maintain the physical
bills. These logs include the bill number and title, dates of all readings, committee assignments, and the dates
and nature of final disposition taken by the Board of Aldermen and the Mayor. Upon review of all options
presented, it was agreed at the conclusion of the meeting that upon final disposition of all legislation, Ms.
Graham would upload the signature page.
The signature page includes all sponsors to the legislation, date of first reading, committee(s) assigned, dates for
second reading, third reading, fourth reading, other action, passed, indefinitely postponed, vetoed, etc. However
when I (Donna Graham) agreed to assume this additional task, it was early in the legislative term and being
newly hired did not realize how time consuming and the additional steps it would take to scan, combine, save,
and upload to the website. This process continued until COVID hit and when the meetings became remote it
became more difficult to get all the required signatures.
