Board of Aldermen — 9/26/17 Page 12
Alderman Wilshire
And not the neighborhood they live in. Yes.
Alderman Lopez
| was just going to clarify in addition to what Alderman Wilshire. The way it was originally written the person could
either be living in a low income neighborhood, a person who had a low income or even could be working for an
agency that represented low income. Through discussions, we felt it made more sense to actually have a person
of low income represent the people who have low income. Alderman LeBrun wanted to confirm in describing this
person we were making sure we were talking about a Nashua city resident.
Alderman O’Brien
| think | see the intention here, but | am very concerned of the labeling that could go on with this. It’s not just a
citizen we are putting on. We are clearly identifying that this citizen has to be a low income resident. I’m just
concerned that there is no attached stigma to any of that. If that is the objective, fine, but to clearly identify that
person “you are on the board because you are a low income resident” | don’t know.
Alderman Moriarty
I’m going to back up Alderman O’Brien’s statement from a different objective. | have an issue with this similarly.
The original says the three commissioners shall be Nashua residents representing a cross section of the
community. That should be sufficient. Why don’t we add a special commissioner for seniors or why don’t we add
a special commissioner for a minority group or why don’t we add a special commissioner to represent republicans
or a special commissioner to represent democrats? You could itemize an endless list of people that you could
come up with a commissioner to represent. Why are we singling out and identifying a commissioner that shall
only be low income? Why not just let the Board President and the Mayor choose to select that person because
the Mayor sees a low income person as a representative of the cross-section of the community.
Alderman Wilshire
It doesn’t have to be. You could make that amendment if you'd like.
President McCarthy
Is there any time sensitivity to this legislation.
Alderman Wilshire
There is. We were hoping to get the members appointed before the process begin.
President McCarthy
Which is when?
Alderman Wilshire
The composition of this commission is changing from the five commissioners and up to 30 volunteers to a 7-
member commission. Appointing those people and getting this process up and running is sort of time sensitive. It
has to fall in line with the whole budget. It has to be done over a certain number of months. We were hoping to
get it passed at this meeting. We can change that if that’s the Board’s preference.
