A regular meeting of the Board of Aldermen was held Tuesday, April 23, 2019, at 7:30 p.m. in the Aldermanic
Chamber.
President Lori Wilshire presided; Deputy City Clerk Judith Boileau recorded.
Prayer was offered by Deputy City Clerk Judith Boileau; Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright led in the Pledge to
the Flag.
The roll call was taken with 9 members of the Board of Aldermen present; Alderman Gidge, Alderman Dowd,
Alderman Lopez, Alderwoman Kelly, Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja and Alderman Tencza were recorded absent.
Mayor James W. Donchess and Corporation Counsel Steven A. Bolton were also in attendance.
REMARKS BY THE MAYOR
Mayor Donchess
One of the issues on the agenda is R-19-132, which is the resolution authorizing the transfer of the lease from the
previous owner of the Silver Knights to the new owner, the Creedon family. | think this is a very positive thing for
the city. The new owners have come in and have shown a lot of enthusiasm for the team and for the ability to have
very quality baseball at Holman Stadium. They do own another team within the league, the Worcester Bravehearts
so they know the business very well. They held a reception for fans and others at Holman the other night, | think
last Wednesday. Of course they were very received. The fans are very enthusiast about the change. | do believe
they will bring energy. | mentioned to Alderman Laws that there’s a deal that they have so you can eat there every
night as much as you want at the game. I’ve mentioned that to others and people have expressed an interest in
their ability to deliver quality food as well. The committee endorsed this unanimously and enthusiastically. Mr.
Creedon is here, and | hope that the board will endorse
R-19-132.
There are two issues on the agenda pertaining to ongoing efforts to do two things: reform the assessing function of
the city government and to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of a number of city departments. Those two
things are the appointment of Lydia Foley as a member of the Board of Assessors to replace a more longstanding
member. She is a person located downtown who has extensive experience in real estate, knows the market really
well, very Nashua dedicated. She will be, in my opinion, a very effective and a good member of the Board of
Assessors. Secondly is the appointment of Ms. Kim Kleiner as the Administrative Services Director. Her
experience and her expertise, both in her private career before the city and certainly since she has been working
for the city for the last three years and change, makes her the best qualified person to take over this new function
and to immediately begin, and this has already begun, but immediately begin to effect changes not only in
assessing but to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of operations elsewhere: IT, purchasing and other areas
of city government. As we discussed before when you authorized the position, the city had an Administrative
Services for 20 plus years through about all or part of six different administrations. The two successful, long
standing administrative services directors, those being Russ Marcoux and later Maureen Lemieux, were both
internal people who had been on the Board of Aldermen, who knew city government very well, who didn’t have to
come in and try to figure out a very complex system here. Both of them had Nashua experience before they were
hired. There was one administrative services director between Russ Marcoux and Maureen Lemieux who was
brought in from the outside, who | think we could be safe to say did not stay very long and was not a successful
holder of that position because that gentleman did not have the type of knowledge and experience with city
government that Russ Marcoux and Maureen Lemieux had had before they assumed the position. If we don’t want
to wait three or four or six months to do a search, and then wait for six months or a year for the person to get up to
speed, if we want to do anything anywhere in the near term, Ms. Kleiner is the most effective person we can find
and probably at the end of a search we would arrive at the same decision anyway. | know this is not before you for
a vote tonight, I’m sure it is going to go to a committee. | will be at the Personnel Committee when it comes up on
the 6", but | wanted to articulate some of my reasons for appointing Ms. Kleiner as her appointment came in.
