Board of Aldermen — 3/22/16 Page 3
From: Mayor Jim Donchess
Re: Contract Award of Library HVAC Maintenance
MOTION BY ALDERMAN COOKSON TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE AND AWARD THE MULTI-YEAR
CONTRACT TO PALMER & SICARD IN AN AMOUNT NOT-TO-EXCEED $15,000
MOTION CARRIED
PERIOD FOR PUBLIC COMMENT RELATIVE TO ITEMS EXPECTED TO BE ACTED
UPON THIS EVENING
Mr. Bob Dion, Main Dunstable Road
My wife and | are residents of Nashua and we are also landlords to a variety of different places in the city. I’m
speaking on the item of enforcement of ordinances. | am sure you know that there are a lot of good landlords
in the city, probably 98% are very good but there are some bad ones. | always look at my buildings as a safe
place for people to live. We work very closely with the code officers, inspectors, fire department and the police
department. We are not perfect but we do the best we can. | think the bad landlords, | think you are absolutely
right in going after those people; they should be looking at improving or be fined excessively, especially the
ones that have multiple violations and don’t listen to code enforcement or the building department. The
concern that | have with this ordinance is that it is a very broad brushed approach that is hitting everything. |
think it should be more specific and address the critical safety health and repeat offenders. An example that
should not be included is Nashua Revised Ordinance 182-28; Exterior; there is some wording in here that says
your building is to be free from defects. Well, if a child hits a ball against the siding and it cracks it that’s a
defect. So, are you going to be fined excessively? People are going to say no, we won't do it, we will take it
out of the ordinance so why have it in here which makes it confusing and concerning for the good landlords. |
would suggest an alternative that if you have 10% or 15% of your building and dealing with rot, etc. then that’s
a big deal and it should be addressed and should be noticed and a violation issued if appropriate. The citation
system is designed for utilization on an as needed basis in conjunction with other remedies and after all other
avenues, with the exception of court, have been exhausted. After written warning with opportunities for an
individual to correct any violations or written citations. That sounds good but why isn’t it in the ordinance so
everyone feels comfortable that no one is going to come in and start hitting them with fines immediately.
Another conflict in the ordinance is that there is ten days to correct an issue. If the ten days were used and it’s
in the winter and you have some minor siding issues then you should be allowed to wait until the spring to deal
with it. Why not have those comments that Sarah mentioned right in the ordinance. The building codes,
plumbing, electric, ventilation is no problem, we should all be doing that. There are grandfathered items of
course for some of our buildings but we should be following those items. In summary, | think you want to go
after the bad landlords but | don’t think the way that this is written right now will be very effective. | would
suggest you have meetings with landlords and tenants and code enforcement and get a consensus or as close
as we can get to some agreements as to the way this should be written where it will be effective and you can
go after the bad landlord.
Ms. Esther Waisman, Whitman Road
It seems to me that most of the landlords in the city are good and decent people with a few bad apples in
between. Those who don’t want to fix anything and they are habitual offenders, | don’t know that a $50.00 or
$100.00 fine would really make that much of an impression. If the rent would be withheld that would get their
attention. Regarding the tenants, most of them are decent people again, but some of them need to be held
accountable and | don’t see how this ordinance would touch on that at all. They can dismantle smoke
detectors, tear up the screens, break windows, backup the toilets and rip the siding off the house and the
landlord just keeps getting cited and has to keep spending money and the tenant goes free. We feel a little
blind-sided by this whole ordinance thing because we didn’t get to have any input into what was going on and |
believe that if the city and the landlords could meet and have some sort of a discussion then we could come up
with some good solutions that would benefit all of us.
