Board of Aldermen 12-11-2018 Page 20
Alderman Caron
Right they have 20 days from the time this approved to make that decision, it is a one-time only.
Alderman Dowd
| Knew it was there, | just wanted to get it out to the public.
Alderman Tencza
Can | just ask Alderman Caron, you referenced one employee in another department who received this
retroactive benefit. Was that in the Fire Department.
Alderman Caron
It was the Fire Department and it was part of the policy, it was written in to the policy. We had this
discussion at the Personnel Committee Meeting concerning that and we thought it was more, because
we did ask because we were under the impression it was 6 people and the Mayor came forward and
told us that it was one person and this is how much it was so we accepted that. But it had already been
put into place while we were dealing with this particular resolution.
Alderman O’Brien
Thank you and to assist Alderman Caron if | may, the employee that she is talking about | think is
Article 40 within the Fire Department which has been approved by a duly elected board of the citizens
of Nashua, which is the Board of Fire Commissioners, which has approved it. Although they don’t have
any fiscal autonomy, they have the right to set policy. And what they did is they set that policy and
again the reason that they set the policy was Captains which is a lower rank to Deputy Chiefs, were
almost exceeding pay grades and benefits more than the Deputy Chiefs that they were subordinate to.
It is a very unique problem that was happening.
Now Deputy Chiefs work shifts, just like the Captains and Lieutenants and the Fire Fighters do. |
guarantee you right now, go home right now any citizens, 594-3636 ask to speak to a Chief Officer Fire
Alarm will put you through, if they don’t put you through the guy is busy at a fire. He is there 24/7, he
works the same amount of hours. So that’s why the apples and oranges theory that | present, it is a
little bit different than a secretary or somebody else and not to ingrain who is better or who is not better
in the City. It is the uniqueness that every employee of the City does for the City is what really makes a
difference and therefore why this thing is such a mosh posh.
Again, | wouldn’t mind taking a step back to try to correct some of that and recognize the differences in
some of these agencies and what needs to be done. But to say to look over the fence, for another
division to look over the fence, this seems to work well at that particular division and | am talking about
the Fire Department which has the economic need to have gone to that. Because, again, we were
going to suffer from having quality people ascending through the ranks to take the positions. It would
have been a mess so taking that in mind that’s why again | have the position that | do.
Alderwoman Kelly
Thank you | just want to respond to a couple of things that have been said. | appreciate Alderman
O’Brien’s comments about the departments being different. What | have been concerned with is an
additional inequity because all of the affiliated employees who were affected by this have had this
restored and the unaffiliated have not so | think that in and of itself shows a real lack of their ability to
fight for themselves, like Alderman Caron said.
