Finance Committee - 07/15/2020 Page 12
But the reality is we have to unfortunately use taxpayer's money to pay someone to serve in this function
because it is very difficult as | have explained and | think this has become very evident over time, is very
difficult to attract someone to take on a role where they — right or wrong — assume that they are going to be
treated to the same type of, they are going to receive the same kind of treatment as all of the other Assessor in
Nashua have received and they may end up having to defend all kinds of complaints. So | mean to be straight
forward that is the situation that the City is in. | have to say after reviewing the presentation by Ms. Kleiner and
Mr. Miseirvitch last night, | don’t know if Mr. Laws was there or not but the depth of the changes and of the
improvements that have been made is remarkable. All of the improvements across the board in the Assessing
Department showing how professionally all of these issues have been handled and the depth of the
understanding and of the recommendations is really to be commended. But still that effort has been
recognized across New Hampshire; the other Assessors realize all of this but they don’t want to be in the
position that our Assessors are and therefore it is difficult to find someone. This is a necessary function, if you
want the Assessing to continue, this contract is a necessity and this is the price that this qualified gentleman,
highly qualified but this is what he required and this is the only person that was willing to take on this role.
Alderman Laws
Mayor, if | may? | am glad that my questions led to that very detailed explanation of the situation that we are
in. I’m glad that it’s a matter of public record right now. And | would just like you guys to know that if there’s
one skill set that | have, that | think is exceptional, it is the ability to listen to people (audio cuts out). So | will
make my services available to you whenever you need them in whatever capacity, you just tell me where to get
Certified and I'll come in there and people can bag on me all day long, I’m used to it.
Mayor Donchess
You want to become an Assessor? Well maybe you should get trained, there are some courses you can begin
with.
Alderman Laws
Alright, I'll get on that. Thank you Kim and thank you Mayor.
Mayor Donchess
Any other questions or comments? Alderwoman Kelly.
Alderwoman Kelly
Thank you and thank you for that detailed explanation, | think there was some good discussion there. So my
question is just how is this going to dovetail with our continuing to look for an Assessor and are there some
road marks where we might say in 3 months, we will see where we are at. Has anyone come forward? Are we
looking at that so potentially we could get someone in that roll instead of paying this gentleman a salary for a
year and still not continuing that. | assume you have a plan but | would love to hear it for the record.
Mayor Donchess
Well the plan is to continue to advertise and hire someone who is qualified as quickly as possible. | mean we
don’t want to hire someone who is not qualified or we don’t think would do a good job. | mean we’ve run into
issues with that before and we want to make sure that whoever is hired will do a good job. And they are going
to be under a lot of pressure. So it has to be someone we know can handle the situation. And again, we are
dealing with the understanding of the situation here that other New Hampshire Assessors are very well aware
of. So when we advertise we get no applicants from New Hampshire that have any qualification. So it’s all out-
of-state applicants. And | think it is fair to say that we came close with someone but they developed a family
situation that made a move out their current, you know, from elsewhere in New England impossible.
