Board of Aldermen — 3/21/17 Page 3
RESPONSE TO REMARKS OF THE MAYOR
Alderman Schoneman
| want to speak about O-17-31, the wastewater fund ordinance and respond to some of the Mayor’s comments.
First off, | certainly would agree that a big push for this would seem to be the need for room under the Cap for
more spending. | understand that we are facing challenging times. | don’t think that has escaped anyone’s
attention and this would provide that. The only problem that | have with it is that it provides it with a simple
majority vote of eight. There’s a process regarding the Spending Cap that has certainly worked well in the
past. | understand the Spending Cap has been overridden a couple of times in the past, maybe more than a
couple of times. That extra spending rightly has, according to Charter, a higher threshold. | think that’s a
process that we need to follow. That prevents us from circumventing the appropriate discussions. Sometimes
the appropriate discussion, when it comes time to budget, is about priorities. The same dollar cannot be spent
twice. We think about if we’re going to here, we can’t spend it there. | think that’s a conversation that
members of the public deserve to weigh in on and that we need to have frankly and openly.
Secondly, what was said during the budget meeting is we’re not in the budget cycle. We're coming to it, but
we’re not there yet. We’re not talking about cuts to departments. We're talking about a process. | think to say
severe cuts are ahead is not 100 percent true. We don’t know that. What’s ahead is a process where we are
going to look at things if we follow that process. And, it is important to do that. | think that is what the
taxpayers expect, certainly of me. That’s what | promised. Not that | would never override the Cap, but |
would never override it unless there was an actual need for it. Then, | would follow the process. | think we
need to do that. We'll talk it a lot more later, but | did want to address any notion that this automatically means
a severe cut. It does not. | also wanted to point out that there’s a process for overriding the Cap. Thank you.
Alderman Moriarty
Regarding Ordinance 17-31, | echo the comments by Alderman Schoneman. Later | will explain very clearly
how the City Charter and the Code of the City of Nashua makes it very clear that this wastewater fund is
actually different. It’s very clear how you cannot by pulling the wastewater out of the general fund does nto
free up any extra dollars. It’s very simple. There’s three paragraphs or three sentences and | will go through
that later. But my question to you is: why don’t you just simply request that we exceed the Spending Cap?
Mayor Donchess
Are you asking me?
Alderman Moriarty
Yes.
President McCarthy
I’d rather not get into a debate at this point. These are responses to the remarks.
Alderman Moriarty
It won't be the first time that somebody has asked the Mayor a question.
President McCarthy
You can ask the Mayor a question during the debate on the ordinance.
