Finance Committee - 4/18/2018 Page 6
ON THE QUESTION
Mayor Donchess
Director Tim Cummings is here to discuss this. Maybe he should come up and give us a brief overview.
Tim Cummings, Economic Development Director
Yes Mr. Mayor and to the Committee my name is Tim Cummings and | am the Director of Economic
Development for the City. What you have before you is a contract which is zero fixed fee on a basis which we
are hoping to bring in the consulting services of AECOM and in particular the former general manager of the
MBTA who is the project manager, Frank DePaula to provide us expert strategic counsel as we move through
the conversation relative to bringing passenger rail here to Nashua and the State of New Hampshire whether
that’s through the public option or through the public/private partnership and the Memorandum of Agreement
that we have in place with Boston Surface Rail Company.
We are looking to retain AECOM’s at this point in time because we expect either with Boston Surface Rail
Company in particular, that we may be needing to get some documents reviewed and to have special advice
on differing aspects to make sure that we position the City of Nashua appropriately and we protect our
interests as we are moving forward in that conversation. Within the City itself we don’t have that internal rail
expertise and that’s why we wanted to bring in this outside counsel to help us and guide us in that
conversation. So we developed a contract that basically will allow us to enter into scope specific tasks and
deliverables that will need preapproval. This money was escrowed, was set aside in the fall during the escrow
process for not to exceed $100,000.00. What | would submit to you is | will come back to you on a regular
basis $10,000.00 or $25,000.00 into this contract and give you regular updates.
Mayor Donchess
Are there questions?
Alderwoman Kelly
So this consultant, thank you Mr. Mayor, is going to mostly focus on the private sector or both and how is that
going to play out?
Mr. Cummings
| can’t speak how that is going to “play out” because that’s beyond the City of Nashua relative to the public
option but | want to make sure is the City of Nashua has retained counsel to help us, specifically for the Boston
Surface Rail, because that it is our public/private partnership that we are spearheading at the local level. But |
think if we are retaining the services and the conversation in Concord continues to unfold the way it is, it would
be good to also have someone that we can turn to that would have Nashua’s interest in mind as Concord is
working through that issue as well. | think it will be just a value-add.
Alderwoman Kelly
Okay, thank you.
Mayor Donchess
Any other discussion or questions? Thank your Mr. Cummings.
MOTION CARRIED
