Board of Aldermen Page 37
September 27, 2016
Alderman Siegel
I’d like to thank everyone who worked so hard for the Downtown Nashua Music Festival and also the
farmer’s dinner which was tremendous. l’d also like to congratulate the Mayor on becoming a
grandfather.
Alderman Cookson
Earlier this evening we accepted and placed a file the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee
meeting minutes from September 19, 2016. | am glad that since we did accept it and place it on file you
had an opportunity to review those minutes prior to accepting them. During the course of the meeting
there was a dialogue that took place between Mayor Donchess and myself and it was with regard to the
Welcoming America Initiative and during the course of that conversation Mayor Donchess attempted to
attribute a comment; what | perceived to be a comment about some information that | had provided and
his response was “I mean really, they are not the enemy.” It was with regard to a link that | had provided
in the course of discussion. At that moment when | felt that some value was being attributed to my
statement, my comment, | asked for personal privilege of the chair of the committee. As we are talking
about rules this evening, whether it be a code of conduct or whether it be Mason’s or whatever the case
may be, | asked for personal privilege that evening. Chairman Clemons response to that question or that
point was that | was out of order and to please let the Mayor finish. | just wanted to share with the rest of
Board that again, | provided the information, the Mayor attributed...| made no comment of whether it was
good or bad, | just made a statement and provided a link for the committee to review. Again, the Mayor
made the comment that suggested that it was derogatory in some way and that’s just incorrect, it’s
insulting and it was disrespectful at the time. | will let you know that the Mayor did apologize to me
between meetings and | accepted that apology. However, as we look at Mason's; I'll share some
knowledge with you. This is called questions for personal privilege, this is on page 174 for those of you
who might be interested in learning. Questions of personal privilege of members must relate to
questions related to members of the body or relate to charges against their character that would in truth
incapacitate their membership they are not entitled to the floor on a question of personal privilege unless
they propose to present relates them in there representative capacity. What happens when a member
asks for personal privilege? Vhen a question of privilege is one affecting the House or any one of its
members it requires immediate action. It may be raised while a member is speaking. It is in order to
raise the question of privilege at any time. The presiding officer must decide whether it is a question of
privilege and it is not of sufficient urgency to justify interrupting the speaker. A member wishing to raise
the question of privilege should rise and address the presiding officer without waiting to be recognized
and say “I rise to a question of privilege or privilege of the House or | rise the question of personal
privilege. The presiding officer should then request the member to state the question and in no way
should the appropriate response be by the chair that you are out of order. So, what | would suggest at
this point is that | would certainly expect at the very least an apology from the chair of the committee. It’s
important that even though he might be ignorant of the procedure and the rules of Mason’s, that he was
out of order that particular evening. At the same time, and while | understand that the chair of that
committee is a sophomore on this Board, may not be familiar with all of the rules, he was previously the
chair of another committee so he should be. He should understand what is going on. Unfortunately, Mr.
President, you happened to be sitting in this Chamber that evening as well. What | find more egregious
is the fact that you didn’t take this as an opportunity to provide some guidance to the leadership that you
have put in place on this Board. We have rules in place and it’s quite clear that | was not addressed
appropriately, accurately and nobody took the effort or time to understand what the actual motion was
and what | was entitled to. While the chairman, again, may be negligent or ignorant of the rules, | know
that you are not and | would hope that you would take this as an opportunity to educate those leaders
that you put in place to represent this body. Those are my comments this evening.
Alderman LeBrun
| would like to remind everyone that on Sunday morning at 10:00 a.m. there is a memorial on Amherst
and Concord Streets at the Fallen Firefighter's Memorial.
