Board of Aldermen 05-28-2019 Page 18
REMARKS BY THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN
Alderman Lopez June 15h is the Tree Street Block Party. It is from 2:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Ash
Street and we are featuring Mighty Mystic, a Reggae band this year, so everybody is welcome to attend.
Alderwoman Kelly
Thank you. A little bit later in the month, June 29", at 2:00 p.m. we will be having our second annual
Pride Parade and Festival. It is longer this year, we are expecting a great turn out. We are still looking
for sponsors, volunteers and the t-shirts just went on sale. So you guys can go on an get all of your
memorabilia before the big day. So NashuaPride.Org has all the information.
Alderman Jette
So | know that a lot of us don’t like hearing what Mrs. Ortolano is reporting to us because it is disturbing.
| don’t know, at this point these are all allegations, | acknowledge and the employees involved are
entitled to their due process. But! would encourage us to listen to these allegations and hopefully the
information that she has provided will be turned over to the Attorney we have hired to investigate this
and that an investigation will occur. I’m not schooled in the ways of Labor Law where Unions are
involved, so | know it’s not, you know, | know there is a whole process that is involved. | did take a look
at the Collective Bargaining Agreement that regulates this Union and | do see that there is a provision in
there that the City is entitled to terminate an employee for good cause. Whether or not “good cause”
exists here | guess is what the Attorney we have hired will show us.
| think that and I’ve heard from other employees of the City who far from being demoralized by this
investigation are welcoming it. They resent if these allegations are true, they resent what this, I’m trying
to be careful here. If this employee is guilty of what he is being accused of, and it is still an allegation,
they are not comfortable being looked at by the rest of the City. We've always heard people malign our
employees and we have a lot of good employees. But when we find a bad one, if we found a bad one,
then we ought to act appropriate. We ought to take the measures that we should to eliminate that
situation. So | just want to say | for one thank Mrs. Ortolano for all the time she has spent looking into
this situation and has brought to light things that | had no knowledge of and | don’t think any of us had
knowledge of. And | think we owe her a debt of gratitude for bringing it up. I’m not saying that what she
has brought up has been proven, but | think there is probable cause for us to look into it and investigate
it and ask the Mayor to do that and | think he is. | am looking forward to the result of the investigation by
Attorney Broth. The second Public Comment period is not limited to the legislation that we have before
us, | think it is the only opportunity the citizens have to address us. | would hate to discourage people
from coming forward with legitimate complaints that we maybe should be hearing. Thank you.
Alderman Lopez
Madam President, can | claim personal privilege? Attorney Jette just inferred that the rest of us just
don’t like hearing it because it is uncomfortable. | would like to clarify | dislike it because | don’t, | see
this as an HR issue and | think that’s where it needs to be. | don’t want to try navigating the Public
Comment field of “what did | accidentally say about an employee who may or may not be innocent or
may or may not be guilty”. And | believe at least two weeks ago the Mayor told us that he is
investigating it. | Know that multiple claims have been brought up against the Assessing Department
and that Ms. Ortolano has very thoroughly researched what their activities are and every month there
continues to be more and more issues. So | don’t have a problem with her reporting them, | just think
that the Public Comment is for Public Comment and not lengthy expositions of information. If she feels
like she doesn’t have a voice and isn’t able to send this information, then she should be working with her
local Alderman or she can be sending us information and we should be putting that in Public Record
certainly. | just think that this particular personnel issue should be brought up in Public Comment,
introduced but then let be investigated. There has not been time for any of that to be done.
