Board of Aldermen 12-23-2019 Page 4
My understanding is the plan is, the Police Department is going to take that facility over. The Police
Department tis absolutely terrific in Keeping up their facilities, so we are going to have to, by hook or by
crook, if we are keeping that building, we are going to have to fix the health hazards in that building.
President Wilshire
Ms. Pappas if you are going to go through the whole list, we are not going to have time for the other
speakers to have their turn to speak.
Ms. Pappas | was told an individual from the, | know $10 million dollars may not seem like a lot to you but
| think it is to other people. When | suggested that we get an expert to at least find out an estimate for the
cost of that system, | was told | said we need to get an expert, | was actually blasted and told that a former
Alderman who was an expert had looked at that. Now that person is extremely handy at fixing and
installing systems, but they don’t design mechanical systems, | think you need a mechanical engineer.
Street Department, no expert to fix the mold problems. In our garage we don’t have a lift, we have what is
called pits. If someone falls into one of those pits there’s no way to get them out. So I'll be real fast. Parks
& Rec no estimate to add to bathrooms, there’s only one bathroom in there.
So at the end of the day, when we have this problem probably, at least at the Street Department since the
first time the Mayor was Mayor, to try and ram this thing through for the $10 million dollars, December 23,
| think is wrong and | think it is a disrespect to the Parks & Rec Department, to the Street Department. And
| think it is disrespect for people who live near the landfill who are going to have to put up with all those
trucks there. Full disclosure, | am a neighbor of the Parks & Rec’s Department. So if | were looking out for
myself, | could keep my big mouth shut, stay home, December 23” and say well you know | tried, | voted
against this. This is not enough money to even to begin to go near things. | will tell you | am big into safety
and the day that that young man fell down that drain, that really changed the way | look at our system and
safety. | don’t feel comfortable with the way we’ve left the Street Department. Thank you.
Michael Carignan, Thank you | will be brief, my name is Michael Carignan, C-A-R-I-G-N-A-N, representing
the Nashua Police Department. | am here tonight to support both contracts in front of you regarding the
Police Department but | am willing to limit my conversations to the UFPO. Approximately a year and a half
ago we began the negotiations for this contract. At the time | was trying to be a good partner with the City
and stay within the spend cap limits that the Mayor had desired us to stay underneath. | had worked real
hard to do so, getting creative with some of the benefits that we offered people. Two of my Unions got
those benefits, when it came to the last Union without it, regarding the sick time, we were not allowed to go
| was asked to go back and renegotiate a little bit and try to come back with a compromise, | did that.
When | came back | was again told that it was not enough and we needed to get away from the sick time
and that | should look to give pay increases instead to the people. That was recommendations from
several Aldermen as well as partially by the Mayor as well. | did that, | renegotiated with the contracts,
correction with the Union, we came back and said, OK we have pay increases, we got rid of most of the
sick time. While the Mayor is correct, and the sick time benefit is not completely erased it now includes
resignation not just retirement, that is after 15 years of service, while other Unions in the City have 10 years
of service and it currently reflects 1 person.
So | tried very hard to come up with wage increases at your request to get this contract passed. The
Supervisors whose people that they supervise have less benefits than they do. We are not willing to give
that up, they've worked with me every step of the way. We came back with the wage increases. We were
told that the contract was too long. As a result, last minute decision last week, we agreed to take the fifth
off the table at the full cooperation of the UFPO to make it a four year contract. That four year contract, one
year has completely gone by, that’s the 2.25 wage increase; we are already halfway into the first 3% wage
increase and that’s within our budget this year. We are looking realistically at the next two years with 3%
raises for this Union who gave up a pretty hefty sick buy out benefit.
