Board of Aldermen Page 19
September 27, 2016
LeBrun in the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee that why don’t we just leave this until January
1%. It’s important when the community says please do this that we answer that in a very
conscientiousness way. | haven’t heard any firm concerns or arguments against doing this other than
the process orientated ones, which again, we’ve already set precedence with other issues that were far
less impactful where we had a lot less to take credit for. All | have heard is there might be something
else, there might be more to look at and | would invite anyone who is interested in doing more research
into this to get involved in the Cultural Connections Committee and the One Greater Nashua effort and
the many immigrant support organizations in the city. You don’t need to hold up the legislation to do that
because this has been going on for a long time.
Alderman Dowd
There is a piece of legislation on the floor and there is also an amendment to that legislation on the floor.
| would suggest that we vote on the amendment and if it doesn’t pass then we vote on the legislation as
it was presented because that is what came out of committee and see what happens.
Alderman Schoneman
In response to that last comment, | will join those who say they are not going to support the Mayor’s
proposal that comes out tonight. | attended that meeting as well and believe that the compromise that
came out was pretty good. This legislation; | certainly accept that it was somewhat driven by the
Chamber of Commerce and the United Way but the draft of this legislation comes from
WelcomingAmerica.org. Part of their strategy in New Hampshire, and | just don’t like that the City of
Nashua is being co-opted by congratulating ourselves on being the Welcoming City that we are that |
have experienced, that we are now endorsing an organization which does way more and may in the
future do way more than the things that we think they are doing today. Part of their strategy is to
mobilize local groups to do a number of things including trying to get legislation through the local Board.
That’s a stated goal, it’s a milestone and it’s in their publications that they want us to do and part of the
drafting from this comes from the WelcomingAmerica.org. | feel that we are being co-opted. That
language is still here but the amendment that came out of committee takes out the specific endorsement
of the Welcoming America Initiative but it includes much of the language. The language didn’t change
and that’s why | say that | think it's a reasonable compromise. It’s gets the language the
WelcomingAmerica.org wants in here, which apparently we are willing to follow, but it takes out a specific
alignment with that organization and | think that’s a reasonable position. | will not support the newly
revised alternative that the Mayor presented.
Alderman Siegel
| am going to address a couple of things and | am sympathetic to Alderman Dowd’s concept that we do
have something in front of us but these comments are all associated with that. With all due respect to
Alderman Lopez, if the legislation before us was to congratulate all of the people that were involved in
the efforts that are on-going like the Cultural Navigators or the United Way efforts or the Chamber of
Commerce efforts and we were congratulating them for all of the good work they do, that in fact would be
like the typical type of proclamation that we have before us that all of us would support and it would go
through just like that, this is not that and let’s not pretend it is. We are talking about us as a city and we
are virtue signaling on the municipal level which is comical. | would be more than happy to congratulate
people for the actual work they do, but instead, we have to virtue signal on the municipal level and okay,
I’m willing to accept that because compromise is what we do here but that legislation is now tying us to
an organization which clearly members are uncomfortable with. Again, there was an hour and fifteen
minute discussion about that. Normal compromise is okay, the real essence here, which everybody
wanted and everybody was fine with, was that we are a Welcoming City and we don’t want to have
anybody perceive that we are not a Welcoming City and that was a great compromise. All of a sudden
the waters are muddied and | would be more than happy to discuss this. | have enough information on
the Welcoming America Initiative. I’m sure not many people went through all of the 990’s. Has anybody
