Finance Committee - 03/04/2020 Page 3
ON THE QUESTION
Mayor Donchess
And on this we have Mr. Cummings and Ms. Stansfield as well so you tell us a little bit about this one?
Mr. Cummings
Yes thank you Mr. Mayor, again for the record Tim Cummings, Director of Economic Development. And what
you have before you this evening has been long-awaited and | am excited to have before you seeking approval
a contract with Desman Consulting which is a nationally known parking consulting firm that’s responded to our
RFQ last fall. We put a Steering Committee together for the procurement of DPW Staff Wayne Husband,
Community Development Staff of Julie Chizmas and Linda McGee, Jill Stansfield, and myself and we
interviewed four firms | believe. Four firms; we then did another round of interviews for two more firms and
eventually selecting Desman.
We then from essentially January to now negotiated a scope and fee which is just a little bit over $80,000.00.
We have that money set aside through an escrow that came about last fall. The money originally came from
the Parking Enforcement Funds from last year where we had that account running in the positive. So we are
excited to move forward. Actually | can report to you that if we get this contract approved this evening, we
actually have a kick off meeting scheduled for March 17" at 10:00 AM in Room 208 here in the City. | will be
sending an e-mail out to the Board of Aldermen to make them aware of some of the dates and invite their
participation if they have an interest in being involved intimately with this project. We are hoping to have it
wrapped up in late summer.
Mayor Donchess
Does everyone know Jill Stansfield? Jill, she’s the parking manager.
Alderman O’Brien
| have a question for Mr. Cummings. Thank you Mr. Mayor, Mr. Cummings, when you chose Desman in my
opinion | think Nashua is probably about 30 years behind Boston and the example of some of the parking
problems that we are now kind of experiencing. So has Desman had the part of their consulting, | recognize |
know they name, but what are some of their experience in looking at a City of Nashua that is now coming into
the cusp of coming into a problem such as this and how much will they make this actually better for us?
Mr. Cummings
| would say, Mr. Mayor, if | may, Desman, if | was to objectively evaluate parking consulting, they would be my
first choice. The second two, very good choices that are name brands, Walker Consulting and Nelson
Nygaard. Those three firms, very respected in the parking industry. Desman has done a lot of work in middle
tier type cities; at this type of population. They are very forward thinking in their parking management
strategies. We had a lot of conversations with the principal who would be the project manager for this project.
He actually happens to be a New Hampshire resident as well, living just outside of Nashua. He’s very familiar
with not just the City but the region and he consults actually across the country.
Alderman O’Brien
Follow up if | may? And | would like to discuss the date, 3/17? Although | will try to be there but you may find
this a surprise but | am really booked that day with several very important cultural events that | have to attend
to. Is that day flexible.
