Board of Aldermen Page 16
April 26, 2016
Alderman Cookson
The first thing I’m going to do is not assume that everybody had the opportunity to review the minutes of last
night’s meeting because last night's meeting minutes don’t exist yet. There is an audio of it, but the minutes
don’t exist. The oral report which was given this evening was about bonds with regarding to the Budget
Review Committee meeting from last night and made zero mention about the contract, the CBA with the
Nashua Fire Rescue. Let me go on to at least complement whoever put the agenda together to at least
anticipate a recommendation from the Budget Review Committee and placing this on the agenda. That at
least is more courtesy than we received several years ago when this same contract came before us in a very
similar situation. It was a Monday evening Budget Review Committee meeting and that very next Tuesday
evening, the very next night; it was brought in under suspension of rules. So thank you for the courtesy of
having it on the agenda. The points that were made with regard to our public comment, Commission Garant,
Mr. McAllister, Assistant Chief Rhodes, certainly make it seem like the contract is very appropriate. If the
Board chooses, they may continue to support it this evening. I’m curious why not go through the normal
course of action and have it on our regularly scheduled May meeting, Tuesday, May 10, where everybody
including the public would have ample opportunity to review the minutes and participate. | think we have a
process established that’s in place. This is not the process. You do not anticipate to have a contract, a
Collective Bargaining Agreement, out one evening at committee level and a little more than 24 hours later,
maybe, have a decision that the full Board will take. It would be my recommendation to at least wait until the
10". | don’t think there’s any reason to expedite this. Is there a rush or a hurry or something that requires it to
be addressed this evening?
President McCarthy
When | was asked about it on Friday when we were putting the agenda together, | didn’t know how long it had
been since first reading and whether we had an urgency to it, so | asked to have it put on the agenda. As |
explained at the Budget Committee last night, there is no urgency. The next meeting falls well within the
statutory guidelines. If we want to hold it until the minutes of the Budget Committee are ready, there’s no
reason why that can’t be done.
Alderman Dowd
The oral report that | gave was done at the request of the City Treasurer. It was only for that because of the
urgency of the savings to the city.
President McCarthy
When we discussed it on Friday, there is urgency to the bond resolution which is why the question came up.
They were both put on there. | think as of last night, we did not anticipate that it would necessarily be taken up
tonight.
Alderman Cookson
When you suspended the rules this evening to allow Alderman Dowd to give an oral report of last evening’s
Budget Review Committee, it was Alderman Dowd’s report that only gave reference to the bond issue and
nothing else. Either it was an incomplete report or you would only expect that Alderman Dowd would expect to
discuss the bond issue this evening. If you are going to give an oral report, give an oral report. Alderman
Melizzi-Golja’s opening comments were that | don’t want to discuss everything that was discussed last night.
Well, | think people need to know what was discussed last night if some people hadn’t had that opportunity.
Again, my recommendation, I’m not going to make the motion now because | want to leave it open for
discussion, ultimately | would like to make a motion to have this on our agenda for the 10".
