Board of Aldermen Page 3
April 12, 2016
COMMUNICATIONS
MOTION BY ALDERMAN MORIARTY THAT ALL COMMUNICATIONS BE READ BY TITLE ONLY
MOTION CARRIED
From: Larry D. Goodhue, Chief Executive Officer, Pennichuck Corporation
Re: Annual Meeting of Sole Shareholder
MOTION BY ALDERMAN MORIARTY TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE AND REFER TO THE PENNICHUCK
WATER SPECIAL COMMITTEE
MOTION CARRIED
From: Mayor Jim Donchess
Re: Contract Award for Amherst Street Improvements — Charron Avenue to Diesel Road
MOTION BY ALDERMAN COOKSON TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE AND AWARD THE CONTRACT TO
CONTINENTAL PAVING, INC., IN THE AMOUNT OF $1,537,096
MOTION CARRIED
From: Mayor Jim Donchess
Re: 2016 Sewer Program
MOTION BY ALDERMAN SIEGEL TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE AND AWARD THE CONTRACT TO
PARK CONSTRUCTION CORPORATION IN THE AMOUNT OF $1,108,975
MOTION CARRIED
From: Mayor Jim Donchess
Re: Headworks Upgrade
MOTION BY ALDERMAN CARON TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE AND AWARD THE CONTRACT
TO T. BUCK CONSTRUCTION IN THE AMOUNT OF $2,848,222
MOTION CARRIED
PERIOD FOR PUBLIC COMMENT RELATIVE TO ITEMS EXPECTED TO BE ACTED
UPON THIS EVENING
Mr. Fred Teeboom, 24 Cheyenne Drive
| want to talk about R-16-015, the expendable trust funds for retirements mentioned by the Mayor during his
remarks. The first thing | want to say is since the Mayor brought this up in the Telegraph on two different
occasions saying that the question whether mandated expenses were subject to cap, I’d like to say the
following. There were two New Hampshire Supreme Court decisions; there are two state laws in existence
today. There is a National Charter and there are local ordinances. The city attorney back in the early days
when the spending cap passed wrote a legal opinion on this point and 23 years of history has pretty much
established that mandated costs are subject to the spending cap. The other thing that | wanted to mention
because | keep hearing this at Budget meetings is contrary to claims made by those who do not understand
the spending cap or the city budgeting practices, the spending cap does not contain constraint in any manner
accepting and spending grants and gifts if these grants and gifts are dedicated to special revenue funds or
expendable trust funds. This Board routinely accepts grants and gifts throughout the year and places them in
special revenue funds and expendable trust funds without evoking the spending cap and you have to take a
two-thirds vote to supplement the budget. To the point of R-16-015, you are asked to make two decisions with
a single vote requiring 10 affirmative votes to vote $2.23 million for a supplemental budget and $2.23 million to
override the spending cap. This year in the FY 16 budget, $21.3 million is the budgeted on pension payment.
Pension payments are for retirements, benefits and severance payments. This is a staggeringly large amount;
