Board of Aldermen — 4/11/17 Page 23
has been consistent. You outright say you’re against the spending cap. But for someone to not even answer
the question that it’s a spending cap bypass is just poor forum.
I’m going to vote against it out of principle. But may | remind you that 56-c refers to the combined annual
budget and section 5-154 defines what the combined annual budget is. There’s only one definition of the
combined annual budget. Only one definition. That definition applies to this year and next year. Whether or
not you move wastewater out of the budget or in the budget, it does not allow you to use one set of rules for
this year and another set of rules for next year. Nobody, | take that back, Attorney Bolton did, he is the only
person to make it an attempt to rebut that specific argument which he quoted 5-146 and 5-147 which defines a
separate term. The reality is, as the Charter is written, and the Nashua Revised Ordinances are written, this
does not accomplish the spending cap end-around that you want. The problem is what recourse do we have
as a public aside from a Writ of Mandamus? Do | personally have $2,000 to pay in attorney bills to fight the
city on a Writ of Mandamus to adhere to the law as it is written? | don’t know. So! am voting against it out of
principle. | recommend that afterwards you all read those sections, and insist that the Mayor adhere to the law
as it is written and not interpreted incorrectly.
Alderman Schoneman
With regard to the other attempts to fund the pension fund, or whatnot, these were appropriations that were a
spending cap end-around at the time. | think that all of these things should just be dealt with at the budget
time. That’s the time to do it. | didn’t support those then. I’ve never said that | don’t support paying the extra
$2 million. | never said that. | don’t want anyone to think that there’s an impossibility to get ten votes as
Alderman Moriarty just said. But those things should not be done in advance. They should be done at the
budget where we can talk about it and have a meaningful conversation on it. Thank you.
Alderman O’Brien
| kind of sat here quietly and listened to many of different points of views on both sides of the equation. |
thank you for your opinions. Wearing a double hat as a state legislator, we saw this coming down the road in
2010. It is here now. The elephant is right here in the Chamber. Many of us that are state legislators,
particularly this year and one colleague is sitting in this horseshoe, three bills were written trying to alleviate the
problem. But those that read the paper and kind of see what’s happening up in Concord, the Calgary coming
from the north, this is a Nashua problem right now. We have to pay the pension issue. You talk about bonds,
what happens if we default with the State of New Hampshire for $2 million? They will get it somehow. They
assess the tax rate for our community. The state needs to be paid.
Looking at that, we did our due diligence. We wrote bills. We looked at the current city budget. | complement
the Mayor. He looked through and saw maybe what was omitted, a loophole, or something. Fortunately it
was. lf it was intended to be under the spending cap, | take the former alderman who claims self-author of the
spending cap, he knew what he was doing when he wrote it. Why wasn’t it in in the beginning? This is not an
end around.
Necessity is the mother of invention. This issue that came down to us from the state gave us an opportunity to
relook at the ordinance and come up and Say it is not in it. | take great comfort in knowing what the city
counsel has said that we are not violating. | would never vote to violate any law. | take his advice, corporate
counsel advise that this is going to stand. If somebody wants to bring a challenge, they will bring the challenge
no matter what. | take confidence in knowing.
Therefore, looking at the whole problem, we got to do something because we don’t make anything sitting here
in the horseshoe. What we provide is a quality of life to our constituents. That is good education, good
schools, good fire, police, everything else. A wonderful downtown. We have the makings of one of the best
places in New England. | think if we don’t pass this tonight, we will probably do ourselves more harm and start
to erode something that many of us have stood here and tried to build. | think it would be prudent to support
this bill. Thank you, Mr. President.
