A special meeting of the Board of Aldermen was held Wednesday, March 14, 2018, at 7:30 p.m. in the
Aldermanic Chamber.
President Brian S. McCarthy presided; City Clerk Patricia Piecuch recorded.
Prayer was offered by City Clerk Patricia Piecuch; Alderman Ernest A. Jette led in the Pledge
to the Flag.
The roll call was taken with 12 members of the Board of Aldermen present; Alderman Ken Gidge and
Alderman Tom Lopez were recorded absent. Alderman Tencza arrived after roll call at 7:31 p.m.
Mayor James W. Donchess and Corporation Counsel Steven A. Bolton were also in attendance.
REMARKS BY THE MAYOR
Thank you Mr. President. On your desk tonight we have the proposed budget for fiscal 2019. This is
being introduced a couple months earlier than we have in the past because we know that you may
know that you may need time to study it and understand it, especially for the new members of the
board and to give those people on the budget committee relief so that they are not here every night
over a period of four weeks late into the evening. Now the budget is | am going to say a tight budget,
the amount that it would increase spending over the amount appropriated in the current year which is
fiscal 2018 is 1.3%. Now that base includes two supplemental appropriations that were done during
the year. If those supplemental appropriations were excluded the budget would be up from the
budget passed last year by 1.6%.
The driving factor here is the fact that we have a re-evaluation coming, a State ordered re-evaluation
which we don’t know for sure what is going to happen. Given the rather rapid increases in residential
home values, it could result in a shift from some value from commercial which has not gone up as
much as residential possibly, to residential, which would mean a tax increase without the budget even
being a factor. So with that in mind in order to minimize, to lessen any impact of the re-evaluation I’ve
kept the budget very tight, at either 1.3% or 1.6% depending on how you look at it. But to get there,
we’ve definitely had to impose some discipline or impose some things that would not be ideal maybe.
I’ve had to limit all of the major departments, those being Police, Fire and Schools to a 2.5% increase
despite the request by them for more money than that. And you will see other things in the budget,
the surf is funded at a lower level than last year and some other things have been reduced. So as
you go through the budget, you will see that as | said it’s very tight! A 1.6% increase is | think
reasonable under the circumstances that we are facing in order to minimize a property tax increase
that we know may be coming as a result of the State ordered re-evaluation.
Also on the budget is the final action on the Teachers’ Contract. As I’ve said before | think this is a
major step forward in fairly compensating our teachers for the very important work that they do in the
classroom. We have had a problem over the last few years in terms of an out migration of trained,
seasoned, mid-career teachers for districts nearby such as Amherst, Hollis, even Manchester, where
mid-career teachers are paid at a higher level than the current contract pays Nashua teachers. The
contract that you have before you and which has been recommended by the Budget Committee
improves that situation considerably and | hope that you will follow the recommendation of the Budget
Committee and approve that contract.
Finally, coming up very shortly is our recognition of Chief Galipeau for his many years of service to the
City of Nashua. We have, of course, a proclamation or a resolution that’s going to be passed by the
Board that we will read to him. But I’d like to say on a personal level that I’ve very much enjoyed
working with Chief Galipeau. He is a very dedicated City employee, dedicated to the mission of
Nashua Fire Rescue, which is to help people in all circumstances. And | would also say that we
embarked on the Safe Stations Program in November of 2016 which | think has achieved some
significant results and is also being used as a model in other places around the country. We could not
have done that without the active cooperation and support of both NFR, the Fire Department and
