Board of Aldermen 08-13-2019 Page 7
guy. | spoke to him last Tuesday. | asked Bob, “what do you think we will get for entry in Nashua’. He said
“10% no more”. The Mayor pointed out in 2006 that they had gotten high level. That was before the laws
were changed and it was after 2011; he also pointed out 2011 the law was changed after that. One, you
don’t have to allow entry and two, even without the allowing of entry, you can still appeal if you are
contesting the valuation you have. It used to be that if you didn’t allow entry, back about 6 years ago, you
didn’t allow entry, you lost your right to appeal to abate. You had to accept the number given; the Courts
threw that out. So the data you are seeing that was higher in 2006 and 11 has changed dramatically. We
should be checking these facts Mr. Mayor.
Also, when you point out communities from Maine or Massachusetts, | do not know the laws in those
States and you should cite those lows. Because if they are different from New Hampshire it will make a big
impact on how doors are opened. So let’s get our facts straight and let’s all get on the same page. The
validity of the $1.3 million dollars is in question and the Mayor seemed to indicate that KRT gave us that
number. | am very concerned with that number. Let’s investigate that. We had a quote years ago, Patriot
was in here, it was over $2 million dollars OK? How is it only $1.3 now? Also, why haven’t we checked
with other cities that have done more of this work, bigger cities, to find out what their numbers are? So the
$1.3 million, | am not comfortable with a KRT estimate. Entry rate we heard what | just said, Steve Bolton
told the BTLA he hopes to get into 50% of the homes. Our own Board, Rob Tozier, Bob Gagne and today |
called Scott Bartlett who is the head of the Goffstown Assessing Office and also the President of the
NHAAO. | had a talk with him, they do a cyclical review. | said to him, “Scott, how many homes do you
really get into”; “next to none” he said, “I’m looking at 800 homes this year and we will get entry into very,
very few”. And he said, “I'll tell you what, I'll never see a house with a new kitchen, or a basement finished,
I'll never be invited into that kind of home, the only homes | ever get invited into are the very old ones that
are dated that the people are willing to show you hoping their assessment goes down”. | just spoke to him
this afternoon.
| think these numbers that you are being sold on or told to vote on are not accurate, we are just not going to
get that data. The law says we don’t have to allow entry. | wrote a statement in here that List & Measure
Initiatives are obsolete and should not be funded in Nashua any longer. Jan wanted to know why, because
one — you are not required to give entry. And two — what we know right now definitively is that 100% of the
people can say “no”. That’s for sure, we know they can.
President Wilshire
Ms. Ortolano, we have 6 other speakers and we have 6 minutes left to our Public Comment.
Ms. Ortolano It is an important topic Chairwoman and it is really important so I'll be quick. The technical
data capture is a big issue in the office. We are getting a review done, we don’t have any of the information
back. We have ongoing investigations, Drummond & Woodsum was hired to review mileage logs of Greg
Turgiss. We don’t have any data on that. The Board filed a motion, Steve Bolton filed a motion up at the
BTLA expanding it appears the scope of work has been expanded into a management investigation. We
don’t have any information on that yet. The DRA is conducting an investigation based on the PA71’s. We
don’t have information on that. The City is investigation the $24 million dollar assessment reduction made
by an assessor on October 10". We don’t have any information on why $24 million was cut off the
assessment records and we should. The BTLA just concluded a Hearing and will make a ruling in the near
future.
The final point is the breach of contract with KRT. There is and somebody else is going to speak to this,
there is serious evidence that this contract was not followed and the data used to generate the model was
not verified. That was a very big cost for our contract, six figures. This City should be going after KRT to
get that money back. The entry into homes, there was no addendum signed by the Mayor or anyone else
that authorized them not to gather the data. So that’s a huge issue. Thank you.
Michael O’Connor 42 Berkeley Street. Just about everything | was going to cover has been — just a couple
of very quick comments. The Mayor says, there is no basis for this. And | think the implication was for or
the investigations and the questions around this. And Attorney Bolton also said that it seemed to imply that
