Board of Aldermen Page 30
September 27, 2016
Alderman O’Brien
With regret, Mr. President, my esteemed colleague did bring up the example of Manchester after | read
off a number of communities and if | can through the chair, just to clarify, wnat was the final outcome of
Manchester on this? Is it approved in Manchester?
President McCarthy
My understanding is that it is.
Alderman Siegel
So, here we are, we are going to waltz around and vote on this and maybe it will pass 8 to 7, again,
Alderman McCarthy has been rather insightful but if you care about the optics does that make sense.
That’s probably a bad message so congratulations, you'll pass something and that’s no good. But, that’s
what is going to happen because | think, again, | really want to pass something that says Nashua is fine;
| don’t want to have a problem but we had a good compromise, something that would send a much
stronger message and that’s not going to happen with this glued in there and that was clear in committee
so if you wanted to say the same types of arguments then yes that’s true but the only outcome would be
what is spit out of committee; either what has already been spit out of committee or the thing that is
before us now. So you are either going to have an 8 to 7 vote on something and what’s the message
there? | mean really? Just vote it down and then you have the opportunity of voting on the original
legislation or the legislation as amended. You can get two more cracks at it. This seems silly.
Alderman Cookson
| wanted to refer back to the Ward 2 Alderman’s question about how it is affecting other communities and
what the impact is. | think that is the exact type of question that that we should have discussed in the
committee.
Alderman Deane
This is a perfect example of how not to do something. | find this whole situation rather embarrassing for
the city and the Mayor. | was at the committee meeting and correct me if | am wrong but | thought that
amendment left the committee with a 5 to 0 vote with Alderman Clemons stating that he was going to
vote for it but if someone called him up he was going to listen to what people had to say, which | think we
all do. | came tonight looking to hear some debate but also to vote on the amended version that we sent
out of committee that we discussed for about an hour. That’s what the five of us agreed upon. Here we
are looking at this WelcomingAmerica.org and whatever the spin may be, | mean, | went on their website
and | clicked on their little learn button and then | went to their welcoming strategy and then | clicked on
the full strategy and | read through it. | guess everybody is entitled to their own opinions but it just seems
like we are signing on to a heavy lobbying effort for the federal government. That’s what it looks like to
me. That’s just my opinion. | look at this goldenrod copy that | would support. | think we all should
support it, it’s time to save a little face.
Mr. President, the motion on the floor is to re-refer? That was shot down, right?
President McCarthy
Correct.
Alderman Deane
So now the motion on the floor is for final passage of the amendment that was made by Mayor
Donchess?
