Board of Aldermen 12-08-2020 Page 28
I’m not going to into each one of them because | know that in ’22 the School numbers will change because
with a vaccine now, all of those students will be back. The Free & Reduced Lunch will go up again and we
won't get hit with a $6 million dollar issue. The 16% in the next year of the cost of this contract is the
additional monies demanded by the State for pensions. People might not know it, the State Pension Plan
and reiterate the State Pension Plan pays Zero towards pensions including their own people. They started
at paying 35% and they worked their way down and they went to Zero. This $4 million dollar increase is
because they don’t feel they are going to earn the interest that they had been earning in the past. | find that
hard to believe with the stock market being higher than it has ever been. But | think at some point we need
to have those people back in front of us from the Pension Board and find out what’s going on. But | am not
going to hold the State sending all these bills down to us against the firefighters. They risk their lives on a
daily basis, so do the Police. But the firemen probably have more fires than drastic police action and the
chemicals that get used in fires and the things that are burning in the fires are health hazards for them. And
we always remarked from 911 the firemen are the people that are running into the fire building, not out.
So if you average the last 8 years including this contract and the one before, the actual raises are
reasonable for the work that they do and the professionalism that they show and the numbers of lives that
they have saved. They also stepped to plate on Safe Stations and got nothing for it and they were dealing
with people that had drug problems, we didn’t pay them anything for that. And they weren’t asking for it,
but it’s something to consider when they are negotiating their new contract. So | am going to vote to
override the veto. | hope that at some point before the next contract, we can get them on board with the
regular health plan. But we are in a box right now and that’s where we are at. Thank you.
President Wilshire
Alderwoman Lu?
Alderwoman Lu
Thank you. | just want to point out that | believe that Mayor Donchess is pointing out an obviously really
poor policy in the increasing, giving a step increase or whatever you want to call it if the Department has
70% buy in. He’s exactly right, we are incentivizing them to get 70% buy in for 2 years so that they can
enjoy a 1% raise in salary and pension until they retire. It's not good for the City, it is very poor finance for
the City of Nashua. | also don’t think it is good policy because your choice among the three choices, the
health care choices is very personal. It’s very individual, it depends on, a high deductible plan is not for
everyone. It’s not a good choice for everyone. But you are going to have peers putting pressure among
themselves to get that percentage in there and that’s not what we want to do with people making their
healthcare choices. So | think it’s financially and of policy a really bad element of this contract. And |
support the Mayor for that reason. Thank you.
President Wilshire
Further discussion on this motion to override the Mayor’s Veto? Yes?
Alderman Schmidt
Madam President, may I? Thank you.
President Wilshire
Oh Alderman Schmidt, | wasn’t sure who it was.
