REPORT OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE
MARCH 2, 2022
A meeting of the Finance Committee was held on Wednesday, March 2, 2022, at 7:00 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber
and via Zoom. The meeting link information can be found on the agenda.
Mayor Jim Donchess, Chairman, presided.
Members of the Committee present: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman Patricia Klee, Vice Chair
Alderman Alex Comeau
Alderman Tyler Gouveia
Alderwoman-at-Large Gloria Timmons
Alderman-at-Large Melbourne Moran, Jr.
Members not in Attendance: Alderman-at-Large Ben Clemons
Also in Attendance: Alderman Derek Thibeault
John Griffin, CFO/Comptroller
Kim Kleiner, Administrative Services Director
Kelly Parkinson, Purchasing Manager
Jonathan Ibarra, Superintendent of Street Dept.
Daniel Hudson, City Engineer
David Boucher, Superintendent of Wastewater Dept.
Jeff Lafleur, Superintendent of Solid Waste Dept.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Laurie Ortolano
Laurie Ortolano, 41 Berkeley Street. | see tonight you have the Inception Technology quote before you to continue the
scanning records project and | would just like to state that | think we get into projects of this magnitude that the city owes
us a little more information about the big total picture cost on a project like this. You Know it came up 2 years ago almost
or about 22 months ago and we funded it in July as about a $60,000 project and it needs another $50,000 to take to
completion plus a little more for software. But the redaction piece of $1.3 million that is going to cost a lot of money when
it comes to personnel time. | wish we had not done it because it was sent to us to allow assessors to be able to work from
home during COVID to access this information.
Well that’s over and 2 years that never really happened with the records and the excuse that the Administration is giving
now you know this is taking a lot of time is because we had COVID, we have a measure list, and we had staffing issues.
We that is exactly what was going on when we voted the project in. We were four months into COVID. We had no Chief
at all and no prospects of finding one. People were not knocking down to come to Nashua and we had the State
mandated and ordered measure list with State oversight on it from the BTLA and the DRA and we took it on and now
we're saying hey, you know what, we don’t know when these files are going to be available because we’re burdened.
| went to Assessing Department a few weeks ago and | left an Assessing meeting to get records on the Art Center. |
didn’t realize that they had entered into a scanning project, but they were actually able to download the documents | was
looking for and give me the scanned copies as | waited there. They worked with me. You can’t get that kind of service in
the Assessing office and this is where the project started. So this is going to be a $300,000 or more project and it was
spoken to us as a pitch to us as a $60,000 deal. | think some of the redacting you should look at for necessity because
it's costing a ton of money - totally agree with e-mail...
Alderman Comeau
30 seconds but now they're redacting the addresses of the private prior property owner. | look at some of that,
Laurie Ortolano
... but now they're redacting the addresses of the private property owner. | look at some of that. (inaudible) the taxpayers
are going to pay and the time it takes to get the records. Thank you.
