Board of Aldermen 12-08-2020 Page 36
But, however, elections do have consequences and 10 years ago there was one majority in the New
Hampshire State House and they did run rip shod and it affected the pension system to which Nashua’s
liability is over $2 million dollars. $2 million dollars is the cutoff point that raises the tax rate 1% and we’ve
been paying that for 10 years.
Also too the New Hampshire Retirement System estimated, as Alderman Dowd brought up a return on
investment of 6%, what we received was 1.3%. That’s an issue. In baseball they fire their managers,
maybe we ought to look at the New Hampshire Retirement System very much closely and find out who is
managing it, because the people who are managing it they kind of counteracted the employees who were
running it and put in these financial gurus. 1.3% like Alderman Dowd said, the stock market was doing
good at that particular time, is extremely disappointing.
So therefore | am proud to say for my maybe $100.00 a year State salary for being on and | share that with
my other friends who have served or are now serving in the New Hampshire House. | have introduced two
bills on the behalf of Nashua and | am proud to say working with the Mayor’s Office, Cheryl Lindner too and
putting at least part of it back, the 50% back that would help alleviate the cost. Also, going to that radical
payoff off of 100% of the pension system, from 2039 to 2044 and adjusting the municipalities contributions
to that will be a great savings to the City. And | hope when people look at this, this was a one sided
Legislature in the past that came down. And when we get down to it, we shouldn’t take what that group did
and beat up our Police, our Firefighters, and our Teachers or anybody else by what the Legislature did. It’s
going to take us a lot of years to get out from that callous behavior but we are in the right direction and | am
happy to work with the Mayor and his office on it. So thank you very much Madam President.
President Wilshire
Thank you, Alderman O’Brien. Alderman Cleaver?
Alderman Cleaver
Yes thank you Madam President, just very quickly it’s been covered already but way too many people are
not wearing masks. | see it on the street, | see it elsewhere, in particular in the Roby Park Sledding Area,
large numbers of people closely packed, no masks and despite the City Ordinance and despite the State
Mandate, people are not wearing masks. It’s the worst possible thing and we see it in the numbers
increased with COVID infections. So | urge everybody to wear a mask to do the things, stay distanced and
do your best because it affects all of us. Thank you.
President Wilshire
Thank you. Anyone else? Attorney Bolton?
Attorney Bolton
Thank you Madam President, my normal rule at these meetings is to speak only when spoken to, so thank
you for your indulgence this evening. Last week Nashua lost an individual who devoted a major portion of
his life to service to our City. Back in the early ‘70’s Phil Howorth served the City as a member of the Board
of Assessors. In’74 he was appointed and became our first full time Corporation Counsel and he spent 10
years in that role serving the City very admirably and in a very dedicated manner. And he was then
appointed to the Nashua District Court Bench where he served for another 20 years, retiring in 04
approximately.
| had the good fortunate as a young lawyer to work as Phil’s Deputy here in Nashua from ’82 to ’84. And |
will tell you, you are still getting service from Phil Howorth because we benefit from the lessons | learned
working for him. So | know you will join me in wishing condolences to his wife Ann, their children and
grandchildren. Thank you.
