Board of Aldermen 05-28-2019 Page 19
Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja
Thank you. | will just make one comment regarding the last Public Comment. | think it has been very
clearly stated that we as a Board don’t investigate and we don’t get involved in HR but | do feel that the
Mayor recognizes the importance of this and is moving forward with an attorney to investigate. | am
looking forward to hearing the results of that investigation. | think that the responsibility for that
investigation clearly is with the Mayor's Office and his HR Department and not with this Board.
Two things, unfortunately we had hoped Alderman Gidge would be with us this evening and he’s not, |
regret that. But a couple of weeks ago the Artwork Studios at 14 Court Street had its ribbon-cutting and
again | would just like to acknowledge his work in bringing that forward and thank him and look forward
to sitting across the horseshoe and thanking him personally. So hopefully he will be joining us soon.
Also, this week, which is not shaping up to be a very pleasant week weather-wise, is the last week our
sculptures will be working. | thought of them today as it was cold and rainy and miserable. But they
have been working very hard; if you haven’t had a chance to go visit them | would encourage you to go
visit them at the Picker Artist Collaborative. The closing is at 1:00 p.m. this Saturday, meeting here
behind City Hall to then go to the locations for the 3 sculptures. They are each delightful and enjoy
talking to people. They break for lunch and break for dinner there at the location but are busy working
away. Some of you may have caught the YouTube Video of Jarod from Kenya singing to some students
who visited form Ledge Street, which was great. So | encourage you to go and visit them or at least
attend on Saturday. Thank you.
Alderman Clemons
Thank you. | just want to address a couple of things. So first | was mentioned in Public Comment and
all | will say is that | didn’t want to address this last time we were here but | guess my hand has been
forced. So when somebody makes an accusation against somebody the details should be there in full.
And what we originally got was not complete. And | am not saying that what was in there was not
accurate or that it wasn’t true; but | don’t know that. And there’s no corroborating evidence. | appreciate
the fact that Ms. Ortolano is bringing forward some more information so that maybe we can corroborate
that report that she paid $8,000.00 of her own money for. But | will look at it, | will make my own
judgement as | hope other people will but | made the comments that | made to her because we didn’t
have a full report. All it was, was accusations; pictures of | don’t even know what, somebody in a car,
somewhere. How do | know that the private investigator, why should | trust him? | didn’t pay $8,000.00
for it. What are his credentials, why should | automatically take something at face value?
Look we are talking about a public employee here who has the right to due process and when there are
personnel issues, they should come up in the appropriate venue. Thatis to the HR Director or to the
Mayor or to somebody in City Hall and you know it would have been appropriate for that to come out
that way. If you really feel like you want to spend $8,000.00 of your own money on something like that,
why do you have to go to the press with it? It makes me wonder, is this a political thing, is there an
undercurrent here that we should know about? | don’t know. But! do know this; | know that there is a
man who works here for the City who has been publicly berated by a citizen and it is really too bad.
What that tells people who want to come and work for this City is — you better watch out for citizens in
Nashua because they let them go crazy on you. They let them go after you. Your reputation could be
put on the line if somebody has enough money, they can get that out there and they can ruin your
career. So you know | don’t like this stuff; | don’t think this is the appropriate venue for it. | think there is
some kind of political undercurrent here and | am going to state that for the record. | will look at what is
presented to me but | look forward to the private investigator, or I’m sorry, to our City Investigator’s
report. The only thing that | will address is that basically what | have heard is we have an employee
that maybe at best doesn’t do their job very well. But beyond the other accusations, | can’t corroborate
them and | don’t think anybody else here can corroborate them with what has been presented thus far to
us. And | think the public should keep that in mind. When you hear these things and you hear these
discussions being had, keep that in mind.
